Redragon have very kindly sent me one of their Shaco K641 Pro keyboards to try out. I actually requested this one specially, because I needed a Bluetooth keyboard with its own phone/tablet stand to use with my Supernote Nomad, and the Shaco K641 Pro seemed like a good option. It’s probably worth mentioning that the K641 Pro has been around for a little while now – it’s not a brand new 2024 model – but I thought it looked like it would suit my needs particularly well.
The Shaco K641 Pro is a 68 key / 65% keyboard. It has an ANSI layout, and connects via USB-C, Bluetooth (up to 3 stored devices switched between using Fn + Q, W, and E), or 2.4Ghz wireless (dongle stashed under the base of the board). It has a discreet three-way switch to switch between modes on the underside. I always prefer an actual switch as opposed to keyboard shortcuts for mode switching, especially if it’s a board I want to carry around, so that’s a plus in my book.
Things I always look for for ease of day-to-day use: Does it have a Del key? Yes, it does. Does it have a volume knob? No, it doesn’t. However, because I’ll mostly be using the K641 Pro with the Supernote Nomad, it doesn’t need one! Anyway, if you’re not as lazy as me, you’d probably be perfectly happy using Fn + Z or X to turn the volume down or up, or Fn + C to mute/unmute in any case.
The K641 Pro comes in a choice of blue or grey colourways. I got grey, which I think works well with the plain, minimal, white aesthetic of the Supernote Nomad. The keycaps fade row by row from a battleship grey at the top, to a summer cloud light grey at the bottom. The keys kind of float on the K641 Pro – they’re raised up from the board rather than being recessed into it – which gives the keyboard a cool futuristic look. The whole thing reminds me very much of classic 80s chromed logos from films, computer games, and bands. Which is no bad thing.
The K641 Pro comes with a choice of Otemu Red (linear), Otemu Blue (clicky), or Otemu Brown (tactile) switches. I got the Reds, which are not as quiet as I expected them to be, and still have a bit of bounce to them even though they’re linears. Both of these might be due to the “floating” nature of the keys, as mentioned above, and neither is a complaint. The switches are hot-swappable, meaning that they can be easily swapped out for other compatible switches with no need for soldering or unnecessary messing about.
The body of the K641 Pro is made of aluminium with a little side panel of RGB lights to the left and right of the board. A 3.5mm layer of EVA Silencer Foam inside helps to reduce noise transference into your typing surface. The K641 Pro weighs 0.78 kg, so it’s pretty sturdy, but it’s definitely light enough to carry around with you without feeling weighed down. A pair of flip-out feet allow for a bit of typing angle adjustment though, if I’m nitpicking, I would have liked these to have an additional, even higher setting. Just a small thing.
The battery capacity for the K641 Pro isn’t listed on the Redragon site for some reason, so I had to do a bit of searching around before I found some sites saying that it has a 1600mAh onboard battery. During these searches, I did find a few reviews in which people had said that was lasting them between 7 and 14 days on a full charge. This is great news for me with my specific intentions for its primary use.
The K641 Pro has the usual all-singing-all-dancing Redragon backlights, as well as the sidelights I mentioned above. The two sets of lights can be controlled separately, allowing the user to customise the look of their keyboard. I’m really boring when it comes to lights, so I usually just set a solid colour that suits the board, but it’s also worth noting that Fn + Space switches both sets of lights off or on easily. Beyond the presets, further customisation is, as always, available via Redragon’s free-to-use software.
The K641 Pro also comes with a detachable wrist-rest and phone/tablet stand, both of which are made of grey plastic to match the board. Grooves at the front and rear of the aluminium base of the board allow the stand a wrist-rest to be slotted securely into place. That said, both need to be removed before you can pack the board away, or carry it around, or else it feels (to me) as though they will probably break, sadly.
As someone who uses a padded wrist-rest for daily typing, the plastic one doesn’t feel all that great to me if I’m absolutely honest. However, I admit that it does help make the typing angle feel a bit less flat. A couple of polished metal threaded bolts can be used to secure the wrist-rest in place, to prevent it from sliding left or right along its groove.
I do really wish that the K641 Pro‘s phone/tablet stand was aluminium rather than just plastic. Not just aesthetically, but for the sake of robustness and durability. As it is, the stand does its job perfectly: from a credit card sized foldaway, it can be opened up to either a 35 or 70-degree angle to support your device of choice. Two rubber pads (one for each angle) then keep the device in place. It’s simplicity in itself. As I said, my only concern is how is long it will last – especially given the fact that, with the feet extended underneath to adjust the typing angle, the stand is “hovering” above the desk/typing surface supported only by the thin piece of plastic in the slot at the rear of the board. This could all just be me being squeamish and underestimating the durability of the stand, of course. I suppose that only time will tell.
I picked up the K641 Pro for a very specific reason, and it is more than up to that task, even if I am slightly (perhaps overly) worried about the longevity of its phone/tablet stand. Setting that aside, what the K641 Pro is is a fantastic-looking, high-quality, easy-to-use, and truly versatile keyboard. The size, the shape, the weight, the look, the feel… all of those are pretty close to perfect for my taste, and my needs. If it had a volume knob, it would almost certainly have usurped the EK68 as my current favourite day-to-day typing board. Yes, I know I can just use the keyboard shorcuts.
The Shaco K641 Pro is currently available from Reddragon for £51 GBP / $64 USD.