Redragon K556 RGB Wired Mechanical Keyboard

Before this I had the Red Dragon S107, which was a great keyboard for the price. But I decided to upgrade to this keyboard, The K556. And I love it! With the brown key switches, the feedback is amazing. I find myself just randomly typing things unnecessarily just to use the keyboard because it’s so satisfying to type. Though I care much more about how a keyboard feels rather than how it sounds, this one sounds great! Very nice soft clack sound. It’s built extremely well, Full metal casing, and nice, semi glossy keys that feel very nice. The lighting is good, not great. I would have to admit that although this keyboard has cooler rgb effects (reactive keys, different modes, etc) the consistency of the lighting leaves more to be desired, as there are bright spots and dim spots in certain areas of the keyboard. I’ll even go as far as to say my previous, cheaper Red Dragon keyboard had better backlighting in my opinion. One little pet peeve i also have is that keys feel nice, but need to be cleaned up better during the manufacturing process, on the bottom of each key you can see mold marks that (should have been) clipped off at the factory. And it annoys me to see that, especially for a keyboard of this price, AND being compared to another keyboard from the same company thats at least 2 times cheaper than this one, and the cheaper one didn’t have those issues. Another strange quirk is that the color white is a very warm white, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to configure it to be a cooler, more blue white. (Yes, i downloaded the software and despite trying everything, i cannot get it to display a cooler color temperature white. So due to that i opted for a nice, teal backlight color instead, which I like. I like this keyboard very much. Just wish it had better lighting. I do like that they included extra switches and a keycap/switch puller.

Was DoA. Refunded.

There is always someone who get’s the bad one, but that might not represent the norm.

On the one hand, it was DoA. On the other, I have great respect for the way Redragon takes care of its customers. They have treated me very well with other products of theirs. As such, I have to give them the benefit of the doubt.

**** Edit 10/5/17 ****

Previously I had listed this keyboard as a neutral three stars. The prior review, above, should explain why. DoA, refunded, but understanding that I was just the guy who got the dud in the batch. No big deal, just a nuisance to be that guy. But I fully realize it doesn’t represent the norm, so I gave it a neutral 3.

I’m updating my review to be an outstanding 5 as I now have a replacement keyboard thanks to Sain Store. Please read my comment section to see that story. I feel it’s important that those reading my product review are also aware of how Sain Store reacted to my initial DoA keyboard.

I’m the guy in the family that builds and maintains all of the computers for everyone else. I’ve been in charge of purchasing decisions for companies and so on (including my own). I currently own many gaming products from Redragon, Logitech, Corsair, and Razer. My personal feelings relating to the Redragon K556 Keyboard are based on comparing how it stands up against other flagship products like the Corsair K95 RGB Platinum with Cherry MX brown switches, the Logitech G910 Orion Spectrum, and of course others of the past like the Logitech G19 keyboard (all of which I own).

Build Quality.
The first thing you notice when you take this keyboard out of the box is that it’s heavy and not built like a flimsy plastic afterthought. It’s got some weight to it which really makes it feel like its built to withstand a house falling on it. Nothing about this keyboard feels cheap. I wouldn’t be surprised if it has a secret double life as a baseball bat or if it doesn’t double as tire spikes for the local police department when your not looking. It’s the most durable piece of hardware I’ve seen in a long time. The last time I saw a keyboard that felt this solid, was a mechanical typewriter that’s best suited as a boat anchor.

No wonder they have an 18 month warranty. How many of those cheap keyboards have more than a 30 day warranty?

I will say I have called on the Redragon 18 month warranty for other products and they do take care of you the right way. Unlike other places that are a serious pain to deal with. Redragon support has earned my respect multiple times. Quality products, Outstanding support, and generally cheaper prices than competitors (think Logitech, Razer, Corsair) for the same type of hardware. I will most certainly continue to base my future buying habits on that.

Gaming Keyboard.
Many non gamers may not realize the difference between a standard keyboard and a high end gaming keyboard. I can’t count the times someone has asked me to help them with a gift for someone as they put together a system for a gamer. And I’ve had to explain that they can’t get just any old cheap keyboard for gamers. As any hardcore gamer knows, not all keyboards are created equal. Gamers often have to press far more keys at the same time than a standard keyboard is capable of recognizing. Maybe I’m pressing CTRL for crouch, SHIFT for sneak, W and D to walk in a particular direction, and also trying to hop over a ledge with the space bar. Needing five or more keys to all be recognizable at the same time is extremely common for gamers to the point of them not being able to play without it. And typical generic keyboards simply were not designed to be able to do the things that gaming keyboards have to accomplish.

Search on youtube for “Angry German Kid”… if you dare or just want a good laugh. This is what happens when you get your gaming loved ones a cheap keyboard. I suspect, however, that if that keyboard was one of these heavy Redragon keyboards, that it would have won the fight.

The Switch (Cherry MX Brown)
Of course, there are other reasons why dedicated gaming keyboards are important. Least of which is the switch used for each key. In the case of the Redragon K556 keyboard, it comes with custom switches that are the equivalent of Cherry MX Brown switches.

