Blackshark Sixgill BS-K2 Review: The Basic Necessities at a Budget Price
Retail Price: $39.99
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*Note From Editor Alex
Before you jump into Seri’s review, we just wanted to clarify for readers who may not be aware that while Blackshark has heavy investments from tech giant, Xiaomi, it is technically an entirely separate entity. Blackshark is not a sub-brand of Xiaomi and has their own operation and product lines. Xiaomi’s gaming keyboards are under the Mi naming lineup.
I’ve been growing more and more obsessed with keyboards the more I get to play with them. I’m hopefully on my way to becoming a keyboard connoisseur as I try boards by both budget and name brands. Today, I take another step toward this goal with Sypnotix’s help. They’ve sent me a $40 Blackshark Sixgill BS-K2 keyboard to review. This baby looks great out of the box, but how does it perform? Let’s get into the review.
Design
Something I’ve noticed about cheaper keyboards is that they often have pretty cool designs. Not to say higher-end products sold by Razer or Corsair aren’t nice-looking, but I do have to say that I enjoy the RGB strips I see around the base of more affordable keyboards like this one. The metal base beneath the keys also adds to the sleek look with its textured, almost charcoal-colored appearance. Add RGB lighting to the keys themselves and we have a very aesthetically-pleasing board.
In terms of the feel, it’s nothing special. If you try it out next to a more expensive keyboard you can definitely notice that it just isn’t as pillowy or luxurious, but on its own, you probably wouldn’t think it feels bad at all. I wouldn’t say it feels cheap nor do I have to use a lot of force to get the keys to actuate, but it definitely isn’t an incredible experience worth writing home about. In this price range, I would say it meets expectations.
Customization
Even though this keyboard is RGB, the customization isn’t amazing. Again, for $40, I really don’t expect that much, but there is one thing that bothers me. I’ll get to that in a moment, but let me briefly explain the customization options.
Basically, you get to choose from a number of preset lighting effects. The effects offered are pretty standard effects like breathing, rainbow wave, ripple, and spectrum cycling to name a few. For some of these effects, you have the option of a preset rainbow or picking a color (or two) of your choice. This board is true RGB in the sense that you can go key by key and use a color picker, but the one thing that bothers me is that you have to pick the keys one by one. You cannot drag your mouse to pick groups of keys. It’s very tedious and annoying.
Unfortunately, even though you can customize every single key’s color, you cannot add any lighting effects to them. The lighting effects are an all-or-nothing option: either you choose a preset that applies a lighting effect to the entire board or you go key by key picking your colors and have static lighting.
You also cannot change the RGB lighting of the strip around the base of the board; at least, I can’t find any way to do so. In fact, I wouldn't have even known about the customization software if not for Sypnotix sending me a mouse from the same brand to review (BS-M1). The manual that came with the mouse sent me to a webpage where I could download the software for any Black Shark product. For whatever reason, the keyboard manual didn’t mention downloadable software at all.
Multimedia Keys
Though the Blackshark Sixgill has a pleasing design when it comes to aesthetics, the same can’t be said for the multimedia keys. The placement of the multimedia keys was not well thought out. The volume keys are on F2 through F4. The Fn key is on the right-hand side of the board. It is near impossible to adjust the volume with only one hand. I find this very inconvenient, especially if I’m trying to adjust the volume mid-gameplay. It’s so inconvenient that I’d rather turn the knob on my speakers or adjust the volume dial on-screen.
Of course, you can use the software (or BIOS menu) to remap the keys. But that doesn’t work for me because all of my function keys are set as hotkeys in FFXIV. I also dislike the fact that the key legend would say something different from what the key actually does, but that’s probably just my own weird quirk. The best solution is probably to set a separate profile with the keys remapped and switch to that when not gaming. Of course, that still doesn't solve the problem if I’m trying to adjust the volume while gaming. At the end of the day, the multimedia keys are just poorly arranged.
Gaming
This keyboard has everything you’d expect a gaming keyboard to have. It’s mechanical (blue switches), has macro capabilities, remappable keys, and allows you to make custom profiles. It even has a gaming mode that, when turned on, allows you to disable certain keys or key shortcuts like alt + tab.
Like many gaming keyboards, it also has onboard memory. However, both the listing and manual do not provide clear insight as to how it works. The Amazon listing claims the keyboard has “onboard memory for five lighting groups” which doesn’t tell me anything about remapped keys or macros saved to a profile. I tried making a new profile on the board with some keys remapped and plugging it into my chromebook. It was clear that the keyboard retained this new profile. It seems that the keyboard will automatically be on whatever profile you last set it to no matter where you plug it in. However, I have no clue if it is possible to switch between profiles when plugged into other PCs or if the board can even remember more than one profile at a time. Again, the company simply did not provide enough information about this.
The games I play don’t require me to need most of the features this board has to offer. I don’t use macros or remap any keys, which is why I often review keyboards based on the overall experience of using them. I haven’t had any issues using this keyboard while playing games such as FFXIV, Genshin Impact, or Elden Ring (though admittedly, I switched to controller very early into my Elden Ring gameplay). The keys respond immediately and I don’t find the keyboard tiring to use, which can sometimes be true of very cheap keyboards. It’s even a solid choice for typing up pieces like this very article — as long as you like clicky keys, that is.
Final Thoughts
If you’re in the market for a cool-looking budget mechanical keyboard with a little bit of RGB flair, then the Blackshark Sixgill could be a great option. It’s got all the bells and whistles you’d expect to see on a gaming keyboard and offers reliable performance. It’s not the epitome of luxury, but it gets the job done. Though the customization could be made easier and the placement of multimedia keys better organized, the Blackshark Sixgill feels like a good value for the price.
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Seri
A writer by day and gamer by night, Seri’s most prized possession is her computer. In fact, she built her desktop PC herself and repaired her college laptop with nothing but Google, Reddit, and determination to guide her. This do-it-yourself attitude was born from frugalness, so if you see Seri raving about something, it’s probably worth the price.