Guess I’m glad I didn’t.

This is the RK Royal Kludge RK61. Got it on Amazon for $50.

I was using one of those cool type-writer keyboards for a while and for a while it worked okay, but typos and missing simple keys like “Enter” started getting out of hand. So I Googled “Best keyboards for typing” and this was one of the more affordable options that repeatedly came up.

As you can see, it’s tiny and certain functions that one may take for granted now require the additional press of a Function key. Now as someone who’s primarily typed on laptops, this wasn’t a problem for me. What WAS a problem, and almost ended up in an Amazon review, was that it was NOT plug and play. Oh sure you could plug it in and your PC would automatically install it and in theory you could start typing immediately, HOWEVER! However however however! It basically comes out of the box with some kind of “Function Lock” engaged. Half the keyboard is locked into Function Key mode until you find the key combo to unlock it. Guess what this keyboard doesn’t come with? A manual explaining any of this. I had to Google to find the answer.

Once I freed up the letters, I then had to figure out how to free up the numbers as they were now locked into F-key mode. This required more Googling to find yet another set of inputs to return them to their primary numerical function.

It also comes out of the box with the left shift key being useless. Only the right one did anything and I’m not sure about you, but that’s not how I type. Well, you guessed it, more Googling and another set of inputs to swap the function over to the left shift key.

So basically it comes needing some setting up which I’m not going to say is necessarily a problem. It’s a small keyboard so one has to accept there’s going to be some compromises. What almost killed me was that I had to Google and read Reddit posts to find out how to make it function like a regular keyboard. I wish it either came with primary functions engaged and let you toggle the Function key as necessary or it had a manual explaining the input controls. A manual would have been nice either way actually and I don’t say that often.

How does it type, though? It’s awesome, actually. The keys feel perfectly spaced and the caps are definitely finger-tip appropriate. The brown switches feel and sound pretty good. I’m not one to really rate a keyboard based on clack but this one isn’t too bad compared to what I’ve used in the past. I can also type pretty quickly with few flaws on this bad boy.

If you have the patience to set it up, I highly recommend. If you just want a keyboard that works as expected out of the box, I’d skip it. Even though I got incredibly frustrated, I think it was worth the effort.

Full transparency some of this may have been hidden in the title of the product as I didn’t understand what “Triple Mode” meant. Still don’t, but if it tells someone more educated than myself all they need to know then that’s good I suppose. I bought it just assuming it’d come like any abbreviated keyboard that needs a Function key to do certain things. Instead it came backwards.

Do I recommend it? Well, like I said above, that’s really up to you. After going through the insanity of getting it working, it really has increased my productivity, but I still had to Google three separate inputs just to get it to act like a normal keyboard.

Of course, this could have been an isolated experience and other people just get it working fine out of the box. Can’t be sure as most of the Amazon reviews are positive and none of them mention the need for any kind of set up. Also, I use it wired so I can’t weigh in on the complaints about Bluetooth functions and battery life.

Ah well. I almost returned it, but after a few days of just straight typing with it, I’m glad I didn’t.