Rosewill has a new keyboard, the RK-9300, which comes in Cherry MX Blue and Cherry MX Brown varieties.
The RK-9300 has a fairly austere look, with an all-black design and an aluminum top panel that extends out and down at a slight angle, like a mock wrist rest.
The keys are backlit but have only blue LEDs--a feature omission that some won’t love, but it’s slightly more of a “grown up” look than all-red backlighting. (Even cleaner would be white backlighting.) There are three lighting modes: one with all the keys backlit, one with all but the numpad area lit, and one with only the WASD and arrow keys lit. The fully-lit option has a breathing mode, and there are four brightness levels. (Presumably, there are actually five, assuming one of the levels is “off.”)
The underside of the keyboard offers a pair of flip-up feet and a cable routing trough with three openings across the top of the keyboard--left, center, and right. On either side of the RK-9300, at the top, are a pair of what our own Thomas Soderstrom would call “cupholder”--some bit of decoration that are kind of snazzy looking but ultimately appear to serve no purpose.
The upper right side of the keyboard has a bank of notification lights. The F keys double as media and volume controls, including brightness, Windows lock, and more. It also features n-key rollover. The RK-9300 features no software, and there’s no way to create macros.
The two versions of the RK-9300 list for $99, but both are available for $85 on Amazon (Blue switches (opens in new tab) and Brown switches (opens in new tab)) and Newegg (Blue switches (opens in new tab) and Brown switches (opens in new tab)).
| Rosewill RK-9300 | |
|---|---|
| Type | Full size, 104-key |
| Switch | Cherry MX Blue or MX Brown |
| Sensing Method | Conductive (metal) |
| Microcontroller | -- |
| Polling Rate | -- |
| Lighting | Blue backlighting |
| Key Rollover | NKRO |
| Interface | USB |
| Cable | 5.9ft |
| Additional Ports | No |
| Key Caps | ABS |
| Dimensions | 18 x 6.5 x 1.6 inches |
| Weight | 3.09lbs |
| Software | No |
| Construction | Aluminum top plate |
| Misc. | -Four lighting modes, four brightness levels -Three-way cable routing trough-F keys double as media controls, etc. |
| Price | $99 MSRP, street price $85 |