Feenix Autore review: A pretty keyboard lacking in features

Feenix claims the design of the Autore was inspired by the monolith in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. I don’t buy that, but this keyboard is damn sexy. And that sex appeal is reflected in its price tag: the Autore retails for a whopping $163.

Your opinion of the Autore will hinge on how much you value aesthetics over function. Remember how I said the WASD V2 was stripped-down? The Autore is even more basic. It doesn’t have media-player control keys. It also lacks backlighting and macro keys. It’s just a pure, unadulterated keyboard.

Having said that, I really like the look and feel of the Autore. It’s gorgeous, with a slate-gray casing and understated, black-on-gray keycaps. But what else can be said about a keyboard this expensive and this devoid of features?

It does sport Cherry MX Brown switches, giving a tactile bump with less ‘click’ and actuation force than Cherry Blues. And it’s fairly heavy, weighing more than 2.5 pounds. It has a braided cable that (sort of obnoxiously) emerges from the top-right side instead of close to the desk.

But this keyboard really relies on its looks. How much do you like really lightweight, sans-serif typefaces? How badly do you want to own a keyboard that spells out “win” instead of stamping Microsoft’s logo on the Windows key?

Unless those are extreme hot buttons for you, there’s very little to recommend this keyboard over so many of its less-expensive, more feature-rich competitors. For the price of an Autore, you can have your pick of basically any other mechanical keyboard on the market—including the customizable WASD V2, if you really want to express yourself.

Whether you’re looking for a gaming keyboard or a restrained office keyboard, there are better options at much lower price points.