Redragon K556 RGB LED Backlit Wired Mechanical Gaming Keyboard, 104 Keys Hot-Swap Mechanical Keyboard w/Aluminum Base, Upgraded Socket and Noise Absorbing Foams, Quiet Linear Red Switch

It is the best keyboard Ive ever had. Love the clickiness and love the colored lights. The price was great too. I consider this a win win for me. My first mechanical keyboard, dont think Ill ever go back to the old cheap ones I used to buy.

I have only been using the Red Dragon K556 going on three days now but the seller is asking for an honest review. So far, I am very happy with the entire process. I had originally been looking for an office keyboard that had some sort of back lighting and I had gone through a couple of much cheaper options before upgrading to this one from Red Dragon. When I first opened the packaging it was shipped in, I was a little concerned due to the minimal packing materials but upon inspecting the keyboard itself, it was in perfect condition, not a dent or scratch to be found. This is the first keyboard I have used that has an aluminum casing, It is very sturdy and I like the heft of it when moving it around. It just feels like a well made piece of equipment. The keyboard stays in place on the desk and doesnt slide around. I read one reviewer who said that by sliding the keyboard on the desk, the plastic tilting tabs on the bottom tended to flip closed on one side or the other making the keyboard wobble. This, so far, has not been my experience. I am able to slide it around a bit without affecting the tilting tabs. When first plugging it in, I noticed the nice length of the USB cable. It is plenty long enough to reach my tower that sits about two feet over and one foot down and I still have a nice excess to move the keyboard around a bit. I knew before purchasing that there were many more lighting functions one the K556 but I dont think I appreciated just how many options you have with back lighting colors and patterns. There are 9 different solid color options and I have not even explored how many light pattern options there are. I can tell you that there seem to be many multi-colored options to choose from. I primarily like one solid color but it can be fun to explore all the different options when you just dont feel the work happening. All colors can be completely turned off or they can be set to any of five levels of brightness. This K556 came with brown switches which have proved to be exactly what I had been looking for previously. I didnt really know much about switch brands, such as outemu or cherry but this brown switch is much quieter than the previous blue I used. Mind you it is not silent but it doesnt make much more noise than a soft clicking. The keys are very responsive, being what I suppose is a tactile keyboard. I notice that when typing faster, I dont have to mash the keys. Its almost as if they are two stage keys where you can feel the halfway mark which is as far as I need to push to get a response. The keys spring back instantly and smoothly. I had read another review where the reviewer experiences some sort or ringing or vibrating sound (I dont remember exactly) but they thought it may have been related to the aluminum casing or something. (Again, I think I am remembering this correctly) I do not experience any other sound other that the keys making their normal soft clicking. I have not used this for gaming, hence the three stars for the gaming feature but I cant imagine it being a poor gaming keyboard. Overall, I am very happy with this purchase but again, I have only been using it for three days now. Customer service instantly emailed me to ask for a review and to assure me that they were available within 24 hours should I have any problems. Hopefully it wont come to that. All of this was to say that so far, I am very happy with this purchase am am hoping for long usage.

Really like this keyboard. Brown switches feel responsive.

