Keychron Keyboard

Computer

With lockdown continuing in the UK, and working from home, I decided to look once more at the mechanical keyboard market.

I had been using the Logitech K350 on Windows without any issues, but for whatever reason, I wasn’t able to use this nicely on the Mac - I’d often get drop outs or lag, where what I was typing wasn’t picked up, or was lost completely 1.

In the mean time, I’d been using a Windows Dell keyboard - a cheap and cheerful keyboard that did the job, and I actually wasn’t getting RSI by using it! So even though it’s not ergonomic, I was able to use it successfully without getting any wrist pain.

Keychron K1

I looked around - if I could get a Mac specific mechanical keyboard, that would be good. This lead to Keychron, who do Mac specific mechanical keyboards. After looking around their site for a bit, I decided on a Keychron K1, a low profile, Bluetooth keyboard. The intention was that if the Dell keyboard wasn’t causing RSI, then a low profile keyboard may well be fine.

It arrived pretty quickly considering the global pandemic and I was able to use it over the Christmas break.

I went with the Blue Switches, as I’ve found that the tactile keys of the Cherry/Gateron Blue’s are the best for me, though it does make the keyboard far noisier than normal! I don’t have an issue with this and as I’m working from home, it rarely annoys anyone else (though I do have to mute my mic when on Teams and using it!)

Keychron K8

After using the low profile keyboard for a while, I found that I was missing the key travel of a full size keyboard. I was bottoming out the keys far more quickly (hardly surprising!)

Because of this, I ended up purchasing the Keychron K8 keyboard, as I purchased during the Christmas period, which gave me a discount and selling the K1.

The K8 is almost the same, but has normal size keys, which means I’m able to type without issues. Using it for a period of time, I’m happily typing and not getting the feeling that the keyboard is to shallow.

I also purchased a wrist rest from Amazon, as I didn’t want to suffer any RSI, and I thought the wrist rest would help. Using both the K8, wrist rest and a Logitech MX Vertical, everything seems to be OK.

Conclusions

The Keychron K8 is ideal. I had concerns about using a keyboard with a numpad, but after a brief period of adjustment, I got used to it, and it just meant I’d bring my USB power numpad out the drawer if I needed it.

  1. However, it appears from a post on Mac Power Users that this might be related to Time Machine starting and working - which makes sense, as using a MacBook Air without Time Machine enabled it seems to work perfectly. ↩︎