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The 3 Best Keychron Keyboards of 2023 Reviews

Updated
Best Keychron Keyboards

Keychron makes various mechanical keyboards across several different lineups, from the premium Q Series to the more budget-friendly, wireless K Series. Within each lineup, you'll find a variety of sizes and configurations, from tiny 40% boards to full-size 100% units, and they even offer a choice of ANSI and ISO layouts. At the heart of many of their designs, Keychron keyboards are meant to be customizable and give users the freedom to create a typing experience tailored to their own preferences. Certain models also include toolkits to allow you to fully deconstruct your keyboard and provide an excellent gateway into the custom keyboard world.

We've tested over 190 keyboards, with over 20 of them from Keychron. Below are our picks for the best Keychron keyboards.

Updates

Best Keychron Keyboards


  1. Best Keychron Keyboard

    The best Keychron keyboard you can get is the Keychron Q6. This full-size board is from Keychron's premium Q Series lineup, a range of products with an aluminum case, durable PBT keycaps, and a gasket-mounted design for a softer typing experience. The Q6 is the largest model in Keychron's extensive Q Series lineup and includes a full Numpad, navigational cluster, and function row. However, there are plenty of other sizes in the Q Series that you may want to look into, from the programming and writing-friendly Keychron Q2 to the tiny Keychron Q4 and even the more ergonomically focused Keychron Q8.

    While the typing quality is excellent, the standout feature of the boards is their range of customization. You can alter or replace any component of this board, including the top plate, the switches, the keycaps, and even the case foam within the board. It's a great starting point for people looking to get into the keyboard modification hobby or just if you want something to tinker with on your desk. Each keyboard also comes with an included toolkit to make alterations easier.

    See our review

  2. Best Mid-Range Keyboard

    Combining the features of the premium Q Series and the budget-friendly K series keyboards, the Keychron V Series keyboards are well-built, customizable units that fall squarely in the mid-range point of Keychron's offerings. We've singled out the Compact (75%) Keycrhon V1 size as our recommendation, but there are plenty of other sizes, including the slightly larger TenKeyLess V3 or the full-size V6. These keyboards are available in two colorways: a solid Carbon Black and a translucent Frosted Black with a nostalgic Y2K aesthetic. Both colorways are made of durable plastic rather than solid aluminum, making these boards physically lighter than the Q Series boards but slightly less premium-feeling. Otherwise, the V Series features the same PBT keycaps and range of customization as the Keychron Q6 and the rest of the Q Series, so you can easily replace the case foam, stabilizers, switches, and keycaps.

    These keyboards are compatible with VIA companion software, meaning you can create profiles with customized RGB lighting, macros, and key assignments on any desktop operating system. These keyboards also use Keychron branded switches, which feel very similar to Gateron switches, but they have a box around the stem to help ease up any side-to-side key wobble. They feel scratchy, but a little lube helps smooth the typing experience. There are also two incline settings to help alleviate the strain from tilting your wrists upwards, though the high profile on these keyboards might warrant a wrist rest for optimum comfort.

    See our review

  3. Best Budget Keychron Keyboard

    While both the Keychron Q6 and the Keychron V1 are wired-only keyboards, the budget-friendly Keychron K4 is wireless. It connects via Bluetooth with up to three devices simultaneously, or you can use it in a wired mode if you prefer. The trade-off for the wireless connectivity options comes in at the build quality and range of customization—like the rest of the standard K Series, the K4 has somewhat lower-quality ABS keycaps and has an all-plastic build. Due to this change in the keycap material, typing feels a little less premium, as ABS keycaps are prone to develop shine from your finger oil over time. However, each K Series board has an included keycap puller, making it easy to change out these stock keycaps for more durable ones.

    As this is still part of the Keychron family, it's still very customizable, though it doesn't include all the tools, like a hex key and screwdriver. Keychron even offers multiple versions of the K4 on their website, with white or RGB backlighting and even an option that has an aluminum frame if you want to elevate the build quality slightly. And, like with the rest of the Keychron lineup, if you don't like the size of the board, you'll likely find a size and configuration within the K-lineup that best suits your needs. Regardless of the size or variant you choose, a K Series board is a reliable wireless unit with an excellent out-of-the-box typing experience, making it a rare gem in the market, especially at its budget price point.

    See our review

Compared to other brands


  • Highly customizable keyboards. Within lineups, Keychron's models perform very similarly, with their main difference being size. Most Series also include variants with hot-swappable printed circuit boards (PCBs) that can accept most 3-pin and 5-pin switches, allowing you to get your typing experience exactly how you want it to feel and sound.
  • Windows and macOS compatibility. Keychron has physical switches on their keyboards to change between the Windows and Mac/iOS modes, and they have keycaps for each operating system. Unlike other keyboards, all buttons will work on macOS and Windows if you use the proper mode.
  • Companion software limited to certain models. More premium lineups, like the Q Series and V Series keyboards, are compatible with VIA which is an open-source software program for customization that's available on all major desktop operating systems, including Linux. However, some of Keychron's more budget offerings, including most of their K Series models aren't compatible with this software, limiting your ability to program macros, remap keys, and adjust the backlighting.
  • Higher latency than others. Since Keychron keyboards are designed more for everyday use and productivity, their latency isn't as low as dedicated gaming options. While their latency is more than adequate for casual gaming and typing, it isn't suitable for playing competitive or reaction-based games.

