Great, honest, and informative review. Love it! Waiting on my K10 to arrive. I am a 100% KB kind of guy! Figuring out the key switch, I decided to go with Blues because of the feedback. Minimize the bottom-out opportunities.
This sounds like the ideal keyboard for me. Got the number pad and everything for if I need it but cleaner looking and more sturdy. If I'm not happy with how it sounds and feels I can fix that. And it'll last me a long time. This and an upgrade to my computer to replace it with a powerful one is all I'll need to get to my crazy photography hobbies.
Keychrons just look so conservative, I love it. Been using the K2 for almost a year now and it has been revolutionary. I'm actually considering switching to the K4 for the numpads. 7:30 putting your wrist rest under your arms instead of your wrists might be the reason you get finger fatigue. With a keyboard as thick as mechanicals, the point of the rest is to keep your wrists straight, otherwise you're always flexing the muscles in your hands when typing. Hope that helps.
I was/am in the same pickle you were, I purchased a Keychron Q6, and still trying to get it to work. The enter key types a "\" and if you want to hit the enter key, you have to type the "\|" to get a enter/return. I been trying to figure this out for a few days and no luck, ugggg" I love the feel, and look of the keyboard so I am really hoping I can get it working. Great review and keeping it real as others have said. UPDATE I got it working. I had to flash the firmware using the US ANSI firmware. YAY!!
I just bought the keyboard and i wish I got the reds, the brown is really nice for typing but then I played Minecraft and the tactile feeling was quite distracting I do have hotswap so at least there is that
Really appreciate the no-nonsense lowdown. After a few weeks now with my K4, looks like we agree on nearly everything. Love the overall quality build. _Realllly_ tried to get used to the crammed together layout but NOPE.. it's driving me batty so need to return it. After this I realized my jam is the spread-out 100% full-size, but think I'll be happier with the low-profile K5 instead of K10. Your comment on tactile/bump switches got me thinking, so may get those instead of reds.
Good review! And excellent point about the num pad and spreadsheets. The K3 looks quite awesome, but I think that I'd miss the keypad. Actually I would, even in my laptops I have num pads 😅 And listening to you, I think I'll go with the brown one. Anyways, thanks for the video!
I'm glad it helped, man. For some reason, the switches seem to have a lower actuation force on Keychron keyboards than on other mechanical boards I've tried, so I found my fingers get tired when I type on their boards if they have red switches. But since this video came out, I have become a lot more accustomed to typing on different switches, so I wonder if I still think the browns feel better than the reds. Either way, I think the browns are the best switches to use if you're just switching from a membrane keyboard, and I don't regret my purchase in the slightest. As a fellow numpad user, I should point out that I've actually switched to using a 75% layout as my default keyboard, with a separate numberpad off to the left of my keyboard. Since working with numbers typically involves me clicking where I want to input the number with my right hand, and it just seemed more efficient for me to use my left hand to input the keywords. It doesn't save very much time input-to-input, but the efficiency benefits in the long term have definitely been worth it. I've been at it for about 8 months now and I don't know if there's any turning back for me.
@@nerdyneighbor I got the K4 this week and no regrets, I've just used it for a couple of days but loving it so far. Coming from full sized keyboards (I have a Razer Cynosa home and some crap HP in the office) I'm loving the experience. It will take a bit of time to get used to having all the keys next to each other, but so far so good. I'm also considering the K7 as a portable option, but they don't sell it yet up here with Nordic layout so I'll have to wait for a while.
I use k4 for a half a year and one thing that irritated me the most is that I always accidentally missed click the Arrow Key when typing because of there is no room space for the arrow key.
Oh man, i'm late to this vid. I made the transition to mac in 2014 and have never looked back. However, I'm a gamer who has always used consoles and I decided to shake things up a bit, so I decided to purchase the K4 Wireless today. No, I didn't buy it specifically for gaming lol; I'm a heavy productivity user so, a lot of typing goes in for podcast scripts, academic papers, etc. The point of this comment is that I wasn't sure if I made the right decision in buying this keyboard...but it turns out I did -- thanks for that. One of the thing that I was looking forward to was the non-scissor keyboard because it generated mistakes by lightly toughing a key. Also, you got a new subscriber
I'm late to this comment! Thanks for the sub. What I've ended up doing is getting a separate Numpad, and then putting it off to the left of my keyboard. That way, I can get any 60-80% keyboard I want without giving up functionality.
