ASUS ROG Falchion

Asus ROG FALCHION keyboard Faulty from new – I spent a lot of time trying to work out the best small formfactor sized keyboard over a few months and ended up going for a Asus ROG FALCHION keyboard as it seemed to be the best at the time and with covid in full swing was something that was in stock as well at least at the local computer store. From new I kept getting warning messages that… Read more

the battery was low but it was fully charged not long beforehand so I put it down to a software issue vs an issue with the battery. I ended up leaving it plugged into the usb cable most of the time to get around this error message and was hoping to see a software update that would fix the issue but I never did see one.

I also had issues with key allocation and setting up or changing set ups with it.

A few months later one of the back height adjusters broke off and this is when I started to notice other things like the black plastic parts on the chassis base where more brittle than I have seen on other keyboards. Still not a massive issue as the height adjustment was not that much use anyway with them so did not really need to use it.

Still the next issue I noticed was the keyboard now had a slight rocking motion to it as if the chassis was slightly warped. Looking at it I could not see the real issue at that time which I'll cover shortly but I put it down to a warped keyboard and should have returned it then but again covid and all the issues around it meant I just lived with the issues which turned out to be a massive mistake.

Months later and just past the lousy one year warranty period the rocking motion of the keyboard got worse so inspected it again and this time the issue became obvious.

The built in lithium battery pack was swelling up and had got to the point it was now cracking the base of the keyboard out. This really shocked me to see in part because I now realized this massive fire hazard had been in my house for months and I was not too happy about it.

I contacted ASUS as it was now out of warranty but given it must have being an issue from new with this keyboard plus in Australia we have consumer laws around items fitness for purpose that depending on price and when it failed overrides the companies lousy warranties I knew I had a legal leg to stand on for getting it fixed or replaced. Asus at the time messaged me back saying all good and take it back to the retailer I brought it from so I thought it was no issues but when taking it back to the retailer (PLE) They refused to even take it in and send it off for me because as the guy said at the time they have had lots of issues with getting reimbursement from Asus or something like that and even the manager then refused and the best I could do was get some return to manufacture number and authorisation from ASUS before they would even touch it.

I never heard back after emailing them again and possibly I used a wrong contact email for the request but still it's not a good outcome for a keyboard that cost almost $300. I have written it off as a terrible buy and I'll be staying away from Asus in future.

I have removed and disposed of the battery so it did not pose any risk to my house and the cheapness of the black plastics again was clear when taking it apart so at just under $300 I really can't see it's value.

Gone back to my full sized mechanical which cost far less and could be used as a cricket bat its that solid but then it's a corsair branded one so....