halfbyte

I am not a keyboard geek by any means. I got into mechanical keyboards after I switched back from Mac to Windows as my daily driver and I didn't find any compact keyboards that were satisfactory. The usual Logitech offerings felt oddd and while I still use a K380 occasionally on the road because it is so compact and fits into the bag with the roost laptop stand, it is not a great keyboard in comparison to the ridiculously expensive but very, very nice Magic Keyboard from Apple.

So I looked for keyboards that would take a little less space on my desk than a standard size PC keyboard (with numpad and all) and ended up with a Ducky mechanical keyboard (brown switches) in the TKL (Ten-Key-Less. Yeah. Great name) form factor.

I was (and still am) quite happy with this keyboard, but then I learned about Keychron and their low profile keyboards. As soon as an ISO version of that became available, I bought the K3. This is an interesting one. I initially bought it with red switches and those are wayyyy too sensitive for me. Also, the compact layout somehow made typing really error prone for me. I later switched out the switches for low profile browns but as much as I like that keyboard visually, I never really managed to get used to it without still hitting the occasional wrong key. At the same time as I got the replacement switches, I got me a K2, which is basically the non-low-profile version of the K3 (also with brown switches). Typing on it is much better, so I assume it's something about the low profile keys of the K3 that makes it weird for me.

I was more or less happy with the Ducky and the K2 sitting at my two computer stations (at home and in the office).

And then Keychron started to put out their QMK series of keyboards (QMK being an open source for mechanical keyboards which has some really nice features and allows for full customisation with open tools) and I was suddenly thinking about getting yet another keyboard.

What needs to be said here is that the V-Series from Keychron has an almost insane value-for-money factor. Both V-Series keyboards I got since they came out (I now own a V1 and a V3) are below 100 money units. They have a plastic housing but weigh a ton, have the best keyboard feeling I have ever felt on a keyboard (much better than both the Ducky and the K2), the keyboard has a knob with an integrated button that makes adjusting the system volume and quick muting a breeze, and they are basically the cheaper variants of the Q series that has full metal housings and are available in more options for switches and colors of the housing and the keycaps. The designs are nice, but I am happy with the subdued blue tints with the orange esc key.

I got the V3 first, which is a TKL layout keyboard and then most recently I got the V1, which has a slightly roomier 60% layout than the K2, with the cursor keys slightly outdented and the row with the knob and the pgup/pgdown/home keys also slightly shifted away from the main keys, which probably makes this even a bit more reliable for me than the K2.

This is not a sponsored post, I just really fell in love with these two keyboards – They are amazing out of the box and I am perfectly content with how they are right now (That being said, I may, if they ever become available again, be tempted to get some more interestingly colored keycaps). I don't think I will ever go down that rabbit hole of lubing and shimming and what not and I don't think I would particularly enjoy that anyway (Soooo many keys on a keyboard, no, thank you)