When I was first introduced to the mechanical keyboard a couple of years ago, I was awestruck. Now, some people don’t particularly care for the clickety-clack that these type of keyboards bring, but I rather enjoy it. It reminds me of the same tactile sensation I get from an old typewriter or the old computers from a computer lab in my elementary school. Today, these mechanical keyboards are typically utilized by PC gamers or programmers. It’s a little rare to find someone who writes enjoying one — at least, you don’t hear about it often. But here we are and I am typing away on this lovely Redragon mechanical keyboard. Here are some of the finer points of the device. The Redragon K556 is made with custom Brown Switch mechanical keys and it is shipped with 8 Blue Switches to replace the keys if needed. Keyboard has a 50 million keystroke lifespan. The keyboard lights up in brilliant colors and there are customizable modes to it as well. To access them, you press Fn + Ins, Home, PgUp, Del, End, or PgDn. You can also adjust the brightness of the colors by pressing Fn + Up Arrow/Down Arrow. The backlighting has 16 million customizable color options. The keyboard weighs approximately 3.5 pounds. It’s not for the faint of heart and definitely not for remote working. It is constructed out of aluminum, plate-mounted mechanical keys, and gold plated USB connector. It’s hearty keyboard and meant to stand up to hardcore gaming. The keys are designed to have medium resistance, the lovely ‘click’ noise, and a noticeable tactile feedback. The switches have 60±15g actuation force. Keyboard has a 50 million keystroke life span. As I mentioned, I’m no gamer, but I do enjoy a well-built keyboard especially since I spend most of my day typing away at a keyboard. I also really like the colored keyboard. It makes the workspace seem that much more interesting. Since I’m working with the keyboard on a MacBook Pro, the customizable part of the colors is not useable, but I can still shift through the preprogrammed color options that are included with the K556. For the price, I would say that the Redragon K556 is more ‘premium’ than some of the pricier options in this peripheral category. I also like how it’s a full size keyboard, but doesn’t take up a lot of desk real estate. One of my other mechanical keyboards is full size, but isn’t as small. I rather like the compact nature of this keyboard and how well it fits with my current desk set-up. The keys are well spaced apart and they feel fluid the more I type with them. There are some mechanical keyboards that I feel like you really have to type hard to get a good rebound, but the keys on the Redragon are so responsive that I haven’t had any missed keystrokes or been disappointed with it at all. The Redragon K556 RGB LED Backlit Mechanical Keyboard is a really nice option for gamers and writers alike. I can recommend this as it’s a quality keyboard, but won’t break the bank.

I love this keyboard. Love the colors too. And I have a free suggestion to Red Dragon on how to improve their keyboards. I hate dust. You should add a hinged plastic cover to the keyboard to keep out dust when not in use. Just lift it up and youre ready to type. No charge for the idea, but feel free to send me one if you like the idea. Thanks.

After I initially got this keyboard the left shift key began to quickly degenerate and became almost useless over the course of about a week. It got so bad that even holding it down firmly I could only get it to work very intermittently. Then, the left control button suddenly stopped working and was even worse. I definitely do not abuse or smash the keyboard so there was no reason for this to be happening other than a defect. The good news is that upon replacing the switches for those two keys with the two provided brown switches, they now work perfectly. I found a video on youtube that shows how to replace them and it was super easy with the provided tools. Really it took about 2 minutes to replace both. In case anyone has difficulty finding directions you use the larger plastic tool push down and clamp on a key (with the arms at the top and bottom of the key), then pull it straight up. It shouldnt take very much force. Then you use the metal tool to remove the switch (again with the arms at the top and bottom of the switch). The switch has little tabs holding them in place at the top and bottom which the tool needs to push in as you grab them in order to pull them out. Once the switch is out you just push a new one on with your hand and then push the key down on top of it. It seems like other people have had this same problem and solution. So, maybe the switches have a higher fail rate than they should. But, I actually like the design where there may be some bad switches but theyre super easy to replace. Its better in a way than having a keyboard with a lower fail rate, but where one broken key means your keyboard is dead forever. Putting the key issue aside, the pros of the keyboard in my opinion are: Typing and gaming is very nice once all your keys are working The colored LEDs look great and there are some very nice color options you can select without installing any software. Cons: It really is a bit loud with and if you pay close attention has a springy sort of after-sound after hitting a key To get all LED options you need software which I havent bothered to use.

Keys not quite as clicky as Id like, other than that this keyboard is excellent.

