ASUS Claymore II Keyboard Report - DO NOT BUY THIS ONE

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Keyboard Report – ASUS Claymore II – Bought New from ASUS.
Ok – Ordered this keyboard from ASUS direct, once released, the date was July 19, 2021, the costs was $$288.89. This is important for later.

Pro’s – This keyboard is the most solid one I have ever used. The keys absolutely do not wobble period. Its mass is good and it won’t move on the desk. The number pad is removable, and if connected it’s very solid. The red/blue switches are supposed to be good for 1,000,000 plus cycles. The “elevation feet” raise it up good and high, for better key strikes. The wireless is also good, and it lasts about 3-5 days on battery charge before plugging in to charge. Updating is simple, but both wireless and the USB cable needs to be plugged in and the switch on the back to ON. Of all the keyboards I have used over my professional and game years, and that is like 40+, it is only eclipsed by the IBM Selectric II electric correcting typewriter, and that there shows how long I have been typing. Much better than the old 1-2nd generation electric typewriters. As good as the original IBM Selectric model. I had high hopes for this keyboard being my last. Alas NOT!

CONS – And ignore any YouTube review on this one, keys start to not work after about 12-18 months. Numerous, and I mean lots of users reporting this issue, reporting keys stopped working, or work intermittent. That is my complaint on this unit as well. No rhyme or reason on which keys, it could be one, or multiple ones, the sensitivity first goes, and then ultimately the key just quits. So, I worked out RMA with ASUS, and here is that story.

ASUS has had a number of hardware control issues over the last 3 years, first thing I heard was CAPS on motherboards were installed backward, and boards were catching fire, I still do not know it that has finally run its course. Initially the balked at this problem, but overwhelming reports, made them rethink that and they finally stepped up to the plate on that. There might be other issues with other devices, I’m unaware of, but I know about this keyboard. The reviews were the cat’s meow, everyone loved it, except for it’s cost, and I had a hard time convincing myself I wanted to spend that much for a what, “A Keyboard for gosh sakes”. So after working out an RMA with them, and paying the shipping back, here is the resolution.

First-The keyboard was out of warranty, of which it’s only one year. So going in, I figured yeah, it’s most likely going to cost me 30+ dollars to get it fixed. The shipping was 37 to get it to CA for repair. About a week after it’s gone, get an e-mail: This unit is unrepairable, and we will send you a new KB for 178.88 USD. I told them no, why, simple, if you add 288.89+178.88=467.77 and this is a keyboard. In my wildest dreams I am not going to throw good money after bad, so when I got it back, I tried it, for about an hour it seemed to work like normal, but after hour, the same “I” and “K” keys stopped working intermittently. Had to slam finger down on them to get to work. So after another go, it’s back in the original packaging/box.

I am handy with stuff, I can just change the keys on the board myself, hmmm, but you cannot buy them anyplace I can find. Other reports of trying to fix it and having limited success. ASUS to my knowledge does not sell replacement keys for it, but I am so mad at them, I have not done my research enough to find out for sure.

I also own ASUS Scar Strix III Laptop which I purchased new in March 2020 for this “xxxx” game. To date, the extra HDD has failed and the vendor I purchased from sent me a new one under a customer appreciation policy since it failed like one day out of warranty, “Computer Upgrade King” excellent customer service as over the years owned, many communications and they always give excellent advice, my next PC is coming from them. But at my own expense I had to change both the GPU and CPU cooling fans in this unit, as about 18-24 months in, they started to wobble when the laptop was moved. That cost about 100 USD and I was able to do this one and the HDD repair myself. Used to build PC’s so laptops are not much different.

The bottom line is to avoid ASUS stuff, as their quality control has gone south, and not sure if it’s ever going to return. I almost bought the upgraded Scar Strix III with the Intel I-9 but believe X-Plane and MSFS both would benefit from a Desktop with lots more cooling built in, as both games spin up the fans to high and the GPU goes up to 86C. One reason I have not been flying as much. DO NOT BUY ASUS OR THIS KEYBOARD, quality is not as good as it used to be. FWIW-I do not know as of now, any Laptop Builder I would buy from, as the quality of components are going down and the prices seem to be going up. As stated above, my Next One is CUK as they stand behind their products and use as good of components as they can get. Happy Flying.

