Sometimes, the very generous people who send me writing tools give me the option of picking out things that I think would be interesting to review. Recently, Redragon did just that, but one of my choices might not be quite what you’d expect. So, today, I’m reviewing the Redragon combo box: tri-mode gaming mouse and K628 mechanical keyboard.
I’ve chosen this particular bundle because it is exactly the type of box many people will find themselves opening come Christmas morning. This isn’t the luxury, bespoke, limited edition end of the mechanical keyboard market, but that isn’t a bad thing. What we have here is affordable, good looking, multi-functional and reliable.
Most bedroom guitarists don’t play a Gibson or a Fender, they play an Epiphone or a Squire. Most drivers don’t head to the supermarket in a Lamborghini or a Maserati, they’re loading their groceries into the back of a Ford or a Vauxhall. You might be tired of working on the scissor-switch keyboard and wired mouse that came with your PC, or a tiny laptop keyboard and touchpad. You might think that the only option to upgrade your set-up is to spend a fortune, but you’d be wrong.
The K628 is a 78 key / 75% keyboard. It has an ANSI layout. The Redragon site says that the K628 is compatible with Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7/Windows 8/Windows 10 only. I was surprised by this, so I tried to connect both my Android phone and my Supernote via BlueTooth but had no luck. I haven’t got my auxiliary MacBook on hand to try out, so I can neither confirm nor deny whether connecting that would have been possible. The K628 connects wired via USB-C or wirelessly via BlueTooth or 2.4 GHz wireless. There’s a little three-position switch on the underside of the board to switch between modes, and there’s a little niche to stash your wireless receiver in when not in use too. The receiver works with both the keyboard and mouse simultaneously, so the two devices only take up one USB port.
The K628 is black with black OEM profile keycaps with transparent primary characters and white secondary characters (for all your Alt functions). The Alts include all your F keys, media and vol keys, etc. Everything you could need. As the K628 is a 78 key board, you get a num pad as well as the top row number keys. You even get a Del key (which is the key I always really miss if it’s not there), although my muscle memory wants the Del and the Num keys to be swapped around. A minor thing.
The K628 comes loaded with Otemu linear red switches which feel absolutely fine to me. No complaints. The switches are also hot-swappable, meaning that they can be easily swapped out for any other 3 or 5-pin switches of your choosing. Of course, it goes without saying that you could also swap the keycaps, should you wish.
The body of the K628 is made of plastic, and there are no fancy noise-dampening layers or special gasket mounting going on. It’s pretty lightweight (510 g on my kitchen scales), so definitely portable. I’m not sure what the onboard battery capacity is, but it apparently lasts 10 hours of continuous use. That would put it at something like 2000 mAh. The K628 has a pair of flip-out feet so that you can easily adjust your angle. A couple of rubber pads at the front of the board also help to keep it in place.
Something which makes a lot of difference to the stability and noise transfer of any keyboard is a desk mat/pad for it to sit on top of. I have a really inexpensive (it cost me maybe £10) felt one on my everyday home desk, and I’d recommend something similar to everyone. Even with a light keyboard which doesn’t have any extra sound dampening, a half-decent desk mat really makes a difference.
The K628 has the standard Redragon “vibrant groovy” RGB backlights. There are 18 onboard preset patterns which can be cycled through using Fn and R Shift. Further customisation – including Macros, button settings, and more – is available via the free-to-use Redragon software.
There is absolutely nothing at all wrong with the bones of the K628 straight out of the box, so far as I’m concerned. Don’t like the LED light patterns or the preset functions? You can adjust those. Feel like it’s not quite quiet or stable enough on your desk? Get yourself a little desk mat. Don’t like the switches? You can swap those. Don’t like the keycaps? You can swap those. In short, this is a keyboard that you could tweak and upgrade to your heart’s content should you wish, but that isn’t going to set you back hundreds of pounds or dollars.
Now, I wasn’t expecting to have much of an opinion about the M693 Gaming Mouse if I’m perfectly honest, but I was wrong about that. The mouse has some onboard lights which you can tweak using the same via the free-to-use Redragon software as for the keyboard. That’s cool, of course. It also has four extra buttons on it in addition to your typical left and right click and clickable scroll wheel. Two of these control DPI (dots per inch) + and –. Changing the DPI, adjusts pointer speed for precision tasks, such as in-game targeting or photo editing. That didn’t seem like something that would be much use to me, but I actually found myself switching DPI a lot more than I had ever expected. I work with a two monitor set-up, I do a lot of referencing things on one screen while typing on the other. I also go through a whole review process after I’ve finished writing. I’ve found myself instinctively changing the DPI as I switched between these tasks and got more and more used to using the M693.
The other two additional buttons on the M693 are on the left side of the mouse. By default, these are set to Forward and Backward for gaming. However, using the same software that you customise your colours with, you can change the functions. You could set them to Vol + and Vol -, or Play/Pause and Mute, or pretty much anything you like, including custom Macro functions. I currently have them set to Save and Find, for writing and editing, but I’ve also used them as Cut and Paste. I’m a little hesitant to even write this because I’m now assuming that everyone else has probably been using a multi-functional gaming type mouse for writing and editing for a long time and I must just be very slow on the uptake. If not though, I think I might really be on to something here.
As I said at the top of this review, the Redragon combo box is exactly the kind of thing lots of people will find themselves opening this Christmas. I’m here to tell you that, if they’re receiving that gift as their first mechanical keyboard and gaming mouse, then it’s pretty much perfect. If you’re someone who is thinking of dipping a toe into the world of mechanical keyboards, or if you just want a good, affordable keyboard and mouse set to complete a portable office set-up, then the Redragon combo box is definitely an option worth considering.