apollo 9100

Rosewill Apollo RK-9100 Review

Rosewill Apollo RK-9100 Features Overview

  • Mechanical Cherry MX Blue switches (also available with Brown) with Blue LED backlighting (also available with Red LEDs).
  • Nkey rollover over USB.
  • Full form factor.
  • Media function keys.
  • Onboard memory to save settings.
  • Gaming mode that disables Windows key.
  • Two USB2.0 ports and mic/headphone pass-through.
  • Detachable wrist-rest included.

The Rosewill Apollo RK 9100xb line of mechanical keyboards are a line of budget-friendly keyboards aimed towards PC gamers. In this review, I’ll give you a hands-on look at the mechanical RK-9100xB, which has Cherry MX Blue switches with backlit Blue LED lights. The Rosewill RK-9100 line is also available with Cherry MX Brown switches, and Red LED lights if that fits your gaming needs better. I you’re unfamiliar with Rosewill, they make PC gaming peripherals and have been making an excellent line of mechanical keyboards for quite some time. The Rosewill Apollo is no different.

In this review, I’ll go over in detail the specific features of the Rosewill Apollo RK-9100 mechanical keyboard and how it’ll fit in with your gaming rig.

Rosewill Apollo RK-9100xB Unboxing

rosewill apollo rk-9100 box

The Cherry MX switches and LED backlighting choices are made very apparent on the box.

rosewill apollo 9100 2

The contents are securely packaged and well protected.

rosewill apollo 9100 everything

With everything unpacked, here are all the components. The Apollo RK-9100 mechanical keyboard, the plastic detachable wrist-rest, 8 gaming keys, 1 keycap puller, a CD for software and drivers, and a user manual.

apollo gaming keycaps

The gaming keys that come with the Rosewill Apollo RK-9100 mechanical keyboard leave something to be desired. The letters are not translucent, so the LED light doesn’t shine through the keycap. It also looks like the lettering is just printed on these caps, so I suspect they would wear off with heavy gaming use.

rosewill apollo 9100 side

The Apollo RK-9100 mechanical keyboard has a pretty sleek side-profile. It’s very thin around the edges as to not take up more room than required. The material of both the case and the wrist-rest is a soft, rubberized-plastic that has a great feel to it.

rosewill apollo 9100 bottom

The bottom of the Rosewill mechanical keyboard, seen with the wrist-rest attached. It’s a nice touch to have 3 rubber feet on the wrist-rest alone so the plastic doesn’t scrape or move around while gaming.

rosewill apollo 9100 hub

At the top-right of the keyboard is the media hub. Here you can see the two USB2.0 ports, as well as the mic and headphone pass-through inputs.

rosewill apollo 9100 ports

It’s nice to have the placement of the ports on the back of the keyboard rather than the side, as it should avoid things from getting in the way of your mouse. You may also notice the stub of the keyboard’s cable. It’s made of a nice braided material, but it’s a bit bulky and non-detachable. This is because it’s not only encasing the USB cable but the mic and headphone pass-through cables as well.

rosewill apollo 9100 cable ends

In this photo, you can see the thickness of the base cable (the thicker one, beneath the plug-ends) and how it splits into three separate plugs for the keyboard and mic/audio inputs.

Rosewill Apollo RK-9100xB Blue Backlights

One main feature you’ll want to know more about is the blue backlit illuminated LEDs. They are placed behind every key on the keyboard, and have 5 different settings – Off, Low, Medium, High, and “Breathing”, which pulses between High and Off.

The nice thing about these illuminated backlights is they get very bright on the High setting. Even better though in my opinion, is on the Low setting they a perfect level of brightness that won’t distract or overpower your eyes, but will let you see the keys in a dark room. The Low setting is too bright which was one of my criticisms of the Rosewill RGB80, so it’s nice to see that the problem didn’t persist on this mechanical keyboard as well.

rosewill apollo 9100 blue led

Some things to note with the illuminated backlights on – the media and profile lettering are nicely faded on the F1-F12 keys to indicate they must be pressed in conjunction with the Fn key.

One negative though that will annoy those who are somewhere on the OCD spectrum – the NumLock, CapsLock, and Game-Mode indicator LEDs on the top-right of the keyboard do not adjust their brightness with the rest of the keys. This means when the rest of the keys are on the Low setting, the indicator lights are constantly on High. The indicator LEDs also don’t pulse with the other keys when in the Breathing mode. It’s a small detail, but one that would have been really great to nail.

rosewill apollo 9100 9

Rosewill Apollo RK-9100 Software

The software for the Rosewill Apollo RK-9100 was much more intuitive and straightforward than the RGB80 mechanical keyboard. You can switch between the 5 macro profiles available, then select a key and assign to a function. There are some built-in functions like copy, paste, save, etc or you can record your own as seen in the screenshot below.

rosewill apollo software

Cherry MX Blue Switches

The mechanical Cherry MX Blue switches are the most widely used switches by mechanical keyboard manufacturers, so these Blue switches were no stranger to me. Blue switches are quite loud and clicky, which many gaming enthusiasts love. However, if you’re going to be using your keyboard in the office or a shared room, consider looking for a quieter mechanical keyboard switch.

rosewill apollo 9100 blue cherry

If you want to hear the Rosewill Apollo mechanical keyboard in action, here’s a video of a 1-minute typing test to give you a feel for the sound of the keys.

Rosewill Apollo RK-9100 Overall Verdict

Overall, I highly recommend the Rosewill Apollo RK-9100 mechanical keyboard for any PC gamer on a budget. You’d be unlikely to find a comparable keyboard with Cherry MX switches and all the extra features you see here for the price. After having used this mechanical keyboard and the Rosewill RGB80 for awhile now, I can say for certain that Rosewill’s line of mechanical keyboards are definitely worth the shot.