Meet My New Keyboard: The JAMESDONKEY RS2!

A Closer Look & Performance

This is one kick-ass-looking keyboard, that immediately strikes me as both lovingly retro and perfectly modern all at once; not an easy combo to nail. The creators at JAMESDONKEY have designed the RS2 mechanical keyboard with a gasket-mounted structure. Borrowing from the official blurb they have “used a high-quality FR4 glass fibre material positioning plate suspended by using gasket mount suspension on the chassis. JAMESDONKEY has also used high-quality cotton padding and shaft pads for a smooth yet silenced operation. RS2 produces soft acoustics with reduced vibrations upon keystrokes.”

So what does all that mean? Well, it’s separated the steel mounting plate from the chassis, while the interior structure has a lot of other noise dampening solutions that deaden unwanted noise and vibrations in the keyboard. This makes it sound quieter overall. However, it also improves the feel of the keyboard, as vibrations are reduced greatly, resulting in each keystroke feeling very smooth and independent. It’s almost as smooth as the smoothest typing I’ve ever had, on the Mountain keyboards, but given the price is much cheaper here, I think that’s a bloody huge compliment.

JAMESDONKEY RS2 uses high-quality ABS+PC materials for the chassis and PBT keycaps with that gorgeous two-tone aesthetic. They’ve absolutely nailed the look here, it looks so cool, albeit, perhaps it may not appeal to younger gamers who didn’t grow up in the beige era of PC gaming? Let me know in the comments how you feel about the design relative to your age.

The keyboard is a little smaller than most, dropping the usual navigation keys above the arrow keys, and even moving the arrow keys themselves over to the left. This does mean the enter and shift keys, for example, as a different shape. However, the overall key spacing for the keyboard remains standard, so the keyboard actually feels pretty natural overall.

The numberpad houses the navigation keys, and you can just use the Shift key to access them.

The RS2 uses newly developed Gateron G Pro mechanical switches, which have self-lubricating shafts and I’m guessing are more pre-lubricated than most, as that’s what Mountain to with their switches and these feel pretty similar.

The switches have a transparent cover, and you can see the movement of the shaft inside the switch upon pressing.

The keyboard plate on the RS2 supports full hot-swapping, and it’ll support both 3-pin and 5-pin switches should a switch fail, or you simply want to try something else in its place.

The keyboard deploys a lovely white LED backlight, and honestly, it’s a breath of fresh air in a world of RGB. I actually would have been happy with no LED at all, but now that I’ve seen the white LED, I’m happy it’s included. There are 17 built-in effects too, with various fades and patterns that transition over the keyboard.

Connectivity is amazing on this keyboard though, with Bluetooth, 2.4 GHz via the USB dongle, and USB Type-C. It’ll work on PC, Mac, mobile, consoles and more easily enough, making it extremely versatile.

The wireless is pretty sweet too, as it has a massive 3000 mAh battery, that’ll go for up to 4 weeks, but likely much less with the LEDs on, but still, it’s a BIG battery.

The multimedia controls are all tucked into the top rows using FN-Shift. However, you get this gorgeous metal scroll wheel for the volume control, and it’s clickable for quick mute too, which is awesome.

Finally, on the underside, more of that gorgeous retro colouring, but also a snug for the USB dongle, and some two-stage kickstands. Overall, I think the keyboard ticks all the right boxes, it’s utterly fantastic inside and out, top to bottom.