The Coolest Mechanical Keyboard EVER!? Keychron K3 Review

this is the kikron k3 the world's first low profile hot swappable wireless optical rgb mechanical keyboard it's available in six switch options and sports a 75 layout with 84 keys including navigation keys and a function row it has a battery life of up to two weeks it's compatible with mac windows and android and can connect to up to three devices via bluetooth it has abs plastic keycaps 15 rgb lighting effects and is available in a white backlit version for 70 or 80 with rgb do i recommend it if you are someone who's coming from a membrane or mag keyboard or are someone who likes mechanical keyboards but not the long travel distance high profile or noise of a traditional mechanical keyboard this keyboard is a great option for you that was tl dr now let's talk about it if you take a mechanical keyboard and you take a low profile keyboard and you smash them together well you'll probably have two broken keyboards so don't do that but if you're looking for something that has the best of both worlds you might want to consider the kikron k3 i've been waiting for this keyboard for over three months ever since it launched on kickstarter back in september and after using it for a few weeks i gotta say this is a nice keyboard it does have some issues but the thing that makes it so special is that it's the first of its kind this keyboard is the perfect overlap between a comfortable ergonomic typing experience and a mechanical feel and there's really no other keyboard on the market that's going to give you all the features of the k3 for the price of the k3 so let's take a closer look so to start things off the k3 is a 75 layout with 84 keys and i think this is the perfect sweet spot between a full-size keyboard and a 60 gaming keyboard because you get to keep the navigation and arrow keys and the function row which is really good for work or productivity purposes but it still retains that nice compact form factor which makes it a great keyboard for gaming as well and while the keyboard does feel nice and light in the hands the build quality is questionable it has an aluminum faceplate and a plastic back and when i bend the keyboard it does have a fair bit of flex but what worries me even more is the fact that if i bend it enough it kind of cracks and i think that's the plastic bag detaching from the frame which i mean i know nobody's going to sit there bending their keyboards but it does make me worry about the longevity of this keyboard and whether or not it's going to last through daily use for years to come now moving to the top edge of the keyboard we have the usb c port for charging and two orange switches to the left of the board the first one toggles between windows and android or mac and ios and the second one toggles between power off bluetooth or cable mode on the back we have some small rubber feet that keep the board from sliding they do a pretty good job but unfortunately there's no elevation so you can't really change the angle of this keyboard fortunately though the back feet are a little bit taller than the front ones so it gives the keyboard a natural incline but if you're somebody who wants a more flatter feel they do ship with some spare feet in the box so you can swap those out with the taller feet and give this keyboard a more flat profile now the keycaps used on here are abs plastic and i don't love these because they're not the best of quality and it's gonna shine over time the more you use this keyboard is gonna kind of wear out but on the bright side i do like the font that they went with it gives the keyboard this kind of nice little simplistic clean look it's not very gamery and i really like it now this keyboard does ship with mac centric keys by default but you can swap them with windows ones that are included in the box and they even give you an orange keycap for the rgb button if you want to spice it up a little bit more and speaking of rgb there are 15 pre-programmed lighting effects with five levels of brightness and even at the brightest it's not very bright because the led is actually pcb mounted so it doesn't really let too much light out but it's definitely enough to guide you in the dark unless you're somebody who absolutely loves rgb this is definitely going to be sufficient enough so moving underneath the keycaps i've got the kikron optical switches on mine but it is available in low profile getteron ones as well the gataron ones are not hot swappable and they're only available in blue brown and red switches whereas the optical ones are hot swappable with an additional white black and orange switch option the optical switches also actuate faster thanks to the low latency of 0.2 milliseconds now i'm no pro gamer but that should theoretically be advantageous when it comes to gaming because faster response now given that the hot swappable version of this keyboard costs the exact same amount as the non-hot swappable version i would definitely recommend that you opt in for the optical hot swappable version but do keep in mind that the k3 is only compatible with other kikron optical switches so just be sure you're happy with the switches they have available if you ever plan on swapping these out in the future so the typing experience of this board is actually surprisingly really good given that it is a really low profile keyboard it does still have that mechanical feel but one issue that i found on here that really bothers me and i don't know if it's just a defect with my board but for some reason i found that when i'm lightly pressing on the keys without actually actuating it it'll register the keys that's a really almost kind of a deal breaker because i've actually had this happen multiple times over the weeks that i've been using it i'll just be resting my hand on the keyboard without actually pressing them and suddenly i'll notice that buttons are being pressed again it might just be my unit but it's definitely something to keep in mind so let's talk connectivity this keyboard is able to connect up to three devices at once i've got mine paired with my work laptop and my pc and you can quickly switch between them by holding the function button and pressing one two or three and it'll switch between whatever devices you've got connected on that bluetooth profile so it's really nice and seamless and it has a battery life of up to 34 hours or two weeks if you turn off the backlighting and one thing that it does to conserve battery life is it'll actually put the keyboard to sleep after 10 minutes of inactivity and it takes a few seconds for it to wake up after hitting any key and if you're somebody like me who wants a quick response you can actually turn that off by holding the function s and o button for four seconds but do keep in mind that that's gonna have a pretty big effect on the battery life because the keyboard is always gonna be on now i have done some gaming on this keyboard as well and i gotta say that the bluetooth response is really good i haven't noticed any issues but if you want the best results without any possible latency or disconnect issues i'd recommend always gaming with it wired just to be safe but overall between all the amazing features you're getting on this keyboard at a measly price of just seventy dollars or eighty dollars if you want the rgb version this keyboard is an absolute steal but it's not without its flaws of course it has those abs keycaps which kind of suck i'm also worried about the durability of this keyboard i don't think it's going to last more than one maybe two years and those keys registering without me actually actuating the switch all the way is a little bit annoying but hopefully these are things that they can fix with the next version i'll leave some links in the description below if you want to check it out but that's gonna do it for this review of the kikron k3 like if you liked it sub if you loved it and i'll see you in the next one peace

Channel: TLD{R}eviews

Views: 75,992

Rating: 4.868576 out of 5

Keywords: keychron, k3, keychron k3, wireless mechanical keyboard, hot swappable keyboard, budget wireless mechanical keyboard, gaming keyboard under 100, best mechanical keyboard under 100, mechanical keyboard under 100, best mechanical keyboard 2021, wireless hot swappable keyboard, optical switch, mechanical keyboard for mac, best gaming keyboard 2021, budget keyboard 2021, wireless mechanical keyboard under 100, low profile keyboard, low profile optical switch, tldr, tldreviews

Id: hMpJqjkarGM

Length: 6min 59sec (419 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 25 2021