Rosewill Apollo - RK-9100xRBR - Mechanical Keyboard with Red Backlit

Pros: Semi-Premium keyboard in some places, less than premium in others Standard Cherry MX Brown switches LED lighting has good presets Macro ability is actually pretty good. Could be implemented slightly better but overall pretty good. Has a nice feel but with caveats Nice and sturdy and heavy.

Cons: The satin finish may feel nice but goodness is it a mess in reality. Absolutely any oil on your fingers, even freshly washed, will smudge the keyboard. It makes things look trashy really, really fast. It cleans up well but it's still pretty annoying and almost worst than glossy finishes, but it's right up there. Macro software leaves a lot to be desired but it gets the job done. Wrist bar is indeed warped like others have said and given the height of this keyboard it's almost necessary. It also attaches horribly. I know if I were to remove it and attach it more than say, three times, it would break simply due to the force required to get it to attach. I get phantom keypresses every now and again. Very random but it has happened at least five times now. It'll also have a freakout in which it keeps a keypress going until I hit escape. It's not enough to worry but enough to question the quality and future. Keycaps feel pretty cheap. Like REALLY cheap. This isn't an economy priced keyboard so I find that somewhat unacceptable. There's a step in between super premium and normal, this skips normal and goes for cheapest of the cheap. Very clacky sounding just because of the keycaps used, not the switch.

Overall Review: Overall this is a very nice keyboard with some lazy and cheap shortcuts. Given the price point I don't think those shortcuts are valid. This is just below premium quality at a premium price compared to competitors. Couple that with the quirks and you might be able to do better. As it stands, you can't go wrong with upgrading from a membrane switch or scissor switch keyboard to this. It's absolutely divine and you'll wonder why you put up with those terrible keyboards for so long. If you're already in the mechanical keyboard club you might want to test this before you commit to it.

Pros: This is a really solid keyboard that I would greatly recommend. The photos provided do not do it justice; I have it sitting in a slight shadow and it looks awesome as it glows red in the dark. Really smooth typing experience. This is my first mechanical keyboard, but from others I have tested (various ones from Razer, corsair, and Roccat) I find this has the smoothest experience of them all. The hand-rest looks really awkward in the photos, but it is amazingly comfortable for everyday use. The Cherry MX Brown key switches makes the keys extremely light to the touch and is completely worth the upgrade from a membrane keyboard if you want a lighter and all around better experience. As with most mechanical keyboards, the keys are removable and the added optional orange gaming keys are a nice touch.

Cons: Its a little expensive. I bought it on sale for $99, but I personally think there could be some better options out there for under the normal price point of $150. Occasionally the backspace key will just randomly act like you are holding it down until you press it again. I have found no related cause for it, so it appears random. Its not too much of an inconvenience, but it can be annoying at times. However, I have had the keyboard for roughly 2 months now and it has only done it maybe 3 or 4 times with 6+ hours of use daily from gaming to homework, so its not exactly common in my case. Its kind of loud. If you are going for a super silent keyboard, I would not recommend this. It is not as loud as if you had bought one with Cherry MX Blue key switches, but it is noticeable over a skype call depending on how you type (however I never notice it making much sound while gaming, so this could simply be my typing style). All of these are just minor issues.

Overall Review: Overall, its great. Full recommended 5 stars. I love the experience typing with it and I recommend it to anyone who reads this. As I previously mentioned, its relatively expensive at $150 and there are some better options under that price point for a similar if not better experience. I would recommend buying it when it is on sale if that is an option, because my purchase at $99 was definitely worth it. I have no regrets from purchasing this keyboard. If you are reading this as someone who only has membrane keyboards, go buy a mechanical keyboard if you can. This one is great, but any one of the hundreds of them are great. Mechanical is an amazing step up from membrane (my personal preference is Cherry MX Brown because it is very light. Red is a good solid key switch, Black is heavier, and Blue is very light and gives that clicking sound) and should definitely be considered. Hope this all helps you on your keyboard buying endeavors!

Pros: I have both this keyboard, and the non-gaming Rosewill mechanical with cherry mx brown switches. The brown switches on this one feel less crisp than the non-gaming version, despite both being cherry mx brown. That said, both keyboards have a very comfortable typing feel to them.

