Keychron Q5 review 2024: excellent mechanical keyboard

Spend some time on a mechanical keyboard forum or subreddit, and you’ll see custom designs that cost more than the average car payment and took hundreds of hours to make. The Q series of keyboards from Keychron can’t compete with these custom designs. But they can get pretty close and do it for a lot less money.

And here’s the best part: you can order them whenever you want instead of having to wait a year or more for a small batch made by an artist to arrive. So it is with the Keychron Q5, which has a smart layout, almost every high-end feature you can think of, and a price that is more like a splurge than something you have to trick yourself into thinking is a “investment.” It’s a huge piece of carefully carved aluminium, and while it’s not perfect

Keychron Q5 review specifications

Keychron Q5 review: Design

The 1800 layout of the Keychron Q5 is 96% of a full-size keyboard. The 1800 layout isn’t very common because it tries to fit as many keys as possible into a small space. Compared to a full-size keyboard, it saves about an inch of space. We don’t mind getting rid of some wasted space to make the size work better for me, and we have been enjoying the unusual design.

Keychron Q5 review: Keycaps

the PCB, sound-dampening foam, gaskets, steel plate, aluminium top case, switches, and keycaps. We were sent the knob model that is already put together and comes in three colours. The silver-grey one was sent to me for testing. There are keycap kits that let you change the keys if you want your keyboard to look different.

The angle of the keys is 5.3 degrees, and the bottom case cannot be changed. Since the keyboard is quite tall at the front (30.9 mm with the keycaps on), we use a Keychron wooden palm rest. With the keycaps on, the back is 42.8 mm tall. The length of the keyboard is 390.5 mm and the width is 145 mm. You can get this keyboard from its official website.

Keychron Q5 review: Typing and Performance

Another nice feature is the custom PBT double-triggered keys. Keychron’s custom OSA profile has a rounded and smooth surface, which makes the typing experience really pleasant and very easy to learn. The supplied Gateron G Pro Red switches also contribute nicely to the keying experience, as the linear switches mean that little force has to be exerted to actuate the key and register a strike.

Together with the multiple layers of sound-dampening materials, they make for a more or less silent experience, although typing on a mechanical keyboard always produces some noise. Unlike some of its peers, the XL2566K has a rather unobtrusive look. There are no logos on the front panel, no LEDs on the front of the panel, no RGB backlighting, no flashy colors.

Keychron Q5 review: Price and availability

If I wrote the Q5’s features in standard prose.  Suffice it to say that it has almost all the features of a $500 custom mechanical keyboard at less than half the price. But there are a few parts that need to be highlighted if you are considering a purchase.

First and foremost, the box. Picking up this monster almost requires a companion. It weighs 82 ounces on my kitchen scale, including switches and keys, more than most laptops on the market. That’s because the case is made up of two thick milled aluminum plates and a heavy steel plate over the printed circuit board. It is, in a word, a beast.

Final Words

The Keychron Q5 is the fifth model in the Q-series of customizable keyboards. It has the same gasket-mounted design, hot-swappable PCB (printed circuit board), screw-in stabilisers, and rounded PBT keycaps as the other Q-series boards. It also comes with a toolkit that makes it easy to make changes. The main difference between the two is that the Q5 is 96% full-size and has a Numpad and a full row of function keys.

FAQs

Are Keychron keyboards good quality?

Keychron has been called one of the best keyboard brands because it is easy to use and has unique features. This is why it has gotten good reviews from the media and real feedback from many different people. “To be honest, it was also one of our team’s main goals: to make something small and easy to use.

Is a Keychron worth it?

“The Keychron K8 Pro may be a bit pricey, but I think it’s worth it. It’s an excellent keyboard with a great typing experience, and a number of additional features that you often don’t get from a mechanical keyboard. The ability to use the keyboard with a wireless connection, in particular, is useful.” 

Does Keychron Q5 have Bluetooth?

Another thing to remember is that the Q5 doesn’t have Bluetooth or wireless configuration. Instead, you’ll need to use the USB-C cable that comes with the Keyboard to connect it to your computer.