INTRODUCTION

   With Christmas just around the corner we once again find ourselves spending countless hours testing a bucket of new gaming peripherals (among many other things) such as chairs, keyboards, mice and headsets with some of the latest titles to hit the PC including Destiny 2, Need For Speed Payback, Middle Earth Shadow Of War, Call Of Duty WWII and Spellforce 3. Don't get me wrong we all love playing PC games (especially all the latest ones) but we do tend to get lost while doing so (time has a way of flowing faster) and let's face it gaming peripherals are not the only devices we need to test. Anyways as expected RGB gaming peripherals take most of our space currently but although we're testing several keyboards right now there's but only one tenkeyless model among them the latest MXX RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard by Rantopad.

   Rantopad was founded in 2004 when Ranto, a competitive gamer, set out with $15,000 and a goal to create the world’s best mouse pad. To do this, Ranto recognized the need to incorporate and combine the latest innovations with flawless design. With these guiding principles he created Rantopad’s first product, the RantoPad P1. Rantopad now has over 70 employees and annual revenues in excess of $20M. With over ten years of innovation under its belt, Rantopad continues to deliver a superior user experience across all products. The signature mechanical gaming keyboards – the MT and the MXX – boast high quality, durability and affordability. The FF Gaming Mouse featuring Omicron microswitches arms gamers with precision and accuracy. The wide range of professional mouse pads are made with the highest quality materials and available in a multitude of sizes and materials.

   Just like its predecessor the somewhat "plain" MXX Mechanical Keyboard the brand new MXX RGB Mechanical Keyboard is a "compact" tenkeyless model (87 keys featuring oil-proof, wear-resistant and dust-resistant organic coated keycaps) that doesn't have any dedicated macro or multimedia keys. It still features the same space-grade aluminum enclosure, detachable braided cable and N-Key rollover we enjoyed with its predecessor but this time over its "smooth" (Linear, 45g actuation force) Gateron switches (available with red, black and blue certified for up to 50 million keystrokes) feature an 16.8 million colors backlight (per-key illumination is also supported via software control). For people who may choose to use it without downloading its software however it still can be configured for 136 backlight combinations and 729 backlight colors that have adjustable speed and brightness settings. So let’s find out whether or not the brand new MXX RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard by Rantopad is the ideal tenkeyless model for people with space restrictions on their desks.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

At the front of the box (which arrived pretty beaten up) we see a large product picture, the switches used and the RGB feature.

The product features are also printed at the rear in 4 different languages (a product drawing is used to showcase some of them).

Thankfully although the box arrived in bad shape the keyboard itself was fine.

Along with the MXX RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard and its detachable cord you will also get a carrying/storage pouch, large acrylic keycap puller, quickstart guide and the RGB operating instructions (without a software).

THE MXX RGB

 Just like the original MXX the MXX RGB measures 385mm in length, 222mm in width and 41mm in height and weights just 650g.

The floating keys design allows for much faster/easier cleaning of the keyboard.

Rantopad has placed their logo on both sides of the aluminum enclosure.

All three lock LEDs are placed right next to the arrow keys.

As usual F1 through F8 double as media keys while F9 through F12 can be used to lock the windows keys (Game mode), rotate all illumination effects and adjust the brightness levels.

Here we see the cable port (regular USB port).

Typically since the Gateron switches are basically Cherry MX clones you can replace the keycaps if you want.

Once again the 1.8 meter long braided cable has two gold plated USB plugs on its ends.

There are three rubber feet at the base of the keyboard (unfortunately just like with its predecessor if lacks any height adjusters).

SOFTWARE

You can download the control software from the news page seen above.

The software provided by Rantopad is easy to navigate and from its initial screen it allows the end user to program any of the keys, set game mode (you can also select which keys you want to lock out), adjust the polling rate and set the de-bouncing time (default is at 5ms but you can raise it up to 40ms).

You can also create your own Macros as seen above.

From the lighting tab you can choose your preferred effect (out of the 14 available ones for the backlight and 7 for the keys) and color, adjust the brightness level and effect speed and you can even setup the EQ feature (syncs the color with the rhythm of the music or movie being played on your computer).

Finally you can make the software load with Windows, check the software version, submit feedback and download the user guide.

Here you can see several of the available effects and colors one can use with the MXX RGB.

AUDIBLE FEEDBACK

Many people ask my opinion on what keyboard they should get for their needs. Some want a “silent” model for use in their living room or even in their bedroom while others ask for a model with good audible feedback for use in the office or for gaming. Because of this I decided to test keyboards by placing our ExTech HD600 vertically over each keyboard (5cm distance) and typing NikKTech a total of 6 times with each (after that the max recorded number - max hold - is placed in the graph). I have to admit that this may not be 100% accurate but it does give a good idea on what you can expect from each model since aside the type of switches used keycaps and keyboard material also matter.

CONCLUSION

   When we reviewed the original MXX Tenkeyless Mechanical Gaming Keyboard by Rantopad almost 2 years ago we were impressed by both the quality of materials used and its features (although somewhat limited in number). Still compared with many other keyboards coming out at that time featuring RGB key illumination the MXX lacked that. Fast forward almost two years later and the brand new MXX RGB is exactly what we were all expecting from Rantopad and although I was hoping they’d add a USB passthrough this time over that did not come to pass. So once again you can expect top notch build quality in just about everything from the space-grade aluminum enclosure and the Gateron switches to the detachable braided cable with both of its ends gold plated. We were also surprised to see the number of combinations and colors one can configure without the need of software but we do recommend downloading it since it does simplify things quite a bit (plus it offers more effects and colors, key programming and macro recording).

   Availability was the largest drawback of the original MXX and unfortunately that also applies for the new MXX RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard since although available in the EU for a price of 74Euros (Amazon.co.uk) it’s not available in the USA (at least no through the usual channels). Now we do hope Rantopad changes that really soon but for now things don’t’ look good. That being said the MXX RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard is a great tenkeyless model so if you have space issues on your desk and can get your hands on it we suggest doing so which is also why it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality (Aluminum Top)
- Size (Tenkeyless Model)
- Available Effects & Colors
- Gateron Red Mechanical Switches (50M Actuations)
- NKey Rollover
- Removable Braided Cable With Gold Plated Plugs
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- No USB Ports
- Fixed Height (No Height Adjusters)
- Current Availability