One of the best ways to review a keyboard is to use it as your daily driver when you are at work, as in my case here, I am using the Keychron K3 MAX to write this review instead of just doing a simple typing test on MonkeyType, and I can assure you after using for a month, this is a superb low-profile mechanical keyboard I wished I had own earlier,.
The Keychron K3 Max is a 75% keyboard so it will fit well in a small workspace, even if you want to take it around with you, it weighs just 525g which is similar to a 10-inch tablet, hence it doesn’t weigh down my bags if I were to take it along to use it with my laptop.
The keyboard’s build quality is solid as you would come to expect from a Keychron product, it has an alumnium frame and plastic base, the keycaps are double-shot PBT material that doesn’t attract smudges and feels really smooth, there’s also redesigned stabilizers on bigger keys such as the space bar, enter, left Shift and backspace keys.
Interestingly, you even get a dedicated screenshot button that works well with the Snipping Tool on Windows.
On the top, you will find two switches with one letting you change different operating system key layouts, the other one that lets you change operating modes.
What I am happy though, is that the K3 Max comes with a 2.4GHz receiver that greatly improves input latency, which is especially useful when I want to game with it, it also continues to support up to three Bluetooth devices, which you simply just need to press the Fn+1 to 3 keys to switch between different devices.
The Keychron K3 Max I got is the Gateron Red switch which is already pre-lubed out of the box, the keys are a joy to type on especially in an office environment and is no different from a regular membrane keyboard, I’m also happy with the low actuation force, which doesn’t strain your fingers after typing for long durations.
Best of all, the Keychron K3 Max keys are hot swappable so in case you need to hammer certain keys when gaming, you can consider swapping to the Blue switches for more actuation force and clickyness, Keychron provides a key puller inside the box but didn’t include sample switches for you to try out.
My review unit comes with RGB backlighting with over 22 lighting effects, they look really nice when you are typing in low light but under bright office lighting, I can hardly notice those lights even at the brightest level due to the non-transparent keycaps, but that isn’t an issue since you can get aftermarket keycaps on them if you really want to see RGB all the time.
What’s really unique about the K3 Max is that you don’t need to install any software on your computer to do customization, as it uses the QMK firmware that lets you do key remapping, macros and shortcuts with the web-based Keychron Launcher, which works on any device with a web browser and all you need to do is to navigate to launcher.keychron.com, make sure the 2.4GHz receiver is plugged in and you are good to go.
Keychron Launcher is a fun and customizable web-based software that allows you to customize the keys of the K3 Max with many features, from media keys to mouse button clicks, there’s just way too many features that you can do with it even though I hardly find the need to customize them, there’s also no need to do any software update because the launcher always stays up to date, so if Keychron happens to update some special keys or features for the keyboard, you can simply have it saved on to the K3 Max via the web based software.
The Keychron K3 Max is powered by a 1550mAh battery, which offers up to 73 hours of working time without backlight and up to 42 hours on the lowest backlight brightness, don’t think that you will need to charge this keyboard every two days or so because based on my tests with the 2.4GHz receiver and maximum brightness, I only needed to charge the K3 Max every 14 days with an average daily usage of 3 horus, I also never switch off the keyboard when I leave it in the office, that’s very impressive compared to my old Keychron K2 that needs a charge every 5 days.
If you are in for a low profile mechanical keyboard that types really well, the Keychron K3 Max should definitely be one youf considerations, but only if you are willing to pay RM509 for it, which doesn’t sound too pricey for mechanical keyboard enthusiasts out there but for the average user, it costs a lot more than your regular Logitech wireless productivity keyboard, but you definitely get a lot more out of this for the price you are paying.
Once you start typing on the Keychron K3 Max, it leaves a smile everytime you finish writing a long article or rush through multiple email replies, and even more so as I finished this review using this keyboard.
The Keychron K3 Max can be purchased here.
