4 ms·

As an aside and a huge lover of mechanical keyboards since the original IBM model M with the buckler springs, I picked up a Keychron Q5 Pro a few months ago and

As an aside and a huge lover of mechanical keyboards since the original IBM model M with the buckler springs, I picked up a Keychron Q5 Pro a few months ago and really like it. https://www.keychron.com/products/keychron-q5-pro-qmk-via-wireless-custom-mechanical-keyboard https://www.keychron.com/products/keychron-q5-pro-qmk-via-wi... It's pretty easy to replace the key caps and it has a very good tactile feel to it. It does weigh as much as a houseboat but that's fine as I prefer it to stay stationary. One thing that makes their keyboards stand out over almost any other mechanicals is it has a means of quickly swapping between three different Bluetooth pairings, so I have it paired with three different computers. Now if only I could find an equivalent mouse with a mechanical switch underneath it that let me swap between three different computers wirelessly via BT I would be set...

blairbeckwith 3y ago
I am not sure about the rest of their nice, but at least the Logitech MX Master 3 allows you to switch between 3 paired bluetooth devices via a button on the bottom.
geophile 3y ago
It sounds pretty nice, but it's a non-starter for me. I am highly dependent on key bindings for the cluster of six keys: Ins/Del/Home/End/PageUp/PageDown. This cluster used to be pretty common but is increasingly rare. The Unicomp has it, the Keychron does not.
- ywain 3y ago
  The Q5 Pro is a 96% layout, but Keychron also has quite a few 100% layouts: https://www.keychron.com/collections/all-keyboards?sort_by=manual&filter.p.tag=100%25+Layout&filter.v.availability=1 https://www.keychron.com/collections/all-keyboards?sort_by=m...
  - geophile 3y ago
    Okay, now we’re talkin’.
    - KerrAvon 3y ago
      I have a full-size Keychron with Cherry Browns and it is glorious. The Mac/Win switch means I don’t have to reflash the firmware to swap between Mac and PC usage.
kilolima 3y ago
"Built with the Mac users’ experience in mind while still retaining compatibility for Windows devices..." No thanks!
- Aeolun 3y ago
  What (I think) this means is that their keyboards have a switch that reverses the location of CMD and Ctrl.
  - kilolima 3y ago
    Thanks. I wonder which mode works best in linux? But regardless, when a product chases the mac crowd it makes me think it's probably overpriced or sacrificed functionality for the sake of design.
- vunderba 3y ago
  There's a physical switch on it that remaps the keyboard to support windows or Mac, and they also include extra key caps if you prefer the windows logo versus the command logo. One of the three computers that I swap out is a Windows machine, so this keyboard is perfectly capable with both OSs. You can use the VIA software to physically remap even more keys and because they let you swap between windows and Mac those count as separate layouts and you can create completely different key bindings which is really handy.
- Macha 3y ago
  This is just marketing guff. What it means is there's a toggle on the side between Mac and windows keycodes so you don't get command moving places when you use it with a Mac like a regular windows keyboard, and it ships with the Mac keycaps installed. You can swap out the Mac keycaps for windows keycaps (at least when I got it all, the windows keycaps were all in the box) and flick the switch to the windows position and it's a standard PC keyboard. Mine is actually my Mac keyboard (I've got a ducky shine connected for my personal Linux/Windows dual boot machine as it's easier than fiddling with a KVM or synergy), but I've got it configured as a windows keyboard as I've just been using windows keyboards with macs for like a decade now.
riddley 3y ago
Das Keyboard keeps me hooked with their on-board USB hub. I'd love to switch but it's just so damned handy. I don't know why more kb manufacturers don't do this.
rx_tx 3y ago
Logitech mice (like the MX3 master) have a profile toggle switch on the bottom that can swap between 3 different BT devices or their supplied dongles. Super fast and convenient.
- vunderba 3y ago
  You know I completely avoided even looking into Logitech mice, because I assumed that they required the use of their logitech dongle. Thanks for the recommendation!
octobus2021 3y ago
I tried a Keychron and it doesn't work with my KVM, which uses ScrollLock for switching between computers, and it doesn't work very well with Linux... So Das Keyboard it is!

blairbeckwith 3y ago

I am not sure about the rest of their nice, but at least the Logitech MX Master 3 allows you to switch between 3 paired bluetooth devices via a button on the bottom.

geophile 3y ago

It sounds pretty nice, but it's a non-starter for me. I am highly dependent on key bindings for the cluster of six keys: Ins/Del/Home/End/PageUp/PageDown. This cluster used to be pretty common but is increasingly rare. The Unicomp has it, the Keychron does not.

ywain 3y ago
The Q5 Pro is a 96% layout, but Keychron also has quite a few 100% layouts: https://www.keychron.com/collections/all-keyboards?sort_by=manual&filter.p.tag=100%25+Layout&filter.v.availability=1 https://www.keychron.com/collections/all-keyboards?sort_by=m...
- geophile 3y ago
  Okay, now we’re talkin’.
  - KerrAvon 3y ago
    I have a full-size Keychron with Cherry Browns and it is glorious. The Mac/Win switch means I don’t have to reflash the firmware to swap between Mac and PC usage.

kilolima 3y ago

"Built with the Mac users’ experience in mind while still retaining compatibility for Windows devices..." No thanks!

Aeolun 3y ago
What (I think) this means is that their keyboards have a switch that reverses the location of CMD and Ctrl.
- kilolima 3y ago
  Thanks. I wonder which mode works best in linux? But regardless, when a product chases the mac crowd it makes me think it's probably overpriced or sacrificed functionality for the sake of design.
vunderba 3y ago
There's a physical switch on it that remaps the keyboard to support windows or Mac, and they also include extra key caps if you prefer the windows logo versus the command logo. One of the three computers that I swap out is a Windows machine, so this keyboard is perfectly capable with both OSs. You can use the VIA software to physically remap even more keys and because they let you swap between windows and Mac those count as separate layouts and you can create completely different key bindings which is really handy.
Macha 3y ago
This is just marketing guff. What it means is there's a toggle on the side between Mac and windows keycodes so you don't get command moving places when you use it with a Mac like a regular windows keyboard, and it ships with the Mac keycaps installed. You can swap out the Mac keycaps for windows keycaps (at least when I got it all, the windows keycaps were all in the box) and flick the switch to the windows position and it's a standard PC keyboard. Mine is actually my Mac keyboard (I've got a ducky shine connected for my personal Linux/Windows dual boot machine as it's easier than fiddling with a KVM or synergy), but I've got it configured as a windows keyboard as I've just been using windows keyboards with macs for like a decade now.

riddley 3y ago

Das Keyboard keeps me hooked with their on-board USB hub. I'd love to switch but it's just so damned handy. I don't know why more kb manufacturers don't do this.

rx_tx 3y ago

Logitech mice (like the MX3 master) have a profile toggle switch on the bottom that can swap between 3 different BT devices or their supplied dongles. Super fast and convenient.

vunderba 3y ago
You know I completely avoided even looking into Logitech mice, because I assumed that they required the use of their logitech dongle. Thanks for the recommendation!

octobus2021 3y ago

I tried a Keychron and it doesn't work with my KVM, which uses ScrollLock for switching between computers, and it doesn't work very well with Linux... So Das Keyboard it is!