Fnatic Gear Rush G1 Keyboard Review

Overview

 

Hot on the heels of the impressive Fnatic Gear Flick G1 we have the Fnatic Gear Rush G1, the G1 part is Fnatic’s nomenclature for their first generation of peripherals, no doubt we’ll see G2 etc following in the future. As I stated in the Flick review the brand Fnatic may not be a new Gaming name but Fnatic Gear is a new Gaming manufacturer. This is down to their recent acquisition of Swedish Gaming manufacturer/brand Func.

The Fnatic Gear Rush G1 is a mechanical Gaming keyboard with Cherry MX switches. Our review sample is equipped with Red switches but both Brown and Blue are also available. The Rush is a fully backlit keyboard that also comes with a detectable wrist rest. In addition to this there’s control for media, volume, brightness and on-board Profiles. In addition to this the Fnatic Rush also features Full N-Key roll over and two additional USB ports.

 

 

The Fnatic Gear Rush G1 arrived at pcG in a simple white box with a large image of the keyboard on the front. The front of the box gives little else away as to the contents and or features of than the brand name and product name. Although in the right hand corner we do find confirmation that this keyboard features Cherry MX Red switches.

Looking at the back of the box we see a little blurb from Fnatic Gear as to the features of the Rush keyboard as well as another image of the keyboard itself. In addition to this Fnatic Gear have chosen to highlight the following:

 

 

With the box open we can see that the keyboard is both well protected by soft-cell foam and wrapped in a plastic bag foam and nicely presented.

 

 

Within the box though there’s not much! Other than the keyboard itself we find a basic Quick Guide and a small bag containing two weird looking clips…

 

At the time of writing the Fnatic Gear Rush G1 is available from Amazon for approximately £99 and comes with a 2 year warranty.

 

Specifications/Features

courtesy of Fnatic Gear

* Additional details available here

 

First Impressions

 

 

First impressions of the Fnatic Gear Rush G1 are a little underwhelming to be honest as there’s very little to set the Rush apart from countless other mechanical Gaming keyboards out there. It’s not that it’s a bad looking keyboard but it’s not a good looking one either. In short it’s a keyboard with a Fnatic Gear logo in the top right corner, sorry…

 

 

Looking at the Rush from the front we can see its simple design and layout, in short there little to see here, as what is here is pretty standard fare. We have a regular full-keyboard with standard QWERTY layout. In the top right corner we have a basic printed Fnatic Gear logo, Num Lock, Caps Lock and no Scroll Lock! This has been replaced with a Fnatic indicator that activates when the FN and the Fnatic key (F12) is pressed. This put the keyboard into Gaming mode so basic Windows Functions (WIN key) are disabled and Macro functions enabled.

Looking at the back of the Fnatic Gear Rush we see two large rubber feet (well actually one as one fell off!) at the front with two extending legs at the back and two raised plastic feet. Note the clip points at the front of the keyboard and the offset captive cable position at the back.

 

 

At the back of the keyboard are the two extending legs that also feature rubber feet, although they are not used when the legs are down (a clever feature seen on other keyboards). Raising the legs allows the back of the keyboard to be lifted up by approximately 10mm, it’s not much but it was enough to keep me happy. 🙂

 

 

There is very little incline built into the Fnatic Gear Rush, in fact with the legs down I’d say it’s pretty much flat! So, if like me you like a bit of an angle to work (play) with then you’re going to want to raise those rear legs. With the legs raised and the wrist rest fitted I found the keyboard to be quite comfortable, even during those longer Gaming sessions.

 

 

As I’ve already said there’s not much additional functionality to the Fnatic Gear Rush, but what is here is to be found along the top row of keys. Taking a look at F1 through to F6 we find volume control (mute, down & up) as well a Media controls for Play/Pause, Previous & Next.

Turning our attention to keys F7 through to F12 we find five keys for Profiles and finally the Fnatic Gear key. The latter seems to (when pressed with the FN key) do nothing more than disable the Windows key and enable Macros. Not shown are the two NumPad keys (4 & 6) that allow for control over the brightness levels and the breathing mode.

 

 

What was a bit of a shock was to find two additional ports on the back of the Rush. Both of these are via the single USB connection so there’s no dedicated USB hub here I’m afraid. But it’s still good enough to plug in your USB sticks etc should you wish!

