Closer Examination

The i-Rocks K71R continues the brand's design language in that it tries to not look like most other keyboards. Sure, the overall form factor is still a rectangular slab containing several keys for typing but the case is angled at the top to reveal the frosted acrylic light diffuser panel used between the top and bottom ABS plastic case panels. This also results in a keyboard that is slightly larger than average and with non-uniform bezels that i-Rocks does a good job balancing with extra keys and the wheel on the top right corner. The keyboard comes in black or white color options to choose from and this white version goes with white keycaps and a matching cable as we saw before. Branding is subtle with a logo on the space bar key and we see all standard keycap legends placed towards the top that indicates the use of north-facing LEDs for backlighting. There are also several keyboard-specific legends placed below to help the user easily identify pre-programmed shortcuts we will talk about over the course of this review. The font is on the cleaner side, and we see i-Rocks use a loop-less doubleshot-injection method without blocking bars underneath.


Flipping the keyboard around we see the usual certification sticker in the middle. The interesting case design also follows through on the bottom case panel, which makes sense as it ensures the side lighting is uniform throughout. Four small round rubber pads on the corners keep the keyboard from sliding around on the desk, and two sets of feet at the top open up to optionally elevate the keyboard; these feet also have rubber pads to ensure they don't scratch easily. As such, the K71R has 6° and 8° of optional elevation in addition to the default 0°.


There is a cutout here which allows access to a switch you can toggle between W (wired) and R (wireless) modes, with the latter also turning on the battery connection inside as well as the RGB LEDs. The 2.4 GHz dongle is pre-paired to the keyboard and can be plugged into an available USB Type-A port on your PC for wireless connectivity. If you prefer going wired, there is a slightly inset Type-C port on the back side which allows for the stock cable to be plugged into. The cable itself is relatively plain with white rubber insulation on this version, the usual 6' in length, and USB 2.0 will suffice for power and data alike. You can replace it with a fancier cable if you so desire as there is plenty of room on the back around the port.


A look from the side reveals the sandwich assembly of the keyboard with the light bar between the top and bottom panels. The keyboard itself adopts a medium profile height-wise and can benefit from a palm rest if you are not used to touch typing. The K71R also uses an OEM keycap profile with its usual six contoured rows and we have non-floating keycaps owing to the two-panel case design. i-Rocks does not include a keycap puller with the keyboard so I used my own to remove some of the stock keycaps to get a closer look at the PBT plastic composition with average wall thickness of 1.35 mm and durable doubleshot injected primary and universal secondary legends that are also backlighting compatible, as seen above. The same can not be said about the keyboard-specific legends that are not only opaque but also laser etched to where they will show signs of wear and tear sooner than the rest.


As far as I can tell, there are two switch options with the i-Rocks K71R in the form of the Gateron Red and Brown RGB mechanical switches. However, it appears that the latter has been chosen as the only option for international sales and my own review unit uses the tactile Gateron Brown switches. These are still a nice improvement over the cheaper-feeling Outemu Brown switches on the K71M! We also see surface-mounted LEDs above the switches rather than SMD LEDs underneath so this can help with increased LED brightness for backlighting but can impact compatibility with lower profile keycaps if you were planning to replace the stock set. The larger keycaps use plate-mounted stabilizers that are lightly lubed to help compensate for the somewhat mushy feeling still present here.