Gamers need a durable switch as they generally put the keyboard through a fair amount of stress. The Cherry line of switches are rated at 50 million presses before failure which means this keyboard would likely outlive me, assuming Redragons custom switches are indeed equivalent.

The switch also needs to be fast, as every micro second is the difference in win or loose. Gamers take these things very seriously.

Cherry MX Brown Switches.

Red switches are often the choice for seriously hardcore gamers. These have very little movement before they activate, sending a signal that the button was pressed. They also don’t have a detente or point of resistance that they move beyond to activate. With little resistance and activation at an extremely short point of pressure, anyone who rests their hands on these keyboards can have problems as they register key presses just brushing against it. People buying these keyboards for typing may struggle as they are so sensitive. Gamers like them because they want the keys to activate as fast as physically possible, to give them the best reaction times.

Blue is a very common choice for those that want a clicky switch and tactile bump. These are generally the keyboard of choice for typists. They need to be pressed a bit further down before activating. Making them less sensitive than the Cherry MX Red. The key also has a bit more resistance than the Red. Combined with a tactile bump, a little more leeway before they activate, and a touch more resistance, these give the feedback of that clicky mechanical keyboard that a lot of typists want.

Brown now, is the middle man. I use my keyboard for both gaming and typing. I do rest my hands on the keys/keyboard. And I consider myself a fairly hardcore gamer. I want that edge over the other guy. I didn’t load up my game because I want to loose. I want to win. At the same time, I want to be able to use my keyboard to type various documents, like this review. I’ve done a fair amount of programming and other types of work that require me to be able to properly type without getting 16 errors every sentence.

The brown switches are considered to be a tactile, non clicky switch. They have a detente or point of resistance that many might not realize is there. If you just push down the button like you would typing something, it just feels like a standard level of resistance in pushing a key. But if you push slowly, you can feel that its actually moving over a little bump. It has limited resistance, but does have an ever so slight little bump that means slightly brushing your hands over the keyboard won’t trigger it. It’s that sweet spot that gives good reaction times while not being feather sensitive to the point that its hard to even use. For me, this is the switch of choice.

I must end this section with a slight declaration. Everyone types differently. Some are heavy handed. Some are not. What I’ve been saying about switches is a generalization. Generally speaking… most typists… etc. There are certainly a lot of typists who are accommodated to the red switches and love them. There is no way for anyone to know that all typists are going to prefer one over the other. We are all different in how we place our hands, how heavy handed we are, the angle of the fingers, position adjustments based on large or small hands that might be easier to rest or need to stretch further, and so on. I strongly urge people to try the different types of switches to see for themselves which they prefer. I’ve seen people complaining about not being able to type one sentence on the Reds without 16 errors. And there are plenty of typists who love them. My preference is the Brown. Your mileage may vary.

Fn Keys.
This keyboard uses a Fn key to control its extra features like media player, volume, back-light modes, and etc. It keeps it simple and easy and does it right, without crowding everything up in an annoying way like a laptop. Everything is grouped in nice logical locations with easy to see icons, making this quite nice to actually use.

Fn + F1-F4 Media Player, Volume Down, Volume Up, and Mute toggle.

Fn + F5-F8 Stop, Rewind, Play/Pause toggle, Fast Forward

Fn + F9-F12 Email, Browser, Calculator, Search

Fn + Windows Start key toggles both the Windows Start button and the Application/Context Menu buttons on and off. Gamers who are often in need of pressing the shift and control keys in combination with several others, commonly end up hitting the windows start key by accident. However, in a full screen game, this can have devastating effects. At the very least, this is extremely annoying. And at worst, it can lock up the game completely.

Fn + Plus and Minus keys (main keyboard). Controls the speed of the back-light cycle. Does the rainbow move fast or slow across the keyboard. When the keyboard gets to its min or max speed, the three leds (Caps lock, Num loc, and Scroll lock) will blink letting you know its as fast or slow as it gets.

Fn + Up and Down arrows. Controls the brightness of the back-lighting. Again, the three led lights will blink when you hit the brightest or dimmest (off) positions indicating it can’t go further.

Fn + Left arrow. This toggles the direction of the cycle. Are the rainbow colors moving to the right or to the left.

Fn + Right arrow. This changes the color between 9 different options. Rainbow, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Cyan (light blue), Blue, Purple, Violet. Then it starts over at Rainbow.

Back-lighting Modes:
Fn + Ins, Del, Home, End, PgUp, PgDn. These are the back-light patterns you can choose. Each of the six buttons cycles between three different back-light modes giving 18 in total. You may not remember which of the six buttons are which mode, but you’ll know which buttons to check without having to look it up.

Fn + Ins. 1. The trial of Light, 2. Breathing, 3. Normally on

Fn + Home. 1. Ripple Graff, 2. Pass without Trace, 3. Coastal

Fn + PgUp. 1. Huricane, 2. Accumulate, 3. Digital Times

Fn + Del. 1. Go with the stream, 2. Clouds fly, 3. Winding Paths

Fn + End. 1. Flowers blooming, 2. Snow winter jasmine, 3. Swift action

Fn + PgDn. 1. Both ways, 2. Surmount, 3. Fast and the furious

Reset to default.
Fn + PrtScrn. The final Fn key. This will reset the keyboards back-light settings to the defaults. Of note, there is no icon on the keyboard for this Fn key.

