Looks like Keychron is joining the “gasket-mount” party with their own 75% soon. The model is listed as the QMK Keyboard on their website with these specs -
QMK/VIA support
gasket-mount
screw-in stabs
south-facing RGB
hotswap
CNC aluminum case
Poron case foam
It doesn’t seem like Bluetooth is in the feature list, which I always assumed was the main draw to Keychron. That said, the brand is super popular in the mainstream and very much prevalent in YouTuber setups. It looks to pretty much be a direct competitor to the GMMK Pro.
Only a matter of time before Razer releases a “gasket-mount” board as well?
Feels like will be a fine product that adds some competition for entry to high-end keyboard.
In my opinion, Keychron branding might in a much better position compared to Glorious for releasing such a product, their brand is targeting an audience that is more like people that care about typing experience and productivity, compared to made by Glorious which will sound like they are trying to put some gaming gimmick out, even though they are making a similar product.
I remember there was a time about 4-6 months back, I was sharing a board I saw on IC with some friends and they were like “top mount?..not gasket? no thanks…” even myself thought gasket was the best mount…
Probably many people got into the hobby watching some streams and think that “gasket” mount is the best mount…hehe
It would be interesting to see the price point, I agree that it will be cheaper one, maybe close to $120. My question is, however, does gasket mount make that much difference? or is it just a “fancy new thing” that gives very slight improvement to the experience?
has “exploded” arrow-cluster / nav column become synonymous with premium now? What are people’s thoughts on this?
Personally I really like “half-tsangan” (1.5u-1u-1.5u-7u-1.5u) layouts on 65%/75% and exploded boards cannot seem to offer this (I did the row math once but I don’t want to cludge it here and get it wrong).
Pluses I’ve heard for it are aesthetics (I can see that) as well as the idea that it helps people transition to a compact layout from Full Size/TKL because there’s a bit of space there.
I got the gmmk pro already, but I’m very interested on how the sound and typing feel between them will differ. If it’s better then maybe I’ll just have to sell off the pro
I wonder what the pricing is going to look like. If it has a better overall reception than the GMMK Pro, then I could be recommending this to people/friends coming into the hobby.
Fully assembled: 169USD(without brass weight, knob or plate options(Alu will be default)) Switches will be gaterons
Barebone: 139USD
Brass weight: TBA
Knob: TBA
Keychron. As long as the IC represents their actual product, the quality seems head and shoulders above GMMK. Everything is CNC with no stamping and there’s six colors for you to personalize.
I’d pay the extra $40 for the barebones since I’m sure there’s more than forty bucks in the build quality differentiating the two.
Being a GMMK Pro owner, the thing that shot my concern level through the roof was the claim of out-of-the-box QMK/VIA compatibility. I’m a little cynical when I hear that claim now from a “larger” manufacturer.
I’ve already got one mildly disappointing keyboard, I won’t need two.
I think a lot of people are going to assume support for BT and then be disappointed by it’s absence. Keychron is in a tough spot here because, on one hand, BT support has almost become part of their brand. On the other, as innovative as Keychron’s first boards were, the industry has caught up and now there is pressure from the market to up some of the features (like gasket mounting) that have become popular.
My understanding was that Keychron did try to include BT support into this board. Unfortunately, they ran into the hard fact that BT support in QMK is not good. They had to choose between supporting QMK, which has been a huge ask by customers, and continuing to support BT—but not both. Consider all the retail BT keyboards you see out there and then consider that none of them support QMK.
All hope is not lost, though. Word is that Keychron has not given up. The best case scenario is that they are able to contribute better BT support to the QMK project and then everyone wins.
In the meantime, the ZMK (not a typo) project is currently out there with it’s native BT support with incredible battery runtimes. I wonder if Keychron ends up offering BT support that way.
Keychron. I’m already a pro owner but the added color options, experience in the custom keyboard scene, via, and probably way better gasket mounting is swinging me in their favor.
