We’re huge followers of Keychron’s premium keyboard designs right here at PCWorld. They constantly stomp the competitors when it comes to options and construct high quality, all whereas coming in at costs considerably decrease than related high-end builds. However there’s a obtrusive omission in Keychron’s sprawling lineup: Whereas it gives a rising number of wi-fi choices, they’re all Bluetooth, leaving players out within the chilly if they need a high-speed cable-free choice. Enter the Lemokey L3, the primary board in a brand new Keychron sub-brand.
The L3 gives a well-known suite of choices for anybody who’s appeared on the common Q collection. We’re speaking full aluminum body, gasket mounting, RGB lighting, inner foam, hot-swap swap sockets, PBT keycaps normal, and programming with the favored cross-platform VIA instrument. You recognize, all that stuff your favourite keyboard nerd (responsible) received’t shut up about. However the design has three huge modifications designed particularly to attraction to players.
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First and most significantly, you get each 2.4GHz and Bluetooth wi-fi, with 1000Hz polling on the previous, all of which have N-key rollover. That makes the connection speedy sufficient for all however essentially the most caffeinated of eSports professionals. The dongle + Bluetooth wi-fi setup is widespread from main manufacturers like Razer, Logitech, Corsair, et cetera — in reality it’s additionally on the SteelSeries wi-fi gaming board I’m reviewing proper now! — so this can be a dependable improve. The opposite tweaks are 4 devoted macro keys on the correct aspect beneath the radial dial and a chunkier, faux-military look to the keyboard case. Once more, each fairly normal selections for a gaming-specific keyboard.
The one potential pitfall I’m seeing is reliance on QMK/VIA. Now, VIA is superior as a instrument for personalisation on a regular keyboard and one which’s definitely preferable to a few of the terrible customized software program provided up on most gaming keyboards. ( you, Asus.) And I consider most players will prefer it as a result of it doesn’t truly require any software program in any respect: You possibly can load up customized layouts and macros proper in a browser. However with out an energetic Home windows program, the Lemokey L3 received’t be capable of swap profiles on a per-game foundation. That’s much less important for a keyboard than a mouse since most PC video games provide customized structure choices anyway. Even so, I can see it being a problem for a small slice of PC players.
The Lemokey L3 might be provided in three colours: white, black, and blue, with Keychron’s common contrasting keycap choices on high. It’ll debut on Kickstarter later in July, with an everyday launch coming someday later. Extra particular worth and launch particulars weren’t introduced.
