When you think of gaming keyboards, mechanical switches are probably still the most popular for now. Newer tech like optical and magnetic switches are up and coming, so it’s no surprise that Acer has also dipped its toes in making use of such tech. New to the lineup is the Predator Aethon 750 TKL which, as the name suggests, comes in the tenkeyless form factor.
No word on if there will be a full-sized version of the keyboard, but I still thought it was worth giving it a try while I could. So here are some specs off the top, as well as a first impression. For the latter though, it’s worth keeping in mind that while it was plugged into a nearby laptop, we weren’t given a look at the screen. So I won’t be providing thoughts on using it while actually gaming, at least not yet.
The most important thing to know about the Predator Aethon 750 TKL is that it uses magnetic switches. Or more specifically as Acer calls it, the Custom Predator Magnetic Switches. Fancy name aside, it provides all the benefits that the tech does. It’s actually a surprisingly long list, but it includes longevity thanks to it not having mechanical contacts, rapid triggers, or allowing new input before fully depressing keys, and with software, adjustable actuation. Said software is the Predator QuarterMaster 2.0, which debuts alongside the keyboard.
Other features of the keyboard include an 8k Hz polling rate, supporting wired, Bluetooth and 2.4GHz wireless connectivity, and a gasket mount structure for less noise when typing. Of course, there’s the N-key rollover, a mandatory feature in gaming keyboards of today.
But what does all that translate into when you’re actually using it? For one, due to the nature of magnetic switches, you inherently get a very linear typing experience. As mentioned, you get to set the depth of each key press before they register, but you don’t get any feedback of your key registering beyond seeing its effect happening on screen. There’s also a slight resistance to each button press, though its negative effects can technically be countered by the gasket mounted construction. The gasket does make it a tad heavy, but you still get the common two-stage flip-out keyboard legs.
At a glance, it’s clear that Acer wants the Predator Aethon 750 TKL to score top points when it comes to visual style. This is because, looking at it directly from the front, the keyboard has none of the usual characters printed on the keys. Instead, you get an angled Predator logo on the bottom right corner. The characters you’d expect to find are instead in front of each keycap rather than on top. And rather than being printed on top, they are instead carved out, so unless the RGB lighting is shining through, it’s quite difficult to actually see them.
This does make it quite the looker of a keyboard, but it’s definitely a two-fold form-over-function situation. For one, unless you’re an expert touch typist, you’re going to have some trouble when the need to do work arises. Sure, that’s not the primary purpose of the Predator Aethos 750 TKL, but I doubt it’s a situation that anyone with a gaming PC can fully avoid.
The second, though this won’t be a problem until after a while, is that cleaning can be quite a pain, unless you can manage to do so without removing any of the keycaps. And once you do this frequently enough, the keycaps themselves can become loose, causing them to come flying off during intense gaming sessions. Either way, if multiple keycaps come off at the same time, it will take longer than necessary to put them back together again.
Oddly enough, the Predator Aethon 750 TKL is one of the few items that Acer has tacked price tags onto. It would cost EUR 149 (~RM691) when it launches in EMEA within Q4, or AU$219 (~RM622) in Australia by Q3. No word on local details just yet, and neither of these prices are usually a good indicator of what local prices would be.
