Riotoro is a relatively new company that came into the business in 2015. The company was founded by ex-Corsair and ex-NVIDIA employees who banded together to form their own new brand name. The company started with slow, cautious moves towards new product releases. One of their first products was the Prism CR1280, an RGB full tower case, unique at the time of its launch. Their first diversification attempt was with the cost-effective Riotoro Onyx PSUs a year ago. This year Riotoro is releasing multiple new products and diversifies towards other segments of the market, including gaming peripherals.

Jumping to the present, for today's review we are taking a look at Riotoro's first gaming mechanical keyboard, the Ghostwriter Prism. As the "Prism" designation in its name hints, one of its main features is RGB lighting. Unlike most products of the company, the Ghostwriter Prism is not a product aiming to compete in terms of cost-effectiveness but rather a fully-featured, high-performance device that comes to compete with the best mechanical keyboards available in the market.

Packaging and Bundle

Riotoro supplies the Ghostwriter Prism in a large, strong cardboard box with thick walls. The artwork is simple and focused on a picture of the keyboard itself but the box stands out a lot due to its striking red color. An additional paper ribbon wrapped around the box showcases the exact switches that the particular version comes with. Inside the box, the keyboard is protected with polyethylene foam pieces and is wrapped in a nylon bag.

Inside the box, we found a basic but handy user's manual and an orange keycaps puller. There also is a large plastic palm rest that attached to the keyboard magnetically. The palm rest is simple, with only the company's logo printed in red at its top right corner.

The Riotoro Ghostwriter Prism Mechanical Keyboard

The design of the Riotoro Ghostwriter Prism is not very different from that of the majority of high-performance gaming keyboards featuring Cherry MX switches. The layout seems to merge the use of a function (Fn) key for advanced commands with additional multimedia controls placed at the top right corner of the keyboard. The chassis is relatively simple, with the aesthetic design based on austere geometric shapes. The top of the keyboard is aluminum but the rest of the chassis is plastic. The top plastic parts are sprayed with a satin black paint but the bottom of the keyboard is orange. A braided USB cable exits from the center rear part of the keyboard, with a cable tie attached to it.

We received the US layout version of the Riotoro Ghostwriter Prism. It has 104 keys and physically adheres to the ANSI layout. The bottom row of the keyboard has a 6.25× spacebar and seven 1.25× bottom row keys. The differences here are that Riotoro replaced the right Win key with an Fn key that is being used to access some of the keyboard’s advanced features on-the-fly. Furthermore, additional multimedia controls can be found at the top right side of the keyboard, where the designer placed a metallic volume wheel, a large mute button, and four media control buttons beneath them. The volume wheel feels very sturdy and makes very precise step moves.

The keycaps are made of ABS, with slightly small characters printed towards the top, where the LEDs are. Most keycaps have both the primary and the secondary character printed near the top, allowing them to both be illuminated by the key's LED. Icons that designate advanced controls accessible via the Fn key are printed at the lower half of the keycaps.

As we mentioned above, the bottom of the keyboard is sprayed with a striking orange paint. There are four anti-slip pads there, plus two fixed tilt legs. The legs open sideways to prevent them from accidentally closing during heavy (ab)use.

The Ghostwriter Prism also features a USB hub, with two USB ports present at the right back side of the keyboard, right above the sound volume control wheel. The two ports are USB 2.0 and are not meant for heavy data transfers but they are especially useful for connecting mice and other close-by peripherals.

Beneath the keycaps we found Cherry's original MX switches. Our particular version came with the Brown variation of the switch, which are silent and offer soft tactile feedback. These also are the RGB version of the switches, which have a clear body for the better distribution of lighting beneath the keycap. Strangely, the larger keys are using brace stabilizers instead of Cherry's cross-type stabilizers, which is very peculiar on a board with Cherry MX switches installed.

The backlighting of the Ghostwriter Prism is strong and even, as expected from a keyboard with Cherry's original MX RGB switches. Nearly all lighting functions effects modes, effect speed, direction, common colors, and brightness can be controlled using the Fn key plus other keys. However, software is required for macros and to access a wider color palette. The only visual dissonance is the excessive opening on the Space Bar key that the single LED cannot cover, making it appear as if there were LEDs there that died.

Inside the plastic body of the Ghostwriter Prism we found the large PCB of the keyboard bolted onto the metallic plate. A smaller additional PCB at the top left corner holds the USB controller and USB ports. The few wires are very well secured. The assembly job is generally excellent, without a single bad soldering joint or other mishap to the found.

The heart of the Ghostwriter Prism is an HSAK3201 ARM processor and it features HSAK021 LED drivers. We first encountered these controllers over two years ago and we still have not found anything about them, as there is no information at all to be found online.

Software

The software the Riotoro currently supplies for the Ghostwriter Prism is a temporary beta version that lacks a lot of the features the company intents the keyboard to have. A new software version is planned in a few months and will be a "unified" software for many of the company's peripherals. As its release is relatively far into the future, we are reviewing this keyboard based on what is currently available for the product.

The current version of the software is relatively simple, with all of the options in just a single screen. It supports the formation of multiple profiles that can be linked to specific applications, forcing the profile to change once a certain application/game launches. Programming the keyboard requires the creation of at least one profile, as the default profile cannot be overwritten.

The left side of the screen holds the Profile generation controls and the Macro programmer. Both are straightforward, with few simple buttons and commands. The Macro programmer is very simple and can only record key presses, without specific delays, mouse movements, or any advanced commands.

