G.SKILL RIPJAWS KM780 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
G.SKILL rather unexpected entrance into gaming peripherals raises the obvious question of “are these products any good?” We’ve seen many companies these past years dive into gaming mice, keyboards, and headsets, but very few become so recognizable like Corsair. That’s a company like G.SKILL that almost entirely focused on DRAM at some point. The strategy Corsair used years ago is similar with the RIPJAWS KM780 keyboard in which G.SKILL, with no existing reputation, is showing us the best they can do.
The biggest weakness of the KM780 is its over the top appearance. Some love it. Some abhor it. Otherwise, we can’t judge too harshly when aesthetics are a matter of individual preferences. Regarding the RGB lights, they’re amazing, but we’ve now seen what Cherry MX RGB competitors look like. The lights coming from Kailh RGB, SteelSeries’ QS1, and Logitech’s Romer-G keyswitches are brighter. It doesn’t help that the font on the keycaps is fairly small. What makes Cherry MX RGB special is the clear plastic housing gives an impressive flooding underglow from beneath the keycaps. The exposed and gorgeous black anodized aluminum backplate accentuates that effect.
We also have to criticize the software. Some menus are all over the place particularly the lighting customization and options. It’s even strange that while there are presets, they have to be generated into a user created default effect before being able to be used.
Everything else about this keyboard is fantastic. The Cherry MX mechanical keyswitches are not only more durable than the common elastic plastic dome mechanism, but are more enjoyable to type with. However, there are many other keyboards using those switches and so we’ll have to weigh more heavily and looks and features. A good number of extremely useful utility features found on other high-end keyboards can be found on the RIPJAWS KM780: dedicated media controls, USB and audio passthrough, dedicated macro keys, and profiling. There are also some never before or very rarely seen features namely the timer and the volume level indicator. The latter was particularly helpful for confirming volume change though we found the former less useful even as we tried to use it as a time warming for League of Legend objectives which are displayed in-game anyways.
The RIPJAWS KM780 can be found on Newegg for $159.99 shipped or for $169.95 shipped on Amazon which is within the same price range of many other RGB mechanical keyboards. It comes with either Cherry MX Reds or Browns and there are also monocolor red LED backlit versions available called RIPJAWS KM780 MX. We’ve already seen G.SKILL run promotions for this product including one right now at the time of writing where each purchase comes bundled with a free 4GB DDR3 DRAM kit. With a kit of high-end features and exotic materials, it would be worth paying attention to this keyboard.
Legit Bottom Line: G.SKILL’s high-end RIPJAWS KM780 RGB mechanical keyboard is nicely loaded with features for the price despite a very aggressive aesthetic and messy software.