REVIEW – Mechanical keyboards are popular with geeks because they can be customized with a variety of switches and keycaps. But have you ever seen a mechanical keyboard that can fold? Well, you will today because I’m going to tell you about the RK ROYAL KLUDGE RK925 folding mechanical keyboard. Let’s crack our knuckles and start typing.
What is it?
The RK ROYAL KLUDGE RK925 is a foldable wireless (or wired) mechanical keyboard with an unfortunate name. Someone needs to tell them that “kludge” means: an ill-assorted collection of parts assembled to fulfill a particular purpose. That’s not exactly a flattering word to use as their company name.
What’s in the box?
- RK folding keyboard
- USB-C cable
- User manual
Design and features
Hey, what happened to the rest of the keys? 😉 The RK ROYAL KLUDGE RK925 folding mechanical keyboard folds in half for the ease of portability and even storage when it’s not in use.
Although not the same, this brings back fond memories of the Stowaway folding keyboard for the Palm Pilot that I reviewed over 20 years ago. Yes, folks, The Gadgeteer has been around a LONG time.
Instead of folding in half vertically like the Stowaway, the RK ROYAL KLUDGE RK925 folding mechanical keyboard folds horizontally.
There isn’t a lock to keep the keyboard securely closed while it’s folded, but a velvet pouch is included with the keyboard so that you can travel with it in the folded form.
This is folding keyboard features 68 low-profile mechanical backlit keys.
The x has a reinforced aluminum chassis that keeps everything relatively lightweight.
Along the top edge are the power switch, USB-C charging or connectivity connector, and a foldout phone/tablet holder.
The RK ROYAL KLUDGE RK925 folding mechanical keyboard can be paired with up to 3 devices using Bluetooth 5.1 and it can also be tethered to a device using a USB-C cable.
The fold out stand is super convenient if you want to use this keyboard with a smartphone.
It works fine in both landscape and portrait orientations and cases aren’t a problem – depending on how thick the case is of course.
I even tested it with an 11 inch iPad Pro. The stand held the iPad but it didn’t feel very secure so be aware of that when using this keyboard with a tablet.
This keyboard uses low profile white switches that have a 12mm height and a 1.4mm distance to actuation.
The double shot ABS keycaps have a very shallow concave shape but they are full-size keys allowing typing to feel roomy and comfortable. Being a mechanical keyboard, typing on it results in a pleasant clickity clackity. I found the volume of the clicking and clacking to be fine for my ears but if you work in a quiet office, you might bother others.
The backlight is bright but not too bright. It can be completely turned off or you can switch it to a ‘breathing’ mode where it will fade in and out.
Wireless or wired
As already mentioned, you can use the RK ROYAL KLUDGE RK925 folding mechanical keyboard wirelessly or wired. It has a 600mAh battery that will give you up to 200 hours of nonstop typing with the backlight off and is fully recharged in 2-3 hours.
Note that this keyboard seems to automatically time out and go into power savings mode after about a minute. So if you come back to your desk and start typing, you might lose a stroke or two before you notice.
See it and hear it in action
I tested this keyboard with my iPhone, an Android phone, and my MacBook Pro. It worked great with all of them except that I could not use special key combos with the MacBook due to this keyboard not having a Mac mode with OPTION and CMD keys. It worked fine with the MB until I needed to use keyboard shortcuts to cut/paste or in Photoshop. It is possible remap the keys by going into the keyboard prefs in settings, but that’s a bit messy.
What I like
- Folding is handy for travel
- Nice typing experience
What I’d change
- Needs a Mac mode
Final thoughts
I get tired of reviewing the same types of products over and over again, so it’s always fun when a standard product levels up with a new feature like a mechanical keyboard that can fold in half. The RK ROYAL KLUDGE RK925 folding mechanical keyboard is a well-made mechanical keyboard that’s both affordable and portable. If you’d like to be able to take your mechanical keyboard with you in a smaller form factor, you should check this one out.
Price: $74.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by RK Royal Kludge.
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Hey Julie, you can set your Mac to with a PC layout keyboard, I use the Windows key for CMD.
Fred, I didn’t even know that there was a way to do that. Thanks! I’ll google it and update the review.
Fred I was able to modify the keyboard to be more Mac-like by changing the ALT key into a Mac CMD key. But other than that, there are still issues as the keyboard shortcuts that use the OPTION key don’t seem to exist with this keyboard. So I stand by my criticism that it needs a true Mac mode like many other keyboards offer.
You can use Karabiner-Elements to remap the Ctrl-Win-Alt key to the Control-Option-Command of the Mac. I used it for 4-5 years on My DAS keyboard, till I finally caved and bought the Mac version. I can also confirm it works perfectly with this keyboard since I bought one to put in my laptop bag for long typing sessions.
https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/
Andrew thanks for the tip! How do you like this keyboard?
I appreciate the fact that you review some interesting gadgets but you never seem to put in enough pictures that show how the gadgets work. Just a few overview shots. This is particularly true of edc gadget reviews where you want to see the gadget unfolded showing what it can do. Please could you try to improve this aspect. Thanks.
Hi Brian, what angle would you like to see for this keyboard? I can add a couple of pics for you.
I got this keyboard after reading this review. I am a mechanical keyboard snob when it comes to long code or documentation sessions. I really dislike my MPB’s (and really all) laptop keyboards. Pre Covid I kept a docking station at the office and at home, both with a full sized Das (blues) keyboard, I almost never used my laptops keyboard unless traveling or in a conference room. Now we no longer have personal desks at the office, when we come in, it’s first come first serve.
This keyboards ability to do both USB and bluetooth was the deal sealer for me. Often I have to run into a DataCenter and having a keyboard on me already that can be plugged in is a major time saver. This keyboard won’t replace my Cherry Blue Das Keyboard for everyday, but the tactile feedback, audible click and travel are significantly more pleasant to use than any laptop keyboard. Even the backlight which I thought was overkill was surprisingly useful when I was in a very dim data center. All in all I think this is a wonderful travel/portable keyboard and well worth the $75.
Thanks for the review Andrew!
Typically, “Alt” on a Windows keyboard sends “Option” and the “Win” sends “Command” You can check this by bringing up the Keyboard viewer.
You can also swap them around on a per-keyboard basis by going into System Preferences::Keyboard, going to the Keyboard tab, and hitting the “Modifier Keys…” button. There’s no need for third-party software to do this, it’s been there for as long as I’ve been using OSX/MacOSX/macOS, since at least the Leopard days.
To get the Keyboard Viewer, you might need to enable a Menu Bar option. To do this, go into System Preferences:: Keyboard:: Input Sources tab and check the “Show Input menu in menu bar” box near the bottom. There will be a new icon in the menu bar. If you click on it, will give you a drop-down menu with “Show Emoji & Symbols”, “Show Keyboard Viewer” and “Open Keyboard Preferences…”