Alienware Pro Wireless gaming keyboard review: “a nostalgic return to mechanical form”
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Alienware released its selection of Pro Wireless peripherals last year, and having spent the first couple of months of 2025 with the mouse and headset it’s time to turn to the mechanical keyboard. In a time when most gaming brands are adding Hall effect switches to their decks, Dell is keeping things old school. This is a return to the full mechanical clack we all know and love, and while that nostalgia is certainly welcome it’s not quite doing enough to justify its $199.99 MSRP compared to its peers.
Competition in this price range is brutal. The three decks most closely aligned to the Alienware Pro Wireless’s price point just so happen to be some of the best gaming keyboards money can buy right now. Alienware wants its tri-mode connectivity, bold RGB lighting, and thoccy mechanical switches to speak for themselves, but where others are upping the game from a customization standpoint, the brand struggles to be heard against the rest of the market.
By itself, the Alienware Pro Wireless gaming keyboard is a nicely constructed piece of kit. A rock solid build quality, excellent typing feel, and strong versatility in its connections puts it in good stead for those after a pure mechanical experience. Problems occur when that $199.99 receipt floats into view.
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Price |
$199.99 / £199.99 |
|
Type |
Mechanical |
|
Connection |
2.4GHz / Bluetooth / Wired |
|
Size |
75% (mini) |
|
Switches |
Alienware Linear switches |
|
Keycaps |
Doubleshot PBT |
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Media keys |
Dedicated volume, dual-function playback |
|
Wrist rest |
None |
|
USB passthrough |
None |
Design
I received the Alienware Pro Wireless gaming keyboard in the brand’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ colorway – that’s black to you and I – but it’s also available in ‘Lunar Light’, aka white. I personally prefer white gaming tech – it just looks more premium and stands out more compared to the hundreds of boring black gadgets on the market. Still, I can appreciate the slightly lighter gray base body and jet black caps here – even if they may be absorbing some of that RGB power.
Don’t get me wrong, Alienware’s deck does a lot to differentiate itself from the usual black bricks that pass over my testing desk. The soft rounded corners make for a more relaxed aesthetic overall, with a gentle slope on the underside providing a little more visual excitement as well. Not that you’ll be picking up your keyboard all too often, but it’s an extension of Dell’s curvy design vibe.
That comfort-factor is compounded by the soft-touch coating across the top of the aluminum top plate. It’s a softer alternative to the cold, hard metal found on the Asus ROG Azoth and SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Gen 3 and, while the slimline bezels mean I wasn’t coming into contact with the surface all too often, it adds an air of sophistication to the design as a whole.
The aluminum chassis melts into a plastic under-case with a seamless join halfway down the side, with both panels working together to produce a fantastic build quality. This thing is rock solid – exactly what you want for a traditional linear mechanical switch. I never encountered even a whisper of flex in the main deck, and the response to a fully bottomed-out keypress was clean and energetic. Even switch wobble is kept to an absolute minimum across large and small keys – everything is incredibly tight under the fingertips here.
Those old school mechanical switches do make themselves known, with a loud clack to each actuation that takes me straight back to the glory days. It’s a little too loud to truly be considerate in a shared space, though I personally love the auditory feedback in my little den. While there are some dampening foam layers in the internal construction, which work particularly hard to calm any rattle or ping produced by the switches, this is still far from the gasket mounted clicking of the ROG Azoth.
This is a 75% layout, but not as you might know it. Everything is squished into a form factor more in keeping with the traditions of a 65% deck. You’re still getting arrow keys and a full function row, with some extra navigation and media controls on the right hand side. The main alphanumeric area still remains nicely balanced, though, and I never had any issues with mis-presses between keys. It does, however, mean that you miss out on some of the extra features like a display or control dial that you’ll find in SteelSeries or Asus’s boards.
The Alienware Pro Wireless gaming keyboard provides a very slight natural incline due that extended section underneath, with two flippable feet adding extra elevation as well. These are the first keyboard feel that I’ve used to flip out sideways, and I’m a big fan. Unless you’ve got all but the strongest hinges, front-folding feet tend to buckle and fold back into place when moving a keyboard backwards and forwards. Whenever I make similar adjustments with Alienware’s device, the feet simply glide in motion with the deck. A rubber strip also runs along the bottom of the Pro Wireless to keep it in place on a desk as well.
Connection options are a little hidden at the front of the keyboard, and it’s a little frustrating to have to lift the deck and angle it simply to see which device I’m connected to or to switch between Bluetooth and 2.4GHz connections. Still, I’m rarely tinkering with these once everything is set up – so it’s not going to be a major headache in the long term.
Features
Dell has outfitted the Alienware Pro Wireless gaming keyboard with a set of its own linear switches. These clickers are both the deck’s greatest strength and biggest point of contention. At $199.99, you’re not exactly skimping on your new gaming keyboard, so it’s difficult to justify the lack of Hall effect clickers from a pure functionality perspective. These newer magnetic switches provide far more customization of your switch behavior via personalized actuation points and dual-step triggers. They also provide faster repeat presses when a dynamic feature called Rapid Trigger is enabled. Newer gaming keyboards, like the NZXT Function Elite Wireless ($199.99) and SteelSeries’s latest Apex Pro ($219.99), easily throw these switches into their decks.