Cons: This gaming keyboard replaced a much much older dell keyboard that I've had for almost 16 years. I purchased this because of the huge amount of love I have for the non-gaming Rosewill mechanical keyboard I've had for over a year. This keyboard falls very short of that other one however. The most blatant and disrupting fault with this keyboard is a constant double and triple repeat when tapping the letter "A" on the keyboard. Even tapping that last sentence, I had to go back and delete many extra letter "a" occurrences. Since I mainly play MMORPG's, both chat typing and trying to enter game commands becomes an exercise in frustration because of the extra letters the keyboard insists on stuffing into the input stream. This is the major con with this keyboaaarad. Lesser cons include replacing the right-hand side windows key with a special function key, not in itself bad, but one of the most commonly used keypresses I use on computers no longer works one-handed (win+L to lock machine when stepping aaway must now be done two-handed since the right-side windows key is now a limited function key). AAAnother lesser con isn't specific to this keyboard, and is more of something that many keyboarads aare doing laately, and that is putting the keycap engraving maarkings side by side instead of one over the top of the other aas has been done for decades. I don't know who first decided thata side by side indicaators for which letter is pressed when shift is held down or not when the key is pressed was a good ideaa, but it's not. But it's getting hard to find a good keyboard manufaacturer that adheres to standard conventions as easily read keycaps, in a font that isn't weird or hard to read, shifted values over the top of unshifted values, with mechanicaal switches, and an aaability to backlight your keys.

Overall Review: I wish I hadn't gotten this keyboard, and had just picked up another non-gaming version. I love the backlighting of this one, but the double-type problem whenever I tap the letter "A" is killing this keyboard for me.

Pros: Great feel, feels very well built, love typing on it. I'm a software engineer, and very seldom play games, so the feel of the keyboard is the main reason that I selected this unit.

Cons: They don't support Linux for it. That's not to say that it doesn't work with Linux, but there are a couple little glitches. In particular the "Num lock" and "Caps lock" indicators don't work. I seldom use either, so it's not a big deal to me.<br><br>It's also louder than I expected. I did purchase the set of dampener o-rings, and I'm going to try installing them tonight.

Overall Review: My arrived in "Gaming" mode, which means, for me, that the "Windows" key is disabled. After scanning through the manual, I discovered that 'Fn+F12' switches to "PC" mode, which solves this problem. Update: I've now owned this keyboard for around a year, and have since purchased a second one. I love them both. Do purchase and install the dampener o-rings, it makes a huge difference.

Pros: This keyboard is amazing if you have no use for the microphone passthrough. Typing on the Cherry MX Browns is divine compared to the standard keyboard I was using before.

Cons: The microphone passthrough adds an interable electrical whine when the LED brightness is anything but maximum or off. Secondly, the numlock, capslock and Game mode LED inidcators are exceptionally bright at all times when activated. If I were going to keep this keyboard, I would have to mask them somehow to soften them.

Overall Review: I would give this four eggs easily if the microphone passthrough wasn't effectively useless. If you have no use for the mic, then this keyboard is a solid choice.

Pros: Great feel - love the rubberized coating feel, good key performance. Looks great in bright and dim lighting.

Cons: LED on the C key already going out (randomly goes on and off when you press the C key). Media icons not well lit. Did have issues on one machine where the machine wouldn't recognize the keyboard under the BIOS (older motherboard).

Pros: Well Priced USB Throughput Audio/Mic throughput Cherry Browns feel amazing Much less noisy than Blues (my lady couldn't stand the audible feedback) Extremely responsive Custom Function Keys Media Keys Numpad Soft red glow palm rest is surprisingly comfortable and hasn't caused any sweating issues

Cons: Two times now it has virtually jammed keys when other USB devices have dis/connected. When I unplugged my thumb drive while backspacing something it created an infinite loop of backspaces until I unplugged and plugged back in the keyboard. It's not a big deal but it is worth mentioning.

Overall Review: I haven't found much use for the provided software but it seems advantageous if you play lots of varied games

Pros: Works like a keyboard most of the time

Cons: Keyboard would occasionally go crazy and keep would think the user is pressing one of it's key. This is particular when I'm typing code and it would repeated characters into the code. I would have to manually unplug the keyboard every time to reset the electricity of the keyboard and get the keyboard to behave normally again