We’ve all been there – we’ve used questionable keyboards discarded by businesses. The cord wraps around our desk. It bends. It frays. The plastic keys remind us of low quality toys from the dollar store. The brown grab bag, not the top shelf items. Up until now owning a mechanical keyboard held two options: Frankenstein-ing an old IBM Model-M back to life with a series adapters or a mechanical keyboard over a hundred dollars… that is until now.
Rosewill has created the NEON K75 Mechanical Keyboard that we consider the best entry points to the clicky, colorful, and tactile world of mechanical keyboards. Gone are the days of choosing a healthy bank account or filling the air with auditory confirmation of your each stroke. A choice that will likely drive your office colleagues insane as a bonus.
The first thing you should know about mechanical keyboards is the switches come in many varieties. Typically you’ll find Cherry Blue, Cherry Brown, and Cherry Red the most popular choices. We recommend reading up on the differences, but for this article tested out a Rosewill NEON K75 Cherry Blue variant.
The Best RGB Keyboard Under $70
The NEON K75 can be found as low as $44.99 during sale periods or around $69.99 off sale.
The packaging that comes with the NEON K75 is nothing spectacular; it does it’s job protecting the keyboard from the robot arms that guide it through assembling and shipping lines until it’s final arrives at your residence. The keyboard easily comes out and is free of frustration. On first inspection, the braided cable kindly matches the high quality of the aluminum casing. This is quite a treat for a keyboard in this price range.
Living up to it’s NEON name, the K75 hosts 19 built in modes. These color-profiles make fantastic use of their 16.8M color capable keys. An illumination bar wraps the edges of the unit, a feature not seen in many higher end keyboards. While Rosewill does provide software for further customization, it is not as fine-tuned as other brands. Our recommendation is finding a color-mode you enjoy and sticking with it.
Quality Keys with Anti-Ghosting
Outside of font choice, the keys on Rosewill’s keyboard are punchy. In Fortnite and PUBG, the K75 registered keys accurately in the heat of battle. Engineering wise they call this anti-ghosting and N-Key Rollover (NKRO). This eliminated the need to ruthlessly slam it against the table after losing a ‘top ten situation‘. However, should you have an, ahem, fit of rage, the keys easily come off and reattach. This makes keys easy to replace should you have to gather them all up off the ground. Additionally, it makes adopting the keyboard to an alternative layout like Dvorak a simple task.
I used this keyboard for a week. Tested it out with emails, writing, and gaming. It goes up against mechanical keyboards with price tags $100-200. It’s easy on eyes and the hands. For the price, it has the right amount of trade offs. Overall…
The Rosewill Neon K75 is the best budget keyboard we tested.
The Pros:
- RGB Out of the Box – Software not required
- Accurate keystrokes – N-Key Rollover and Anti-Ghosting
- Durable design – Braided cord, Aluminum Finish, Strong Plastic
- Price – Best bang for the buck as of writing this.
The Cons:
- Thick Design – Competitors produce slimmer keyboards
- Software – Not as advanced as others, but not as expensive