Our Prayers have been heard, the new budget king has been summoned..

Review by Rounak Roy

INTRODUCTION

ADATA is a well-known name in the PC market and their PC components are both affordable and of good quality. Their Gaming Division also known as XPG has quite a good reputation for releasing some nice peripherals for the gaming segment.
This time we are reviewing a not so new product called the Summoner Keyboard but don’t focus on the word “not so new” as this product has been updated with some new features namely the addition of the new Cherry MX RGB Switches which have been updated by Cherry AG. to have a better lifespan and boasting Industry first 100 Million+ Keypress in Gaming segment. XPG has also added support for the XPG Prime Software through which one can customise macros, led lighting and all other things.

DESIGN

The XPG Summoner has a sand blasted aluminium top plate with a plastic housing that has all the hardware of the keyboard. The keyboard has an island style layout with 104 standard size for US layout although it may be 104/105/109 depending on the location. Even though it’s a full-size keyboard with an aluminium top the weight is surprisingly less than expected at ~950g when compared with my MSI GK80 which weighs around 1450g.
The keyboard features a beautiful and handy volume scroller (yes you heard right), a scroller for controlling the PC volume on top right corner right beside the indicator led and mute switch. The Play/Pause, Previous, Next are integrated into the Fn keys from 10-12.
The main comforting feature of the summoner for long time typing and gaming sessions is the addition of a padded faux leather foam wrist rest. Resting your hand is a much-needed thing when you go on working or gaming on your keyboard for long durations and XPG made sure that you can’t complain about not having that feature in this keyboard.

SPECIFICATIONS

With me today I have the Cherry MX Red Switch variant. The keyboard also comes with MX Blue and Silvers. My use case is primarily gaming with very few occasions of typing some long documents for my work and the website so I chose the red variant.

Some detailed specs are listed below:

Keyboard Colour: Gun-metal grey
Keyboard Weight: 951g
Keyboard Dimensions (LxWxH): 449 x 135 x 44 mm
Wrist Rest Colour: Black
Wrist Rest Weight: 191g
Wrist Rest Dimensions (LxWxH): 445 x 88 x 19 mm
Anti-ghosting keys: 100%
Key Switch: CHERRY MX Speed Silver/Red/Blue
Lighting Effect: 7 RGB lighting modes (Static / Breathing / Trigger / Explosion / Colour Cycle / Colour Wave / WASD mode)
Number of keys: 104/105/109 (Depending on Localization)
Macro Keys: 5
Interface: 2x USB 2.0 type A, 1 Pass-through port
Operating Voltage: 5V DC
Keystroke Lifecycle: Over 100 million strokes
OS Compatibility: Windows 10, 8, 7
XPG PRIME Support: Yes
Warranty: 2 years

SOFTWARE AND PERFORMANCE

The default Rainbow spectrum light emanating from under the keycaps is not too dim or too bright, it’s just the perfect amount of RGB. However, since this keyboard has a standard bottom row you can use any aftermarket keycaps from brands like Razer, HyperX, Corsair that support standard bottom row.

The Software called XPG Prime is quite polished and not heavy on the system. Upon opening I had to update the Firmware to properly support the software and after that everything from customising keys, led colour, macros were a breeze.

Upon opening the software and logging in we are greeted with a welcome screen showing your product/s and on clicking on the product we land on the lighting page where you can change through various modes their brightness and speed. Then on the left side toolbar you can see the Key remapping, Gaming option and Macro setup options. It also supports XPG Canvas to have synced lighting across all XPG devices.

Sound Test: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EooCHjfpynxHGtDbLNRv5JG43t-SnuoN/view?usp=share_link

FINAL THOUGHTS AND CONCLUSION

The XPG Summoner Keyboard in my opinion is one of the best in class under ₹5000 and you won’t get a better bargain anywhere else. This keyboard comes loaded with features like Metal build, proper standard layout, cherry mx key switches, software support etc. Typing on the keyboard is a breeze and with the foam wrist rest it becomes quite comfortable. Since I am always an advocate of cherry mx switches I can say that their feel is literally the same when compared to my previous MSI Cherry MX reds.

I will rate it a solid 9/10 for price to performance and 10/10 for comfort and I am very pleased to say that this keyboard is worthy of Tech Reprise Gold Badge.

ABOUT XPG

XPG (XTREME PERFORMANCE GEAR) was established by ADATA to provide high-performance products to gamers, esports pros, and tech enthusiasts. We are committed to developing products that deliver extreme performance and therefore work closely with the gaming and esports community to gain insight into the real needs of users. We provide a full range of products from systems, components, peripherals to devices, and create them with the highest standards of stability, reliability, and performance in mind. We also develop products with sheer cool designs that have earned us several prestigious international awards, such as iF Design and Good Design. Beyond products, we play an active role in sponsoring and supporting esports events and teams globally to realize extreme gaming experiences at the highest levels.

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