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It’s one thing to recommend not to buy a certain product because you have had a certain experience with it. Every company produces mediocre or bad products from time to time and it’s good to let people know so they won’t make the same mistake.

But honestly: trashing all products from a whole company is a bit over the line in my opinion.
I understand your frustration. It’s always annoying when equipment fails - especially if it was expensive and from a renowned manufacturer. However an SSD or HDD failing a few days after warranty runs out normally is simple bad luck and has NOTHING to do with quality control. They don’t build those SSDs themselves and unless some serious overheating is going on (which would indictate a design flaw and a large number of the same laptops having the same issue) you usually can’t predict electronics failure. In general complex electronics either fail very early after a few days or they never fail. Everthing else is random chance or the user’s fault.

I’ve been buying computer parts for over 30 years now, and I’ve seen floppy drives shredder a 5 1/4" floppy disk. A new SD cards fail while shooting photos, I have fried a motherboard with static, probably killed one CPUs with overclocking (which fortunately isn’t possible anymore) and another with a broken pin and of course I had a few hard drives fail most probably due to old age - they are mechanical after all.

That said:
my ASUS boards have always been very good. This is my fourth in a row, and I had the ability to test the stray MSI and Gigabyte and chose to remain with the ASUS each time. Also had an ASUS RTX 3070 which was running well, keeping cool, and was easily OC’d and undervolted. My current Gigabyte RTX 3080 TI isn’t quite as accomodating there.

Admittedly this time with the new AM5 board I had a few problems with DDR compatibility in conjunction with the new 7000X3D CPUs but ASUS released several firmware updates in a row to counter the problem, and the memory runs like a charm now.

So now call me a fan-boy and be done with it but I still think what you’re doing here is out of line. :wink:

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Moral of this story is do not buy a keyboard costing 288 anything. i wear out keyboards fast my nails usually scratch the letters off the keys so i buy cheap ones and when it fails i haven’t lost much

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Yeah … that too :slight_smile:

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Yep, there is that. I had to go back to my Logitech G910, and it’s sloppy feeling. The CM one was very, very precise and no wobble on the keys period. I have not found a replacement yet, and not sure if I will, as you say, 288 for a keyboard is nuts, but it’s the most precise one I have ever used. Corsaire/Logitech and even just run of the mill ones are all sloppy compared to CM.

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Yes, I built PC for a number of years and worked in Client Support for a company with 3500 employees, so I get the electronics part. I am not the only one who plunked down $$$ for this keyboard and had it fail, I have read many posts of users experiencing the same thing, either in warranty or out. The MB Caps issue may have woken them up to better CS. But, the fans should not have needed replacement at half of 3 Year period, and the HDD was segate, and never been fan of those. Best luck has been with WD for HDD, and am no expert on SSD/NV types, but Samsung has very good ratings, not sure on CS, as monitor support from them was spotty based on some reviews. Nevertheless, I love their phones, my S10+ is working great, and my old A10 which I gave to BH also is working fine. Thinking about the S23+ but chunk of change for that one.
Yes, regardless of who makes it, PC parts can go bad. But, switches rated at 1 million cycles should not fail after 14 months. As aside, the packing for the KB was excellent, so it was not damaged in shipping.

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Hi Meridiansquid,

I was sorry to read about your experiences - I think you have been badly let down with that keyboard. It is not at all unreasonable to expect that a premium product from a manufacturer like that would serve you reliably and well for a decent period, and certainly not be ‘unrepairable.’

Of course it doesn’t mean that every single Asus product is terrible, but the dead end you reached understandably leads to a very sour taste, and one I have experienced myself with Logitech products.

Like you, I wanted a decent quality long-term-use keyboard for gaming and work, and on the strength of decent reviews I opted for the Logitech G513 Carbon. It was not as expensive as the Claymore, but still expensive for “just” a keyboard at about GBP 200 when I got it. All was fine at first, but after 18 months it was scrap - multiple keys had lost some or all of their surface covering, and many of them either didn’t work when pressed, or activated multiple times at the lightest touch, all randomly and unpredictably.
New switches and keycaps are not available from the manufacturer or in the aftermarket, and the local distributor refused to deal with it, quoting: “fair wear and tear.” The ridiculously expensive mouse I had brought from them at the same time suffered a similar failure of the surface and unreliable switches too.

