Closer Examination

I prefer white keyboards for their generally cleaner looks, but they do make my life difficult when it comes to the photography on my large white backdrop. Either way, we see the RK84 is indeed an 84-key unit that takes all 87-keys from your standard US ANSI TKL keyboard, loses three of them, and then reworks the keycap sizing and spacing for a few keys towards the right to allow all 84 keys to fit into a single bank without any space in between. This results in a highly space-efficient keyboard for those who can't do without the TKL keyboard functionality. The three keys lost are Scroll Lock, Insert, and Menu/R. Win, all of which don't really matter for the average end user. The first two are pre-programmed to be secondary legends and marked as such on the Pause and Print Screen keys respectively. There are plenty of other keyboard-specific secondary functions and associated legends, which goes a long way towards improving the user experience with the RK84.

Branding comes in the form of a subtle Royal Kludge logo in black on the front facing the user. I will also mention that at this time, the RK84 only comes in white, but a black option down the line is being considered. Bezels are under average in size, and the company is using a two-piece plastic case construction that works well in keeping things rigid and light simultaneously. The keycap legends are all generally in the top center, including the secondary legends alongside the primary ones. The keyboard-specific secondary legends are underneath the primary legends, typically parallel and of the same size, but some are offset to the corner and in a smaller font. These are signs of the usual north-facing LED configuration, so it remains to be seen how the legends underneath will be affected with backlighting. The modifiers adopt a weird mix of the typeface, sometimes using the short (Ctrl) or full form, but without a space between words (CapsLock), and sometimes omitting the second part altogether (Back).


Flipping the keyboard around, we see the usual certification sticker in the middle. The serial number is more relevant than you would think, so make a note of it, and we will get back to this shortly. Four long rubber pads on the corners keep the keyboard from sliding around on the desk, and it is at this point that the add-on feet come into play. There are clearly magnets in use on the case too, and the feet simply stick to the case as seen above. This results in 8° or 12° elevation steps for the RK84, and with a contoured body, the magnetic feet work fine and do not slide off in use.


On the back, we also see not one, but two different wireless connectivity options supported by the RK84. There are two toggles here, with the first turning the wireless option and battery connection on or off and the second switching from B (Bluetooth) to G (2.4 GHz). As expected, when off, the keyboard only works in wired mode. A magnetic compartment has also been cut into the case to hold the low-profile 2.4 GHz USB dongle, which comes pre-paired to the keyboard with a matching white plastic housing.


Royal Kludge has added a bonus for those who prefer wired connectivity in the form of two extra USB Type-A ports, along with the Type-C port for the cable itself. This means an internal USB hub takes a, preferably, USB 3.2 Gen 1 (minimum Gen 2) signal and gives you two USB 2.0 ports for, say, a mouse and headset. I was not expecting this here since it's typically a premium keyboard feature and can cost a decent chunk, too. The cable itself is the usual 6' long and white as we saw before, but you only get the basic insulation without any braiding or sleeving.


The keycaps have an OEM profile, and the various rows are thus sculpted accordingly. They are not the floating type owing to the two-piece plastic case, and the included keycap puller does the job here since the metal arms are thin enough to fit into the narrow gaps between the keycaps on this crowded keyboard. The stock keycaps are fairly good, using thick PBT plastic (average wall thickness 1.33 mm) with seamless doubleshot injected primary and secondary legends that are associated with the US ANSI layout. The PBT is fairly smooth too, but nowhere nearly as much as from the likes of Akko and CORSAIR. As seen above, the doubleshot injected legends are backlighting compatible. Unfortunately, the keyboard-specific legends are laser-etched, which will have them wear out sooner than the rest of the keycap, and opaque to make things worse.


The Royal Kludge RK84 comes in three switch options, all of which are RK branded. You can choose between the RK Red, Brown, or Blue switch, which are all based on the respective Cherry MX switches. I have the RK Brown switches on my sample, and we see the expected brown-colored cross-point stem, transparent top housing for RGB lighting support, and etched in RK. The larger keycaps use a Cherry-style stabilizer, which does feels like a homage rather than the real deal, but still makes for the mushy typing experience associated with these. The stabilizers are generally lubed fairly well, although the space bar stabilizers have more than needed or appropriate. The lubrication combined with the thicker PBT keycaps should help mitigate some of that mushiness, but go ahead and wipe off some of that excess lube and see if that improves things.


The RK84 also supports hot-swappable switches, and the provided tool nicely removed one for a closer look at the switches, or the 5-pin switch socket along with the SMD RGB LED for backlighting. Now, I promptly put the switch back because Royal Kludge included a few spare switches in case some are damaged during any modding experiments or the like, and we see the RK Brown is an RGB-compatible 3-pin mechanical switch with a transparent top and opaque bottom housing, with a cutout and small diffuser for the LEDs underneath to shine light through and upward.