Luxia Le

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It’s always been my dream to have an aesthetic keyboard that suited all my needs. There’s not always a breadth of options for the “cute keyboard” people. Most companies focus a lot more on functionality than their aesthetics, especially for switches. However, I finally collected a base keyboard, switches, and keycaps to build the perfect custom keyboard for my aesthetic. Let’s look at that build.

Base Keyboard: Royal Kludge RK-S98

Some people might have bought a keyboard DIY kit when it came time to build their custom keyboard, but I wasn’t able to find one that had all the features I wanted. Firstly, I needed a keyboard that had the NumPad. As a writer, I use a lot of Alt Codes, and I end up using the NumPad every day. I also wanted a volume knob, which isn’t a feature of all DIY kits. Finally, the keyboard had to be purple. I found the perfect keyboard to modify: The Royal Kludge RK-S98, which I will be reviewing on its own.

The RK-S98 has a volume knob, numpad, and comes in a deep purple, white, and, black color scheme, which made it perfect for my final build. The keyboard also came with a little LED screen that shows the time and any pertinent information about the keyboard, like which Bluetooth connection it’s using, and what the per-key LEDs effects are.

The LEDs are addressable, allowing you to customize them to some extent. However, the color customization is limited to a selection of about 7 colors and preset rainbow effects.

Switches: F.S Purple Night

So, it might seem pointless to choose switches based on how they look. After all, you never see the switches when the keyboard is in use! However, when it comes to aesthetic boyos like me, we need every part of our set up to suit our aesthetic. Thus, I went hunting for the perfect set of purple switches and I found them: The Flaming Skull (F.S) Purple Night switches.

These are budget, Chinese switches that aren’t easy to get from Western retailers. You can buy F.S. switches from a few Chinese-to-America retailers like Shein, AliExpress, and Temu. However, getting them directly from the manufacturer is, unfortunately, not that possible for the Western user.

I bought 140 F.S. Purple Night Switches from AliExpress for about $60, which is a very good deal. When I bought Cherry MX Blue RGB switches for my boyfriend, they were $53 for 110. So 140 for 60 was a very reasonable price to me.

Keycaps

For keycaps, I bought a set of MOA-profile PBT keycaps themed with the precious goddess, Kuromi. The keycaps are printed using dye sublimation, allowing them to display fun and intricate patterns on the keycaps. They even had a keycap for the shortened Shift key on the right side of the keyboard, which was a nice touch. The keycap set came with 120 keys, including several artisan keycaps that just displayed cute designs and could be swapped in for any of the standard-sized keys if necessary.

Since the RK-S98 doesn’t have the full set of keys, I didn’t end up using all of them. However, I’ve kept the remaining keycaps in case I want to shake things up a little!

My Overall Experience Building a Custom Keyboard

I had a really good experience building this custom keyboard. In some senses, I didn’t build the keyboard myself. I didn’t solder the PCB or assemble the base. However, I have keyboard with a unique blend of switches, base, and keycaps that was designed specifically for my aesthetic, and I’ll definitely be doing this again!