RK ROYAL KLUDGE RK61 Wireless 60% Triple Mode BT5.0/2.4G/USB-C Mechanical Keyboard, 61 Keys Bluetooth Mechanical Keyboard, Compact Gaming Keyboard with Software (Hot Swappable Red Switch, White)

Today I am reviewing the Royal Kludge 61. This keyboard seems to have a lot going for it. An entry level price at forty-five dollars, mechanical switches, backlighting, and Bluetooth. Let’s see how it holds up in real world use though. Initial Impressions: Things I noticed right off the bat. First, it is much heavier and more premium feeling than I expected. Second, the leds are brighter than I expected. Third, the switches feel okay for a keyboard of this price. I would say that they are more tactile than my Dell AT101W’s black alps, but not as smooth as my IBM Model F. Something that I noticed, but do not like, are the keycaps. They are really trying to push the “gamer” aesthetic. I would just like some plain keycaps, black with standard font. I also noticed that most of the caps were not fully depressed onto the stem of the switch. It wasn’t an issue to fix and took me only seconds, but that shouldn’t be an issue with a new keyboard. First typing: I would say here is where the keyboard begins to fail. The first thing I noticed was that it wobbles when you type on it. This is unforgivable with a keyboard. The wobble makes me feel less confident with each keystroke. I was able to correct this by putting eight sticky notes underneath one of the offending feet. Secondly, the layout is terrible! If it could be reprogrammed it would be very usable since it is a stock ANSI format. Here are some things that I see wrong with it initially. First, the escape key is the primary key on the top left corner. This makes it very hard to access the ` and ~. To get to these keys, you need to press the function key then it acts like it should. I would prefer to press function to get escape. Speaking of the function keys, F1-10 are in a line. Then it is interrupted by the led brightness buttons. F11 and F12 are in the next row down. I am a combination of confused and disappointed. First, why would your breakup something that has the perfect amount of space to complete? Secondly, why would you put the led control buttons in the function row? It really doesn’t make sense. Another major issue I see is the up arrow, the / key, and the ? key. This key is, by default, the up arrow. This makes typing questions a much more finicky process as you now must press 3 different keys! That’s an inexcusable error. Arrow keys should always take lower priority to main punctuation. Other than the outrageously horrible examples I provided above the rest of the layout is all but standard and is simple to use. Design thoughts: I have already discussed my dislike of the keycaps, that’s personal though. Things I would have like to have seen that wouldn’t have been too expensive to implement. Charge indicator leds! I would love to know when I need to charge my keyboard. The caps lock key not illuminating when it caps lock is not on is a good idea. It sort of takes away from the generally nice lighting though. I like the idea of having higher edges on the case. Many keyboards in this price range are not including a case that comes up to the bottom of the keycaps. Since this is a keyboard that people may carry around, I think that this was a smart move to protect the switches. Since the keycap layout is standard layout getting new keycaps for it would be a breeze. The spacebar is even standard size, something that is often not the case with smaller keyboards. The keycaps are a standard profile, no issues there. A few gripes with the keycaps. First, they don’t really have much texture. I sort of felt like my fingers slid a bit too much. Still very usable though. The keycaps also have glossy black plastic on the sides. This causes them to collect fingerprints and dirt easily. The glossy plastic does create a cool shining effect though. The tops of the caps aren’t glossy so I wouldn’t count this against them, just understand that you might be cleaning your keyboard more than you expected to. Switches: The keyboard comes with blue Jixian switches. They have a satisfying click and tactile bump. The pitch is much higher than my buckling spring keyboard, but also much lighter. I would say that they are smooth enough for general use. If you are an enthusiast you might not be completely happy with them, but if you are coming from rubber domes you will be very satisfied. Comparing them to my Outemu browns they are significantly more tactile, to the point where my browns feel linear. This was very good. I was able to type on this keyboard without bottoming out, something I was unable to do on my Outemu browns. The wobble in the switch is acceptable for the price range. None of the stabilized keys seem to bind or have issues with off center keypresses. Off center keypresses are not an issue with these switches. I think this key switch works great for typing! It felt very similar to my Cherry MX Blues in a Das Keyboard. However, the click sound was higher pitched and the switch didn’t feel quite as stable, but still very usable. I had a few family, friends, and coworkers test this keyboard and tell me their opinions. Some have used mechanical keyboards some haven’t. Generally, they liked it and said it felt and sounded good. Bluetooth: Setting up Bluetooth the first time was a pain. The directions didn’t seem to help. When I contacted the seller, they said to press FN + Tab to enter Bluetooth mode. That would have been nice to see in the manual. After doing so pairing was much easier, but still took a few tries to get it right. I initially paired it with my Samsung S8+ and that was a nightmare. It seemed to send the function layers instead of the actual letters. This made it unusable. Pairing it with my Surface Pro 4 was the same as a wired connection. Summary: For $45 dollars I think this keyboard makes an interesting option. It does a lot right. The case feels solid, the switches sound and feel nice, and Bluetooth is a huge plus. However, the keymapping is the worst I have ever used. I think it is absurd that anyone thinks that I should use a function key, on top of my shift, to type a question mark! If they changed this, or allowed end users to remap the keyboard, I would have very little to complain about. Some nitpicky things that I have to say about it include the use of glossy plastic on the sides of the keycaps and how the manual should be rewritten to better explain the Bluetooth pairing process. In the end, I would recommend this keyboard, if and only if, they change the keymap. That was the part of the keyboard that I could not stand.

