The Keychron Q1 HE is the ultimate mechanical keyboard for typists and gamers

I type for a living. I have done for years, and the search for the perfect keyboard has been a lifelong obsession. As a tech reviewer, I’ve been lucky (and unlucky) enough to try many different keyboards; I’ve used split ergonomic keyboards, gaming keyboards and low-profile business keyboards like the Logitech MX Keys.

I’ve experienced the famed IBM keyboards of the 1990s and put up with the worst cheap membrane models supplied with bargain basement review PCs. My most recent daily driver was the magnificent Keychron V5 I bought myself after Alun Taylor’s glowing V series review and it quickly became a firm favourite.

I abandoned it, however, as soon as the Keychron Q1 HE landed on my desk and I haven’t looked back. The Q1 HE a beast of a keyboard, with an entirely metal frame and a feel that is closer to that of a typewriter than a computer keyboard – yet with all the mod cons you’d expect of a modern mechanical keyboard – and then some. I very quickly fell in love with it.

Check price at Keychron

Keychron Q1 HE review: What do you get for the money?

Hands down, this is the best keyboard I’ve ever used; the major catch is the price. There are various options but the minimum it will set you back – if you buy one pre-built – is £193. Most people would probably baulk at paying that much for a humble keyboard, but in my opinion it is worth every penny. And, if I’m honest, I’m not sure why people don’t spend this much and more on their keyboards. It is, after all, the device you spend the most time in physical contact with, apart from your smartphone – why on earth wouldn’t you want the very best you could buy?

For this not-inconsiderable sum of money, you get the keyboard itself, a set of keycaps to enable you to switch the keyboard from Mac to Windows (or vice versa), a key puller tool, a braided USB-C to USB-C cable and a USB-C to USB-A adapter. You don’t have to connect via USB, though: you can also connect via Bluetooth or high-speed 1kHz wireless via a USB dongle.

The keyboard itself is a 75% configuration model, meaning it has no number pad, but is otherwise full size, with cursor keys in the bottom right corner and document navigation keys in a vertical stack above them. The keyboard also comes with a knurled metal knob set into the top right corner, which is used to adjust the volume and can be clicked to mute. However, like the rest of the keyboard, you can customise it and put it to other uses.

The Q1 HE comes in black or white colourways – I prefer the look of the white model myself, but the black is a smart option, too. There’s the option of US or ISO layouts (the latter with a double height Enter key), and it comes equipped as standard with Gateron Double-Rail Magnetic Nebula switches. These are different from your usual mechanical keyboard switches in that they use hall effect sensors to allow you to adjust the actuation point (the amount you have to depress the key before it activates the switch inside). Effectively, you can choose how sensitive you want this keyboard to be.

A knock-on effect of this is that they’re linear type switches, so there’s no feedback “break” or click as you press the keys. If you prefer Cherry Blue switches, this keyboard isn’t for you. The switches have a rated lifespan of 150 million clicks, an actuation range (i.e. travel) of between 0.3 and 4mm and an operating force of between 40g at the top and 60g at the bottom. For reference, the standard Cherry Brown MX switches actuate at 45gf (gram force).

One gotcha is that the Q1 HE isn’t compatible with any other switch type, so you can’t mix and match or switch out for a set with a different feel at a later date. I’m not sure why anyone would want to, though, given how wonderful this keyboard feels to type on. Certainly, it makes no sense to purchase the keyboard in “barebones” configuration (£176), since you’d have to buy a full set of the said same switches to fit onto it anyway.

Still, despite the high price, this is an awful lot of keyboard for the money. The base is built from a sandwich layer of metal plates, gaskets and sound/impact absorbing foam and the result is an incredibly solid, well-engineered product. The finished keyboard weighs a chunky 1.7kg and it feels more like something you’d find attached to a piece of military hardware, or installed in the console for a nuclear power station than sitting on a desk in front of a domestic computer.

That weight means it isn’t something you’re going to want to cart around from home to office – a pity for hybrid workers and competitive gamers who like to take their setups with them – but the flipside is that once you put it down on your desk, thanks to that weight and four chunky rubber feet, it stays put.

Check price at Keychron

Keychron Q1 HE review: What does it do well?

Typing on the Keychron Q1 HE is a dream. The switches feel silky smooth and the feel and sound of each keystroke makes it an immensely satisfying experience to work on. I could type and type for hours on this thing and not get tired of it.

For me, that is the most important thing, but there is so much more that the Keychron Q1 HE is good at, too. It is also superbly customisable. You do this via the online VIA or Keychron launcher software. Simply plug the keyboard into your computer, visit the relevant website in your browser and authorise your keyboard via the popup.

The principal function of the software is to allow you to remap any key on the keyboard to another key, character or macro and there’s plenty of flexibility here. You can create up to three profiles – say one for work, another for gaming and a third for video editing – and you get four “layers” per profile to tweak as well. These are made up of the standard layout and the layout with the fn key held down in both Win and Mac layouts. A switch on the rear lets you toggle between Mac and Win profiles and you can cycle between the custom profiles at will with a keystroke (fn+p+z/x/c).

The software also lets you tweak the actuation point, for each individual key, and apply “rapid trigger” mode. The latter lets you apply different activation and release points, effectively allowing rapid key presses to be recognised without the key having to return fully to its original rest position – very useful for competitive gamers.

There’s also the choice to have the keyboard simulate an analogue game controller, a light press on the key simulating a small movement of the joystick, a heavier press being the same as pushing the stick all the way to its limits. And, if you want to push customisation all the way, the magnetic switches allow you to allocate up to to four separate functions for each keystroke: one for, say, 0.4mm of actuation and one at 3.8mm (the top and bottom of the keystroke), and another two as the key is released on the way back up.

Check price at Keychron

Keychron Q1 HE review: What could be improved?

Despite a great deal of the features being gamer-specific on this keyboard, the RGB lighting leaves a little to be desired. There are, for instance, no per key customisations, so you can’t set up your own colour scheme for certain keys and another for the rest of the keyboard.

There is a choice of universal effects you can apply, my favourite of which is the selection of reactive effects, which light up the keys around the key you last pressed, but there are only 22 of these currently. Neither do the standard PBT keycaps have translucent lettering. The backlight only shines through the gaps between the keys.

The software, too, sometimes requires a bit of head-scratching. For example, I couldn’t work out initially what the Long-press function did until I’d done a little online research. It turns out that allocating this to a key means it locks that key down on a single tap and releases it on a second – a bit like sticky keys in Windows.

My final gripe concerns the height at which this keyboard stands above the desk, the lack of rear height adjustability and the fact that Keychron does not supply a wrist rest in the box. Surely that’s not too much to ask at this price.

Check price at Keychron

Keychron Q1 HR review: Should you buy one?

The keyboard isn’t perfect, then. Gamers will miss the fully customisable lighting and some aspects of the software really need to be polished up. Anyone who loves the idea of being able to change switches at the drop of a hat won’t be satisfied with it, either.

However, I’m willing to cut the Q1 HE some slack, simply for how good it feels to type on, how flexible it otherwise is and for its wonderful, wonderful build quality. In short, if you type a lot and you game a lot, there is no better keyboard you can buy. The Keychron Q1 HE is just unbeatable.