Of all the mechanical keyboards that have descended on me for review in one day, the Bloody S98 Sports is the most affordable. But it’s also the most familiar, and one that I feel obliged to tell you more about. Because it’s the one that played a part in my review of the Bloody kit for Naraka: Bladepoint. The latter, by the way, is now free.
Unlike the keyboard, which costs in any colour about $70. The most affordable of those that were on the review in recent days, but already far ahead of even mid-budget models. And it is noticeable even by the bundling.
The box contains, besides the manual and a Type-C cable of very good quality, a set of spare switches. And they are not decorative, and they come with a tool for removing both caps and switches.
As you realise, we should talk about it, because a full-size mechanical keyboard with removable not only caps but also switches cannot be cheap. Specifically, the S98 has BLMS Red, about which I know very little.
This is Bloody’s proprietary two-pin solution, it’s compatible with 3-pin and 5-pin switches, and the quality is pretty good, but I couldn’t find an option to buy even one piece separately – the kit comes with 12 spare pieces. Oh, and besides linear Red, there are tactile quiet Black, loud tactile Blue. There’s also Gray and Yellow. Which for some reason are the same as Red.
The sound of the switches will be in the video review. As a reminder, these are Red linear silent switches.
Now that we’re on the subject of scrolls, let’s finish up on a related topic. The caps here are PBT, I don’t know the casting type, but as you can see – I have two colours on review, yellow and red. I note that these palettes are NOT considered a different model. That is, the Bloody S98 Sports, without the suffix, can be three colours, but separately prefixed goes, for example, S98 Naraka.
There’s a nuance here, though. One that someone remembers, but I, for one, have forgotten. S98 has only 24 PBT caps. All of them are “gaming”, which means that during the game you will press 95% of them. They are also opaque, meaning they do not react to the backlight in any way.
All other buttons around them are responsive. If this is a problem for you, ABS plastic caps are included separately.
I’m getting ahead of myself with the Switch, but externally the S98 isn’t bad either. Shamelessly gamer, it’s almost full-sized – 98 keys, with a 20% reduction in keyboard width.
The base is sturdy and does not sag, the legs are double, at 3 and 8 degrees. The cable, although not braided, has a special longitudinal cut, so it does not get tangled.
The connector has special grooves and can be inserted into the housing in three ways, vertically or in any direction. At the same time, the cable is held securely in the grooves, thanks to its thickness. The weight of Bloody S98 Sports is 700 g, width – 385 mm, there is support for N-Key Rollover, response time – 1 ms.
The backlighting here is cool, honest RGB with brightness control. There are two rainbow modes, all the others are less interesting, but they can be set up in the Bloody KeyDominator2 software.
The bad news is that it, like almost everything from Bloody, looks like it was created 10 years ago under the influence of Mountain Dew, Skrillex songs and Doritos dust.
The good news is that this program is incredibly functional, universal for almost all more or less expensive Bloody keyboards and allows you not only to adjust the backlight and keys, but also to customise macros of several types in great detail. And save it all in one of 4 profiles inside the keyboard.
However, the only disadvantage of Bloody S98 Sports is related to this software. In the case of, say, mice, Bloody’s proprietary software is considered cheating by many multiplayer games, and for good reason. Is the situation similar with KeyDominator 2? I’m not sure, because you can’t put artificial intelligence recoil suppression on the keyboard. But just in case – turn off the programme during multiplayer games.
If you are looking at this model, then you are no longer an audience of membrane Chinese knockoffs for $5. You already have a chance to understand the benefits of replaceable switches, from the detailed setting of macros of several levels, from the magnificent RGB-lighting, and simply from the solid and comfortable case. Though the Bloody S98 Sports is without pretence of any wireless operation – the price reflects that as well. Recommended.
You can see the beauty in dynamics here:
Read also:
Leave a Reply