Keychron K3

This Keychron K7 (a low profile 75% board) is my second low profile keyboard (third, if you count the F1 I tried and resold). I don’t think this profile will ever be my first choice, to be honest (so far, my favorite daily drivers are the TKL Keychron K8 with Boba U4 62g switches, and a 75% Keychron K2 with Kailh Box Royal switches). But for very specific applications, like sitting on top of a MacBook (Air) to provide a mechanical keyboard experience, or to fit easily under a Rigg Monitor Mount, well, sometimes needs must.

I picked up a “used – like new” K3 at a significant discount on Amazon (white backlight; would have preferred RGB, but beggars can’t be choosers). 

It’s the optical switch version (hot swappable), and came with the Keychron “blue” switches, which require a very light touch (48g). After an evening I was getting somewhat used to them, but if I was going to stay clicky with this board I’d be seriously tempted to swap in the orange switches (55g).

As I’ve recently become a tactile convert (Kailh Box Hako Royal Clear, Box Royal; Boba U4 RGB 62g, 68g), I decided to swap in the mint switches, 67g and supposedly similar to the Holy Panda. All the switch options.

Keychron K3 with blue switches, being swapped to mint switches

The K3 comes with all the tools you’ll need to do the swap, and once I figured out how to pull the switches (align the puller top-to-bottom and basically just rock the switch out), it was easy, if tedious. The mint switches popped right in, and unlike with electrical mechanical switches, you don’t have to worry about bending or smooshing a copper pin. (I will note one of the switches in the bag came separated into pieces, but as there were two switches in excess of the number required to completely reswitch the board, not a big deal.) One oddity - as I replace switches I like to test as I go with Inspect. I don’t know if it’s related to the optical system or what, but switches would work, and then not work, but then once all the switches were in place, work again.

So, I took the minty K3 into the office today to break it in and get used to typing on it. 

Keychron K3 on my desk at the office

Again, I can’t say it'll ever be my favorite, maybe it’s decades of muscle memory. But I’m getting real work done on it (along with, yes, writing this post), and that’s the line in the sand. Can I be productive on a board? Answer: Yes. I like the way the switches feel (and I really don’t find them at all fatiguing, as some have suggested – perhaps because I’m used to 75/70g Box Royal and 60/90g Box Navy switches. I do find I have far fewer miskeys with the heavier switches, and any typos I suffer are more a result of the physical dimensions of the board or more likely the keycaps (the board itself is, X/Y axis, not that dissimilar from a K2 or RK71 or other non-low-profile keyboard, but the keycaps are more like the chiclet keys on most laptops, albeit with more actuation force and travel). The verdict is still out. As a ~$50 board ($75 with the mint switches), it’s fine. Would I feel the same if it was a $150 board? Probably not.

Useful key combinations:

fn + l + light bulb (hold 6s): Lock backlight mode.
fn + s + l + r (hold 4s): Auto sleep after 10 minutes.
fn + o + s (hold 4s): Disable auto sleep mode (may help with Bluetooth instability; might also reset Bluetooth module)