8BitDo Retro 87 Mechanical Keyboard with RGB Backlight, Bluetooth/2.4G/USB-C Hot Swappable Wireless Gaming Keyboard for Windows and Android - Xbox Edition (Officially Licensed)

The media could not be loaded. I’ll be the first to admit. I was HYPED when I say this for pre-order. But I waited to see what the reviews said before I bought it. I knew 8bitdo was a quality company from others but I’ve never owned a device from them. I also bought the halo edition Xbox ON RELEASE so I really wanted this thing to be good.The reviews were poor in the beginning. Most were about the software being trash and the rgb not working or being stuck on the brightest setting which washed out the letters making them unreadable. I felt this couldn’t possibly be true and that there had to be something missing. So… going against the reviews I bought one. Here is my journey:Upon opening, this thing was built rock solid and sounds excellent although I had to get used to having a loud keyboard because I’ve had quiet keyboards for at least 20 years now. The box and cable were all high quality too.When I plugged it in, I had the issue where the rgb wouldn’t work when following the directions. I had to go to the website to find the software because it wasn’t really obvious. When I downloaded it, I still didn’t have rgb. I believe I then went into windows settings for rgb control and it said I had to have firmware v1.5 to run it but my firmware was at 1.3. I am writing the all from memory two weeks later so the exact version may or may not be correct. After hitting update firmware, I was told 1.3 was the latest available. So I decided to give it a nights rest.Next day, I opened the software and 1.5 was available to update and once I did, everything worked as advertised!The rgb settings are great and allow lots of customization. The analog volume button is ok. It will go down many times when winding clockwise. The signal switcher is great when cabled. The Bluetooth works fine although it will lose connection sometime to my pc, but this may be on my end because it’s had some notorious Bluetooth problem. I haven’t tested the 2.4ghz dongle but it’s been a reliable option over many years so I assume it works as expected.Hopefully this balances out the large number of negative reviews early on and helps others get a great keyboard.

It's a nice keyboard, I can see why someone wouldn't like it because it's gimmicky, but it actually has some cool lighting settings and works well enough as far as I can tell, and has its own software, if you're an Xbox fan, it's worth the money in my opinion

Keyboard is great. Key switches sound good and I didnt have any issues with the software or anything. I got both this and the matching mouse and while I loved the keyboard, the mouse at high polling rates gave me lag issues on my computer. something to be aware of if you want the whole set.

TLDR: Great keyboard. Software takes time to figure out.Full Review:I'll start by saying, I do agree with the other reviewers the software could be better. The instructions within the software should be way more clear, and in (non-broken) English.I'll give solutions to the problems either I ran into or other reviewers ran into:1) The lights are not consistently working. When I initially plugged in the keyboard it lit up. After it went to sleep, I pressed a key to wake it up the lights didn't turn back on.Solution: In Windows there's something called Dynamic Lighting. I had never heard of it before, but it actually takes control of devices lighting. Go to Settings -> Personalization -> Dynamic Lighting. This should fix any lighting issues.2) When under the RGB tab attempting to change any settings throws an error "The profile is currently closed. Please press the profile button to open it."Solution: On the top left of the keyboard there are three round black buttons. Press the one to the far right that looks like a heart. A white light above it should turn on. The profile is now set for the keyboard and you can change the RGB settings.3) An error message in (I'm assuming Chinese) pops up with the only English being "Win10" or "Win11".Solution: You'll need to turn off Windows Dynamic Lighting. Go to Settings -> Personalization -> Dynamic Lighting and turn it off for the keyboard. (Figured this out by taking a screenshot of the message and putting it in Google Translate).Other problems I was unable to reproduce but very well could be issues. Provided potential solutions that will hopefully help:1) Macros and RGB tabs not showing up in Ultimate Software V2. (I just downloaded the software a minute ago and everything worked correctly)Potential Solution: When the app pops up you'll see a profile button and an update button. Click Profile, create one, and then everything should display as expected.2) Going from wired to wireless requires unplugging the dongle. (Tried unplugging from wired, and going to wireless with the dongle plugged in, worked)Potential Solution: When in doubt, restart the PC. If that doesn't fix the problem, unfortunately there's too many variables to guess.I'll update on the actual hardware stuff once I get to play around with it a little more.

Bought this as a gift for my son.

The spacebar is a bit clunky, but the keyboard is fine otherwise. I will be putting my own switches in but the aesthetic alone is quite nice. I highly recommend you swap the super button switches as well as they aren't very intuitive for any games outside of a rarely used keybind. I have mine set to mute and deafen in Discord/Teamspeak and that's all I would really use them for until I get a pair of more responsive switches.

Best keyboard I’ve ever had. Great feel of the keys and love the transparent green. Worth every penny :)

Love the theme. Keyboard feels solid and has plenty of customisation. The RGB doesn’t come through the key caps as well as other keyboard.The original switches were pretty noisy so I swapped them to quieter ones.