Keychron Q1 Pro review: Finally a wireless & metal mechanical keyboard

Keychron Q1 Professional

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First, Keychron made wi-fi mechanical keyboards. Then it made weighty metallic keyboards. It added a twisting knob for good measure. Now, it has mixed all these elements along with the Q1 Professional.

The distinction right here is that the Keychron Q1 Professional incorporates a full aluminum physique whereas remaining untethered from a pc or iPad. And. that addition of Bluetooth to a full metallic mechanical keyboard has been the lacking piece to the more and more premium units Keychron has been making.

The headlining characteristic of the Q1 Professional is that it consists of Broadcom Bluetooth 5.1. It is in a position to do that due to a small, camouflage, piece of plastic on the again that enables the sign to flee.

In typical Keychron vogue, there’s nothing difficult concerning the wi-fi implementation right here. There are not any dongles to plug in or items so as to add.

A change for utilizing cable or Bluetooth

Every little thing is built-in and wi-fi could be toggled between wired and wi-fi modes and Home windows and Mac through slider switches additionally on the again. (The identical as its different keyboards.)

Whereas we had no issues with the wi-fi connectivity, some folks will possible grumble that that is Bluetooth and never RF.

We did not expertise any lag or management points when utilizing the keyboard for our every day typing. We pounded out at the least a number of thousand phrases and it carried out as anticipated.

Past being a full aluminum wi-fi mechanical keyboard, the Q1 Professional can join with as much as three units and be used with Mac, Home windows, and Linux computer systems.

It has a customizable knob with an aluminum rotary encoder that can be utilized for issues like zooming in or out, altering display screen brightness, scrolling brush dimension, adjusting the amount, or choosing movies or photographs.

Q1 Professional includes a customizable knob

We did not use the Q1 Professional for gaming, nevertheless it does have a 1,000Hz polling fee out of the field when utilizing a USB-C cable in wired mode, or 90 Hz polling fee in wi-fi mode. It additionally has an ARM Cortex-M4 32-bit STM32L432 chip inside and has 128K Flash for builders.

These are all the identical issues because the Q1 keyboard, besides that one can solely be utilized in a wired configuration.

The few variations between the Q1 and Q1 Professional embody a versatile PC (Polycarbonate) plate as an alternative of a metal one. The Q1 makes use of OSA double-shot PBT keycaps whereas the Professional makes use of KSA double-shot PBT keycaps. The Q1 has Gateron G Professional mechanical change on the assembled mannequin whereas the Professional comes with Keychron Ok Professional mechanical change.

The Q1 Professional has a 4,000 mAh battery which ought to last as long as 300 hours when not utilizing any backlighting. On the bottom brightness backlighting, that quantity goes right down to 90 hours — nonetheless a good quantity.

Whereas the Q1 Professional comes prepared to make use of out of the field, in case you purchase the totally assembled variant, utilizing VIA to program the keys can nonetheless really feel somewhat technical for most people.

First-time customers diving into the world of mechanical keyboards may really feel somewhat overwhelmed. That mentioned, so long as somebody is keen to do some studying, Keychron does a stable job of offering documentation.

We did not must customise too many parts of the Q1 Professional to be comfy with its configuration. We modified the knob from mute to play/pause when pressed. We additionally modified the web page up and web page down keys and made a few different tweaks.

Despite the fact that we actually like this Q1 Professional keyboard, it is laborious to suggest it universally.

Keyboards are a private product. For this reason Keychron makes so many alternative fashions, with a number of variants.

22 sorts of RGB backlight choices

For our typing wants, nevertheless, we liked it. We thought the Q1 Professional was good for a stationary workspace, due to its metallic heft.

It is nice for giant desks as a result of its wi-fi characteristic will not litter up the house or introduce issues with cable size.

We liked the straightforward, however functionally glorious, customizable twisting knob. The RGB backlighting labored properly too.

However principally, it is all these items mixed, tied along with wi-fi connectivity that was the bow on prime for us.

If that is what you have been ready for, we will verify this can be a good possibility.

The Q1 Professional is following Keychron’s typical Kickstarter launch methodology. It is out there for pre-order now for a slight low cost. It ought to ship by April 2023.

• Wired and wi-fi connectivity
• Steel body and heavy weight feels premium
• Programmable knob