Rosewill Neon K85 RGB Mechanical Keyboard Review

Posted November 22, 2017 by Mario Campos in Peripherals

Overview

Hardware: Peripherals

Manufacturer: Rosewill

Price at time of Review: $69.99

WHAT WE LIKED:

Best RGB lighting under $100, looks and feels sturdy, hinged wrist rest can heighten and level keyboard, software is simple, hardware controlled lighting

WHAT WE DISLIKED:

Kailh switches (if you prefer a specific switch), icons added to board need the manual to understand

Discuss in the Forum

by Mario Campos

Full Article

Lights!

This is a mechanical GAMING keyboard. It says so on the box and if we’ve learned anything from Josh Jackson around here, it’s that lights make everything faster. This is a fact (citation needed: The editor indeed cites that this is a fact). The issue is lighting on the individual key level. Sub $100 keyboards have been getting there, but typically with a reduced price from their MSRP. Lighting the Neon K85 has surprisingly been more comprehensive than most $100- $200 keyboards that I’ve seen.

Lighting other parts of the keyboard is all the rage nowadays. Rosewill decided the sides would be fun to adjust. They can cycle through the rainbow or you can choose a solid color. I haven’t seen a way to turn it off or change speed/brightness.

As for lighting patterns, we have:

Static

Breathing

Streamer

Rain

Horse Race Lamp

Twinkling Stars

Reactive

Waterdrop

Cross

Ripple

Aurora

Heatmap (changes colors based on how much you are typing)

and Custom color sets (presets for FPS, MOBA, etc.)

One other function that is in the software is, “switch off all lighting when display is off,” which I feel like a lot of fancily lit products could use.