This keyboard works entirely without software, but Royal Kludge does have a software configuration suite. That’s not a knock on the overall device, but a missed opportunity. That would give the RK84 an additional perk. Also, this is a small nitpick, but I'm surprised that you can't charge via the USB ports when the keyboard is off or in wireless mode. The software doesn't even offer an indication of the overall charge level it's just a matter of hoping. There's no battery indicator, outside of a blinking light on the space bar when the RK84 is at low charge. With a full charge, I ran the RK84 in Bluetooth mode with low-brightness backlighting for a week without dropping to zero. Royal Kludge rates the battery life at 200 hours in 2.4-GHz mode with the backlight off, and a full charge takes 6-7 hours. The RK84 has a big honker of a battery, sitting at 3750 mAh. It almost makes me wonder why Royal Kludge added the dongle option at all. I found that the keyboard was accurate even a good 14-16 feet away from my testing device. (Long pressing these combinations puts the keyboard into pairing mode.) The distance issues with the 2.4-GHz wireless mode just disappear, making the RK84 a decent choice for a living room keyboard, assuming your device has Bluetooth at all. You can pair the keyboard with up to three devices, each accessed via the Function key in combination with Q, W, E. Even within that range, I found that a large obstacle-in this case, my kitchen counter and sink-caused missed keystrokes as well. Adding an active Razer wireless dongle next to it dropped the range down to three to four feet. Without any other dongles in the laptop, I had a stable connection for up to five feet after that, I saw the occasional missed keystroke. It's one of the worst wireless dongle connections I've experienced. This poor performance remained regardless of which USB port I used. There, I found the keyboard mostly worked within a range of a foot or two of the dongle, but outside of that, it was a mess of missed keystrokes. Initial testing was done on my desktop PC. The first wireless mode with the 2.4-GHz dongle is… pretty bad. It's worth noting that data and charging on the USB 2.0 port only works in wired mode. I found the cable would pop out occasionally as I moved the keyboard around during testing. The USB-C port or the included cable isn't sturdy though. The wired connection was entirely stable with no missed keypresses in a typing test, my words per minute dropped slightly, but I'm chalking the small gap up to my unfamiliarity with the layout. There's no software needed, as Windows will detect the keyboard automatically. All this requires is hooking the keyboard up with the included 5.6 inch USB-C to USB-A cable. Wired and Wireless Connectivity on Royal Kludge RK84įirst up, was testing the keyboard in wired mode. Fn plus the up/down arrow raises and lowers the brightness, left/right changes animation speed, Home cycles through the 19 backlighting modes, and End changes color for any of the single-color backlight modes. The Function key also accesses the additional features of the keyboard. With the Function key, the F keys double as shortcuts for mail and calculator, or built-in media keys. Overall, despite the hot-swappable nature of the switches, they all felt well-seated without a lot of bounce to them. Combined with the learning curve of typing on this 75% model, it was a whole new experience for me. The review unit came with linear Red switches, whereas I tend to do my day-to-day work on the tactile Brown switches. You can also remove the plastic plate surrounding the key to change the RK84 for an embedded key model to a floating key model, depending on your visual preference. At the same time, the $79.99 asking price is cheaper than similar models from Ducky One or Vortex, while offering additional features like wireless connectivity. Starting with this keyboard, you can hop onto Drop, WASD, KP Republic to pick up new switches or unique keycaps. I'd take the RK84 as the starting point, not the final model. Mix and match switch types, add keycaps whose colors reflect your personality. That means you can easily order new keycaps and switches and drop them right into the keyboard. The switches are plate-mounted, 3-pin models, but the board looks to have holes allowing the use of PCB-mounted switches. The keycaps are ABS doubleshot keycaps with the familiar cross pattern connector on the bottom. It comes with a keycap puller and switch puller, in addition to four additional switches. However, the RK84 is built for customization. The model I reviewed had cloned RK-branded Red switches that mirror the standard Cherry MX Reds, but Royal Kludge also offers Blue and Brown switches as an option.
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