Software

Software drivers for the i-Rocks K71R can be found on the downloads page here wherein you will be prompted to download a compressed folder that contains the installer in addition to a firmware updating tool and relevant manuals for the keyboard and the tools alike. The latest version at the time of testing was v1.07n from early 2022 and that usually means the K71R is unlikely to receive any further updates. This is one of the issues of going with device-specific software, especially from a smaller brand. The installer is 23 MB in size and asks for 53 MB for the installed version, with the actual installation quite trivial and the drivers quite lightweight on system resources given this is a device-specific program.


You will need to have the keyboard connected to run the program, and by default, it opens up in English this time unlike the Mandarin on the K71M that took a while to work around. Unfortunately these drivers have the exact same issue as before in that scaling is extremely poor with high DPI monitors and there is no response to OS scaling either. The drivers are not even HD in size with a vertical pixel size under 700 px making it extremely hard to see unless you sit real close to a typical ~32" monitor. There's also a general lagginess, especially if you try to move the program around your monitor with the mouse wherein the cursor will have reached the final destination a few seconds before the program eventually gets there.

The software itself is easy enough to use and understand though with the various elements laid out as expected. There are software profiles to create, edit, delete, and choose from with i-Rocks including three pre-made profiles by default. In addition to the language itself, you can also change the UI text color in the settings cog wheel. The Customize tab is all about key mapping, wherein you click on one of the keys on their virtual keyboard to then select from a list of options, including mouse actions, macro recordings, and some OS function shortcuts. The Gaming Mode tab has some expected toggle options and an otherwise blank screen, and the Macro tab has a fairly detailed recorder for the recording and further editing of keystroke positions and adding/deleting of keystrokes, mouse functions, and delays between strokes. The Lighting tab is where you will probably spend more time if you bought this keyboard for its looks. We get a good amount of pre-programmed lighting effects to choose from with specific options including color, brightness, and speed. Unfortunately there is no way to sync the backlighting and side lighting effects and there are fewer options for the latter too. Overall things could certainly be better but also I am not holding my breath that anything will change.