Awesome review, i am getting into learning programming and was thinking of buying my first mechanical keyboard (first keyboard really, never bought one) - a keychron K8 Could you tell me between k4 and k8, which should i pick, as one has a numpad and i don't know if i will really need one in the future Will be a great help!
Glad you liked the review. The way I see it, if you don't KNOW you need the one with the numpad, then get the k4 or k8. I actually have another keyboard that's a 60% layout, and when I'm doing writing, I actually switch to that one because I like something smaller.
@@nerdyneighbor Thanks, I'll be buying a K4 as soon as i have saved enough. By any chance would you happen to know a keyboard which is a little cheaper but comparable in quality?
@@ksinitial Am working as developer for 4yrs now and tried a lot of different keyboards and in my opinion for Keychron price range, there's no better keyboard. Especially if u using both mac and win.
i wish i saw this video like two weeks ago, as i am going to return the k4v2 i ordered for the exact same reasons you list here as downsides - difficult to get keycaps for 96 keyboard. i also want the k10 instead.
Yes, 96 Keyboard is not easily fit to cheap caps. However in the end I choose Akko which can provide a whole set with some color schemes to change. The problem is I don't know what to deal with the extra keycaps lol
@@nerdyneighbor since the end towards the spacebar seems a little inclined, it is probably the second version. The first version did not have this incline and this was one of the complaints users had, because it meant having a higher wrist angle. They fixed it in this one.
I’m a finger slammer, and sometimes I get fatigue with reds, which is why I got brown switches. But after trying some other keyboards, I think it’s just the actuation force of the red switches keychron puts in theirs (or how they set them up) that I don’t like. I have a few set ups that I use. For MacOS, I typically use the keychron K7 now, but I’ve purchased a number pad separately and have it off to the left. It’s more efficient for me to do spreadsheets with one hand on the mouse, and another on the numpad, instead of my left hand doing nothing. I also sometimes use the Nuphy Air75 for that setup as well. For my Windows setup, I’ve really enjoyed the Havit wired keyboard here: amzn.to/3XEiMzu It’s TKL with a numpad. It takes just a minute to get used to the layout because most numpads have the math keys right around them, and this has them just off to the side. But I do like the way it feels.
I wouldn't recommend it. The thing with like an Apple keyboard is that it's so flat that it doesn't matter if you have a wrist rest. But with mechanical keyboards, I think wrist rests are a must.
After a while, it powers itself off. Actually it's faster than I would like. It only takes a couple of minutes for it to go into standby mode. But there should also be an offswitch on the top/back of the keyboard, if I'm remembering right.
I recently purchased a Keychron K7. The K7 is advertised as "wireless". It is actually Bluetooth (same frequency band, different protocols). Connected to my system with supplied (too short) USB cable. Multiple keys do not work. Keychron sent me a link to a website designed to test keyboards. I sent a screenshot of the results to Keychron. Keychron demands a video showing the keyboard and screen proving that I did not falsify the test results. The product is sold "as is" - there is no warranty. Tried to get an RMA number and a return shipping label. If the keys do NOT work, the feel DOES NOT MATTER, and the reliability DOES NOT MATTER! If this is the way they treat their customers, do not expect them to be there in a few years. I have never had a company demand that I provide a video proving that I did not falsify their test data. Look at their "service" non-warranty. They specify "as-is". They do not guarantee that their products work to any extent. And they refuse any responsibility for what happens when you use their product. The laws in Hong Kong must be very different. The reason some keys do not work could possibly be defects in design or manufacturing. More likely, the firmware does not conform to the USB Human Interface Device (HID) standard. Since they take an adversarial position to customer complaints, I do not see them lasting very long. Other manufacturers can make (or buy) red optical switches. Do not expect Keychron to be there when you have problems in 5 or 10 years. I have demanded that, for the video, they must send a cameraman and equipment and pay me my consultant fee for demonstrating that their keyboard does not work. I have also demanded a written apology from the CEO and an immediate refund. Other manufacturers should re-think the Windows and Apple-only policies. Given that iOS is a facade sitting on top of embedded Ubuntu Linux (eLinux), Android is a facade on top of eLinux, Chrome OS is a facade on top of eLinux, OS X for the M1 is probably a facade on top of eLinux, and Windows for the ARM is a facade on top of eLinux, supporting Linux might be a good idea. Apparently, Keychron does not have a Customer Service Department. I did receive an email claiming that if I sent the defective keyboard to their warehouse, I would get a refund. I emailed back, "What is the address of your warehouse?" They eventually gave me the mailing address. On September 10 I sent the keyboard back. As of December 16, no refund and no keyboard. Robert Pearson
