Enermax Aurora Lite Ultra-Thin Keyboard Review

Testing keyboards doesn’t have much of the glamor associated with frame rates and high numbers in benchmarks to clearly differentiate products, but there are a number of very important tests that need to be done. The most important of which is key grouping and response.

Keyboards are usually laid out in a grid, with the pressing of a key corresponding with a row and column number. The combined action determines the key pressed. Ghosting is the result of pressing a key with no response; the key press being lost to the ether.

For typists, this is not a huge issue, as you are typically only pressing 1 key after another with the odd modifier key thrown in (Ctrl, Shift, Alt). Gamers on the other hand require multiple simultaneous key presses to be registered, often 3-4 at the same time.

In an effort to be more constructive and objective with our peripheral reviews, we thought it would be of benefit to introduce a key map for our keyboard testing, since a large part of our target audience are gamers. This involves pressing certain key combinations simultaneously to see if any ghosting occurs. The tables below will show common, generic actions from games, with the keys listed to the side; the third column will show the result with any faults shown in red.

For the most part, this may seem a little over the top, especially with the more uncommon combinations, but there is a good reason for it. If you have ever played a game and certain actions are not being performed as you’d expect, it might not actually be the game’s fault, but your keyboard. Running for your life, strafing randomly, crouching and trying to open a door, only to have the door not open… you may have just been hit by a ghost-key.

Key order in the results is not that important as this is often human error (it’s nearly impossible to press multiple keys at the exact same time). Each combination is repeated several times to make sure that there is a genuine error. When ghosting occurs, one of two things can happen; one or more of the keys will fail to register, or none of the keys will register. If a result is left blank, then it will most likely mean that none of the keys worked.

Modifier keys (Ctrl, Alt, Shift, Win), Tab, Caps Lock, Enter, Backspace and the Space Bar are not included in testing as these are often on a separate circuit to the rest of the board.

Testing the Aurora Lite with gaming in mind is not an entirely fair test, as it is not aimed at gamers, but it will most likely pull double duty as sometimes it’s nice to vent in a game at the end of the day. With this in mind, there are a number of weak-spots that arise with certain key combos.

Because we like to give things a little bit of workout, we’ve also introduced some uncommon key combinations, just in case you have 6 fingers or are trying to play a badly done console port – or both. If you have any suggestions for more key combinations, drop by our forum and we’ll consider including them. Examples may include things like Z, X and V while moving.

There are a few problems regarding the E key, as 4/5 of the problems make use of E. A number of games still use this key as the main interaction key, so it may be wise to remap it to something else. Again, the issues above should not be taken as a failure. This is not a gaming keyboard, but then again, it’s not a cheap keyboard either.

If you enjoy laptop style keyboards and want something more desktop orientated, then you can’t go wrong with the Aurora Lite. The lightness of the keys and low travel really reduce wrist and finger fatigue (at least for me). This a style of keyboard I’ve grown accustomed to over the years and have used a variety models and price ranges.

Is this keyboard really worth the $60+ price tag? That’s really hard to say. It’s solid, well planted and heavy, the keys are light and responsive and have a decent amount of feedback. The style is very clean as well, with subtle silvery accents, although poorly captured with the photos on the previous page. The ‘less is more’ approach has done well here and a serious attention to detail taken.

The Aurora Lite by Enermax is a keyboard of subtlety and function, avoiding the use of gimmicks to pull people in, but the price does come across as a little high. If you enjoy laptop style keyboards, but want something a little more serious for the desktop, this is a worthy consideration.

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