After trying out a lot of expensive replacement keyboards in-person at various computer shops I settled on the Ducky One-3, and I would highly recommend you take a look at their products if you haven’t already settled on something else. Yes it was still pricy, but it gets the basics so, so right that in everyday work or gaming use it is leagues above my old Logitech.
The design and production ethos are all tuned to making it the best keyboard to type on that they possibly can - build quality is bombproof, and the case has internal mechanical and acoustic damping, making it really solid, classy and quiet. There are a few video reviews where they compare the typing sound and feel to other high end mechanical keyboards, and you can really feel and hear the difference.

It uses Cherry keys which are hot swappable with no soldering or disassembly required, and of course this means no issue with replacement keycaps in future either. The standard caps are true doubleshot PBT with a fine texture on the surface, but they don’t pick up oils and go shiny. The USB cable is entirely separate and replaceable too.
Another benefit I hadn’t thought too much about is the lack of software the Ducky comes with. The old Logitech required their hub software on my pc for backlight control and firmware updates, and it wouldn’t play nicely with the other lighting controls I have from Corsair and Gigabyte. A practical and time saving bonus is that the Ducky controls are all on-board via the function keys.
I hope you find something decent, but based on my similar experience, I would definitely recommend you have a look at the Ducky range, to see if there is something that suits.

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After an especially horrific experience with ASUS ‘tech support’ trying to get them to RMA a defective motherboard, I too have given up ever buying another one of their products. Support was the worst I’ve ever experienced in my 25+ years of dealing with tech support - and I deal with tech support a LOT in my job.

It got so frustrating that at one point I was literally screaming at them on the phone in front of my customer. Very unprofessional of me, but I’d snapped. Thankfully the customer had been privy to the lunacy I’d experienced onsite with them for over a week trying to get resolution for a problem that after doing my own troubleshooting I unequivocally knew was a defective board, so they understood why that happened. I wrote a letter to ASUS corporate detailing the terrible experience, for all the good it would do…which is none. Shame, really, because overall I know they manufacture some quality products. The level of incompetence on display in their support dept., however has made them dead to me.

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My thoughts exactly. It is just a keyboard for goodness sake.

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SideWinder X6. Got the first one in 2008, kept it 11 years.
Found another one from an online store, brand new, in 2020, jumped on it. It’s rock solid, built like a tank.
Looking forward to keep it for another 10 years.

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I’m typing this on a Sidewinder X6. I don’t use it for MSFS, but I certainly wouldn’t have a problem doing so. My Mom needed a lighted keyboard due to her failing eyes, and I briefly thought about giving it to her - especially since she doesn’t want or need a numeric keypad (the X6’s is detachable.)

But I just didn’t want to give this one up, so I bought her something else. I wanted to get her a new keyboard, but couldn’t justify paying for a new X6. I see them going for about $190 now. I think I got mine years ago for $90. Used keyboards are a gamble, and I suspect OP would be leery after his recent experience. Might be worth a shot, though. They’re pretty cheap on eBay.

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How do you justify spending nearly $300 on a keyboard? I spent $20 on mine from walmart and it still works!

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My $33 plus tax Corsair K55 RGB PRO gaming keyboard has been excellent for me, plenty of room, macro keys, etc. Easy throw away if it fails, working for more than a year now. I would never spend too much money in a keyboard.

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All - Thank you all for the "understanding with TS and quality at ASUS, yes! I realize not all their products suffer from bad components or Manfacturing. But the case history I have, plus the MB example above prove, ASUS is having some issues sorting things out. I also think bar none, that Costco Wholesale and Amazon have the best CS I have experienced, but, “PEOPLE” make up the front line in CS and we are all different. I do my best to be tolerant of them and I also understand that the following is in play here: (they have a job, and maybe at the lowest rung of the ladder)

  1. If in a chat session, that is a one dimensional conservation. They cannot see/hear your inflections, they only see the words typed on the screen. Being as descriptive with our words helps them understand the issue. I could relate my experience in chat with Linksys, but, we overcame it, and were able to solve my issue, it’s possible, but I have to be very long suffering to make sure both of us are on the same page and sentence. It is sometimes a bother, me being an IT person, because I get ahead of the person on the other end, anticipating what we are heading into, and then come to realize they hit a stop sign and turned left, leaving me going straight ahead.

