I’ve finally got a keyboard that matches my PC’s fan colour profiles! My setup is complete! It’s called Turquoise Green, and its one of four colourways available on the Royal Kludge website. But of course, the colour of your keyboard isn’t everything, well, it could be if you’re not a fussy gamer, but we’ve got to talk about everything else about the S98. So, let’s dive into it.
The Royal Kludge RK-S98 is a 96% keyboard which I do find quite funny, because the thing that’s really been reduced from a full-sized keyboard is the function cluser, and the keys have been doubled up. So for example, Delete and Scroll Lock share a key, and Page Up and Page Down share keys with Pause and End. However, why Home and End didn’t share the same key is baffling, that makes most sense. But anyway, yeah, it’s a chunky gaming keyboard that retains its number pad, and has also included a screen on the top right hand side that’s controlled using the knob. Twist it and you get your volume controls, but press it, and you enter the menu where you can manually change the keyboard’s connection type from Bluetooth to wired to 2.4GHz, and the RGB effects and brightness, that kind of thing. The knob is very secure in its slot and there’s no wobble, and it’s a very simple menu you get. Though in no way does it replace its own software, which we’ll talk about in a moment, and the best part is you can put your own GIF on there if you wanted to really customise your experience.
Style-wise, the S98 looks wicked. Its main turquoise colour is quite striking, and it does look rather neat with its white and what, dark turquoise or navy accents? And as the keycaps are ABS Double Shot, the quality is okay, and the keys have a semi-rough texture to them. Unfortunately though it does mean that for the price of this thing, there are keyboards out there that use PBT keycaps which are of a higher quality, like the RK S85 for example, and another annoying thing is there’s no shine through on the keycaps, which is disappointing, but the south-facing RGB is nice and bright, so it looks super effective. And yes, I have got it in a turquoise colour to match the keys. The keyboard is constructed from ABS plastic, and there is a darker navy rim circling around the outside of the keyboard, which gives it a nice, funky edge. There’s unfortunately no extra keycaps in the box to change back to a UK layout, and by default its using I think a USA layout.
Mine here looks to be using the pale green switches, though on the website, there’s an option for Linear Viridian switches as at the time of writing the Pale Greens aren’t available or they’re out of stock, so I do apologise about that, and unfortunately I can only talk about the switches I have here. However, please note that they’re all hotswappable with three or five pin switches, so if the Viridians aren’t for you then there’s the option to change. That being said, if you can get hold of the Pale Greens, then you won’t be disappointed as the typing experience here is extremely thocky and very lightweight with a gram force of around 40. They’re tactile switches so they’re nice and loud and thocky, though there if I was to say the sound profile is more of a clicky thock, it might be a closer description. You have also got several layers of dampening including poron foam, IPXE dampener pad, foam and a silicon pad in the base too. It makes for a very comfortable typing experience and also gaming experience too.
Around back you’ve got space to house your USB dongle, as well as a toggle on the corner to flick between a USB and 2.4GHz connection. There’s a switch to turn the keyboard on and off, a USB Type-C input to connect it to a PC or laptop, and a USB Type-A input to connect an external device such as a memory stick to the keyboard too. Software wise it’s pretty simple stuff. There’s a menu for your key mapping, your RGB settings, macro mapping and a menu to set music and sound RGB effects. And finally, the GIF uploader, which is simple to use and easy to upload a GIF or image, but it takes AGES to transfer to the keyboard. But you can go off and do other things while the image transfers. Gaming wise though, this keyboard is fantastic, and very comfortable to use, though I must say with the included numberpad, there are better keyboards out there geared towards gamers. However, I must say I do like a numberpad to use as a shortcut to switch scenes inside of OBS Studio.
Overall though I do like the Royal Kludge RK-S98 keyboard. It’s super comfortable to use and looks really nice on my desk alongside my teal/turquoise-themed PC. Of course, the caveat here is the ABS keycaps, but to be honest it’s not a bad keyboard. It’s probably more geared towards productivity thanks to the numberpad, but for gamers it’s not a bad shout either to be honest, as it felt nice and responsive for me and what I play, and I’m no competitive gamer, I’ll tell you that. Anyway, for around £75 on the Royal Kludge website, it’s not a bad shout to become your next keyboard. If you would like more info, then visit the Royal Kludge page here.
