Asus announces new ROG Keystone 2

Asus officially announced lots of new hardware today. While there are lots of new laptops in today’s announcement, a small piece of hardware iterates on an idea targeted at the eSports community.

The ROG Keystone 2 is the next version of Asus’ ROG Keystone, a small NFC drive compatible with some of their laptops and desktops. The idea behind the Keystone is that it serves as a proprietary physical key that allows users to transfer hardware profiles and settings easily between machines.

The original Keystone allowed users to create game-specific profiles for RBG lighting and macros through the Armoury Crate app. These settings could then be loaded in another machine with a Keystone slot, making transferring settings simple and easy. The original Keystone also featured a “Shadow Drive,” which was a hidden and encrypted storage drive on the Keystone device.

The new ROG Keystone 2, announced today, has all of these features and more. Users can configure the Keystone 2 to perform a quick command when it is plugged in, including things like logging out of Windows, activating a specific operation mode, or launching a specific game or program. The ROG Keystone 2 can also be used to backup and restore profiles tied to an ROG ID. The key also contains a Shadow Drive similar to the original Keystone.

Keep in mind that the ROG Keystone 2 is a proprietary device that is only compatible with a portion of Asus’ ROG lineup. In their new lineup, only the ROG STRIX SCAR 15 and ROG STRIX SCAR 17 are compatible with the Keystone 2.

What are your thoughts on the new Keystone 2? Is this something that you would use, or is it an idea in search of a solution? Let us know in the comments.