This is a fantastic direction for peripherals. Gaming keyboards have long been incredibly homogenized with angular, all-black cases and unavoidable bright shine-through RGB. I often found myself buying keyboards with sub-par performance purely because I wanted something good-looking on my desk. That’s why I love the K2 HE’s design so much. It indicates a shift in gaming peripherals, especially performance-oriented ones, to more diverse and stylish designs.
I generally think it’s important for products to look good, not just function as advertised. So much of what we own today can be treated as temporary and can feel easy to throw away without a second thought. A thoughtfully designed product, whether it’s a keyboard, a computer case, a pen, or a lamp, can compel you to keep it for longer, even care about maintaining it. Best of all, you feel better using it. This has been possible for years with high-end, $500+ mechanical keyboards, but I’m glad to see it become more democratized and accessible.
Software Customization
The Hall effect switches work incredibly well and are deeply customizable using Keychron’s browser-based Launcher software. Just like on the Q1 HE, each key’s inputs and actuation distance can be independently customized, and they can even be programmed to have multiple inputs at different distances.
The rapid trigger feature, which I feel is one of the biggest draws of Hall effect switches, works perfectly. This setting allows for faster key inputs by actively changing the actuation point of the switch. A traditional mechanical keyboard switch has one predetermined point where it registers a keypress, and to register a second keypress, the switch needs to be released, return to above that point, and then be pressed down past it again. With rapid trigger enabled, a Hall effect switch only has to move back up a slight amount, then it can be pressed down again to register another keypress. This allows for much faster reactions when gaming and some serious typists even report that they can write faster with the setting enabled.
Photograph: Henri Robbins
Like every other Keychron keyboard, I am a bit frustrated that it needs to be plugged in to edit the layout using Launcher, but that’s a necessary sacrifice when building a keyboard on well-documented open source software like QMK.
The RGB is easy to adjust and has countless settings ranging from static colors and RGB color shifts to a “heat map” setting that gradually changes the color of a key based on how often it is pressed. The wireless connectivity works flawlessly, but I found that pressing a key wouldn’t automatically reconnect the keyboard after it sat idle for a while. Instead, I had to use the slider on the side to switch from wired back to wireless mode.
I don’t have any genuine issues with the K2 HE. For the price, it’s a bargain. It looks fantastic, has a clean and deep typing sound, feels great to type on, and comes with some of the best Hall effect switches available today. For $140, there isn’t another keyboard that’s anywhere near as solid as this one.