Keychron K4 HE Keyboard

Works great, love the keyboard

So I decided to upgrade my keyboard and had never owned a Keychron, though I have friends who do. After a lot of research, I bought this one because I love the size and have to have the old numpad. The build quality is super nice, and typing on this thing was a dream.However, I thought the RGB would be bright enough in a dark room to see the caps at night while gaming. It’s not. In fact, even at max brightness, the RGB is pretty dim compared to other boards. I bought some aftermarket keycaps, which helped just enough to get my bearings—but that one was on me with the non-shine through caps.What wasn’t on me is that the board kept defaulting to a Layer 2 key layout. I also hated the Keychron Launcher software, which you have to connect online just to adjust your keys. After flashing the firmware, countless resets, and hours with ChatGPT and scouring the web for a solution, I finally gave up and sent it back.Personally, I’ll stay away from Keychron moving forward. If I can’t control the keys on the keyboard itself, what’s the point?I gave two stars just because of the material quality—and I do miss the feel of typing on it. I went back to my old keyboard and almost started to cry. But at least with that one, I can control the keymapping.

I'll start with the one negative which is, while I love the look of the condensed keyboard, I couldn't get used to finding the arrow keys or number keypad without looking. I was constantly hitting the wrong key. I returned the K4 and replaced it with the K10, full size keyboard. For me, this makes all the difference. Now I can feel my way around the keyboard much better. All the positives - great build quality, a joy to type, immediate feedback on waking from sleep with the 2.4 gHz connection. I really like setting a few keys to different depths. Esc, all the way down - I was tapping it inadvertently sometimes when reaching to my pen tab and then exiting the window I was in. Now it requires a little more intentionality. The arrow keys are set very high since I use them when editing photos and I don't have to press very far for repetitive use. And it looks great. The LED backlighting is totally unnecessary in my life but I find it satisfying to see a little spark of red shoot from my fingers.

So far, it's been excellent. I like the feel, I like the weight, I like the performance, Works great whether using Bluetooth connection or cable. While it's not a silent keyboard, it's not as loud as other mechanical keyboards I've seen. I was sick of the "ok" keyboard and wanted something of quality. Worth the price. I haven't messed with the programming, I'm just using it straight out of the box. Excellent product so far.

I've been using this keyboard for a grand total of 4 days, was gone on a trip for 3 of those days, and the H key already does not work.