Keychron continues to wow us with its Q collection keyboards, which incorporate premium options from boutique mechanical builds into designs which might be attainable (if not precisely low-cost). Whereas they’re all lookers, the Q collection keyboards are a great distance from moveable, and so they received’t attraction until you’re already a fan of massive, chunky mechanical keyboards. Enter the Keychron S1: a brand new design that mixes the low-profile seems to be 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 a couple of further keys like web page up and down. The milled aluminum case and Gateron low-profile mechanical switches (clicky blue, tactile brown, or linear purple) make the whole 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 key’s backlit. Every board comes with high-quality PBT keycaps, which is sweet, since your choices for customized keycaps will likely be way more restricted than with common MX switches.
Keychron
However these are pretty pedestrian options for keyboards today, albeit not often seen in low-profile designs. For the true customizer, the S1 has optionally available hot-swap switches (with selections considerably restricted by the shape issue), full QMK and VIA programming, and a 1000Hz polling price 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 proscribed to a USB-C connection. The similarly-proportioned Ok collection manages it. I’d fairly have Bluetooth and a battery than the considerably antiquated Mac/PC laborious change.
The Keychron S1 is delivery 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 worth to an inexpensive $129. Count on extra S-series keyboards in quite a lot of sizes over the following few months.
