Mechanical keyboard evaluation Part 22: Do you need an ergonomic mechanical keyboard equipped with Alice? Keychron Q10 dark purple kit + Jiadalong CJ shaft evaluation experience
Hello everyone, this is TANK.
Last year, mass-produced mechanical keyboards also gradually embraced the Alice configuration. Keychron, Feker, and akko all released Alice ergonomic keyboards. I have experience with these three brands of Alice keyboards. Among them, Keychron released the most Alice configurations, and Altuotuo has Q8 and Q10. , plastic single mold also has cheap V8 and V10.
Today I will mainly share Keychron’s Q10, which is an Alice keyboard with an F zone. By the way, I will talk to you about whether the Alice keyboard can really help you correct your typing fingering and improve the efficiency of codewords. After reading it, I hope it can help you choose Buy Alice with a series of mechanical keyboards, and I will talk about the differences between these Alice with a series of keyboards in detail later.
Before going into details, let me first introduce the parameters of the Q10 keyboard.
1. Keyboard parameters
Reference price: 848 yuan
Arrangement: 75%Alice arrangement
Color: night purple (kit), black, blue, gray
Keycaps: PBT material OSA keycaps
Shaft body: Jiadalong G green, red, tea
Connection mode: wired single-mode hot plug
Others: gasket, knob, macro button, split space
This article is typed by Keychron Q10 dark purple color + Jiadalong CJ axis.
Here is a point to explain the color matching. The Q10 dark purple kit in my hand is limited to sale, and there are only 500 pieces in total. This dark purple is the same dark purple kit that was released last year when the iPhone 14 Pro was released.
2. Description of keyboard accessories
This Q10 was actually released in October last year, but because I didn’t find a suitable shaft and keycap to match (in fact, I’m lazy), so I delayed until this year to assemble it. After the assembly, I played with one This experience evaluation article will be issued in about a month.
By this year, the official upgrade package and palm rest corresponding to Q10 are available, so I also completely disassembled the keyboard liner and added the upgrade package.
If you don’t have much demand for the overall feel and surplus of the keyboard, Keychron’s kit is more suitable for beginners in customization than other custom kits. You can use it after buying a finished product or a kit and plugging it directly into the switch body.
The switch body is Jiadalong CJ switch, which is blue and purple in line with the theme color of this kit. The keycap is the purple transparent keycap of lelelab. The overall fit is quite good. You can continue to read to see the finished product picture.
3. Keyboard usage and assembly reference
3.1 Basic Introduction of Keyboard
If you buy a finished product, you will get such an Alice keyboard that you can use directly.
Put the supporting Alice and use it with the palm rest, and the overall fit is relatively close to the lower frame of the keyboard.
The overall layout of the keyboard is 75%. Compared with Q8, there are more F areas. At the same time, the knob is designed on the left side and 5 macro keys are added. Users can customize the keys they want to use. Here I put numbers 1~5 is because I don't have a personalized keycap to use.
The overall dark purple color of the keyboard is slightly different in brightness under different lights, and it looks good together with the colorful bear shaft puller.
The metal knob in the upper left corner has a good texture. Adjusting the knob from the right to the left is to facilitate users to control the knob with their left hand in games or other scenes where the right hand needs to hold the mouse.
Q10 put the type-c interface and win/mac switching switch in the middle of the keyboard
When switching between upper and lower case, the Caps Lock button will light up white.
Q10 follows Keychron's consistent tradition and perfectly adapts to the Mac system. In addition to the buttons, it supports all function buttons in the F area, so I finally brought the Q10 to the office to connect to the Mac.
As for fingering, because my typing fingering is relatively correct, and I have used Q8 before, it is relatively easy to get started. The double B design is more in line with the typing habits of most domestic users, but if you are very used to typing Input G with the right hand, then the Alice arrangement will be a little uncomfortable to use at first.
If you are curious about whether the Q10 configured by Alice can be used to play games, you may wish to continue reading.
After all, with the F area, and there are 5 macro buttons on the left side, it is more convenient for some games to do shortcut buttons.
3.2 Upgrade Package Assembly Instructions
Consistent with the previous Q series, there is no tutorial on the back of an aluminum tuo. There are four dark purple silicone bottom pads. The anode process on the back is easier to leave fingerprints, and the disassembly is relatively simple. Just remove the eight upper and lower screws. .
After unscrewing the screws, you can see that there is a space for the knob on the left side of the bottom case, and a space for the main control connection part in the middle.
After removing the bottom case, you can see that there is a layer of green barley paper on the back of the PCB, which is similar to the effect of masking paper. It acts as a bottom cotton and makes the sound of the shaft body more hifi. The sound is too subjective and varies from person to person. Personally, I don't really like the design of masking paper/highland barley paper, but Keychron's Q series after Q8 all have this filling design.
After tearing off the masking paper, unplug the wiring between the power cord port and the main control, and unscrew the fixing screws on the back of the PCB to separate the positioning board from the PCB. The sandwich cotton that comes with the factory is made of EVA material, and we will upgrade it The sandwich cotton made of Poron material in the bag is replaced.
