I have to link some of the image to the original website due to photo limit.

I write for GamingGamers.net and here's a review of the Armaggeddon Stealth Raptor MKA-7 Mechanical Keyboard. You can check out the original article here[link]

The MKA-7 is Armaggeddon’s top tier mechanical gaming keyboard, costing buyers a market price of RM 439 which is well in range with many of its competitors of similar features. If you are looking for mechanical keyboards intended for gaming, this one is worth considering largely due to its build quality, quiet styling and remarkable performance.



LOOKS & BUILD

The MKA-7 is not the flashiest keyboard in the market, but then it does not need to be. Gamers looking for a quiet and unassuming arsenal of gaming peripherals can add this to their kit.

The keyboard is coated with a soft touch compound which is grippy enough not to let your fingers slip off when you need to spam the Ulti skill in Dota 2, nor is it too grippy to trouble your fingers when typing an extensive review after a session of Battlefield 4. The coating is not exactly matte or reflective, it is something in between. I liked it very much. It has the added benefit of not being a fingerprint magnet as well.



The backlight is a subtle blue with the WASD and arrow keys backlit in orange. I was given the impression from the box that the backlight would be all blue. However the WASD and arrow keys have orange backlighting. Not that it is a major problem, but Armaggeddon could polish up on their box labeling here.



You can adjust the backlight with the adjustment wheel, located on the top right side of the keyboard. The adjustment goes from completely off to blindingly bright, which means you can adjust it to your heart’s liking. I personally like it glowing gently and not piercing my retinas. The only slight nuisance is the fact that the adjustment wheel does not have a stop point; you can turn it infinitely, which means you would not be sure when you have reached the maximum brightness level of your backlight. I do, however believe this is due to the adjustment wheel second function of controlling the volume. If it had a stop for its minimum and maximum, it would not be possible for it to control both volume and backlight. The compromise is reasonable and the added functionality far outweighs the nuisance.



LAYOUT

Moving away from looks is the more practical side of the keyboard, the layout. Armaggedon has made a decent attempt at making the MKA–7 as practical as possible without compromising on too much feature.

The top rows of F-Keys have double functions. They do their intended F1-F12 function and also some media control as well as keyboard setting controls. To access the second function, users only need to press the Fn key located beside the right Alt key and the F-Key of their choice. I find this handy when I am in game as it helps me control the volume especially.

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However the MKA-7’s layout has a drawback. With no dedicated gaming keys, Armaggeddon has chosen to let the 6 keys above the arrow keys to function as gaming keys ranging from M1 to M6 when needed. The M1 – M6 buttons placement atop the arrow keys means it is generally inaccessible during high intensity gaming, which let us be honest, is most of the time. With the left hand occupied near the WASD section and your right hand occupying the mouse, you would need a magical third hand to use the M1 – M6 buttons. Given that it is a gaming keyboard, dedicated gaming keys should have been included on the left side of the keyboard where it is nearer to the WASD section.

Those problems aside, the rest of the keys are placed well. They did not choose to opt with those ungodly L-shaped Enter buttons, choosing to stay with the normal sized horizontal ones. The spacebar is mighty large and responsive throughout its length, perfect in my opinion. The other keys are reasonably spaced and shaped, but given that this keyboard is based on the Cherry MX switches, they are pretty much standard. My review unit came with the Blue Cherry MX switches, one of the heavier gauge switches, which performed similar to most other Cherry MX keyboards I have tried.

Flipping over the keyboard, you will find cable routings to help manage your desk clutters. The cable can be routed towards the left, right and towards the rear of the keyboard. The bottom side also sports four rubber feet which is mighty grippy to ensure your keyboard never slips and slide on the desk. Testing it on a glass surface, laminated wood and also my extra-large mouse pad shows no sign of movement at all. The two back feet can be flipped up to raise the back portion of the keyboard about half an inch higher than with the feet folded down. I found that the half an inch stand brings little difference to the ergonomics of the keyboard.

At the rear, you can find two audio pass through, one for input and the other for output, as well as a USB port.

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PERFORMANCE

Gaming with the MKA-7 is a charm. The key are responsive but the inherent design of the Blue Cherry MX keys means double tapping is harder if you are not careful to let the key fully travel up after the first press, but fear not, the MKA-7 comes with Blue, Black, Brown and Red Cherry MX keys to suit your preferences.

I did however notice some ghosting or ghosting-like effect (it happens once in a while). Ghosting happens when you press multiple keys at the same time but the keyboard is unable to acknowledge all the pressed keys. When playing Battlefield 4 with the MKA-7, simultaneously pressing W, D (or A), Left Alt, Left Shift and spamming Q for spotting sometimes results in ghosting.

When testing for n-key rollover (NKRO) using a manual test where I keep the two left and right Shift keys pressed while typing “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” results in full, non-missing characters at all. This is better than compared to something like the Razer Lycosa which failed to fully type the test sentence. A second test, where I press as many keys as I can to test if I can get any dropped keys exhibits no problem at all. I had ten-key rollover at the very least or more if I had enough fingers to test it.

In that, I can only attribute the ghosting-like effect is due to the key response time or polling rate but without concrete evidence I cannot say for sure. The only thing I can say is that the keyboard performs outstandingly given that Armaggeddon did not claim to have n-Key Rollover but is able to perform like it did, however the ghosting-like effect is true and happens sometimes.

