Keychron continues to wow us with its Q series keyboards, which incorporate premium options from boutique mechanical builds into designs which can be attainable (if not precisely low cost). Whereas they’re all lookers, the Q collection keyboards are a good distance from moveable, they usually gained’t enchantment except you’re already a fan of massive, chunky mechanical keyboards. Enter the Keychron S1: a brand new design that mixes the low-profile seems of Keychron’s moveable wi-fi designs with the extra premium supplies and options of the pricier boards.
The S1 makes use of a 75% structure, with a full perform row and arrow cluster, plus just a few additional keys like web page up and down. The milled aluminum case and Gateron low-profile mechanical switches (clicky blue, tactile brown, or linear pink) make your complete package deal simply 13.7mm tall sans keycaps. The keyboard contains detachable toes to regulate the typing angle from three levels to 6, and naturally, each secret’s backlit. Every board comes with high-quality PBT keycaps, which is sweet, since your choices for customized keycaps shall be rather more restricted than with common MX switches.
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However these are pretty pedestrian options for keyboards nowadays, albeit not often seen in low-profile designs. For the true customizer, the S1 has elective hot-swap switches (with decisions considerably restricted by the shape issue), full QMK and VIA programming, and a 1000Hz polling fee to maintain avid gamers completely satisfied. Contained in the case is sound-absorbing foam, to maintain your housemates/coworkers sane. The one characteristic that appears to have been omitted is wi-fi performance — it appears odd to me that such a small, bag-friendly keyboard is restricted to a USB-C connection. The similarly-proportioned K series manages it. I’d slightly have Bluetooth and a battery than the considerably antiquated Mac/PC exhausting change.
The Keychron S1 is transport now, beginning at $109 for the bottom mannequin with white LEDs and your alternative of switches. Upgrading to full RGB lighting will price you $119, and an additional hot-swap improve brings the fully-laden value to an affordable $129. Count on extra S-series keyboards in quite a lot of sizes over the subsequent few months.