Driver

There is no dedicated software driver support for the i-Rocks K76M keyboard, with all functionality being hardware based. As such, I have chosen to combine the Driver and Performance pages into one.

Performance

There is full N-key rollover USB here out of the box, as Aqua's test confirms. Fn + CTRL + G/N toggles between NKRO and 6KRO, in case you find your keyboard only showing six keystrokes (sans modifiers). Similarly, no key chatter was detected on all the keys using Switch Hitter.


When you first connect the keyboard to your computer, it powers on with the static pink lighting on all keys. This is a multi-color backlit keyboard in that there are some specific colors only to choose from, and Fn + Left/Right arrow keys toggles through them. White is not an option, and after the extensive lighting options available in the K70E, this is rather disappointing. With the static lights used, we can see that the legends located at the top end up lit best with those below and front-printed either not as well lit or not at all transparent. There are options for per-key lighting and dual color - two-area lighting as shown above - and you can also turn on/off the lighting entirely and have four levels of brightness per color selected.




Here are some of the possible lighting effects as demonstrated, including single-color breathing mode, multi-color breathing mode, and rainbow wave. Hopefully, this helps illustrate what is possible with the keyboard, and I will note that the transition animations are limited again by the discrete number of colors possible here.


The manual does a good job of going over the entire list of onboard controls, but the pictures above do a good job of showing the extent of them for controlling the lighting and all secondary functions as well. In fact, there are also two preset modes wherein the keys do the function as depicted by the front printed legends rather than the usual ones on top. There are no key-assignment options outside of the pre-programmed ones, so you are not able to change layouts or assign macros.


The switches i-Rocks uses in the K76M are their own "Alps-inspired" switches, as they call it. With a Cherry MX stem/slider design for keycap compatibility, they have taken the old Alps design and modified it enough to even patent their own integrated noise reduction for keystrokes called ORS, which works by the addition of an O-ring inside as opposed to having to manually add them as a surround to dampen the downstroke's noise output. There are also three metal-metal contacts to actuate the keystroke for every switch, which is different from the usual single-point or cross-point contact, and this can lower the potential for bad contacts, though they would all suffer the same effects over time in practice, so this seems more of a marketing feature than a practical one.


My sample had the i-Rocks Brown switch with the ORS system, and it was unlike anything else I have used before. Look at that force-travel diagram, for example, with a tactile force of 50 gf, but a sudden drop to an actuation force of just 33 gf. As such, once you are past the tactile bump, the switch offers lower resistance, and you are very likely to bottom out unless you know to look for this. Indeed, typing on this keyboard feels more like opening a stubborn door with you applying force expecting it to fight back to then be surprised as you end up going through. It is not as unpleasant, thankfully, but it was not to my liking, and I suspect this will be an acquired taste. On the flip side, I do not see fatigue being an issue with these switches, so if you are looking for a lighter typing experience, these might just be what you want. The leaf spring in these switches is the same as in the old Alps design and works well in that the sound signature is pleasant regardless of whether you bottom out or not.


As always, the sound of a keyboard is based on more than just the switch type. So when comparing sound clips, consider the keyboard as a whole. In this case, I have provided above an example sound clip of me typing on the i-Rocks K76M sample at ~95 WPM. For context, you can find sound clips from other keyboards here, including those with tactile switches. I did bottom out here as pointed out before, and chances are you will too.