Keychron vs Logitech

Logitech's product range is significantly wider than Keychron's as Logitech makes everything from simple, scissor-switch office models to high-end mechanical gaming keyboards. Logitech's models also offer cross-device compatibility within their larger peripheral system, meaning you can use a single USB receiver for a mouse and a keyboard combination. However, the major difference between brands is that Keychron's keyboards are available in a much wider variety of sizes and layouts. Many are designed more for customization, as you can easily alter almost every aspect of them.

Keychron vs Ducky

Ducky and Keychron both make a similar range of customizability-focused mechanical keyboards. However, Keychron's got a bit of an edge since they make wireless keyboards, while Ducky makes wired-only units. Ducky's keyboards are more versatile as they're designed with gaming in mind, so the latency is significantly lower and better suited to competitive gaming. While both brands make keyboards with hot-swappable printed circuit boards, Keychron's units offer slightly more customization overall, as many of their keyboards are compatible with VIA software.

Keychron's keyboards are excellent starting points for those looking to get into mechanical keyboards to elevate their study or work environment. Most of their offerings have hot-swappable printed circuit boards compatible with most 3-pin and 5-pin switches, so you can get the typing feeling and experience you want. As a bonus, they're one of the few keyboards that offer full compatibility with every desktop operating system and even include system-specific keycap sets. Overall, they offer an excellent entry point into the mechanical keyboarding hobby, but even if you aren't interested in customization, you'll still enjoy the outstanding build quality and very satisfying typing experience that Keychron keyboards offer.

Lineup

Keychron has introduced a range of different keyboard lineups they call series. Each one has a letter designator and a number. Generally, keyboards with the same letter designator share similar overall design principles and feature sets. The number designators only relate to the order in which they were released in the series and aren't associated with the keyboard size.

Q Series: This lineup features premium wired mechanical keyboards with gasket-mounted designs that provide a more cushioned, premium-feeling typing experience. They're designed to be fully customizable, including the switches, case foam, top plate, and all internal components. These keyboards also support QMK firmware and VIA software for further customization. All Q Series boards have distinct PBT keycaps with a tapered top and rounded edges, and they come in various sizes and three colorways.

V Series: This lineup is Keychron's budget version of the Q Series. These models are designed to be easy to customize, but instead of an aluminum case, they have a plastic case and a tray-mounted design. There are two main colorway options: a Y2K style translucent plastic case or an opaque black plastic case. These keyboards use PBT keycaps with a tapered top and rounded edges, and they're also wired-only.

K Series: This lineup features more basic wireless keyboards that connect with Bluetooth. They have a standard tray mount design and are mostly meant to be used out-of-the-box with little modifications. That said, some keyboards in this lineup have a hot-swappable variant, meaning you can change out the stock switches. Within this lineup, there are boards of all sizes and some low-profile variants. It's worth noting that this lineup doesn't have companion software and uses gray and orange ABS keycaps.

C Series: This lineup consists of two basic, wired models. They have a lower build quality than the K series as they're entirely plastic with ABS keycaps. They're wired only and don't allow for much customization as they're meant to be used right out of the box.

S-Series: The defining feature of the S Series keyboards is that they have low-profile designs and use low-profile switches. They also combine elements from other Keychron Series keyboards, including all-metal construction similar to the premium Q Series keyboards and LSA profile keycaps introduced on some Keychron K Pro Series keyboards.

K Pro and Q Pro Series: Keychron is re-releasing 'Pro' versions of some of their existing lineups. Essentially, these Pro series keyboards add wireless connectivity for models that lacked it previously, and they also make several smaller upgrades to things like keycaps and frame options for models that were using ABS keycaps and plastic frames.

Recent Updates

  1. Apr 14, 2023: We've gone through this article and added new information about Keychron's low-profile Series keyboards. We've also made some changes to the text for tone and clarity, but we've kept our current lineup of recommendations the same as they continue to represent the best picks for their categories.

  2. Dec 15, 2022: Replaced the Keychron Q2 with the Keychron Q6 for better consistency across articles.

  3. Sep 16, 2022: Overhauled article to better showcase the Keychron lineup and align with user expectations. Updated the intro and comparative texts.

  4. Apr 22, 2022: Changed the pick for "Best Wired" from the Keychron C2 to the Keychron Q1, as the Q1 is a more versatile option.

  5. Dec 23, 2021: We verified that all our picks represent the best recommendations at this time and that all products are currently in stock.

Conclusion

Keychron makes a large number of different keyboards aimed primarily at everyday browsing, work, and more casual gaming. Their models are available in different sizes, and some are highly customizable in switch options, backlighting, connectivity, and even frames. Keychron also includes a switch to change between Windows and macOS support, and they usually include extra keycaps for macOS. Keychron doesn't have dedicated customization software, but many of its keyboards are VIA and QMK compatible. Altogether, Keychron offers a dizzying range of keyboards in many different sizes at different price points and with different levels of customizability, which means you're likely to find a keyboard within their catalog that suits your needs.

Test results