Back-light tips, notes, thoughts, etc.
Some may want just a static non moving color. Perhaps some need a less distracting pattern for an office or something. The back-light mode “Normally on” is for you. Then use the Fn+Right Arrow to pick your color. You can have a static non moving rainbow, or one of the eight solid colors. Or as an alternative, use The trial by Light mode (described in the next paragraph).

Some of the back-light options have no effect on some of the different modes. For example, The trial by Light mode is a solid color across the keyboard that slowly fades through the full color gradient and starts over. It’s a way to have a non distracting solidly lit up keyboard, but that also varies the color over time to give some variety. However, the back-light option to change the color does nothing with this mode. Based on what the mode is supposed to do, changing it to one color would be pointless. Then you would just have one solid color, which is what the Normally on mode is for.

The second set of patterns (the three patterns on the Fn+Home key) are all interactive patterns. Meaning that a pattern emanates out from the keys as you press them. Ripple Graff is a wave going outward from the key pressed across the keyboard like an expanding circle. Pass without Trace rapidly lights up the key when its pressed and then it slowly dims out (leaving lots of lit up and slowly dimming keys on the keyboard as you type). If the rainbow color pattern is selected then the keys will be random colors, otherwise they will all be whatever solid color is chosen. And the last pattern, Coastal, shoots a wave out horizontally across the one row of the key that was pressed. As you type on different rows, it has a cool effect of lights shooting out on different levels across the keyboard. All of the other patterns are non interactive.

The default back-light mode if you reset the keyboard (Fn+PrtScrn), is Go with the stream. It is not the first one in the list on the first back-light mode Fn key. It’s easy to think pressing Fn+Ins for the first time will take you to the second mode by assuming you are on the first one already. Nope, after the reset your mode is down in the middle of the list somewhere. It’s a nice side scrolling rainbow effect.

Of note, one problem with Corsair K95 Platinum (among several with its onboard profile storage mechanics), is that when you bog down the computer with some kind of seriously intensive disk thrashing or something, the lights on the Corsair stop and wait for the system to recover. What this most likely indicates is that the Corsair is using software (ie. drivers) on the computer to run its light show. While likely minimal effect on your computers performance, this is one more thing using up cycles on your computer rather then it having its own dedicated hardware to run that light show. If it had its own hardware running that show, the light show wouldn’t stop and wait for the computer when its bogged down. I’d expect more from a $200 keyboard. The Redragon K556 on the other hand, just keeps on going at full speed. This means its light show is running off of hardware in the keyboard and does not use up CPU cycles to run it with software on your computer.

Software.
This is where I’d like to see some improvement. If we want this product to compete with with the big boys like Razer, Logitech, and Corsair keyboards, then the software will need some active work to help it mature and turn into what it can be. There is nothing really wrong with the software. It is fully functional and does what it should nicely. But to really be competitive, it will need to up its game with a few more feature rich functions.

Don’t misunderstand either. I feel it has all of the features that would be technically mandatory to have for this type of thing. But I also think that’s where it ends. There isn’t something wrong with it that would take away a star. But compared with the other big names, it could also do a lot more then it does on the software side.

There are three profiles you can switch between on the main screen. And if that isn’t enough, on the top right by the windows min/max buttons is an additional button shaped like a triangle pointing up, with a line under it. This drops down a menu where you can import/export profiles, giving you virtually unlimited profiles.

You can setup macros, reassign keys to be a different key press, or assign programs to be run. There is a macro repository where all of your macro’s are stored and with just a few clicks you can assign them to whatever keys you want.

You can also select which back-light mode will be used for each of the three profiles. And of course you can customize them with all the various options.

If you’ve read all the way to the end, then I thank you for taking the time to do so and I hope that I’ve been able to provide some useful information.

This keyboard is really nice. It’s actually unbeatable for the price. I’m coming from a Poker 2 mechanical kb and I like this just as much if not more. I wore the Poker out over the years gaming and typing a whole lot, so instead of soldering in new keys, I decided to just buy a new keyboard and save myself a lot of trouble. I did a bunch of research and decided to try one of these Redragon K556 TKL keyboards with the quiet linear reds. I feel I made a very good decision.

What I like:

Hotswap keys, so nice to not worry about resoldering when one of them needs replacing

The RBG lighting is so nice and looks great. There are many different settings to please anyone.

The Keys are very quiet, especially the spacebar, which on some keyboards is very noisy

This thing is super durable and solid. It’s heavy duty and well made.

This keyboard is very nice looking. I love the flat board with the keys on full display. Very nice!

The keycaps are nice to type on and look great. The RGB lights shine through perfectly.

The price is just right. Some Mechanical Keyboards are needlessly expensive. This feels and looks like an expensive keyboard. They also include some extra keys with the purchase. This is an amazing value in my opinion.

I’d recommend this brand and this specific keyboard to anyone who likes gaming and Mechanical Keyboards.

Lo llevo usando un par de días, más adelante podré opinar de forma más veraz.