Driver

There is no software driver support for the iKBC F87 RGB, with all functionality and programming being hardware based. As such, I have chosen to combine the Driver and Performance pages into one here.

Performance

There is full N-key rollover USB here, as Aqua's test confirms. Similarly, no key chatter was detected using Switch Hitter, which was to be expected.


When first plugged in, the keyboard shines up pink, which was unexpected. I did a quick change to white based on the manual's instructions by toggling Fn + F1/F2/F3 accordingly to adjust the R/G/B channels. As with any RGB LED, white is not a true white and has a light blue hue to it this time around. The backlighting on the other hand is near perfect with everything that could be illuminated done so uniformly. The individual color channels, coupled with the Fn + Up/Down arrows for brightness control and Fn + O to toggle LEDs on/off, help control static lighting for the entire keyboard.













Fn + other function keys help toggle and control the lighting modes/effects, which can be single or multicolor depending on the per-channel setting and individual effect settings. Fn + Left/Right arrows control the speed of these effects. There are a total of nine LED lighting effects, including static lighting of all keys, and there is decent control over brightness with eight steps per channel for a total of 512 colors. The remaining of the 16.8 M comes from sub-steps in the brightness levels not available for manual control and only visible in the animations. The problem is that the animation fade in and fade out is pretty bad, with a harsh change from one to the other even at the slowest speed settings. As such, even if there are indeed 16.8 M colors available, it is impossible to tell, and some keyboards with less PWM steps of brightness control look smoother and better. This could be a firmware issue, in which case I really hope iKBC pushes out an update sooner than later. However, it has been over a third of a year already, if not more, so I am not going to hold my breath and score accordingly.

There is also per-key lighting and dual zone lighting, wherein you first select the keys to be lit up separately to then adjust the R/G/B channels as before by using Fn + F1/F2/F3 keys. If you mess up or want to reset settings, holding Fn + R for five seconds will take care of you and put you back to square one and that pink backlighting. The keyboard does have onboard storage as we saw on the previous page and will retain the lighting-effect setup. No drivers means you can do this at anytime by just plugging it into a computer.

In terms of performance, the keyboard has no special features, but the form factor makes having a mouse closer to you possible, and the thick PBT keycaps feel great to type on. There were no perceivable issues when writing this review on this very keyboard or getting in that rare gaming session over the weekend, even with the MX Brown switches in this sample. I found myself using the first tent angle from the feet in the back more than I expected I would and ended up leaving it as is in default. I did use a third-party wrist rest in this mode, however, so your mileage may vary.


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 iKBC F87 RGB sample at ~90 WPM. For context, you can find sound clips from other keyboards here, including those with tactile switches. I did bottom out on purpose to demonstrate the sound signature, although it is possible to not do so. In terms of actuation and bottoming out, there is not much to say here except that the usual high Cherry QC carries over with an average actuation force of 45.12 cN for the MX Brown switches averaged across twenty keys on the sample provided. Bottoming out seemed regular if you are prone to doing that, and nothing jumped out at me that was any different from the rest.