Rosewill RK-8100 Gaming Keyboard Review

A Closer Look
Once out of the box and laid out on the table the RK-8100 doesn’t look half bad. The unit is completely coated with high gloss black plastic. A lot of products I’ve seen from Rosewill over the years feature this plastic. If you aren’t a fan of smudge marks and tiny scratches just consider this keyboard a no go for you because this puppy seems like it will collect its fair share of them.

Rosewill RK-8100 Gaming Keyboard Rosewill RK-8100 Gaming Keyboard

The first thing that jumps out at you has to be the oversized bright orange arrow keys. The area around the keys seems to be a bit opened to allow for the space of the keys. The markings on each of the keys is also on the bottom which is different from every keyboard I’ve seen. If you don’t know what I mean by that, look at the keyboard you’re currently using and notice the location of the key mark in association to the key itself. On top, right?

Rosewill RK-8100 Gaming Keyboard Rosewill RK-8100 Gaming Keyboard

The RK-8100 feature a ton of media keys; something you don’t see a lot of on gaming style keyboards. The sides feature application specific buttons like volume control, play, and stop while the top seem to feature system specific buttons like power, wake and sleep.

Rosewill RK-8100 Gaming Keyboard Rosewill RK-8100 Gaming Keyboard Rosewill RK-8100 Gaming Keyboard Rosewill RK-8100 Gaming Keyboard

At the bottom of the keyboard in the center of the wrist rest is a logo. The logo is either the head of some animal or a cross, in either case I don’t really understand it. The logo is supposed to light up once the device is plugged into the PC

Rosewill RK-8100 Gaming Keyboard

The keys have the standard curve of a normal keyboard except for the WASD and arrow keys which arrow covered in the bright orange textured rubber. From an angle you can see how tightly the WASD keys are grouped in comparison to all the other keys. The arrows keys are less noticeable in this aspect because they are separated from the rest of the device. They also have no curvature to them.

Rosewill RK-8100 Gaming Keyboard Rosewill RK-8100 Gaming Keyboard

From the side you can see 2 things; 1. This keyboard is rather thin and 2. The WASD keys are noticeably recessed compared to the other keys. The back of the device also features two small pop out feet.

Rosewill RK-8100 Gaming Keyboard Rosewill RK-8100 Gaming Keyboard

The bottom of the RK-8100 has several rubber grip pads to ensure desk traction. The USB cable is your standard USB cable. The big thing I noticed about the cable is how short it it. As long as you have a USB nearby I don’t see this being that much of an issue.

Rosewill RK-8100 Gaming Keyboard Rosewill RK-8100 Gaming Keyboard