Roccat releases a gaming keyboard with ‘membranical’ key switches

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It's a membrane keyboard that is supposed to respond like a mechanical plank.

If you want a mechanical keyboard, there's no shortage of options, making it easy to buy one. And if you prefer a membrane plank, there are plenty of those available as well. But what about gamers who want something in between? Roccat's answer is its new Horde Aimo featuring "membranical" keys.

According to Roccat, membranical keys "combine the strengths of mechanical keys and membrane keys," supposedly giving you the best of both worlds. Beyond the marketing buzz, it's a membrane keyboard. What differentiates the Horde Aimo from other membrane planks is a lower actuation point for key presses, though Roccat doesn't get into specifics here. Instead, Roccat says the keys have an actuation speed of 7.8ms, versus 9ms for a standard membrane keyboard.

There is also a set of dedicated macro keys with an even faster actuation speed, rated at 5ms, which is the result of a lower profile. Roccat does list the actuation point for these, at 1.2mm.

"With the Horde Aimo, we wanted to offer the fans of traditional keyboards the best choice in the market, there is no other option that feels as crisp, precise and offers this level of customization," said Roccat CEO René Korte. "The Horde AIMO is one of a kind."

Maybe, maybe not. We haven't tested this keyboard ourselves so we'll reserve judgement until then. However, some of the early reviews are mixed—TomsHardware wasn't all that impressed, while Rock Paper Shotgun had better things to say.

In addition to dedicated macro keys, there is a 360-degree tuning wheel to quickly adjust things like volume, illumination effects, brightness, dpi, and more.

The Horde Aimo is available now for $90. Sometime in Q2, Roccat will release a non-Aimo (non-RGB) version for $70.

Paul Lilly
Paul Lilly

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).