Keychron Q1 HE Review: The Quietest And Smoothest Keyboard I

My love for mechanical keyboards has been growing rapidly in the past year, and when I got to meet Keychron at CES 2024, I was very impressed with the new Q1 HE model the company was showcasing. Of course, I was interested in reviewing it since that moment, and now, I’ve had the chance to use it for longer than a few minutes. I’ve had it for over a week, in fact.

And the verdict is this is probably the best keyboard I’ve used. There isn’t necessarily a hard-and-fast rule on what makes a keyboard good, but the Keychron Q1 HE nails everything it needs to. The build quality is exceptional, typing is comfortable and quiet, and on top of that, it uses magnetic switches to provide customization options like different actuation points and analog controls. It’s an excellent keyboard, and it’s not as expensive as I would have expected for something like this.

About this review: Keychron sent us the Q1 HE for the purposes of this review. The company had no input in its contents.

Keychron Q1 HE

Near-perfect typing

Smooth, quiet, and customizable

The Keychron Q1 HE offers one of the best typing experiences you can get, with magnetic hall effect switches offering customizable actuation points and a smooth key press. Paired with excellent dampening, this is a very quiet keyboard, with top-tier build quality and plenty of customization options.

Pros

• Excellent build quality with lots of sound dampening
• Smooth and quiet typing experience
• Tons of versatility and customization thanks to magnetic switches

Cons

• RGB lighting is a bit too subdued
• Some customization options can seem a bit convoluted

Pricing and availability

Keychron formally announced the Q1 HE during CES 2024, and it became available to buy directly on April 18, 2024 after a crowdfunding campaign.

The fully-assembled Keychron Q1 HE costs $219, but you can get a barebone version for $199 if you’d rather bring your own keycaps and switches.

The typing experience

It feels amazing to type on this

I’ve tried a few mechanical keyboards in the past, so I thought I knew what I was in for with the Keychron Q1 HE. However, this keyboard blew me away with how comfortable and quiet it is. I’ve always preferred keyboards with linear switches for quieter operation, but I didn’t realize just how much goes into making a quiet keyboard.

Keychron goes all the way to provide a quiet typing experience, with tons of dampening layers and gaskets that make this easily the quietest keyboard I’ve ever typed on. Quiet typing isn’t for everyone, but I adore it, and of course, if you want some more tactility or noise, you can always get different switches. The extra dampening really helps absorb the noise you might make when the board moves inside the chassis, for example, and it’s amazing here. Only the larger keys are a bit noisier, like the spacebar and backspace keys. My guess would be the larger size of the keycaps contributes to a little more resonance.

Regardless, the feeling of typing on this board is fantastic. It’s smooth and comfortable, and even when you bottom out the keys, it feels like typing on a cloud, to quote my friend (and coworker) Richard Pinnock-Edmonds. It’s truly unlike anything else I’ve experienced, and my new favorite keyboard. You can open up the keyboard and replace or upgrade all the parts if you want to improve it, but I can’t really complain about how it feels out of the box.

You can also customize the actuation distance, thanks to the magnetic Gateron switches, which I’ll get into a bit later. The fault actuation is at 2.2mm, but you can change any distance between 0.5mm and 3.8mm. It’s similar to the SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL I reviewed last year, but here the switches are replaceable if you want to.

Related

SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL (2023) review: I love mechanical keyboards now

I never cared much about mechanical keyboards, but the SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL has made it hard to use anything else.

I’ll also mention the volume knob on the top right corner. I’ve seen a couple devices with volume knobs or scroll wheels, but this easily feels the best out of anything I’ve tried. The knob is makde of aluminum and feels super premium and durable. I’ve had some issues with other keyboards in the past with the knob not working properly, but it doesn’t feel like that will ever happen here because it’s so solidly built.

Design and build quality

It’s the heaviest keyboard I’ve ever used

Before I even got to type on this keyboard, the first thing that hit me is just how heavy it is. And that’s not a bad thing, it’s a testament to how well-built it is. Unlike other keyboards I’ve tried, the Keychron Q1 He is entirely made of metal, specifically a 6063 aluminum alloy, and it gives it a very reassuring heft. Everything here feels rigid and durable, and on top of that, the weight makes it feel like this keyboard isn’t going anywhere unless I want it to. It definitely feels odd at first, and this isn’t meant to be a portable keyboard, but it feels great.

As I’ve mentioned above, the volume knob is also made of aluminum, and the keycaps are all made of double-shot PBT, so they feel great, too. The keyboard uses a 75% layout, so it’s fairly compact, though it’s not necessarily small. It still has function row keys and some extra keys like Page Up and Page Down.

It looks good, but a little tame

Turning to the overall look of the board, I’d say it’s also great. I got the white version, which includes a white chassis and mostly white keycaps, with a couple of mint keys and some darker green keys for accents

Keychron has typically used grey for the accented keys on the white models, but I much prefer this green, it’s way less dull and pops on the white background. There’s also a black model, which also has mostly white keycaps, but with black and red for the accents.

