Closer Examination

As we saw before, the i-Rocks K72MN keyboard comes in a thin foam wrap to keep it pristine and free of dust out of the box. Removing it, we get our first good look at the keyboard, and I have to say I expected more. I don't know if it is marketing doing the job it should, but the product page devotes over half the real estate to the wooden top, talking about all the time spent in making this artistic, one-of-a-kind aluminium top that looks and feels like ebony wood. In practice, it does not really achieve that. It looks the part, and photos don't do it much justice, but having it in your hands and touching it makes it feel like a higher-end wrap applied over the large aluminium frame. Ultimately, that is actually what i-Rocks did, with a wood grain finish wrapper over bare aluminium. There is none of the fibrous texture one may expect based on the visuals, but it is also not glossy as with a vinyl wrap. I am sure the company has done some interesting things here to get a long-lasting finish, but I went in expecting more and didn't get that, which is never a good thing for a paying customer.

Moving past the finish, the rest of the keyboard still has much going on. We see immediately that the keyboard is larger than average, and even weighs more than the average keyboard. Pretty much all of this has to do with that massive aluminium top frame with large bezels on the top and bottom, even with a slightly bent edge at the bottom. The i-Rocks K72MN is a full-size keyboard in the US ANSI layout here, with four indicator LEDs above the numpad (the fourth one is for a game mode indicator). Secondary legends are seen alongside the primary ones even on the numpad, with some keyboard-specific legends seen underneath on the Fn row. All of the legends are placed in the middle on the top, and there is no backlighting on offer, so I am not sure why i-Rocks went this way since there is so much available real estate. The keycaps use doubleshot injected legends in a seamed fashion, which results in breaks for looped characters, such as D, P, and Q.


Flipping the keyboard around, we have the usual certification sticker, along with another sticker with the company logo and product name just in case you forgot what you bought. The frame is clearly bigger than the keyboard case and wraps around the sides with cutouts to add some flair. Four small hemispherical rubber pads on the corners keep the keyboard from sliding around on the desk, and two feet at the top open up to optionally elevate the keyboard; these feet also have rubber pads to ensure they don't scratch easily. The feet are smaller than I like to see, especially considering the bulk of the keyboard. Also, we can see clearly how the wrapper goes around the frame and folds on itself in the back.


The side facing away from the user is where the fixed USB cable comes from, and substantial casing on either side protects the connectors. The cable itself is plain with black rubber insulation, quite long at a whopping 2 meters in length, and goes to a spare USB Type-A port on your computer. USB 2.0 will suffice for power and data alike, with i-Rocks rating the maximum current draw at 100 mA, which is nothing compared to what modern systems can provide. The USB connector is gold-plated for added oxidation resistance.


Taking a look from the side, we see the profile of the keyboard in more detail, as well as the "wooden" aluminium frame that goes all around. As for the keycaps themselves, the i-Rocks K72MN keyboard uses the tried and tested OEM profile with the usual six slanted rows with concave surfaces on top, and we have the "standard" keycap spacing for the bottom row increase compatibility with aftermarket keycap sets. The good news is that the stock keycaps are very good to begin with because of their thick PBT plastic composition (average wall thickness 1.42 mm) and doubleshot injected legends that will not wear out before the rest of the keyboard—PBT plastic resists signs of wear and shine from finger oils better than ABS plastic. These are not compatible with backlighting, which on this keyboard is irrelevant as there is no lighting anyway. The keyboard-specific secondary legends are laser-etched and will unfortunately wear out sooner than the doubleshot injected legends.


There are multiple Cherry MX switch options with the i-Rocks K72MN, and I have the Cherry MX Blue switches here. The switches are the classical type given the lack of lighting, with an opaque housing and no LEDs to occupy the hole in each. The larger keycaps use costar-style stabilizers, with the external wire to aid with stabilization and reducing that mushy feeling Cherry-style stabilizers have. No lubrication to be seen anywhere here.