When shopping for anew keyboard for your Chromebook, you will notice that most popular alternatives outshine an integrated keyboard by a massive margin. Thebest mechanical keyboardstake things a notch higher, adding personalization and repairability to the mix. Royal Kludge (RK) is a well-known mechanical keyboard brand you’re bound to come across during your search, especially if you’re looking for sub-$100 compact mechanical keyboards.
Coming in at $80, the new Royal Kludge H81 ticks all the right boxes for anyone planning to spend several hours typing or gaming. It features a compact 75% layout, preserving an exploded arrow cluster and Function row, but with one obvious compromise compared to similar keyboards.
Royal Kludge H81
Clacky goodness without an attached number pad
The Royal Kludge H81 is a thoroughbred mechanical keyboard loaded with all the features you may need. However, it doesn’t break the bank and delivers a solid typing experience that is hard to fault.
Pricing and availability
Affordable with a selection of colors and switches
The RK H81 retails for around $80 to $90 on Amazon and is available in three colors — white (with gray accents), green (with orange accents), and blue (also with orange accents). you may also choose between the Sky Cyan linear switch I’m reviewing, RK Brown tactile switches, Pale Green tactile switches, or RK Speed Silver switches with a smaller actuation distance, which makes it the default choice for gamers. There’s sufficient variety to choose from.
Design and what’s in the box
Everything you need to get going is included
A fancy braided USB-C to USB-A cable accompanies every RK H81 keyboard, along with four extra key switches, a keycap and switch puller, and associated documentation. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the plastic packaging shell shipped with the keyboard doubles as a dust cover. I’m reviewing the Time Machine (green) colorway with RK Sky Cyan linear switches. Still, there are several other colorways and switch choices to pick from, allowing users to dial in their typing experience.
Right out of the box, the keyboard feels hefty and well put together despite its all-plastic construction. Most of the heft comes from the integrated battery. By design, the RK H81 features a polycarbonate switch plate and a silicone layer between the plate and the PCB. The same silicon layer also sits underneath the board’s switches, eliminating the need for the PE foam mod enthusiasts use to deepen the sound signature of installed switches. The gasket mount design isolates the switch plate from the rest of the case and adds a bit of squish to heavier keystrokes, which makes for a pleasant feel. Underneath the PCB, RK includes even more dampening, which helps slash reverberation and hollow sound while typing.
The H81 comes with a knob in the upper right corner, but it is a rotary to toggle between different connection modes and not a volume knob. Sound adjustment is relegated to a secondary layer on the F10, F11, and F12 keys. you may adjust the typing angle using two-step flip-out feet, which snap into place.
The RK H81 comes with a hot-swappable PCB. You can pull switches out and pop new ones in. It’s a great feature from a repairability standpoint, even though most mechanical switches are built to last millions of keypresses. Hot-swap support also allows you to personalize the typing experience with new key switches of your choice. The focus on repairability also extends to the board’s insides, where the USB-C connectors and mode switch are mounted on independent daughterboards that can be replaced. However, getting to said innards of the board can prove challenging since the case is held shut by snap-fit fasteners along its bezels, with screws hidden under the rubber feet. So it won’t be the easiest case to mod if that’s your thing.
Features and connectivity
Connect how you want to, whether corded or wireless
The Royal Kludge H81 has no shortage of connectivity options — you can hook up the keyboard to your primary computer or notebook using the 2.4GHz dongle for a low-latency wireless connection. The board can also connect and remember three different Bluetooth devices, including Chromebooks and Android tablets, making it the ideal companion even when traveling.
Speaking of travel and 2.4GHz, I especially like that a magnet securely holds the dongle in its receptacle underneath the keyboard so it doesn’t get lost. Wired mode via USB-C is also available with the added benefit of USB-C pass-through. you’re able to connect your phone, a mouse, or a USB dock to the computer via a female Type-C port on the back of the keyboard without using up more I/O on your computer.
In my experience, Bluetooth works like a charm, delivering a stutter-free connection, albeit with a tiny bit of input lag noticeable in fast-paced online games. The 2.4GHz wireless mode alleviates this issue, almost rivaling a wired connection regarding reliability and latency. The rotary switch in the corner makes it easy to switch between these wireless and wired modes, but I would’ve liked a dedicated on/off switch or shortcut — the H81 still works if it is connected with a wire with the switch turned to theOffposition. This behavior could be a security concern, considering bad actors could misuse the USB pass-through to attach malicious peripherals like thumb drives and keyloggers. A dedicated Off position on the rotary with another added for the wired mode would have been perfect.