Also the wrist rest itself leaves a lot to be desired as not only is it nothing more than a piece of moulded plastic, but you have to fit your own clips too! I have never seen this before on a keyboard and although the clips work well enough it just cheapens the overall feel of what really should feel like a premium product. I consider the Fnatic name to be a premium brand…

 

 

Having said that once the wrist rest is fitted you’ll soon forget the rather unusual installation procedure! Once on the desk and ready to go the Fnatic Gear Rush looks good enough, but I can’t help but feel that I should be more excited by this Fnatic Gear keyboard, but…

 

Hardware Installation

 

The Fnatic Gear Rush G1 connects by way of a single Gold Plated USB plug found at the end of a 1.8m braided cable. Note that the cable is a good size (width) and is also nice and flexible too. Note also that this single USB cable also powers the two on-board USB sockets, so you will be limited as to what you can plug into it.

 

Testing Methodology/Setup

 

 

The following games were used during testing:

Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Doom (BETA)
Portal Knights

 

Hardware Performance

 

With the Fnatic Gear Rush G1 powered up and illumining the room with its bright red LEDs the Rush begins to look a lot better on the desk. Illumination is good, there’s plenty of brightness and there’s brightness control too (FN + NumPad 4 & 6). There’s also a breathing mouse, but that’s it that’s where the fun stops as even via the software there’s are no other options. But maybe being a Fnatic Gear product the Rush is deliberately devoid of all things not necessary, maybe it’s all about the performance…

 

 

Comfort wise the Rush scores well although I would say it’s quite flat when compared to other Gaming keyboards that have gone before it, especially with the legs lowered. But I found good levels of comfort with the wrist rest attached and the legs at the back extended.

From a pure performance point of views (that’s Gaming we’re now talking about BTW!) the Rush G1 performed extremely well, thanks in part to a good strong chassis and of course those Cherry MX Red (my Fav) switches. In fact I have no complaints at all when it comes to the performance of the keyboard itself, I gamed for well over a week and found no lag, no delay no loss of key-presses, perfect!

 

Software

 

The Fnatic Gear Software (not supplied) can be downloaded here, I have no idea what version it was because the software itself doesn’t tell you. There’s also no way of knowing if your Driver or Firmware is out of date, which is a shame.

 

 

The Software itself is basic to say the least consisting of just one main screen and a basic screen (not shown) for adding Macros. In fact at first I couldn’t even work out what the purpose of the software was! The only thing you can do is to bind a function (Macro or Windows Function) to one of ten options as defined by the M1 – M10 options on the left. This in turn is bound to a key on the keyboard. Macros can be recorded via a pop-up, but there’s no support for recoding mouse input, not delay adjustment and no editing! This really is the bare basics of what one would expect from the software…

 

Final Thoughts

 

There’s no doubt that in its own way the Fnatic Gear Rush G1 is a very good Gaming keyboard. But it’s got one big problem and that’s the price, at £100 I’d would expect a lot more than just a good Gaming keyboard with Cherry MX switches, but that’s what this is. As I said before it’s not what’s here that lets it down, it’s what’s not here…

The Fnatic Gear Rush G1 arrived at pcG in large white box with a large image of the Rush keyboard on the front. The keyboard within was both well packaged and nicely presented. Within the box there’s really nothing other than the most basic of guides. Once out of the box I was surprised to find nothing more than a full-sized mechanical keyboard with a simple Fnatic logo in the corner. First impressions are really not that great…

This is then not helped by the rather unusual way that Fnatic Gear have supplied the wrist rest and the clips to clip it to the keyboard. Not only is the wrist rest one of the cheapest looking (and feeling) wrist rests I’ve come across but the fact that I have to clip it to the keyboard via two plastic clips further cheapens the whole experience.

What’s here though is good; we have Cherry MX Red switches (Brown & Blue also available), Full N-Key roll over, Illumination (Red only) with brightness control, a breathing mode and two additional USB ports. But that’s where it stops and this is where my main issue with the Rush starts as many other manufacturers offer more for less money. At this price I would have expected a better wrist rest, I would have expected more illumination options with per-key lighting and I would have hoped for better software.

But the most important aspect for Fnatic and no doubt for Gamers and Pro Gamers alike is the performance and it is here that the Rush shines through. The solid chassis and the inclusion of the ubiquitous Cherry MX Red switch means that the Rush performs well in-game with lighting fast responses. In fact I cannot fault the Performance of the Fnatic Gear Rush G1 in any way.

The software though is a bit of a let down and is in fact some of the most basic software I’ve seen for a Gaming keyboard. There’s simply one main screen that just allows you to bind ten functions (and only ten) to any key on the keyboard. Other than support for five Profiles and basic Macro recording, that’s it!

I have to be honest I feel a little disappointed with the Rush, I feel that the Fnatic brand could bring so much more to the party, especially for £100! While what’s here is very good (apart from that cheap wrist rest) it’s what’s not here that lets it down. The fact that many other manufacturers offer the same for less and in some cases, more for less means that the Rush is up against some very stiff competition at this price point.

 

Verdict

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Many thanks to Fnatic Gear for providing this sample for review