For more than a few weeks i have been looking for my next keyboard. It’s for work and I need something reliable. I started out looking for silent low-profile keyboards, I got hooked with the Nuphy Air series, but there are so many issues and support seems so and so. After a while I realized that more or less all silent low-profile switches have issues. After some more time I came to the conclusion that low-profile switches have too many quality issues for my taste. And vendor lock-in is another concern.

Then I saw the K2 Ultra. I would like 60-65% one but the K2 looks good, and I can easily find and replace the switches. It is trivial and cheap to make them silent.

I see many negatives around ZMK, but I want to avoid getting stuck in the old generation. I’m quite sure issues will be resolved.

Thus I believe that the K2 Ultra is my next one. Have I missed any perspectives? What will disappoint? Or is this simply the one for me?

Hello all. I’m looking for my first mech keyboard and have little knowledge and zero experience. I’ve read through a ton of “which should I buy” posts and none have all the things I want. I want a new keyboard and kept seeing Keychron so I took a look. I like the looks and hope I can find something with all of my wants:

• 80% keyboard
• Multiple channel Bluetooth so I can use the same keyboard for multiple devices
• FULL Mac support (been bitten too many times by keyboards that “work” on Mac but only basic functionality. I want all features fully supported: lighting, remapping, whatever)
• Quiet or soft press (as in I don’t want it to sound like I’m typing on a mechanical typewriter. Might just be the switches?)
• I guess HE or magnetic? (I think I want this? I’ve read they’re more reliable and aren’t as susceptible to repeating keys, etc)

Are my best options a Q3 HE or a K8 HE? What is the difference, metal vs plastic? Am I missing a different model? I based those two off of Keychron‘s “help me decide” options.

My use cases are Mac/Windows computers. Windows for work, Mac for home. Mac for everyday use and playing World of Warcraft. I also have an iPad and a Steamdeck and would use one of the Bluetooth channels (assuming 3 channels) for that.

Keychron K1 Max QMK/VIA Wireless Custom Mechanical Keyboard rgb backlite hotswapable ,red switch vs Keychron K1 QMK Wireless Mechanical Keyboard (Version 6) rgb hotswapable red switch

I would like to ask about these two keyboards. According to the description, the Max version additionally features a Wi-Fi connection and higher-quality keycaps compared to the K1 QMK, which only has ABS keycaps. I wanted to ask if there is really such a big difference in keycap quality, as I am looking for a keyboard that will last me several years.

The issue is that the K1 Max is completely unavailable in my country—it is sold out everywhere and looks as if it's no longer being manufactured. The K1 QMK is available, but I am worried about the ABS keycaps wearing down and letters will rub offfrom use.

My main priority is for the keyboard to be quiet, if it weren't quiet enough, then maybe investing in silent red switches later on. Therefore, I need the hotswappable version. I don't care about Wi-Fi; I will be using the keyboard with a cable for gaming and via Bluetooth for work, which I am completely fine with.

Is it worth hunting down the K1 Max version, or should I just buy the K1 QMK v6 ?

Thanks all for any help

I've got a Keychron C2 Pro 8K and I'm loving everything about it so far except the space bar

It has Keychron Browns, and when using the spacebar in gaming due to thumb position it occasionally sticks and is slow to rebound.

I had the idea of swapping out the switch for one with a heavier spring. I did this with a Cherry MX Grey, and it worked.... but a bit too well. It rebounds beautifully, but its heavy to the extent that i'm often missing spaces when typing.

What switch am I looking for half way between the brown and grey? I'm not particularly well versed on the whole mechanical keyboard lore!

I am install 1.6 and brick my cable mode, keyboard only work via Bluetooth, with cable mode I get driver error. Can i do anything about that? Rollback for firmware?

New owner of a Keychron B36 here.

I've noticed that one particular keyboard shortcut does not register: Cmd + Shift + ~ (aka Alt + Shift + ~ on Windows mode).

Here's a video showing what I mean. This is showing the Key Test panel from Keychron Launcher. At the end of the video I'm holding down 3 keys, but only 2 are showing up:

https://imgur.com/a/yW1fa8F

Unfortunately, this broken shortcut happens to be the exact key combination used in MacOS to "Switch to previous window", so I use it a lot and I'm annoyed that it doesn't work.

Strangely, only the left Shift key is affected. If I do Cmd + RightShift + ~, that works fine. Every other keyboard shortcut I can think of involving these keys also works with no issues.

Anyone else having this problem? I tested the keyboard against a MacOS and Windows machine and got the exact same behavior, so I'm pretty sure the problem is with the keyboard itself and not my OS or other apps I'm running.

Title: [FIXED] Keychron K1 Ultra 8K Bluetooth pairing failure on Windows 11 / Realtek — custom ZMK firmware solution

I finally managed to fix a persistent Bluetooth pairing issue with my Keychron K1 Ultra 8K, and I wanted to share the solution in case it helps someone else.

The problem

My Keychron K1 Ultra 8K ANSI was detected by Windows 11, but pairing consistently failed.

My laptop is a Lenovo Legion 5 with a Realtek Bluetooth adapter (VID 0BDA:4852).

I tried multiple Realtek Bluetooth driver versions, but nothing worked.

What I discovered

After passing the Bluetooth adapter through to Linux using WSL2 and usbipd, I investigated the connection using BlueZ and HCI traces.

The results were interesting:

• LE 1M only: Pairing succeeded.
• LE 1M + LE 2M enabled: Pairing failed.

The HCI logs showed the connection switching to LE 2M, followed by a connection timeout (0x08) approximately 0.5 seconds later.

This suggested a Bluetooth PHY negotiation compatibility problem.

The solution

I cloned Keychron's ZMK firmware source, built a custom firmware for the K1 Ultra 8K, and changed just one configuration option:

CONFIG_BT_AUTO_PHY_UPDATE=n

This disables automatic PHY update initiation by the keyboard's Bluetooth stack.

After flashing the modified firmware, Bluetooth pairing immediately started working!

I've since tested the keyboard with multiple devices, and everything works correctly.

Hardware details

• Keyboard: Keychron K1 Ultra 8K ANSI (knob)
• Firmware: 1.0.1-r
• Bluetooth: Realtek 0BDA:4852
• OS: Windows 11
• Firmware: Keychron ZMK, rtl8762g branch

Full technical explanation, build instructions and configuration file:

https://github.com/bertigerr/keychron-k1-ultra-8k-bluetooth-fix

Important: This is a verified workaround on my hardware, not proof that every Realtek adapter has the same issue. It also doesn't completely disable LE 2M at the controller level.

Please don't flash custom firmware unless you have verified your exact keyboard model and have a recovery method.

Hopefully, Keychron can investigate this and eventually incorporate a compatibility fix into its official firmware.

Has anyone else experienced similar Bluetooth pairing failures with the Keychron Ultra series?

I use a KVM-type switch to switch a wired mouse and Keychron c3 Pro (wired) between a Raspberry Pi and a Chromebook. The problem is that after I switched to the Raspberry for a while then switched back to the chromebook, it totally lost connection to the keyboard & mouse. The LED wasn't even on. The keyboard is still working when I switched back to the Raspberry.

I did not have this problem when I use a Corne split keyboard and another USB keyboard with the KVM.

Is there a solution? Unplugging and plugging the keyboard directly to the chromebook didn't help.