OVERALL -
Very well-made and solid.
Compact design doesn't feel "compact" when typing long documents.
Can customize to your taste with lights and keys.
Three ways to connect! Always be connected!
DEETS:
HOLY COW - TRANSFORMER KEYBOARD!
This Red Dragon keyboard has a lot more functionality than I'll probably ever use, which is actually a very good indicator for how happy your gamer will be with all it does. They'll want to customize keys to their particular setup, and this keyboard is 100% ready to be a bespoke keyboard.
GOOD FOR THE OLD FOLKS' SENSE OF PRODUCTIVITY, TOO!
I was in the market for a slightly clackety keyboard, as I learned to type on a manual typewriter (while riding in a covered wagon to school, more or less), then moved up to delightfully noisy electrics, and then a decade-plus of clackey computer keyboards before it became the cool thing to have quiet places to type. In retrospect, I'm grateful that most of my time in cubicle-prison was with quiet keyboards, because I didn't understand exactly HOW neuro-divergent I was until my 30s, and had I been imprisoned (via the labor market; not a felony) in a clackety-clack farm, I surely would have been sent to the macadamia ranch long, long ago. Or prison, for murder, perhaps, after listening to the imperfect rhythms of co-workers' typing. The era of quiet keyboards was great, but now, I just...NEED something a little different, especially as someone who does 50% of their work on a keyboard.
In my mind, clack = productivity, and lemme tell ya, you're gonna feel pretty dang productive with this little guy. Glad my dog is semi-deaf, because I suspect she'd be a little annoyed by the clacking.
GOES 50% OLD SCHOOL "CLACK"
This isn't your old-school IBM PS2 level of clack (and probably thank goodness for that?), it's a very nice, modulated level of clack. Just enough to give you the background hum of "clacks equal quarters!" (the keyboard is a slot machine for writers, no?), without the "this clack is so loud I cannot hear myself think" quality. It's the perfect amount of clack.
LIGHTS, ACTION, TYPING!
Since my dog has been more convalescent, I've taken to being productive where and when I can, which sometimes means working in bed with the lights down low (people with dogs who have a tiny bladder will know what I mean by this - how many trips out a night can you take?! Bless their little, furry hearts!). A light-up keyboard is the schizzle here, because you know no two keyboard makers want to put all the keys in the same location, and I've been Thinkpad/Lenovo inculcated since 2007. So you can FIND the traveling keys without a problem, thanks to the lights.
Could I reprogram those keys? Of course, but that would require reading some instructions, so I will get around to it sooner or later, but right now, typing in the dark is the way to go. And isn't that really a metaphor for so much of life?
DO YOU MISS YOUR BLACKBERRY? TYPE ON YOUR PHONE WITH CONFIDENCE!
When you're thumbing all over your touchscreen phone, do you long for a Blackberry you can type on without the benefit of looking? I do. And that's why I absolutely LOVE this keyboard for hooking up to my Samsung phone to type long-haul documents! Can hook up via WiFi, Bluetooth, or via cable. I'm partial to a right-angle USB cable with a magnetic connector, because I have some wired keyboards that have lost their mojo over the cable getting strangled (magnetic = so glad I live in this era!).
It's great to hookup for using phone as a desktop, too.
OVERALL:
Construction of this is super-solid. Ports are firm, no wobble, keys are evenly springy and solid, and the case has already endured a little banging around with zero complaints.
Very good investment, not just for your gamer, but for anyone who would like to feel productive when they type! :-)
