Lighting and Performance

The James Donkey RS2 3.0 supports NKRO out of the box in wired mode, which tested successfully using Aqua's test. The same continues also with 2.4 GHz wireless connectivity, and using the keyboard in Bluetooth mode defaults to standard 6KRO as expected. No key chatter was detected on all the keys using Switch Hitter. The image above also shows what the base layer on the keyboard is programmed to as far as dedicated keys go. As with most keyboards these days, there is no right Windows key, as it has been substituted by an Fn key here. I have already mentioned on page three my thoughts about the base layer and will not repeat them here.


When you first turn on the keyboard in wired or wireless mode, the display lights up with a James Donkey logo GIF—the exact same one already configured in the software drivers and one you can edit too. It then opens up a standby screen that works as a real time indicator of your connection method, the chosen OS given this also supports macOS, and the keyboard indicator lights that are present on the screen itself. There's also a date and time indicator here, although I could not get the keyboard to get these be accurate at all, and finally a battery level indicator to round things off. With other such status screens on keyboards, there were options on the respective software drivers to get the current date and time from the system but I don't see that with the RS2 3.0 drivers. Also, as with the software, the keyboard menu initiates in Chinese and you need to go to the onboard menu to change the language to English. At this point everything works fine except that some words are offset in an ugly manner as seen above. The screen isn't the brightest either but works well in displaying the keyboard status, controlling it via the menu, and even displaying a GIF/photo for further personalization.


Here is a look at the various menu settings displayed on the screen. It's easy to access this via the wheel as described in the manual and then navigating/selecting options are all done by the wheel itself. This allows you to completely bypass the software for lighting effects especially, although you get finer control that way and it's needed for key assignment too. By default the wheel does volume control as expected.


Given this keyboard has opaque keycaps on the pre-assembled version, there's not a bright light show to expect or any backlighting of the legends. The RGB LEDs end up doing accent lighting only thus and seen above are some of the pre-programmed effects available. James Donkey provides both onboard and software control over all these LEDs in the form of not only brightness steps but also many static, dynamic, and reactive lighting effects to choose from.

The instruction manual goes beyond these to also explain how to turn on the Bluetooth mode given the switch defaults to the 2.4 GHz mode assuming the dongle is plugged in. The keyboard can be paired with up to four devices simultaneously in wireless mode (three Bluetooth + one 2.4 GHz), with Fn + 1-4 going through them as needed. Bluetooth pairing itself works plenty fine as tested on a desktop PC, a laptop, and my Android phone too. The 2.4 GHz mode allows for a more consistent and lower latency connection at the expense of battery life. In general, there is a sleep mode built into the firmware to preserve battery life and turn off LEDs. The battery life in Bluetooth mode can be on the order of a few weeks of my daily usage—which is more than typical—with the LEDs turned off. Given the opaque keycaps, I really saw no reason to have them on anyway. Charging takes ~4 hours off a 5 V/1 A connection accounting for any losses along the way. There is a battery life indicator on the keyboard screen as we already saw too.


My sample of the James Donkey RS2 3.0 came with the Gateron G Pro 2.0 Silver switch. Aside from the internal updates which make it a more consistent and smooth tactile switch that has a pre-lubed stem, it is practically near identical to the older Gateron G Pro Silver in that this is a speed switch that actuates earlier than usual for a full-size MX-style switch. Compared to the usual 2 mm of travel, these switches actuate at 1.2 mm while asking for the same 45 gf force that a typical medium-force linear switch needs. Bottoming out is also slightly sooner at 3.4 mm and this mean the re-bound also happens sooner for those wanting quick multi-taps for specific games. The faster actuation and multiple taps helps somewhat justify the use case of gaming with these switches. For daily use, I suspect the Kailh Red BOX V2 will be a better choice. There are no tactile or clicky switches on offer with the pre-assembled version of the keyboard though which feels like a miss. For what it's worth, I did find these switches to be quite smooth in use.


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 James Donkey RS2 3.0 keyboard sample at ~110 WPM as it comes out of the box with the Gateron G Pro 2.0 Silver switches. For context, you can find sound clips from other keyboards here, including those with linear switches. I did bottom out here given the minimal peak force relative to actuation as seen above. This helps to also test the effectiveness of the pseudo-gasket mount used here but the various dampening sheets used between the plate and PCB as well as between the PCB and the case help further. There are no reverberations or pinging off the plate, which in turn being an FR4 fiber glass composite also helps over the usual metal plates more prone to a higher frequency ping. The combination of the thick PBT keycaps and case in addition to the pre-lubed switches also help. The improved stabilizers compared to the original version were the biggest upgrade to the typing experience for me and the overall sound is fairly crisp and satisfying.