Background info on Royal Kludge
Who is Royal Kludge? What company are they and what do they do? From what I can gather on their website, they are a Chinese computer peripherals manufacturer of primarily keyboards. Their name derives from Royal as in royalty/nobility and Kludge as in assembly equipment. They also make their own RK brand of switches, gaming headsets, mice and wrist rests. I could not find where their headquarters are, most likely somewhere in China obviously, but they do have a US location and online store located in Las Vegas. They also have an Amazon store front which is where I got mine from. RK seems to make quality keyboards and could become a well known brand as this is the first time I have heard of them. I am in no way affiliated nor sponsored by Royal Kludge. I got this on my own and all opinions are mine alone.
Features
The RK Royal Kludge RK84 is a great budget entry into the hot swappable mechanical keyboard segment. You can find this keyboard on Amazon for $64 at the time of this post. It packs a lot of value for its feature set.
Checkout the summary of features below:
- Hot swappable mechanical keyboard
- 75% keyboard layout / 84 keys
- Full RGB in all keys and has programmable per key lighting
- Includes RK brand switches with your choice of blue, brown or red switches
- 3 or 5 pin compatible switches
- Comes in black or white
- There is a removable frame so you can have an embedded or floating keycap style look
- 3 modes of connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0, wireless 2.4GHz dongle, USB-C
- 3750mAh battery
- Has 2 built-in USB type A pass-through ports
What is included in the box:
- RK84 keyboard
- 2.4GHz dongle
- 2 Magnetic pad feet
- 2-in-1 Keycap and Switch puller
- 4 replacement switches
- USB-C to Type A cable
- Manual
Why did I chose this keyboard? Mainly because I wanted a quieter keyboard with red switches. I was using a Logitech G710 with blue switches. While I liked the clicky tactile keys for about 7 years, I finally got tired of the loudness and it was tiring for my fingers when gaming. The G710 has unswappable switches so I decided to look into hot swappable mechanical keyboards. I wanted something more compact, wireless and under $100. This fit the bill well and stood out amongst the competition in its price range.
So let’s get this straight, you get a fully hot swappable RGB wireless keyboard that has USB-C with 2 built-in USB ports and is also moddable?! And you get all of that for under $70! What a great bang for the buck!
Revision Improvements
Pretty much all of the features listed above are the pros and the value you’re getting out of it. There are some revision improvements that needs to be mentioned like the now included foam padding inside the keyboard that was not present in earlier batches. I got mine on July 18, 2022 and saw another review mentioning that foam padding was included around April 2022. The foam padding greatly improves the “thoccyness” and makes typing sound less hollow. That’s one less thing to mod and it adds a bit of value to the keyboard.
2.4GHz Dongle
The wireless connection on the 2.4GHz dongle also seemed to be improved as I’ve heard that the signal distance was poor on earlier reviews and that they needed to be within less than a feet/30cm in order to have a strong connection, but I did not have any connection issues within a few feet from my testings.
There’s a neat feature for storing the 2.4GHz dongle underneath the keyboard. The dongle attaches magnetically and is confidently strong enough to be held in place.
USB Ports
The fact that there’s 2 built-in USB A ports is a nice bonus. The keyboard acts as a hub for those ports. You can charge your phone or use thumb drives there for example. The USB-C port is for connecting the keyboard to the PC for wired use and for charging the keyboard.
Hot Swappable Switches
My main sought after feature of this keyboard is the ability to hot swap switches. Finding a hot swappable keyboard in the $60-70 range is a great budget entry level. More premium keyboards can go from $150-200 or more.
The RK84 is compatible with 3 or 5 pin switches and has north facing LEDs. South facing LEDs would have been preferred for the better compatibility of cherry profile keycaps, but at least the RGB will shine through the keys better.
You get a choice of red, blue or brown switches. I’m unable to confirm who makes their switches but I’ve heard they use TTK switches. I went with red switches for gaming and the low noise. The switches are not lubed but the stabilizers are. There’s a scratchy sound and definitely could use some lubing which I plan to do.
Keycaps
The keycaps are doubleshot ABS. I would have preferred PBT keycaps. They feel nice at first but I’m already seeing signs of wear after two weeks of use, but what’s great is that they keys can be swapped with another set of keycaps.
RGB and Software
There is per key RGB lighting on every key on the keyboard. There is a caveat though, you will need to use RK’s software which isn’t great but still usable. The UI is not intuitive and can be iffy. You need to have the keyboard connected by USB in order to customize your settings. You can cycle through the lighting effects using wireless though. The brightness level isn’t the brightest but is adequate enough to see the legends on the keys. I think it would be better if the brightness can go higher when in corded mode.
Battery
There is a 3750mAh battery which I think is decent. I’ve seen smaller and larger batteries in other keyboards so I guess this is middle ground. I have not tested the battery life so I cannot really comment on it but from what I can gather, you can get about a weeks worth depending on rgb lighting use. The battery is detachable which is great for repairablilty.
Accessories
The included keycap/switch puller combo is a great accessory. It’s not one of those cheap plastic ones.
The USB-C to USB-A cable is a must have and I’m glad it isn’t micro USB. The cable quality is good but a bit stiff. The cable is 5 feet /1.5 m in length.
There are 4 extra switches which is nice to have.
The foot pads are magnetic and hold on securely but I would prefer the flip out feet so that I don’t have to worry about losing them. Without the magnetic feet, the keyboard sits pretty stable and does not shift around easily.
Thoughts and Conclusion
The RK84 is a great budget hot swappable mechanical keyboard. It’s solidly built and compact. It’s a good keyboard for beginner enthusiasts but with one big glaring exception. There just isn’t a good selection of keycaps for non-standard keyboard layouts. Finding keycap sets for 75% layout has been challenging. The smaller right Shift, Alt, FN and Ctrl keys are what make it difficult to find. You have to be very careful to make sure all the keys are compatible and many listings don’t list the sizings on all of their keys or is hard to determine from the pictures. That is a big enough con to make me want to return the keyboard and find another with a standard layout. It’s unfortunate since I do like the RK84 but I will either wait for better keycap set availability or stick with a standard keyboard layout like a TKL. The search for my endgame keyboard continues.
Mumbling Mithinco 