The fever has subsided for at least 3 months, the office choice for keyboard guys, keychron K3 pro in-depth experience report

Hello everyone, I am Xiaobei who has been in the pit of mechanical keyboards for 8 years~

The reason I chose K3 pro is because I have to deal with a lot of copywriting work every day, and the short stroke and lower height of the short axis can slightly relieve the fatigue of high-intensity typing fingers. In addition, my daily work environment needs to switch between mac and win repeatedly, and I need a keyboard that is highly compatible with the two systems.

There are only a handful of low-axis keyboard manufacturers on the market, and keychron should be the one with the most new and abundant products. K3 pro has been in hand for a long time. During this period, I have done various tests such as extreme battery life and extreme distance connection. The results combined with my many years of experience in the pit, I would like to share my in-depth experience with keychron K3 pro.

Keychron is referred to as the K brand. The initial contact was because many digital bloggers used and recommended it on YouTube, so that it became so popular abroad that it was hard to find a machine in China. When I come into contact with the k brand, many keyboards of keychron have hot-swappable and QMK/VIA options, and the color matching is relatively low-key, giving it the feeling of a thug in a suit. It is a very friendly brand for entry-level customization.

To my surprise, the keychron K3 pro seems to use the international version of the packaging, which is mainly in English. Fortunately, I have learned English in elementary school, so I can handle it. Black paper shell laser font, very cool, the main picture is the keyboard, the characteristics of the three keyboards on the left and right, the left is QMK/VIA/Bluetooth support, the right is hot-swappable/two-color injection keycap/body and other information, classic The heaven and earth cover package, the damping feeling is moderate.

In addition to the keyboard body, there are key pullers, shaft pullers, two cards, an instruction manual (in various languages), a cable and win supplements in the box. Yes, the original keycaps are the layout of the mac.

The biggest feeling of opening the box is that it is relatively international. The advantage is that it retains the original flavor of keychron, and the disadvantage is that it does not have domestic adaptation. However, the problem is not big. Beginners can read the manual in Chinese, but old burners don’t care about Chinese and English.

This is a 75% layout, a very compact keyboard.

The color scheme is keychron plus a very classic gray and black color scheme, and the esc and erter keys are embellished with red, which makes the whole keyboard calm and energetic, but overall it is still a relatively stable style, very versatile, customized core and coquettish RGB lighting It is perfectly hidden, and it is especially suitable for use in the office. For a 25-year-old + six-year-old working man like me, I really like this style.

Two-color injection-molded keycaps, the height of lsa, the keyboard is a little more than 2 cm. It can be seen that the designer has stretched the limit between the height of the keyboard and the engineering feel. The layout of the keyboard is very compact, and the overall size is small. The manufacturer intends to reduce weight Designed, but also added a steel plate to increase the strength of the keyboard and make it more solid when coding.

There are two toggle switches on the upper left frame of the switch, which are system switching and connection mode switching, and the middle of the frame is the C port for wired connection and charging. The only question is On my keyboard, the supplementary win key seems to be reversed. , I remember that the logo of the win key Ueda brand is bigger on the right.

You can always trust Jiadalong, and so do the short shafts. The Jiadalong short red switch of this keyboard is very smooth, it should be self-lubricated at the factory, the sound of the red switch is not noisy and quieter, and the tapping feels as silky as eating Dove. The main thing is a clean and tidy . The PBT keycaps are comfortable and large enough to prevent accidental touches. The swing and shake of the satellite axis of the large key is well controlled, and the performance is also very stable when typing at extreme speed, without sticking or sticking.

What I use most is the linear axis, the short red axis The stroke is about 3/4 of the normal red axis , In addition to the height difference of the keycaps, the movement of the fingers will be greatly reduced when typing. I personally measured that the same code word is 5000. Compared with the normal G red keyboard, the fatigue of the fingers with the short axis will be relieved a lot. One section is fixed and the other section is adjustable. Personally, I think it is almost appropriate to open the second section.

K3 pro is a dual-mode keyboard, wired or Bluetooth , can be switched by the lever. Bluetooth is a 5.1 protocol, which can remember 3 devices at the same time. I usually connect the two devices of win desktop and mac notebook. The key combination for switching is fn+1/2/3, and the wake-up time for switching is about 3 seconds. The switching waiting time is acceptable, much faster than cold boot, and keychron is well adapted to mac. For people like me who switch back and forth between the two systems, there is almost no room for the desktop. There is no need to use two keyboards if you can do it! !

The delay of Bluetooth is basically insensitive, basically no different from the use of wiring, and there is no disconnection in the process of using it. The actual measurement is about 8 meters, which is the limit distance for a stable link. , the link of the keyboard over 8 meters will be intermittent. Although it is 10 meters in theory, there are various signal interferences in reality, but there should be no scene of using the keyboard at this distance, right?

My K3 pro is designed with lower RGB lighting, which is also a design used by more and more manufacturers. The good thing is that compared to the previous one where you could only choose between playing with lights and playing with keycaps, the lower-mounted lights can basically do both, and the compatibility with the switch-changing gameplay is also higher. Now the mainstream on the market Custom kits are basically turning in this direction.

The 22 kinds of lights can be switched through the upper right corner, and the brightness can also be adjusted. The color transition of the lights is very smooth. If the font on the keycaps is transparent, the lights should be more cool.

The lightweight orientation will inevitably sacrifice battery life. After ensuring the keyboard feel and various modules, a 1550 mAh battery is still inserted. When fully charged and tested for battery life, Turn on the lowest light and use it for about a week from full power to power outage, which translates to about 37 hours of working life , for a lightweight keyboard, this battery life performance is a relatively good result.

It can be charged when it is connected and used. There is a small light near the C port. It is red when charging and green when fully charged.

Hot swap + QMK/VIA brings infinite possibilities.

For an old burner, the fancy keycaps may not be very attractive, but the temptation to change the switch and change the key is absolutely irresistible. K3 pro supports hot swapping, whether it is the short switch of Jiadalong 1.0 or 2.0. Just change it and be happy, Even if you gather all the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and colorful axes to construct a rainbow in the keyboard, you can summon the dragon. The main one is freedom, and the main one is to do whatever you want. , This is the charm of changing the shaft.

If the switch still stays at the hardware level, then the support of QMK/VIA means that K3 pro has entered customization at the software level. One of the meanings of customization is to create a keyboard that suits you best. In addition to various kits The choice of hardware, the software is the absolute control of each button, QMK/VIA intuitively remaps favorite keys and creates macros with any key (including knobs) on any operating system (macOS, Windows or Linux) , the main focus is to travel the world with one keyboard, which is perfect for people like me who switch between the two systems.

The short axis that I first came into contact with should be SteelSeries APEX M800. The QS1 linear axis at that time seems to be the tears of the times. Now the low axis of keychron K3 pro has made great progress in terms of texture and craftsmanship. The keychron K3 pro has distinct features. As a lightweight keyboard, although battery life and some details need to be polished and improved, whether it is QMK/VIA modification, hot-swappable switch or aggressive lighting, it can give a At most, it is a keyboard with high playability.