Skip to content
Nungeum

Tech · Keychron · 2021

Keychron Q1

A gasket-mounted aluminum board with QMK firmware, sold assembled instead of as a kit.

Three things retire a mechanical keyboard — #1

Overall

8.4

out of 10

Axis scores

Tech is scored on these 5 axes. The total is their plain average — nothing is weighted.

Keychron Q1 — axis scores out of 10Horizontal bar chart of editorial scores out of 10 across 5 axes. Bars run from a shared zero baseline; longer is better. Keychron Q1: Performance 8.8, Value 7.6, Durability 9.0, Ease of use 7.8, Design 8.8.PerformanceKeychron Q1 — Performance 8.8 out of 108.8ValueKeychron Q1 — Value 7.6 out of 107.6DurabilityKeychron Q1 — Durability 9.0 out of 109.0Ease of useKeychron Q1 — Ease of use 7.8 out of 107.8DesignKeychron Q1 — Design 8.8 out of 108.8Editorial score out of 10 — higher is better
  • Performance — How well it does the core job
  • Value — What the same money buys elsewhere
  • Durability — Failure and fade reports past the one-year mark
  • Ease of use — Setup, daily operation, cleaning, maintenance
  • Design — Build quality and how it sits in a room

Specs

Layout
75 percent
Case
CNC aluminum
Switches
Hot-swappable
Firmware
QMK and VIA

As published by the manufacturer. We didn't measure these ourselves.

Is it for you

Buy it if

  • You want to remap every key without vendor software running in the background
  • Typing feel is worth more to you than portability
  • You expect to swap switches rather than replace the board

Skip it if

  • You need it to travel — this is close to two kilograms
  • Wired-only, or the wireless variant premium, is a problem

A full aluminum case puts this close to two kilograms. The board does not move on a desk regardless of how hard you type, and carrying it anywhere is a decision you make deliberately. Understand that before buying. This is a desk keyboard.

Gasket mounting suspends the plate between layers of silicone instead of screwing it to the case. The typing feel softens and the harsh bottom-out that rigid boards produce goes away. Screw-in stabilizers arrive lubricated from the factory, and that detail separates it from mass-market boards more than anything else on the spec sheet. Everything the enthusiast keyboard market spent a decade building, assembled in a box.

QMK and VIA firmware keep the layout on the board. Remapping happens in a browser, configuration survives operating system changes, and the keyboard behaves identically on a machine where you have no administrator rights and cannot install anything. No vendor software runs in the background, ever.

Hot-swap sockets turn a failed switch into a fifteen-second repair with a puller instead of a soldering job. That single detail does more than any other to decide whether a mechanical keyboard is still in service in a decade.

Owners commonly change two things first. The stock keycaps are adequate, not special, and the switches are precisely what the sockets are for. Budget for both if the typing feel matters to you, and treat the board as a platform.

Last updated . The scoring method is on how we rank.