Keychron Q1 Pro Review and Mod Sound Test

so I'm a little late to the party with the q1 pro because it's been out for several months but recently I decided to get one to see if there have been any significant improvements over the original cue line of keyboards in addition to the Bluetooth connectivity and what I found is that it definitely is a great higher end pre-built keyboard right out of the box with a few improvements over the original queue line but one big thing in common so I have a Q5 that I've had for about a year and while I enjoy it overall I kind of thought that it required a lot of tinkering to feel and sound really good especially for a keyboard that already cost two hundred dollars with the q1 pro I have found some improvements and as I mentioned something that it has in common with the original q line I'll elaborate on that just a little bit but first let's just do a quick rundown of all these specs and features of the q1 pro the q1 pro is a 75 ANSI layout keyboard with an encoder knob and it also is available in an ISO layout available colorways include carbon black silver gray and shell white as well as limited edition Black and White Construction is all aluminum with a gasket Mount PCB and plate assembly with a polycarbonate plate stabilizers are screw in PCB mounted for easy removal if you need to tune Lube or replace them dimensions are 327 millimeters by 145 millimeters by 35.8 millimeters and a weight of the fully assembled version is 1736 grams or 3.8 pounds connectivity includes three Bluetooth connections and wired USBC there is an OS switch on the back next to the power switch for changing between Windows and Mac layouts the battery is 4 000 milliamp hour with an estimated use time of 300 hours with backlighting off and 100 hours with the backlighting on the lowest setting the rgbs are south facing with 22 modes but the included keycaps are not shy through switch options include k-pro brown red and banana which is another tactile option keycaps are double shot PBT in the KSA profile which is quite tall and sculpted the q1 pro is qmk via compatible for remapping adding macros and working with layers the q1 pro is available on kikron's website for 199 us and on Amazon for 219 dollars US all right so let's get into pros and cons and I'm not going to spend quite as much time on pros and cons in this video as I do in my other reviews because I don't know that I'm going to have anything super novel to contribute since this keyboard's been out for a while but I do want to spend a little bit of time talking about something I don't usually spend time talking about in my reviews but first let's run down my observations for the pros with the q1 pro first of all excellent build quality as with the original queue line the all metal construction is really really solid very substantial on your desk and just overall really well executed another Pro is the Bluetooth connectivity specifically the stability of the Bluetooth connectivity I've had a really good experience using the q1 pro over Bluetooth for the last week it has not had any issues with latency or lag when I come back to my computer after taking a break the first key press wakes up the computer immediately and it starts registering my key presses right away of course via compatibility I always like qmk via instead of like proprietary manufacturer software because you've got the standard there once you know how to use via you know how to use it for every keyboard that's compatible so I love having that another Pro for me is the upgrade in the plate from the steel plate in the original q line to the polycarbonate plate and even though the original q line was also a gasket Mount PCB assembly like a sandwich that floats I think there's extra flexibility here because of the more flexible polycarbonate plate and even without typing heavily you can see the whole thing bouncing up and down it's Got That Bouncy softer typing feel that's less fatiguing it just feels really nice to type on and I think the added Flex from that polycarbonate plate is one of the reasons another Pro for me the banana switches are very satisfying to type on now they're not really similar to Panda switches in my opinion keychron's website says that these are supposed to be more like Panda switches the thing they do have in common with panda style tactile switches is the tactile bump is snappier it's a sharper tactile bump it's got that Snappy response to it but the thing they don't have in common holy pandas in the Glorious Panda switches both of those use a 67 gram spring so they're quite heavier these k-pro bananas have a 57 gram actuation Force so they're only slightly heavier feeling than a traditional Brown switch so to me they're not really like pandas but at the end of the day I like them the color options I think are nice the shell white colorway I think came out nice I like to see kikron changing it up and giving us some more colorway options so I do like the way this colorway looks and lastly for battery life this maybe is not a really a strong Pro this is more of like a neutral the battery life to me is good not fantastic but not disappointing either alright so the cons no 2.4 gigahertz connection probably not a surprise to hear me say that I wish it had one it doesn't another small con really is going to depend on your preferences so this is totally subjective the Q Pro Line they're going with the KSA keycaps which are very tall it's a variant of sa profile so it is to me quite tall and if you are somebody that rests your palms or wrists on either the desk or a wrist rest the taller profiles require you to really angle your fingers up in the air to rest on the keycaps and type and that can add a little bit of an uncomfortable angle or uncomfortable fatigue over time now you can help that by getting a wrist rest that raises up your wrists or if you're somebody that types with your wrist kind of floating up in the air then you probably won't notice that as much now there is a Bare Bones option with this so you can actually pay a little less and get it without the keycaps and the switches and Supply your own so if you're somebody that knows you won't like a really tall keycap profile then maybe just go for the Bare Bones option because otherwise you're just paying for something you're not going to use and the last count for me is the thing that the q1 pro has in common with the original