I bought a Keychron K6 from eBay recently and have been using it for a few weeks. I deliberately purchased one with clicky blue switches to test out the loudest option. I like this keyboard from a design perspective. It has a small form factor, about the size of an Apple Magic Keyboard. It doesn’t have a function key row, but triples up the function of the number keys to handle brightness, volume, media, and function keys. It has both a backspace and dedicated delete key, which I appreciate for typing. It also has a full inverted T shaped arrow layout which is nice as well. 

This model relatively bare bones compared to Keychron’s other offerings. It doesn’t include a backlight, it has no customization software, and while it does have double-shot keycaps, the font is weirdly aligned and the keys are not of particularly high manufacturing quality. As a result, I can see bits here and there where the labels on the key caps weren’t fully cut out for the layer beneath. They look chipped even though they aren’t. It isn’t the end of the world but I’ll want better keys when I customize my own. I do like the two-tone design of the key caps with white letter keys, gray control and formatting keys, and a nice red escape key. I’d prefer red enter and shift keys as well, but I can’t really complain for what I paid.

Initial Impressions 

Typing is interesting. The keyboard is very high, starting about an inch off the desk, making it uncomfortable to use without a wrist rest. With a place to put my wrists it’s much more comfortable, but I definitely feel the extra force required to press the blue switches. It’s a conflicting feeling because the force required makes it more difficult to type but the clicky feel is so much more satisfying. In terms of noise it’s, well, noisy. It’s the loudest keyboard I’ve ever used, in fact. It’s higher pitched than any of my old Apple keyboards, which makes its clicking easier to hear. I do love how crisp it sounds though.

The layout mostly works for me, except for two issue that cause occasional mistakes. The first has to do with the shift key on the right side: it’s shorter than the left one in order to fit in the arrow keys. This unfortunately makes it easy to accidentally press the up arrow instead of shift. I’m usually editing text when I do this and one of two things happens: either the cursor moves to the line above and types in it (annoying) or I graze the shift key as my finger slides to the arrow, selecting the line I’m on up to the line above, and replacing the entire thing with a single capital letter (really annoying).

The other issue has to do with the space bar and the command key on the left side. On Apple’s keyboards, as well as the Microsoft Sculpt I usually use, the left edge of the space bar is located perfectly under the left edge of the ‘c’ key. This puts the left command key completely under the ‘x’ key and partially under the ‘z’ key, making it easy to hit it anytime I need to use a keyboard shortcut. On the K6, the command key is shifted left significantly, sitting under only about ⅓ of the ’x’ and due to a wider spacebar. This makes it much more difficult to hit and I found myself pressing the spacebar instead of the command key quite often. 

Keychron has many different keyboard layouts, some of which don’t have the short shift key problem. I’ll investigate some of the alternatives or get used to it by then. As for the command key, unfortunately none of them have it where I want it. I’ll just have to get used to that one.

Outside of key placement, my initial impressions are good. I’ve even tried it for gaming on my PC, which I really like. The key travel doesn’t bother me and it doesn’t feel any more difficult to press than my Razor Ornata Chroma. I really like that it’s small because it provides a lot more space on the right side for my mouse. I don’t use the right side of the keyboard in games so I don’t miss the number pad or any of the other special keys. Some of my games do use the function keys, so I have to remember to use the number keys in combination with fn1, but that’s not too bad.

Longer-Term Impressions

After several weeks of use, I reevaluated my initial issues. The wrist rest makes it comfortable enough to type on and I’m getting used to the force required to press the keys. It has bothered my carpal tunnel a bit, but I’m doing wrist exercises again to strengthen them so it isn’t an issue. I’m also getting used to the short right shift key and the inconveniently placed command key. I’m making fewer mistakes each time I type on it and I’m really enjoying the tactile feedback. I don’t think I will continue with clicky switches though – they’re just too loud. Tactile browns will do when I customize and buy a new one. 

I still really like the size. I might consider a slightly larger keyboard, but not too much. The K6 provides more space for my mouse, especially when gaming. The fact that it can connect to three devices great – it can connect to up to three – my personal Mac, my work Mac, and my PC. Switching between them is fast and easy. Perfect.

My Next Keyboard

At the moment I’m going to keep using the K6 for a bit. When I eventually do buy a brand new one, I think I’ll buy one of the Pro models which have better keys (and key shapes I prefer), less wobbly and hot-swappable switches, and support customization through open source software.