Keychron Q Pro Series [Q1 Pro, Q2 Pro, etc.] vs Q5 Max [Q1 Max, Q2 Max, etc.]

Jul 05, 2024 09:50 AM By dreamEnd

6

I thought that Pro and Max are pretty much the same thing other than the connectivity and extra dampeners on Max. But the Single-Key latency difference is MASSIVE. So what’s going on here? Was it just Max being better on every single Pro series? Or it’s because you guys used Q1 vs Q5 as a comparison, and they have slightly different performance? Or maybe it’s just the factory “quality lottery” ? I hope you guys tested more, like Q1 Pro vs Q1 Max and Q5 Pro vs Q5 Max for example. Because I can’t tell the cause of the stark difference. Was it because of the Pro compared against Max lineup, or was it because it was 75% compared against the 96% lineup.

Thanks for reaching out!

While we can’t say for sure why the new Q Max models outperform the older Q Pro models, we do have some theories.

For starters, the new Q Max models have upgraded MCUs. The older Q Pro models use STM32L432 units, while the newer Max boards use STM32F402RCT6 units. On paper, these two microcontrollers have similar specs, but we also expect Keychron is leveraging these new microcontrollers with significantly improved firmware. Firmware improvements may include better debounce timing and key scanning frequency, but given that Keychron doesn’t disclose these changes, this remains an educated guess on our part.

To further support this possibility, we’ve also measured similar latency improvements on keyboards released in Keychron’s other ‘Max’ lineups, including the Keychron K Max and Keychron V Max series boards, both of which perform similarly better than their predecessors.

As for potential differences from testing different non-matching size variants:

We’ve done some small-scale investigating into this question in the past. It appears to be a factor that can affect latency performance. However, our current understanding is that this difference is small and doesn’t account for the kind of latency difference we can see here between any model in the Q Pro and Q Max series. For this reason, we remain very confident that testing one model in a wider lineup provides relevant comparability for other models. If you’re interested, you can read more about some of our latency testing in one of our recent test bench changelogs here.

Hopefully, that answers your question. We’d love to hear from you again if you have any more follow-up questions or comments.

Best wishes.

I thought that Pro and Max are pretty much the same thing other than the connectivity and extra dampeners on Max. But the Single-Key latency difference is MASSIVE. So what’s going on here? Was it just Max being better on every single Pro series? Or it’s because you guys used Q1 vs Q5 as a comparison, and they have slightly different performance? Or maybe it’s just the factory “quality lottery” ?

I hope you guys tested more, like Q1 Pro vs Q1 Max and Q5 Pro vs Q5 Max for example. Because I can’t tell the cause of the stark difference. Was it because of the Pro compared against Max lineup, or was it because it was 75% compared against the 96% lineup.