On the bright side, the keyboard sports a Mac mode, which works with all the included connectivity options. The 3,750mAh battery lasted an entire week on a full charge, even though the RGB backlighting was cranked to maximum brightness throughout my testing. The red charging LED starts blinking when your battery level drops below 30%, but you can also check the state of charge in 10% increments by holding downFn + Enter. The QWERTY row lights up in white, with each key representing 10% of the charge. Talk about convenience.
Typing experience and performance
Feels, sounds, and looks great
Using the RK H81 is an enjoyable experience simply because of the way it feels and sounds. I prefer heavier linear switches, which offer around 60g of resistance for each key press, and the 50g Sky Cyan switches included with the board hit that sweet spot. Thanks to the light lubrication from the factory, they are buttery smooth and don’t wobble too much, ensuring the caps feel rigid during each key press.
It may not be apparent immediately, but mechanical keyboards allow customization of the sound profile by varying the mounting styles, plate materials, switches, and keycaps. Royal Kludge’s H81 sounds clacky and premium. You could liken each keypress to chalk hitting a blackboard, with minimal interference from well-tuned and factory-lubricated stabilizers for the larger keys such as Backspace and Enter. This board is a clacky fiend.
Double-shot OEM profile keycaps come with the H81, typically found on many gaming mechanical keyboards. This double-shot injection ensures crisp legends that won’t fade or smudge with time. Unfortunately, the legends are injected with an opaque plastic, which won’t allow the per-key RGB backlight to shine through. As a result, the board’s lighting only bleeds underneath the keycaps instead of illuminating the legends. Backlighting is a great addition, but this implementation makes it a mere cosmetic add-on and doesn’t make life easier for hunt-and-peck typing in low-light conditions.
The Royal Kludge’s use of cross-stem switches is the saving grace here because you can conveniently swap to shine-through keycaps if you require backlighting. However, the glow from the Caps Lock and Scroll Lock indicators is too bright, and the board’s charging indicators bleed into surrounding keycaps. Thankfully, these are minor concerns considering the H81’s sub-$100 price. The navigation keys are another quirk on the H81 —Homeis on the primary layer, butEndrequires a combination ofFn + Page Down.
If you prefer a conventional layout withHomeandEndon the primary layer andPage UpandPage Downon the layer underneath those keys, or vice versa, RK offers proprietary software to customize the key bindings. You can also program macros and customize the RGB lighting with the app. Getting started initially seems challenging, but the software gets the job done. Interestingly, it isn’t available on the manufacturer’s website and is hosted in a perfunctoryGoogle Drive folderinstead. Support for open-source alternatives like QMK or VIA would’ve been a much more welcome addition.
Competition
If you need a volume knob, there are options
Royal Kludge’s new compact board stacks up well against the stiff competition in the budget mechanical keyboards category. It even shares features like the gasket mount design with more expensive boards like the Keychron Q1 and theOnePlus Keyboard 81 Pro. Although the silicone gaskets on the H81 don’t have much give, they make the board comfortable for heavier typists. The feature helps the H81 stand out from the crowd of similarly priced tray-mount boards like the Keychron K1, but that doesn’t mean the Keychron and OnePlus aren’t worth considering.
That said, most other 75% keyboards sport a conventional (and sometimes programmable) free-spinning volume knob in the spot where Royal Kludge has placed the rotary switch. The lack of a knob could be a major letdown for some buyers. We suggest checking out the newly launched Keychron V1 Max if you’re in that boat. Like other boards with a knob, it uses secondary layers or dip switches for changing connectivity modes. If this isn’t a concern, it will be hard to fault the RK H81 for its features.
Should you buy the RK H81?
Royal Kludge has several mechanical (RK series) and optical (SK series) keyboards in its lineup, and the H81 is decidedly one of the premium offerings. Although its price is relatively higher than an off-the-shelf keyboard, it is attractively priced as far as mechanical keyboards go. It delivers where it counts, like in terms of connectivity options, typing feel, and build quality, but there are a few compromises, too. For instance, this board lacks a volume knob available on virtually every other popular 75% mechanical keyboard, and the backlighting does not shine through the stock keycaps.
Unless you seek an all-aluminum build with fewer features, it’s the perfect keyboard for a gamer with a tight budget or a coder looking for the perfect first mech. The H81 is a solid mechanical keyboard to start your journey into the hobby.
Clacky goodness without an attached numpad
The Royal Kludge H81 has a few demerits, but none of them negate its versatility. This is your perfect introduction to the world of mechanical keyboards if you need a compact device that connects to everything from your Android phone to your Chromebook and looks good while doing so.
