Clean look? invoice. Mac and Windows connectivity? invoice. Geitron Brown switches? invoice. White backlight? invoice. The Keychron K2 has all the components of a decent little mechanical mechanical keyboard that can be great for office use, and for only $ 69, it’s easy to see why it has become so popular with so many people.
The last few years have led to a lot of people grabbing new hobbies and one big one was the world of building your own keyboard with chassis, switches, PCBs and so on. To do this, you will need to understand what a mechanical keyboard is, and the Keychron K2 has marked itself, in the eyes of the generalists, as a wonderful initial keyboard that can serve as a wider entry gate. The world of mechanics.
Its design is remarkably simple with gray ABS keypads and a slightly more compact 84-key layout that skimps only on the numpad and offers a slightly crushed navigation cluster. While I’ve argued before that 60% compact keyboards might be the way to go if you’re a space saver gamer, the 75% supply of Keychron K2 might just make me rethink that decision. For a more reasonable board, the build quality is fairly stable with no flexibility in the deck and some decent weight. It’s not an M model of course, but as for the price, I have no complaints.
As the switches go through, my review sample is equipped with some Cherry MX Brown clones courtesy of Gateron. As much as Gitron says they weigh 55 grams, I can not help but think that they feel much lighter than that, and compared to the real things, also feel a bit hollow. To make matters worse, under the Backspace and Enter key, you can hear the sound of the metal stabilizer making the switches slightly sharp, which brings the feeling of the Keychron K2 which is a cheaper board too close to home.
Specification K2
Switches: Gaitron Brown
array: ANSI / ISO
Taillight: White / RGB (Depending on model)
roll: Full NKRO
Voting rate: No
Key keys: ABS, laser engraved
Essay: Bluetooth 5.1, USB-C
Lonely media controls: Yes (controlled by the F keys)
price: $ 69
Browns are, in essence, a typist’s switch with their small, useful tactile bump in the middle of the ride, but with these competitors with Gateron’s pre-pin, there’s no reason you can not indulge in games with them, as I did for this review. . They are smooth and pleasant to use for it, even with the bulge, and with the K2 also offering a full NKRO, it can also be seen as a quite useful game board.
The Keychron K2 also includes the ability to connect to up to three devices simultaneously, which I found particularly useful when using my PC or MacBook Pro for work and writing. Speaking of MacOS and connectivity, on the left side of the K2, there are a few different switches that let you choose whether you want it to work via Bluetooth or the included cable or use it in Windows or Mac mode. All changes are almost instantaneous, and as for the Bluetooth matching process, it could not have been simpler.
Battery life is also something to write home about with a capacity of 4000mAh which ensures that the K2 can go far, with or without backlighting. You will find a total of 68 hours with full lighting and 240 hours with it off, meaning you can go weeks without touching the USB Type-C charging cable.
The use of K2 as a Windows and Mac keyboard also matches the fact that you can get plenty of different sets of MX-stem keys to completely change the look of the keyboard, whether it’s from Keychron themselves or from other places on the web. In the box you get a taste with the replaceable function keys of Mac or Windows, depending on the platform you are using, which are simple to remove and replace with the included keypad extractor.
If you also want to replace the switches, the K2 is also available in a hot-swappable form, allowing you to sketch a few different MX-Stem switches, whether they are Gaterons, TTCs or the real thing. Although I did not use the hot swappable version, it’s cool that Keychron offers you the opportunity to do so.
As for the backlight, my K2 spec keeps things simple with some white lighting that is vibrant and crispy nicely and nicely offsets the darker color of the keyboard cover. Oddly enough, when you first turn on the board and plug it in, it offers a pulsating pattern as opposed to something more static, and you have to go through almost all the preferences to get to it, which is a bit painful. . The proposed lighting settings will be familiar to anyone who has ever used an inexpensive RGB gaming keyboard from Amazon with your traditional static, ripple and breathing styles, all handled, alongside a few other, more left-handed choices. There are also four lighting levels to choose from, which means you need to find one that fits easily.
Essentially, the Keychron K2 is a useful entry-level mechanical keyboard, and for $ 69 Or so, you can not necessarily be wrong. Its assembly quality is reasonable with little weight, and the triple connectivity of the device is useful if you are flipping between devices during a work day. That being said, sometimes it can to feel Like a cheap keyboard – lighting switches with ping sounds and presets of lighting do not help it too much in some cases.
However, overall, if you are looking for an entry-level mechanical keyboard, this is a good choice, especially if you work from home and use multiple devices.