The bottom center half of the screen is dedicated to lighting controls. From here the users can select from pre-programmed lighting effects or program their own. The options are not vast but they are flexible and should be adequate for the majority of the users.

Keys can be individually remapped per profile by clicking at them and then selecting an option from the bottom right corner of the screen. The programming options are good, allowing for the simple remapping to another key, the insertion of keystroke combinations, media and OS shortcuts, and the opening of external applications. The last option can help users who want to use this keyboard with an external, more advanced macro recorder.

Per-Key Quality Testing

In order to test the quality and consistency of a keyboard, we are using a texture analyser that is programmed to measure and display the actuation force of the standard keyboard keys. By measuring the actuation force of every key, the quality and consistency of the keyboard can be quantified. It can also reveal design issues, such as the larger keys being far softer to press than the main keys of the keyboard. The actuation force is measured in Centinewton (cN). Some companies use another figure, gram-force (gf). The conversion formula is 1 cN = 1.02 gf (i.e. they are about the same). A high quality keyboard should be as consistent as possible, with an average actuation force as near to the manufacturer's specs as possible and a disparity of less than ±10%. Greater differences are likely to be perceptible by users. It is worth noting that there is typically variance among keyboards, although most keyboard companies will try and maintain consistency - as with other reviews, we're testing our sample only.

The machine we use for our testing is accurate enough to provide readings with a resolution of 0.1 cN. For wider keys (e.g. Enter, Space Bar, etc.), the measurement is taking place at the center of the key, right above the switch. Note that large keys generally have a lower actuation force even if the actuation point is at the dead center of the key. This is natural, as the size and weight of the keycap reduces the required actuation force. For this reason, we do display the force required to actuate every key but we only use the results of the typical sized keys for our consistency calculations. Still, very low figures on medium sized keys, such as the Shift and Enter keys reveal design issues and can easily be perceptible by the user.

Cherry's MX switches always produce very consistent results. The MX Brown RGB switch has a 4 mm travel and is rated at 45 cN, with a small tactile bump about halfway through their travel. The 45 cN rating may sound like too soft but that is the actuation force rating, which is lower than the maximum force required to overcome the bump. The operating force of the Cherry MX Brown switch actually is 55 cN, higher than that of similar linear switches.

The switches on the Ghostwriter Prism gave us very consistent results, with the disparity across the main keys of the keyboard at just ± 2.6%. This figure is definitely imperceptible by even the most sensitive human fingers. The average actuation force is 45.5 cN, very close to the specified rating.

Hands-on Testing

I always try to use every keyboard that we review as my personal keyboard for at least a week. My typical weekly usage includes a lot of typing (about 100-150 pages), a few hours of gaming and some casual usage, such as internet browsing and messaging. I personally prefer Cherry MX Brown or similar (tactile) switches for such tasks. As such, the Ghostwriter Prism should, in theory, be an almost perfect match to my needs. True enough, the Ghostwriter Prism was a marvelous keyboard to work with. I have zero complaints about the keyboard or its switches. The extra sound volume control wheel and mute button are very convenient, especially when plugging in headsets without their own volume control. The simple palm rest also was very comfortable, more than one would initially expect from a plain plastic rest.

For gaming, the Ghostwriter Prism does not disappoint as a keyboard, but the current software version is probably not as sophisticated as an advanced gamer would like. The keyboard is very comfortable and ideal for long gaming sessions, as well as perfectly responsible. Advanced gamers however will probably want to program highly advanced macros and the Ghostwriter Prism cannot currently support even simple keystroke combinations beyond a few keys. Gamers who rely on advanced macro commands with delays and mouse movements programmed into them will have to use a third-party software.

Conclusion

The Ghostwriter Prism is a bold and also strange move from Riotoro. It is the company's first mechanical keyboard and, instead of targeting a wider audience, they chose to take on some of the most advanced keyboards of the market. The Ghostwriter Prism is not a keyboard designed for the average user but for those that want practically every feature there is.

Aesthetically, the designer of the Ghostwriter Prism tried to combine the austereness of simple geometric constructs with RGB lighting and a touch of striking red color. Aesthetics are a subjective matter but we believe that the Ghostwriter Prism is aesthetically pleasing and that its design matches almost every environment, without being too plain for a gaming desktop or too extravagant for an office setup. Our only complaint lies with the wide lighting opening on the Spacebar key that does not match the single LED found beneath it.

The quality of the Ghostwriter Prism is excellent. Its switches are coming from the most reputable manufacturer, Cherry, whose products always give us very consistent and exceptional laboratory testing results. The body of the keyboard is simple and sturdy, yet the sharp edges are weak points and may be chipped if the keyboard is hit with substantial force. Its extra buttons and sound volume wheel are of excellent quality and are very well applied. Inside the keyboard, the assembly job is excellent but, ideally, we would have liked to see better processor and LED control chipsets.

This keyboard's only real shortcoming at this point of time is the software. It is targeted towards a group of users that are very demanding and the current BETA version of the software is offering only rudimentary features. With the final release of the software still months away, a large number of potential purchasers may be dissuaded. Advanced gamers will probably have to result to a third-party macro programming software but that adds both complexity and cost, which reduce the overall value of the Ghostwriter Prism.

The Ghostwriter Prism is currently priced at $130 including shipping, pitting it against some of the best keyboards available right now. It does not lack the quality or design to compete in this segment of the market. Riotoro's real problem is that they are behind in the release of a good programming software that will allow the Ghostwriter Prism to unleash its full potential - something that almost every other company in that segment of the market does not have to worry about.