A longer feature list isn’t always the hallmark of a great gaming keyboard, though. That’s where the stronger side of this mechanical offering comes in. These are particularly smooth, responsive, and satisfying switches, operating at a Goldilocks 40g actuation force for the perfect balance between sensitivity and speed.
While the smaller 75% form factor does limit some of the controls available, the Pro Wireless still features dedicated volume buttons along the right, with a preset swapper in the top corner. This gives you fast access to your five onboard profiles, with RGB switching as well. Having onboard control over these presets is a fantastic bonus, especially if you regularly switch between control schemes on the fly. I appreciated being able to make the change from a sniper position to a full run’n’gun playstyle with the tap of a button, rather than having to tab out and head into Alienware Command Center. It does, however, mean that the delete button has been pushed to the left, which never felt intuitive during day to day productivity.
The squished form factor also means media playback and navigation buttons are relegated to a separate function layer, though they’re all neatly placed around the right for easy access.
Wireless connectivity is also one of the Pro’s strongest assets. A USB-C 2.4GHz receiver takes care of all your low-latency gaming needs, while slots for three Bluetooth connections keeps things flexible across separate devices as well. 1,000Hz polling is nice and speedy for everyday players but those with their sights set on tournament stardom will be disappointed to learn that there’s no additional polling gains to be had from a wired connection. While the NZXT Function Elite relies solely on a wired connection, it runs at a faster 8,000Hz polling rate for the uber competitive.
Alienware Command Center is back in action to set up all your personalized keybindings, configure RGB settings, and enable power saving features. It’s a little basic compared to some of the controls available in Razer Synapse, for example, but it does the same core job. Everything is nicely laid out, with three main tabs for lighting, keybinding, and general settings. I do prefer the single-page layout of NZXT’s CAM software, though this is a better experience compared to Asus’s Armory Crate.
Performance
I’ve been testing a hell of a lot of Hall effect gaming keyboards in the last few weeks, so hitting these linear mechanical clackers felt like coming home. The typing feel is fantastic here, offering just the right level of tension behind each switch while still providing a nicely sensitive actuation threshold. I missed not being able to set a higher actuation for certain keys I’m more likely to need to twitch into, but there’s a reason mechanical keyboards lasted so long in the gaming world. These factory-lubed switches are smooth and bouncy with strong feedback that feels tactile without getting in the way of comfort during longer typing sessions.
That means accuracy and speed are maintained at high levels. I was able to hit my dodges in Avowed just as well as I would on a controller, while also benefitting from a range of quick-tap commands elsewhere on the deck. I also appreciated the slightly narrower design when it came to holding caps or shift for certain maneuvers, as my fingers didn’t need to stray as far from WASD to keep everything locked in.
Battery life also holds its own, coming in at up to 72 hours over 2.4GHz (with RGB switched on), and up to 798 hours without that lighting enabled. With these LEDs engaged, I was able to run the deck for around a week and a half from a full battery – using the deck between seven and ten hours per day, and a few hours on weekends. Asus still wins in the battery department, though, with a massive 2,000 hours of charge in its ROG Azoth provided you keep those LEDs off.
Should you buy the Alienware Pro Wireless gaming keyboard?
There are a few gaming keyboards the Alienware Pro Wireless needs to beat. The $249.99 Asus ROG Azoth has long been the best wireless gaming keyboard on the market, and its age means that price is much closer to $199.99 these days. It’s a 75% deck with a little more breathing space, a better battery, extra control and display features, and a softer typing feel. Not all of those benefits are going to appeal to everyone, if you’re after a more traditionally clacky switch then Alienware is the better choice, but overall value is on Asus’s side.
The $219.99 SteelSeries Apex Pro Gen 3 TKL swaps the Alienware Pro Wireless’s cable-free connection for infinitely more customizable Hall effect switches. It’s a much more sensitive experience if you need it to be, and also comes with more onboard controls, higher headroom for faster inputs, and a wrist rest included. If you’re going all out on speed over a classic mechanical typing feel, SteelSeries is the deck to beat. It’s currently my favorite TKL form factor plank on the market.
Then there’s the NZXT Function Elite ($199.99). This is a newer release that also takes advantage of Hall effect switches while keeping the price closer to that of the Alienware Pro Wireless. It’s got a similarly squished TKL form factor, though includes dedicated navigational keys at the expense of media controls, and provides a solid light show in the process. The build quality doesn’t match Alienware’s, and it’s a wired-only device, but if you’re climbing those competitive ranks fast its more sensitive switches and increased polling rate could make it the better buy.
Overall, I’d recommend the Alienware Pro Wireless to players who have cash to burn on an old school mechanical experience. If you don’t want to tinker with switch actuation points, and would prefer a deeper, richer key feel you’re going to be right at home here. It’s not one for the pros, and its far from entry level, but if you’re upgrading to a hot-swappable keyboard with plenty of versatility for extra devices it’s a solid option.
|
Speed |
3/5 |
|
Customization |
3/5 |
|
Typing feel |
5/5 |
|
Portability |
3/5 |
|
Controls |
3/5 |
I’m also scouting down all the best membrane gaming keyboards for something a little cheaper, or check out the best Razer keyboards to see what the competition has to offer. If you’re outfitting your whole setup, take a look at the best gaming mouse models I’ve tested so far.
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