Typing on the MKA-7 feels superb especially with the Blue Cherry MX switches creating a tactile and fulfilling click with every keystroke. It does get tiring, so the lighter gauge Red switches might be a better alternative. I have no criticism in this part, Armaggeddon made an impressive keyboard if you are planning to type long, multi-paged review like me. I guess the only downside is if you ever have to go back to another keyboard, you will sorely miss the MKA-7.

They keyboard also sports a 1 MB onboard memory, plenty for storing custom keybindings and lengthy macros. This allows you to use the keyboard on another computer without having to set the keybindings again. Someone who goes to LAN parties or tournaments often would really appreciate the convenience such features carry.

The audio pass through on the back of the keyboard is a neat feature, one that is missing from many other keyboards in the market. Plugging in a headset through the audio pass through is sometimes more convenient for temporary use but because it is located nearer to the mouse side of the keyboard, it sometimes interfere while you are using the mouse. The audio quality does not seem to have degraded when using the audio pass through, although there is the occasional noise coming through to my headphone but nothing too serious.



The USB 2.0 port on the keyboard is not exactly a USB pass through as there is only one USB cable that goes to your computer. Therefore the USB port will have to share the bandwith along with the keyboard. It is not recommended to use this port for bandwith heavy hardwares such as an external hard disk as it will affect the usability of both the hard disk and keyboard. The occasional USB pendrive would not be too difficult for the USB port as long as you plug it off when you intend to play games.

SOFTWARES



Once you have installed the drivers for the MKA-7 from the included mini-disc, you will have access to the MKA-7’s setting application that runs in the bottom right taskbar. Here you can set the key bindings of your keys and also the lighting effect for the keyboard.

As for keybindings, the MKA-7 supports reassigning all the keys except the F-Keys, Print Screen, Scroll Lock and the Windows key. This level of customization is amazing, but I cannot see any use for me. Armaggeddon could have gone with on-the-fly macro customization instead of including full keyboard key binding.


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Apart from that, you can set Macro functions on the M1 – M6 buttons. This allows you some automation on repetitive button presses or even extra advantage in games. Like I have highlighted before this, the position of the key, instead of being dedicated M1-M6 keys on the left of the keyboard means it is highly inaccessible during two handed gaming conditions but nonetheless, the option is there if you truly need it.



Under the Advanced Settings you can change the Polling Rate of the keyboard, set whether Windows key is active or not, set the Key Response time and also light intensity. What confuses me is how engineers at Armaggeddon allow typos into their work. Here, Light Intensity is spelled LIHGT Intensity. The slight typo is telling a bigger picture about Armaggeddon’s quality control. True that some hiccups happen, but the lack of incentive to update the drivers from the official product page leaves room for questioning.

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Armaggeddon can further improve its software by integrating its drivers together and adding an option to check for updates. Having an Armaggeddon keyboard and mouse means I have two instances of the separate drivers and settings softwares running together. This fills up my taskbar and annoys me thoroughly. I like my taskbar empty as many others do. Also the lack of method to check for driver update is even more annoying. Coupled with the fact that the drivers page at Armaggedon’s website fail to address the version of the drivers also leave me questioning whether I have the latest updates or not. Given that most people will have to fork out a lot of money, you would be hard pressed to entertain such hassle to something as simple as a driver update.

CONCLUSION

The MKA-7 is great. It does it what it does very well. Apart from the elusive ghosting that I have encountered, all my other criticisms are taking shots at minor trivial things. The only reason is that the MKA-7 Stealth Raptor is so great of a keyboard that I could not find any other faults. It can dethrone even the best keyboards from Razer or Corsair and with its attractive price compared to other manufacturers, it is a no brainer.

With its reasonable asking price, you would be in a tough spot to find a better performing keyboard. However if you are looking for dedicated gaming keys, look elsewhere because the MKA-7 does not accommodate those.

Armaggeddon needs to market this keyboard even more aggressively. It has what I assume n-key rollover that will attract many gamers. Those can be front and center in their marketing campaign. With Armaggeddon trying to get into crowded market with established manufacturers, it can use all the advantages it has.

As for the softwares that come with the MKA-7, those are easily fixable by Armaggeddon with a future update, which I hope they do. Those can be polished up and improve the overall experience of using the MKA-7.

Here is my final say on the Armaggeddon Stealth Raptor MKA-7:

Things it excels at:

High end build quality – little flexing or sign of cheap materials
Media Keys integrated with the F-Keys
Tactile and comfortable
Sports at least a 10-key rollover
1 MB of onboard memory removes the hassle of re-configuring
Gaming level polling rate and key response time
Things it can improve at:

No dedicated gaming keys
Sofwares that controls it lacks refinement
Layout of the M1-M6 buttons is inaccessible during gaming
Final verdict: Choice to go for mechanical gaming keyboard if you do not need dedicated gaming keys

Score: 8.5 / 10

This post has been edited by izzudinhafiz: Nov 22 2013, 08:37 PM

Impressive review, likes your website.

Thanks. Appreciate the feedback.

for mechanical Aion Kinah keyboards intended for gaming, this one is worth considering largely due to its build quality, quiet styling and remarkable performance.