Closer Examination

The RK-9300 is a standard full-size keyboard with 104 keys mounted on an aluminum plate that curves downward and extends slightly past the bottom of the keyboard, to act as an integrated wrist rest. The plate is on the thinner side, and the metal choice keeps the keyboard's weight down, which is one of the first things you notice when you take it out of the box. Do not let the weight fool you, it is a sturdy unit. There is a Rosewill logo on the bottom right, which I would have rather they just left on the back, but it is what it is. At this time, there are no plans from Rosewill to support any layout other than ANSI.

On the back we see a sticker in the middle, and four corner rubber pads to help keep the keyboard in place on your desk. There are two small feet that can be raised, and these have rubber feet as well. On each side, we see a cable hook which is used if you decide to use the alternate cable-routing layouts. By default, the non-detachable cable exits from the middle, but as seen above, it can exit from the left or right - with any excess cable length hooked around the hook on the respective side. Each of the three routing options has tiny nubs jutting inward that help keep the cable in place. The cable is 1.8 m long and terminates in a male USB Type-A connector that is gold-plated to reduce oxidation and aid with the connector's longevity.


The stock keycaps have a Cherry OEM profile, which is no surprise, and the absence of a top panel means they are floating by design. This helps with removing and installing them or cleaning the keyboard easily, at the expense of some light bleed. The keycap size layout is "standard" in that it is compatible with the vast majority of replacement keycap sets from third parties if you wish to customize the keyboard as such. The larger keycaps use Cherry stabilizers which, again, make them easier to remove and install, at the expense of possibly feeling mushy. In this case, the right shift and space bar did feel slightly mushy, but your mileage may vary. These use genuine Cherry MX switches with the black housing and come in a choice of MX Brown and MX Blue switches.


The keycaps are made out of ABS and are fairly thin at 0.94-1.02 mm wall thickness. This is not necessarily a pro or a con as different people prefer thin or thick keycaps. The legends are doubleshot, which is nice to see, but there's a caveat - some keycaps have secondary legends that are laser etched on and can be spotted as a deep white with a glossy finish, as seen above. I can understand why they went this route, as having keyboard-specific legends (brightness or multimedia controls, for example) applied separately as doubleshot over the other legends would not have been easy. But the fact remains that these will not be backlit, which is a bit ironic in that the legends that tell you how to control the backlighting are not backlit.