After much searching, I finally decided to pull the trigger on and RK61. I had trouble finding anything for the price, wired or not. Those devices that were close in price, were wired, didnt have comparable features, or were simply ugly. Given the price point, I was skeptical, but after several weeks, I can happily report a happy purchase. The only issue I encountered was mentioned in the reviews, there was a very noticeable wobble, as one of the four rubber pads on the underside, was slightly more recessed than the other three. The quick and easy fix was prying up the pad with a knife point, removing the adhesive pad (shown in picture) and adding a couple dabs of hot glue, before pressing the rubber pad back in. I then flipped the keyboard over and pressed gently to make sure it leveled with the other three. Presto, no more wobble, I hope this helps if anyone was on the fence for that reason. Bluetooth range is good, I can easily use the keyboard across the room. Bluetooth compatibility in windows and a recent linux distro has been great, no pairing issues. One quick hotkey swaps between wired and wireless modes. You can easily cycle through the backlight modes, or turn them off entirely. I tend to use a constant glow on lowest brightness, and at least for me its not overpowering in a dark room. The swapping between number keys/ arrow key, and their default functions takes a bit of getting used to, but after you adapt its not a problem. Check images in customer reviews for the hotkey settings that allow you to swap between. I had an odd issue where Num Lock was enabled by default on delivery. It took me a few minutes to figure out what the issue was, and that there is no way to toggle this setting from the RK61 at least from what Ive found. Solution for me was a backup keyboard used to deselect the lock. It hasnt re-occurred, just make sure you have another keyboard handy when youre setting up. Havent used the keyboard for gaming as of yet, but I will update the review once Ive tested the keyboard for rollover. 5-key is what was advertised, I can attest to at least three, by nature of several hotkey functions built into the firmware.

So I didnt realize when I bought this one that it is blue light LEDs only. Which is fine. I went with blue clicky switches and they are kind of meh. Havent taken the time to lube them but the space bar sounds incredibly hollow and different compared to the rest of the keys, you can really tell when the space is being pressed. I had to use the cable it came with to get my computer to auto-download the drivers. After that it worked with my Glorious coiled cable. Mine is a USB-C all though the ad does still show micro usb in their photos. The RK software does absolutely nothing for me, neither does the firmware download. Its a pain to get it to even download and when it does open it just shows a keyboard with absolutely no options to choose from or anything.. it literally does nothing. Also the shortcuts like (FN+||) and what not for changing to the 17 lighting modes does nothing, neither does the shortcut for brightness. So I am stuck with a mediocre lit blue LEDs with no customization. Overall the keyboard looks nice and itll be probably more of a piece of my display than using it. Would change out the clicky keys, they are a bit much.. Pros are it is cheap, looks decent, can take 3 or 5 pin switches and is hot swappable. I think it could use some new stabilizers though. Overall not horrible but their software and customization is non-exsistent.

