Verdict
While the flexible plastic chassis and spotty RGB flair leave a deal to be desired , the sore typing experience of the Keychron V1 Max is powerful telling at this Mary Leontyne Price degree . So long as you ’re not blight by a shaky spacebar , it ’s a great muckle .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
Keychron has a knack for making tone keyboards at a fraction of the cost of the competition . The Keychron V1 Max is another heavy exercise of that .
At under £ 100 ( when you’re able to notice one in pedigree ) there ’s a lot to love . This highly customisable and summary 75 % mechanical keyboard does it all . You might have to better out the code to muck around with its default option configurations , but it ’s well to go right out of the loge .
No gimmick and a deficiency of garish thrill help make it an gentle , simple sell if you know you do n’t want or need what Razer , Logitech , Corsair , and the others might be see to advertize .
Design
The chassis of the Keychron V1 Max comes in a unmarried flavour : Carbon Black . It ’s a mat plastic shell that withstand fingerprint . Dust is a whole other fib , but mine is still baby-sit pretty after a couple week of utilisation .
No matter your choice of switch at the point of purchase , the colours of the included keycaps wo n’t interchange . Most are gray , the edge keys are black , and ESC and Return / Enter are a kind of vivacious orange . It ’s a nice counterpoint expression , the sort to keep it interesting . Not your cupful of tea ? The key fruit can be swapped out easily , as can the switches .
The main shtick of the Keychron V1 Max is its customisability . you could save £ 20 by supplying your own switches and keycaps . If you ’re new to the world of DIY mechanically skillful keyboards , though , you ’ll want to grab the complete package and swap thing out as you go .
Being a wireless keyboard , you ’ll spot mint of ports and permutation on the back for flicking between different connectivity musical mode and platform . There ’s aUSB - Cport on the leftfield for wired use and charging , as well as two snuggery for the USB - deoxycytidine monophosphate and USB - A 2.4GHz receivers . Yes , you get two .
Underneath are mere rubber foot and two - degree legs at the back for simple angle adjustment . you may sometimes see the recessed gilded screw at the front peeking out from underneath , which can detract from the uniformness of the board , but it ’s not a major offspring . It ’s a good , clean feel .
In the packaging department , Keychron has find out its ground with comparatively slim and simple slide - up composition board boxful . Inside is a thin foam cushioning the keyboard in one compartment , and the accessories in another . It ’s not full recyclable unlike the paper overture Corsair has taken , but at least the keyboard is n’t tuck forth in a credit card sleeve . Some of the extras are in picayune travelling bag , however .
Performance
typewrite on the Keychron V1 Max is a dream . My whole came equipped with my pet Gateron Jupiter Browns , needing just a picayune morsel more force to drive than the linear Reds . Having a subtle full point before a deep plunge chiefly aid with stability , reducing the chance of accidental actuation while my fingerbreadth rest on the key mid - sentence .
Once you get up to pep pill , they help produce a tactual experience with small peril of fatigue over a tenacious menstruation . They spark just before they bottom out , too , so you do n’t necessitate to typecast with any material force . It ’s as if the Brown switches recognise your intent and adjust accordingly . demand something faster ? Get the Banana switches .
come pre - lubed and dampened with froth , the Keychron V1 Max is as quiet as you make it . Slow chance event can be near unsounded . swiftness up , however , and you ’ll find a soft clack with each actuation . If you ’re particularly speedy , you ’ll get the full tactile experience . At no tip is there that metallic ping as they come back up . They ’re sublime .
But the Keychron V1 Max is n’t without its problems . The spacebar is prostrate to registering doubly . The effect persisted across Windows and iPad OS – cabled , wireless , or over Bluetooth . It ’s pass off well over a dozen clock time in this review alone : a nightmare not only for me , but for my editor program as well .
front online , I ’m not alone in my quandary . Keychron appears to rather suggest swap out the substitution than commit the board in for replacement . With it find right out of the box to not only myself , I ’m admit to think the issue is further down the yield pipeline .
Not everyone will have this payoff . If you do n’t mind a risky purchase and a potential returns situation , you endure to get a cracking keyboard for the price . If not , it ’s a major disappointment for a deck with so much potentiality . There ’s also some incompatibility with the impression of the fable on wordy keys like Enter and Backspace if you ’re irk by that sort of matter . Other than that , it ’s brilliant .
After weeks of sporadic use , I have n’t managed to drain the 4000mAh shelling with intermediate brightness . Keychron advertize up to 100 hours with lighting enable . effective standby clip are distinctly knead well here . bend the backlight off , which you honestly should , and you ’ll get snug to treble that . The five - 60 minutes armorial bearing time sounds like a pile , but plug it in overnight and you ’ll get potentially months of cable - free usage . That ’s the benefit of a chunkier chassis .
Software and Lighting
have full RGB lighting , the south - look LEDs on the Keychron V1 Max give off a insidious functioning . The double - shot OSA PBT keycaps , while heavy for longevity , do n’t let light to go past through , which will affect the case of look you may accomplish .
When sat at the desk , colour just about peeks out from the little gaps between the keycaps and the deck . Setting it to a unanimous colour can reach an air of professionalism , but a full rainbow effect just looks odd .
Configuration is done via a web app that ’s not massively intuitive . An understanding of .JSON files is require to make the most of it , but it ’s plenty unspoilt enough out of the boxwood .
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
At a fraction of the cost of some of the swelled - stigma mechanical keyboard , have the alternative to tweak and ready the Keychron V1 Max in near every way makes it a keeper .
The south - facing RGB layout wo n’t be for everyone . Even at max smartness , it ca n’t bind a candle to many others when it comes to trashy visuals . It might as well not even be there .
Final Thoughts
So long as you ’re not blighted by a finicky spacebar , the Keychron V1 Max is a great keyboard for the Mary Leontyne Price , just as long as you may make use of every facet of its excogitation . By comparison , theVissles V84comes in at £ 10 more . You get a wrist joint relaxation and slightly good build up quality with that one , but not as many pick at the checkout . Both are quite hard to find in origin , however .
If you do n’t need all of its advanced capabilities , and have no intention of going late down the rabbit yap that is custom keyboards , theHyperX Alloy Origins 65might be an well-heeled purchase . If light is central , check out theRoccat Magmaor the Roccat Vulcan II . Otherwise , have a look at ourBest Keyboardguide for even more options .
Trusted Score
How we test
We use every keyboard we examine for at least a workweek . During that sentence , we ’ll check it for ease of use and put it through its pace across games and typical microcomputer use .
We also discipline each keyboard ’s computer software to see how gentle it is to customise and set up .
FAQs
Yes , you could easily pull out the switches to replace them with your own . The inflammation solution is designed to still perform as intend even with Cherry switches , for example .
you could interchange between three paired Bluetooth devices using the FN+ 1/2/3 button combination .
