Comment by sleepymoose | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sleepymoose | Hacker News Reader

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In that case, I would recommend looking into one of Keychron's low profile options. Firstly, they're about half the price of this Logitech board, depending on the size you choose to go with. Second, there's twice as many configurations to choose from (Full size, TKL, 75%, and 65%). Even further, they have higher quality and a greater variety in choice of switches, regardless if you choose Keychron's own or Gateron switches. They lack 2.4Ghz conncetion, but there is both bluetooth (with up to 3 paired devices) and USB-C wired connection available. While the logitech board does have USB-C charging, it doesn't explictly state that it supports wired use, which is an option I hold in high regard for wireless keyboards. Final bonus with the Keychron boards is not having to use Logitech's software. Personally, I haven't had any issues with their stuff, but I've seen many that have sworn off of Logitech completely due to buggy software. Stepping away from the personal use aspect, that software often adds yet another path for security vulnerablities. [1]

Didn't mean to go off on such a rant, but if helps even one person choose a better board than a Logitech, I'd say it was worth it. As someone who's used a Logitech board daily for 6 years, I'd recommend looking elsewhere - especially for the money.

>If it's adequately close to MX Browns, I'll get one.

In my experience with Logitech switches, you will be disappointed. I own boards with both Romer-G Browns and Blues. I kid you not that I've felt linear switches that had more tactility than either of these switches produce.

[1] https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/razer-bug-let...

As someone who wanted:

1) Bluetooth

2) Multi-device support/switching (3 minimum)

3) Wired-use operation as a backup

4) Mechanical switches

BUT ALSO:

5) Not to have to give a shit about my keyboard, or spend much time on it, and ideally not spend much money, either

I settled on a Keychron and it's been really good for my purposes. It's a solid keyboard for someone who wants an entirely OK mechanical keyboard for non-bank-breaking prices.

I have had exactly two problems with it, one resolved:

1) It liked to "go to sleep" way too fast, then took 3-5 seconds to wake up and reconnect. A quick look at the manual showed me how to turn that off with some magic key combos. It lasts days on a charge regardless, so it was purely an annoyance. Anyway, that's resolved.

2) The stupid l33t g4m3r d00d light patterns it can do. This was one of the most subdued mechanical keyboards I could find (WHY do so many have this crap?!), and it still has this damn "feature". You can set it to steady, low, always-on light, which is the only thing I ever want, but there's a button at the top right corner that's easy to brush by accident which causes it to cycle to the next light pattern. You then have to hit it like 20 times to get back to "stop trying to look like fucking Las Vegas" mode. I'd have paid an extra $10 to not have this "feature". Just remove the whole damn thing, set it permanently to steady-light, and keep the dim/bright keys for it only (which can also be used to turn it to zero, so, off). I manage to screw this up about once every couple weeks. It's annoying, but not enough to get me to buy a different, probably more expensive, keyboard.

Have K3, besides accidental backlight change, no issues at all. Small comfortable, multidevice support (always connected to my pc via cable, simple switch to BT connection to work Macbook). Also not tried my self, but it looks like there is possible to reprogram backlight patterns with their software: https://www.keychron.com/pages/how-to-program-the-backlight-...

Great, since it might be possible, now I'm going to have to look into finding a way to program my keyboard to fix the backlight thing. And here I was trying not to have to tinker with my keyboard :-)

(seriously, though, thanks for the tip)

I was looking at it today on Amazon. It looks interesting, but I'm not sure if it will work well with Linux. Anyone know?

I don't use mine with linux unfortunately but the existance of this: https://gist.github.com/andrebrait/961cefe730f4a2c41f57911e6... implies there's some pain in getting started with it.

I commented here about that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31498642

On my Keychron K3 there is a key combination that deactivates the light-pattern-changing key. Now, if I accidentally hit it, it just flashes a couple of times and goes back to the setting I had it on. Check your manual.

This sounds interesting, I popped the key cap off that button and also the print-screen button since I was amassing a sizable collection of accidental desktop screenshots!

Edit: It's not in the K2 manual but there is a shortcut, FN + L + lightbulb key that works to lock it -

https://www.keychron.com/pages/k2-user-manual

https://keychronsupport.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360052...

I've had a K2 for years and that was my only annoyance with the keyboard until now.

Now, it's my ideal keyboard

I got a Keychron K8 Tenkeyless for GBP99.99 off of Amazon. It's got hotswap key switch capability (I picked Gateron Browns but I plan to experiment with other switches), bluetooth connectivity for up to three devices and wired. It's also got RGB but I'm genrally not fussed about that on devices.

The stock keycaps are nice enough but I replaced mine with the Drop MT3 Dasher caps only because I'm a crusty old ex-Data General engineer looking for a nostalgia kick :).

All in all it's a real nice keyboard. It's also absolutely solid in construction with a metal frame and you could easily do someone quite serious (defensive) GBH with it.

I'm not sure why anyone would buy the Logitech in question, not being able to swap key switches these days on a $100+ keyboard seems a bit mean, and was a bit of a deal breaker for me when hunting down what is my first customisable mechanical keyboard.

I should also add that mechanical keyboards are in no way a hobby thing for me and I certainly won't be spending hours on end on customisations other than the odd key switch experiment.

Ok, I've seen the Keychron K4 and it's the perfect layout for me. I would purchase it immediately solely on that basis, except that the Linux support appears to be very poor which makes me hesitant.

You wouldn't happen to know another wireless keyboard with the same layout as the K4, by any chance? It's also ok if it's missing the arrow keys, I just want a keyboard with the numpad but without the Insert/arrow keys block.

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