queue line it's that out of the box as a pre-built keyboard I think it could sound a little better and this is also super subjective sound is just as subjective as typing feel of keycaps and switches but to me I think it still requires a little tinkering to sound its best and if you're somebody that wants to pay 200 for a keyboard just so that it's perfect out of the box I wouldn't blame you 200 is a lot to pay for a keyboard I think it could just sound a little more buttoned down out of the box for example the the space bar not awful but also not fantastic there's some rattle in there and overall the sound profile if you like a clackier sounding keyboard and don't really like the deeper thoughtier sound then maybe this is perfect for you I just overall think it could sound a touch better out of the box for something that costs 200 bucks that being said I feel differently about this than I did about my Q5 I was almost annoyed that I had to Tinker with the Q5 as much as I did even though I love working on keyboards the q1 pro I feel differently because I feel like there's less work to do here so it's almost like I'm looking forward to tweaking this to my tastes because I don't feel like there's something necessarily wrong I just feel like maybe it's not to my taste out of the box it just depends on where you're coming from if where you're coming from is that you don't love the way this sounds and you don't want to have to make modifications to your keyboard then that's a con for you if you buy a keyboard like this expecting to modify it and really adjust the sound and the feel to to your taste then let's talk about some modifications all right just starting with the basics switches and keycaps I'm going to leave the k-pro banana switches in here for now because I want to see how my other modifications sound with those switches still in here first but then after we do that and we do a sound test I will swap the k-pro bananas out for some linear switches now I already said I'm not the biggest fan of super top profiles but to keep the overall theme of the keyboard in place I'm going to switch over to the 2048 extended keycap set which is an mt3 PBT set that I personally just really like the look of and I think it will help with the deeper sound I'm going for all right now let's talk about the internal mods that I think will help get me that Sound I'm looking for I'm actually just going to remove the thin case foam in the bottom of the case because it's not doing much anyway and if we want to have a deeper thalkier sound it's actually better to have less thick foam in the case because foam is going to absorb the lower frequencies that we're trying to promote but I am going to use poron foam in one place between the PCB and the plate I got this poron foam from keyboard customs and it's pre-cut for the q1 pro you can also cut your own from a poron sheet by tracing the necessary cutouts just make sure it's the right thickness and while the PCB is out I'm going to check the stabilizer lube and see if any adjustments are needed I'm not going to replace the stabilizers yet but I do have some Durock V2s I might swap in there if I'm still getting rattle after tuning these I'm also going to add a little bit of extra Force break around the case top and bottom screw holes and lastly I'm doing the tape mod to add a little pop to the sound one or two layers should be good by the way everything I used in my mods is linked to in the description I usually get supplies from Divinity and kinetic labs in the US mostly because they have fast delivery times in the United States and that's it for my mods let's see how it sounds [Applause] sounds pretty good to me and a little better than the stock sound as far as I'm concerned let me know what you think in the comments though but even though I like the feel of the K probins which is their sound profiles a little bit higher pitched a little clackier than I personally like so I'm going to swap in some gatoron CM linear switches that I got from Divinity and we're gonna see if that actually makes a difference in a lower pitched sound now that's my kind of sound profile may not be the deepest stockiest sound ever but it's definitely more marbly and deeper than the stock sound without any of the modifications we did between the really nice bouncy typing feel and now that adjusted sound profile I really enjoy this keyboard the great thing is if you like the switches that it came with whichever one you chose and if you like the keycaps it came with we still were able to get a nice sound adjustment out of it just by making those other mods so if you if I didn't change the keycaps or the switches nothing I did really is expensive but if you're more on the Enthusiast side of this well then we don't really keep track of cost after all you can't put a price on happiness right okay so at the end of the day the q1 pro I think is a great premium 75 keyboard with really only a couple of minor cons a 2.4 gigahertz connection and a slightly more buttoned down sound profile out of the box I think are really the only two improvements that I would make of course if we're making wishes I would like slightly longer battery life as well so who shouldn't buy the q1 pro well if you really need a 2.4 gigahertz connection if you're going to be doing a lot of gaming and you really need a wireless keyboard for your setup you've only got Bluetooth here and that's probably not a high enough polling rate for a lot of Competitive Gaming also if the idea of buying a 200 keyboard and potentially not liking the sound of it right out of the box and needing to do a couple of modifications if the idea of that is just like crazy to you then maybe this isn't on the top of your list but if you liked the sound of its stock then maybe that's not an issue for you so what do you think let me know down in the comments let me know if you have a q1 pro yourself let me know if you made any modifications to it and how you're liking it thanks everybody see you next time foreign

Channel: SemiPro Tech+Gear

Views: 8,795

Keywords: keychron q1 pro, keychron q1 pro review, keychron q1 pro mod, q1 pro mod, q1 pro tape mod, q1 pro sound test, q1 pro banana, keychron q1 pro banana, keychron banana switches, keychron q1 pro sound test, keychron q1 pro banana switch

Id: BTyGnzbXgw4

Length: 12min 45sec (765 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 11 2023