Of course, you can swap the keycaps for anything you like. I’m tempted to do this, not because of any big fault of the caps, but because of the RGB lighting on this board. After coming off of something extravagant like the Cherry Xtrfy K5V2, the RGB lighting on the Keychron Q1 HE feels very tame, and during daytime, it’s almost pointless. My hope is that some translucent keycaps can help it shine through a bit more, though there’s a good chance the implementation just isn’t meant to be very flashy. You may not like flashy RGB, but that’s what brightness settings are for, and if RGB lighting is going to be present at all, it should be able to get brighter.

Related

Cherry Xtrfy K5V2 review: Compact, smooth, and highly customizable

The Cherry Xtrfy K5V2 is a compact 65% keyboard that offers a fantastic typing experience, plus a ton of customization options out of the box.

On that note, the keyboard has per-key RGB lighting, though you can’t customize each key individually through Keychron’s customization app. Instead, you can choose one of 20+ options for the lighting effects for the entire board, along with speed and brightness. Missing the option is a bummer, though frankly, I never use per-key customization for my keys, so this is totally fine for me.

Customization options

The Keychron Launcher app

Customizing the Keychron Q1 HE is done through the new Keychron Launcher web app, which is frankly a much nicer alternative to keyboards like the SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL. Many bigger brands include keyboard customization in their bloated software, like SteelSeries GG, but Keychron’s customization is straight to the point and lightweight, especially since you don’t even have to install anything. Since the Keychron Q1 HE uses QMK firmware, I suspect it should also worked with VIA for customization at some point, though I couldn’t get this to work.

It doesn’t really matter, though, because Keychron’s app offers a ton of options. You can remap any key to any other key, or even special media features , mouse clicks, or features like seeing the battery level on the keyboard (in wireless mode). There are two layers of controls for each operating system, and you can access the second layer by holding the Fn key, which grants you access to a ton more control options. You can create macros using the app and assign them to a key, too, which can speed up some workloads if you have apps requiring some weird key combinations.

Other options here include the ability to change lighting effects, a key tester, and HE mode, which is really the star of the show.

HE mode and the magnetic switches

What differentiates the Keychron Q1 HE from other Q-series keyboard is the switches. This is Keychron’s first keyboard to feature analog switches, specifically using Gateron 2.0 Magnetic switches, which don’t ahve a single actuation point. Instead, they use magnets to detect the distance between the switch and the board, and what means is you can customize the experience to your liking.

HE mode offers a few different features, starting with actuation distance customization. The keys can travel up to 3.8mm, but by default, the actuation is set to 2.2mm, and you can choose any value between 0.5mm and 3.8mm for each of the keys, so they can all behave differently if you want them to.

But it gets a lot deeper. Another feature is called “one key multiple commands”, and it allows you to assign up to four actions to a single key, with those actions activating at different points or at the same time. For example, you can set one action to trigger at the initial press of the key, and another to activate when you press the key all the way, then add a third action for when you lift the key slightly and one final one for when you release it completely. But you can also combine any of the four actions into the same actuation point, or repeat those actions at different actuation points. It’s a bit hard to explain (and to be honest, to understand at first), but it’s a pretty interesting concept.

One of the more in teresting options, however, is called “Gamepad Analog” and it’s basically meant to replicate a controller on the keyboard, using the analog switches to mimic analog sticks. You can remap all the buttons and sticks on an Xbox controller to a key on your keyboard, so you can play any game that works with an Xbox controller. This is a feature that I think could be a game changer for some games, such as racing titles, but it takes a lot of practice to get accustomed to the analog input on a keyboard.

Finally, HE mode has an option that seems completely unrelated to magnetic switches. This is basically a turbo mode, where if you press a key and it’s not followed by any other key presses, it will start consantly repeating, as if you’re holding down the key. You can stop it by pressing any other key, though. You can also alter the curve of the keypress, so that instead of being truly linear, the detected depth of the keypress varies at certain ranges, so you get more precise control if you need to.

The problem with all this is that HE mode only works when the keyboard is connected using a USB cable, so if you prefer a wireless keyboard, you’ll miss out on these capabilities.

Should you buy the Keychron Q1 HE?

If you want one of the best typing experiences you can get on a keyboard, it’s almost impossible not to recommend the Q1 HE. It’s a super comfortable and quiet keyboard that feels sturdy and premium unlike any other keyboard I’ve tested. Typing on this is simply an outstanding experience, being super smooth, quiet, and comfortable.

It also has a pretty unique set of features thanks to the magnetic switches. Customizable actuation, multiple actions per key, and the ability to replicate a console controller make this a very versatile keyboard for typists and gamers alike. The only real downside, in my opinion, is that the RGB lighting really should be a bit brighter or more prominent in general. The keyboard looks very muted, which is fine, but at that point, RGB might as well not be here.

You should buy the Keychron Q1 HE if:

• You want a comfortable and quiet typing experience
• You want a relatively compact keyboard with a premium build
• You like the flexibility of having both wired and wireless modes
• Analog switches are useful for your typing or gaming habits

You shouldn’t buy the Keychron Q1 HE if:

• You want flashy RGB lighting
• The analog switches don’t mean much to you

Keychron Q1 HE

Near-perfect keyboard

With terrific build quality and a super smooth and quiet typing experience, the Keychron Q1 HE is an excellent keyboard for any profficient typist or gamer. Magnetic switches lend it fantastic customization options, like adjusting the actuation point, assigning multiple actions to one key, or simulating a gamepad with analog controls.