Epomaker RT100 Pro Brings Retro Style to Mechanical Keyboard Fans

The detail that stops most people when they first encounter the Epomaker RT100 Pro is the miniature screen mounted to the top-right corner: a detachable, fully functional display designed to resemble a CRT television. Will Silberman, reviewing the board for Digitalchumps in June 2024, put it plainly: "It has a detachable monitor! Woah!"

That screen is the sharpest edge of a keyboard that earns its retro credentials through more than aesthetics alone. The RT100 Pro is a 95% format board at 97 keys with an added physical rotary knob, available in five colorways: Retro White, Pink, Deep Grey (which runs closer to charcoal in person), Green, and Purple. ThePhonograph awarded it a 9.4/10 overall, a perfect 5/5 for design, and a productivity rating of 4.75/5.

Silberman received the Retro White model and zeroed in on its color story immediately. That creamy beige tone is not clinical white in the Apple product sense; it is the particular off-white that defined 80s and 90s computing, the same palette as the Macintosh 128K and the original NES. Brown and grey accents reinforce the reference throughout. The cable also comes color-matched to the board itself, and a hidden compartment in the chassis stows the 2.4GHz wireless dongle when not in use. These are the kinds of details ThePhonograph specifically cited as evidence of "a brand caring for offering polished products."

On specs, the RT100 Pro covers the essentials cleanly: 1000Hz polling rate, anti-ghosting with full NKRO, hot-swappable switches, per-key RGB, full per-key customization, macro programming, and a knob that handles media control. It runs wired or over 2.4GHz wireless. ThePhonograph rated it capable across productivity, design work, content creation, photo editing, and video editing, noting that the right switch selection makes it office-viable: "you can have mechanical keyboard performance with zero noise disturbance on the office."

One limitation worth flagging upfront: the RT100 Pro ships in ANSI layout only, with no ISO variants. For dark-room or night-desk setups, ThePhonograph recommends swapping to shine-through keycaps or at minimum brighter caps, though the Retro White, Pink, and Purple colorways already arrive with lighter legends that hold up better under low light.

The one genuine gripe in Silberman's review lands on the miniature display: "I absolutely love the miniature television screen; I just wish that I could customize it to a better degree." The screen is functional and visually distinctive, but software options for controlling its content feel limited relative to what the hardware promises. Tech influencer Mukul Sharma also spotlighted the keyboard, emphasizing the vintage aesthetic alongside strong community engagement around the showcase.

A working CRT-style screen, color-matched cabling, five colorways, and a hot-swap PCB in a 95% footprint is a specific combination that does not have many direct competitors. The display customization gap is real, but for anyone who has wanted their board to look like it belongs in a late-90s computer lab, the RT100 Pro is one of the more coherent executions of that brief.