For years Riotoro has been known for their cases, power supplies, coolers and also peripherals. Speaking of peripherals today we have in our studio their Ghostwriter Elite mechanical keyboard.
If you spend most of your day typing or coding, a mechanical keyboard is a worthwhile upgrade over a cheaper, less comfortable keyboard.
Their new Ghostwriter Elite is a mechanical keyboard featuring the well-known Cherry switches an included magnetic palm rest, media keys full software control, RGB lighting of course and a handy USB pass-through.
DESIGN AND STRUCTURE
The Riotoro Ghostwriter Elite features a gamer focused design with sleek sober edges and shapes. The keyboard has also industrial touches as the black aluminum top plate, the red under plate that overlaps on the front of the keyboard and the chrome Riotoro logo on the top. The static red halo front light gives also the whole keyboard a KITT vibe from the Knight Rider.
The keyboard features also a scroll wheel on the top to control the volume and function LEDs that indicate the status of the Caps, Num Pad and Scroll Locks.
The bottom is made of ABS polymers along with the wrist rest as well. On the bottom there are also two flip out feet and multiple anti slipping pads. The keyboard features also an additional front USB pass through port, a chunky USB braided cable and thick rubber anti kink supports at the end of every cable.
Riotoro did not make really striking choices regarding the structure. The keyboard features an ABS polymers chassis with an aluminum top layer more often, and as in other experiences, that gives a more than sufficiently rigid end product of approximately 1.2 kg. But the construction is not out of line with the price point and makes the Cherry experience affordable to more people.
Keycaps were another cost saving choice. They’re painted keycaps, not double infusion ones. That means that over time discoloration will be visible. By the way we must also consider that the paint was pretty resistant during our scratch tests, so it seems that they will be sufficiently durable.
SWITCHES
The Riotoro Ghostwriter Elite features genuine Cherry MX RGB switches. The keyboard is available with Cherry Blue, Brown, Red and Black. The model we’re reviewing is packed with Cherry MX RGB Red Switches. There’s no need to talk about these switches. They feature the well-known Cherry German quality, linear switching characteristics, 45cN operating force, 2.0mm pre travel, 4.00mm total travel and no audible click.
If you want to read more about Cherry MX Red Switches: https://www.cherrymx.de/en/mx-original/mx-red.html#techSpecs
RGB LIGHTING
The Ghostwriter Elite has a 16.8 million colors Animated RGB lighting. The RGB functionalities can be set both on the keyboard itself with the FN+Ins, FN+DEL, Fn+F1 through F5, and also via the dedicated software.
Speaking of the light itself it comes from the Cherry Switch and Led Assembly, so nothing to say here: it works and it looks great!
There are multiple lighting modes but for more customizations it’s recommended to use the dedicated software.
SOFTWARE
The Riotoro Ghostwriter has a dedicated software you can download directly from Riotoro’s website. The software’s interface is pretty straight forward. Functionalities are divided in three pages: Keys, Macro and Lighting. Everything is customizable according to your needs, and you can also save different profiles and load when you need them.
TEST AND FULL EXPERIENCE
When I test keyboard I don’t like to do writing speed tests due to the subjective nature of these tests. We also do not always go full speed on daily use for multiple factors.
My testing routine consists in a full day of keyboard use through gaming, writing and also designing applications.
Speaking of gaming this keyboard is flawless. Red Switches are almost the fastest choice speaking of gaming and they felt just perfect during my everyday GTA drifting session. Writing on the Ghostwriter was also good but not flawless. Tactile feeling was amazing but the keyboard a soft metallic spring like noise especially when the space bar was pressed. This won’t happen if you have a light touch as I’m used to press keys quite hard. Other than that it was a really good experience.
CONCLUSIONS
At 150$ or 130€ the Riotoro Ghostwriter Elite is a good keyboard with nice additional features such as the volume wheel, the integrated USB port and the great Cherry MX Switches. I’d just have shaved the 150$ price point of 15$ to 20$ less, but nowadays you can find it in that price range. The Ghostwriter Elite has an excellent feature set, is solid enough, and looks slightly different from other keyboards. Only the keycaps really need to be a bit better, they do have to be detracted from the otherwise great impression.
Every keyboard comes with Two Year of repair coverage and 90 days of complimentary support.
If you’re interested in buying the Riotoro Ghostwriter Elite gaming keyboard:
https://www.riotoro.com/products/kr900-ghostwriter-elite-mechanical-rgb-keyboard
tech4gaming 