I wanted a full sized keyboard with brown switches and this one fits the bill. I like the Outemu brown switches better than Cherry MX browns, they are so much more tactile. The package also comes with a sampler of 2 spare browns, 2 reds, 2 blacks, and 2 blues. All the switches have the dust-proof design with boxed MX stems. The keyboard plate and case are made from aluminum so the whole thing feels nice and solid. The black brushed aluminum plate mimics a wood grain and pairs nicely with the RGB. The LEDs are SMD north facing and work well with the shinethrough keycaps. I havent tried the software, but the embedded lighting options are very robust with multiple lighting patterns, colors, speeds, and brightness levels. And you can turn off the RGB complete if you want, but that makes it hard to read the legends in my opinion. The PCB is 3-pin Outemu hot swappable, is has soldered hot swap sockets for thin Outemu pins. It was quite difficult to remove some of the switches, even more so than my other Redragon board. The little tabs on the lower housing broke on a few of the switches, and many of the switches were also stuck very tightly into their PCB sockets. If both of those things happened on the same switch I pretty much had to wrench the switch out with quite a bit of force which damages the slot area of the top housing. The switches still work just fine but the damage may bother some people. Thankfully I had some spare switches from another board so I just swapped out the damaged housing. The aluminum backplate creates a lot of ping, but I never really noticed it until I lubed my switches. However, once I lubed the switches and springs, the actual switches became so quiet that the plate ping really started bothering me because it resonated like a tuning fork. I tried putting some foam in the bottom of the case under the PCB, but that didnt help much. I ended up having to cut out a custom foam pad to go between the plate and the PCB to reduce the ping. It was very tedious since I had to cut out space for all the switches, screws, and posts, but now the keyboard sounds like one of those $100+ custom enthusiast boards! For anyone looking to do this, you want to use 3mm craft foam. 4mm can work, but it will cause some flex in the plate/PCB in some places. The stabilizers have some rattle, even after lubing the stems and bars. The best method to get rid of rattle was to put some tape between the stab housings and the plate to get rid of the housing wobble. I used some black electrical tape since it wouldnt stand out. My keyboard was a little uneven and didnt lay completely flat on the table when I first got it, but I was able to fix it by tightening the screws on the riser feet. Unfortunately those screws are on the inside of the board, which means you would have to take apart the board to get to them. For reference, to take apart the board there are 6 screws on the sides and 11 screws on the plate under the keycaps. You dont have to remove all the switches to take out the plate/PCB, but you do have to remove the switches if you want to separate the plate from the PCB. I also modded my board by replacing the stock USB cable with a USB-type C female port. If you want to do this you will need a USB breakout board with VCC, GND, D+, D-. The wires from the JST connector on the PCB are red/VCC, black/GND, D+/green, D-/white. I know white is usually D+ and green is usually D- but this board is reverse. The other black wire is shield and its uninsulated once you get past the shrink tubing, I just left it disconnected. The keycaps are Cherry profile, but they do not have a crossbar around the stem, which means that the stem length is different for each row if you want to use o-rings. I had to use a mix of 2.5mm 70A and 2mm 50A o-rings to get a consistent travel distance. R1 = 2.5+2+2. R3 = 2.5. R2,4,5 = 2.5+2.

Overall a good buy for the price. Its a responsive keyboard with some fun little lighting options, though I typically just keep it on the default static rainbow setting. However, after about 2 months of heavy daily use doing messaging and gaming, I started to have a strange issue where the H key sometimes wouldnt register and I would have to press it multiple times. Im not sure exactly what the problem is, whether it is mechanical or electrical. It is slightly annoying sometimes realizing that I left an H out of a word and having to fix it. I would say if I am constantly typing, it happens maybe once every 50 words with an H in it. Personally its not enough to make me want to replace it immediately, but it is something that would really start to bother me if it got worse or extended to other keys. Something else to mention is that while gaming I had the A key pop out a couple times. The way I have my fingers set on the keys is odd as they press down on the left edge of the key instead of the center when I am set up for WASD movement in games, so maybe most people wont ever run into this. I imagine pressing on the edge somehow popped the key out, but I was able to press it back in. Again, this has only happened a couple times since I got it, but it is a bit strange that I would be able to do something like that accidentally when there is a dedicated tool for removing keys from mechanical keyboards.

Ngl this is my first mechanical keyboard so I’m no expert but I still really like it. I type a lot both for fun and for school, I haven’t had an issue with the keys or the board itself. It’s heavy because of the metal base but I’m not planning on carrying it around with me or travelling with it. I like the heaviness because it doesn’t feel like it’s going to break. Recommend