General: This keyboard, for its price point, is a great deal. It does feel a little bit on the cheaper side, but I think that should be expected. Sound: It is a somewhat loud keyboard, but certainly not the loudest I have had for this price. Performance/Usage: This IS compatible with Linux systems, which I was happy to find out (since thats my main OS). Battery life is surprisingly long, definitely at least as long as the manufacturer states if not lasting even longer. The size is certainly something that needs adjustment for, it took me a couple of hours to be able to type efficiently but it took me a couple of days to figure out and memorize the odd key pairings that are somewhat necessary for reduced sized keyboards, such as holding the function key + shift + up arrow key to get a ? or the function key + the up arrow key to get a /, and other combinations for accessing common characters. I dont use the ? often since I code and it isnt a frequent use, but still it is there. The Bluetooth works perfectly, as well. I havent had any connection issues at all. Response time is pretty much indistinguishable between Bluetooth and wireless modes. The keyboard also has a TON of lighting options, which you dont always find for this price either. Overall: I definitely recommend this keyboard for anyone on a budget who wants a small wireless mechanical keyboard with great battery life. While it is small, it certainly is a respectable keyboard.

This was my first mechanical keyboard, and the typing was very satisfying (I purchased the red switches). However, I often use keyboard shortcuts, and this keyboard is inconvenient for some shortcuts. For example, Ctrl + RightArrow is hard to use, since I need to press LeftCtrl + Fn + RightCtrl, but then this mistakenly switches the keyboard mode! Fn + LeftCtrl will turn 1-9 into F1-F9. It may also be confusing for some people if they accidentaly change the keyboard mode. I tried to use the m key and it didnt work until I realized it was acting as the End key because I accidentaly switched the mode. There are 3 modes for the Fn keys, 2 modes for the arrow keys, and 2 modes for Windows/Apple.

They claim that the product is hotswappable with other switches, so inherently I bought switches and a switch puller to switch them out. They didnt come up and upon reading a reply in the reviews they claim they arent hotswappable. Honestly obnoxious because Ive damaged some of the switches trying to pull.

Keyboard arrived within 24 hrs! I bought this for my teen’s online schooling & as a wireless keyboard for the M1 Mac Mini. The key board is noisy (reminds me of the old key boards in the 1990s) but my teen actually loves the clicking noises as they type and use the keyboard. They also like how you can easily customize the LED light features of keyboard. With teens using the keyboard, I expect a lot of pounding and wear & tear, which is why the allure of a gaming keyboard appealed to me. I figured if it was good enough for gaming it should hold up under the use of high school students :) Battery charge has held up with daily online school use (it has been about a week so far w/o needing to charge it)... Awesome value! Would definitely purchase again.

Its actually amazing plus the own keyboard tells you when its about to shut off bc of the battery, overall 10/10 for the price

PRO * Very affordable 60% Mechanical Keyboard, especially given the Bluetooth connectivity. * OEM Keycaps are actually fairly thick in comparison to other mechanical keyboards in this price point. When measured with digital calipers the factory OEM keycaps were around 1.3mm. (EnjoyPBT or GMK keycaps are 1.4 and 1.5mm respectively). * Keyboard has fairly standard keycap sizes which makes switching to an aftermarket keyset easy and painless. * Surprisingly sturdy build especially given the price point. * On/Off toggle switch for the Bluetooth radio on the bottom of the keyboard. * LED indicator under spacebar for when keyboard is charging. CON * Bluetooth is Bluetooth version 3. However, for general typing use this shouldnt be an issue and wasnt an issue in any of my experience. However, if used for gaming you might want to play plugged in via USB to avoid any latency. * As I generally use fully programmable keyboards or keyboards such as the HHKB Professional BT where the Control key is where the Caps Lock key is placed, Id really like to be able to reprogram the keyboard layout via a desktop application or perhaps via an Android/iOS application such as what is present on the Anne Pro from Obins. This is also true of the arrow key placement as Id prefer to use HHKB style arrow clusters or at least vim arrow keys (hjkl). IMPROVEMENTS * Would like to see different switches offered such as Gateron Silents. * Perhaps switch to white LEDs as this would be more pleasing and would match with aftermarket keysets better. * See misc improvements or changes Id personally prefer to see throughout the review. MISC FEEDBACK * The model I am reviewing had a generic Cherry MX Blue switch in it. Normally, Im not one to use a clicky MX switch as I tend to prefer Cherry MX Silent Blacks (Linears) or Zealios (67g Tactile) or Topre style switches. * Personally, Id prefer to have paid $5 more to obtain this board with a different selection of switches (Gateron Silent Blacks for linears, maybe Silent Gateron Browns for Tactiles?) over the switches included. * When utilizing the LEDs the Caps Lock key is not turned on by default, unless caps lock is active. Id prefer to have all keys lit if LEDs are activated and when caps lock is turned ON to have the LED shine a different color via an RGB LED in this switch.

Nice white and cool blue lights nothing to complain i love it