  2. If on the phone, they might hear the sounds of your voice, but, they cannot see your facial expressions to understand the level of frustrations we feel trying to sort out the issue. I like phone support better, but, if the other person just “aint in the mood to fix it, it won’t happen”. If I run upon a roadblock, I immediately ask to speak to the next level of support or the shift supervisor, that usually resolves it 90% of the time. We all have bad days, so I wait one day and then try again. With KB it was a done deal, I was not going to pay any more money to make this work, anticipating, down the road, it was going to happen again. Too many reports of bad keys surfacing presently.

This is a great forum 99% of the time, and again, thank you for the recommendations. Back to the Logitech G910 for now. Dell used to have a great little keyboard when I was working, they were tough. For the next one, I am going to touch each and every one before I buy it, so I will have to find local outlets because getting online/shipping - then not liking it/shipping back is a lot of work from where I live. Again, thanks to all.

To those who think “it’s just a keyboard”, that is true, but, I type a lot, and in MSFS and Xplane, some things have to be done on the keyboard, so I want it to be tough for those instances I need it to do a ‘thing’. I expect, those who game professionally, (if they bring their own stuff) have equipment, that is bulletproof because, there performance in that arena can make or break them fast. At the Comsumer level, is our stuff as good? Or is their a difference in any of it. For me, Logitech (aside from their trackballs which work fine for me) I am not fan much, quality is medium to poor, longevity is also not their either. Their stuff was better years back, today, not sure.

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Just wanted to agree with you about Amazon CS. They are fantastic.
It’s a huge company, but when I call them and leave my number, I get a call back in minutes. And I’ve never had anything but complete satisfaction with the outcome of an problem I’ve had.

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Thank You BegottenPoet228 and all. I guess people really read my comments. I think each of us has had “something go bad” and cannot get good CS. With AMZN and Costco, I never have an issue. I was impressed with Linksys and their TS, because that fellow hung in there and we got it. So hats off to them as well.

Another company with Excellent Customer Service is Laminar (X-Plane). I have routinely contacted them and received a reply on my query the same or next business day. One time Austin sent me a reply directly, and that my friends is the head of the outfit. So the difference between excellent CS and poor CS can be measured.

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My best story recently involved, of all things, HP.
I bought a Reverb G2 VR headset, and couldn’t get it to work.
I called, expecting to be shuttled around and double-talked, but I got a guy on the phone right away, and when I told him the problem I was having, he asked, “Do you happen to have an RTX 3090Ti?”
“Why yes, I do.”

“That’s the problem. Those just don’t play nice with the G2 and DisplayPort, due to the Tesla architecture in the Ti chipset.
Simple solution is to buy an inexpensive DisplayPort repeater and a short DP cable.”

Sure enough - problem solved.

I was impressed that he didn’t read from a pre-packaged troubleshooting flowchart. The tech actually had a knowledge base that quickly and accurately diagnosed the problem, and provided a workable solution. Yeah, it cost me an additional $40 to get it working - a price I was willing to pay.

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All - Further information - JayTwoCents on YouTube cancelled his marketing agreement with ASUS, you might want to watch video, they are so totally messed up now, stay away from their stuff. The latest AMD Board Fiasco with the 7500X3D Chip and IOC Voltage and their response is a joke, they offer new bios, but if you download it, it cancels your warranty, now how is that for Customer Service.

Gamers Nexus also has Video on the whole thing but avoid ASUS Anything to be safe.

So, I should have never bought that keyboard, now think instead of keeping it hoping to fix it, just will donate it and clear out the space. One poster said Duckey 3 One is great choice. Still trying to get in the back order queue for one of those in Blue.

Ordered New PC Sunday, it should be here in 3 weeks or so. IT’s NOT anything with ASUS in it.

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I can confirm the Ducky One-3 totally kicks bottom.
(Apologies, being british, we don’t habitually use ‘■■■’ and the local variant ‘■■■■’ just looks wrong).

Like you, I type a lot for work and it remains looking and feeling awesome.