More keyboards from Epomaker? Yes! Their generosity knows no bounds. This time they sent me the very professional RT80.
The RT80 is an 83 key / 75% keyboard. It has an ANSI layout and is compatible with Mac, Windows, and Android. The RT80 connects wired via USB-C, or via Wireless 2.4GHz and Bluetooth 5.0. There’s a three-position switch at the top right of the board to select your connection mode (I always prefer this to a keyboard shortcut). The RT80 also has an impressively large 5000mAh onboard battery.
The RT80 comes in a choice of Grey White or Black colourways. I got Black, which looks great with the backlights set to a solid frosty light blue. Keycaps are double-shot PBT dye-sub Cherry Profile (white characters on black).
The RT80 comes with a choice of Epomaker Flamingo or Wisteria (linear) switches. I got the Wisterias again, which I’m really getting to like. The switches are hot-swappable, meaning that they can be easily swapped out for other 3/5-pin switches with no need for soldering or unnecessary messing about.
The body of the RT80 is made of ABS Plastic and includes five layers of sound and feel-improving materials: Poron sandwich foam, IXPE switch pad, PCB foam, PET film, and case foam. Paired with the gasket mount structure, these materials help dampen vibrations, reduce typing noise. Finely tuned plate-mounted stabilizers further reduce unwanted rattling.
The RT80 weighs 1.5kg, so it’s fairly weighty, but not crazily heavy. Definitely still very much a portable board as well as a perfect office one. It has two-position flip-out feet with silicon pads so that the typing angle can be adjusted to a substantial degree.
The RT80 has south-facing RGB backlights with all the usual customisation options, and more available via the free-to-use Epomaker software.
Like the RT65, the RT80 comes with a detachable RT100 Mini Display, which plugs in inside the little compartment that houses the Wireless dongle at the rear of the board. The screen displays time/date, battery status, and connection mode. It can also be loaded with custom images and animations via the Epomaker software.
But the RT80 doesn’t just have one display, it has two! A 1.54-inch touch screen sits at the bottom right of the board, with a trio of media buttons (back, play/pause, and forward) below it. The touch screen displays the Epomaker logo until you tap it, and then a grid of four icons appears. By default, these are shortcuts to Settings, Search, Zoom in, and Zoom out. Swipe sideways and you get to another four-panel grid, this time with Cut, Mute, Vol+, and Vol- on it. Using the Epomaker software, you can also add your own shortcuts to any application to the touch screen menu.
The RT80 looks and feels like a high-end office keyboard, but for a solid, stable, 75% board with all the extras it has, it’s surprisingly light. The RT100 Mini Display is a fun and functional little optional add-on, but the 1.54-inch touch screen is a genuinely useful additional interface.
As I said at the very beginning of this review, the RT80 feels like a very professional keyboard to me, but I definitely don’t mean that in a bad way – not that it’s boring, or stuffy, or anything like that. I think a lot of people who aren’t already interested in mechanical keyboards could be converted by the RT80.
The present-giving season is nearly upon us once more, and the RT80 could make the perfect gift for someone who doesn’t yet know how much they need it. Or you could just treat yourself.