The shaft seat and PCB satellite shaft are still made by Jiadalong. There is no pad under the shaft when leaving the factory. I am lazy here and did not remove the satellite shaft that comes with the factory. Just open a slot.
After installing the sandwich cotton and the under-shaft pad, the inner tank can be installed. By the way, attach the Poron spacers inside the accessories to the ears on the left and right sides of the positioning plate.
After installing the liner, turn it back intact, then stick the Poron bottom cotton in the upgrade package on the back of the PCB, and finally install the metal bottom case, and the upgrade is complete.
The overall process of installing the upgrade package is very simple, and novices can complete it within 20 minutes.
3.3 Shaft body
After installing the liner, turn it to the front. At this time, you need to install the shaft body. Here I choose Jiadalong CJ shaft, a tripod shaft body with dust-proof side walls, similar to the upgraded version of Jiadalong G silver. The shaft body is smoother and more stable. The Luofei Xiaoqiao Pro in the previous group also used this shaft body. I feel that the shaft body feels good, so I continue to use this shaft body.
The transparent PC upper cover, the shaft and the bottom shell are made of blue-purple POM material, which is the kind that becomes smoother with use.
The trigger stroke is 1.2mm, and the silver-like shaft body is triggered in advance, but the trigger pressure of 45gf is not easy to accidentally touch. In my personal experience, it is more stable than G silver. The factory lubrication effect is better and the rebound is more comfortable. The coding experience and The game experience is good.
After putting on the keycap and looking at the shaft body together, the color is quite good.
3.4 Keycaps and large keys
The keycaps I chose are lelelab's purple transparent keycaps, but since this set of purple transparent keycaps is not a complete set, there is no split space for 2U and 2.75U, and there is no double B keycap.
So here the left space uses the number 0 with a length of 2U, the space with a length of 2.75U on the right uses shift , and the five macro keys on the left use numbers 1~5. So far, the installation of Q10 is complete.
4. Game experience
In terms of games, I used Q10 to play dota2 and CSGO for a few days.
When playing dota2, I often use F1 to control the hero, and F2 and F3 to select the courier to control the courier. Occasionally, I accidentally touch the 5 macro buttons on the left. Fortunately, they are not set as F area buttons. My own skill buttons are set to QWER buttons. , because there is a gap between the Q and W keys of the Q10 and an inclination. Compared with the normal keyboard used before, the left hand has to be inclined accordingly and there is a slight gap between the little finger and the ring finger. The overall experience does not feel much affected.
When playing CSGO, because ESC is relatively close to F1, I often feel strange when pressing ESC to return to the menu after buying items, and the button layout is different from what I used before.
Secondly, the left side is a space with a length of 2U. When you often jump from the box, you will knock down the left edge of the space. If you place it on the space for a long time, your thumb will feel strange to the touch.
But the biggest advantage is that you can use the left hand to rotate the knob to adjust the volume in the game, and there will be no problems caused by adjusting the volume without holding the mouse with your right hand.
5. VIA instruction (driver)
Like Keychron's previous Q series, without a driver, you still need to use VIA to change the key. Compared with the driver, the advantage is that the web page can directly change the key!
And the FN key of Keychron Q10 can also be changed.
In addition to setting the keys, you can adjust the RGB lighting effect and brightness of the keyboard. There are 21 kinds of lights in total. By the way, besides adjusting the volume, the knob can also be used to adjust the RGB lighting through the FN+knob operation.
6. Summary
If you feel that your fingering is cost-effective and you want to buy Alice with a mechanical keyboard to type and let your hands relax naturally, I think Q10 is more worth buying than Q8, because it is more convenient to use with the F area, and the design of the left knob can Operate the knob while holding the mouse.
If the budget is limited and you want to experience Alice configuration, you can take a look at Keychron’s V8 or V10, which are the plastic versions of Q8 and Q10. The shaft body uses the K Pro shaft. I have used the K Red Pro V8 before, and the overall smoothness is not bad. good.
However, the V8 is in short supply and has been sold out, and now only the V10 is available for purchase.
advantage:
Aluminum keyboard with gasket structure, component comparison group
Support via key change, good playability
Alice is equipped with a double B design, which is suitable for the use of Chinese people
The design of the knob on the left plus 5 macro buttons makes daily use more convenient, and it is also suitable for gamers
Areas that can be improved:
The finished shaft body is still the basic shaft of Jiadalong, and I hope that it will be upgraded in the future
The out-of-the-box filling has no under-shaft pad, and the sandwich cotton is made of EVA material. If you have requirements for hand feel and sound, you need to upgrade it yourself
The 5 macro buttons on the left are easy to accidentally touch with the root of the little finger
There is a split between the keycaps in the Alice arrangement, some friends may find it unsightly
The right side of the PCB still retains the G hole, but this time the positioning board still does not have the right-hand letter G. I don’t know if the follow-up Alice will add a double-G design to satisfy some users who want to try the Alice arrangement but input the letter G with their right hand.
The above is to bring you all the evaluation content of Alice equipped with Keychron Q10 dark purple + Jiadalong CJ axis. I hope you like it~
I am Tank, and I will bring you more keyboard content in the future. If it is helpful to you, you may wish to give it a thumbs up. Your three links are the biggest encouragement to me~
