Lemme talk about the Keychron keyboard before I get into why I ditched it. The switches are dead on perfect. In fact, besides being kind of scrunched up, it's damned near perfect. Very satisfying sound and typing feel. RGB lighting that's... well, it's fine. Keycaps and switches are both changeable. Wireless. I really couldn't ask for more. But....
But there were problems. Yes, it's RGB. But it has double shot PBT keycaps that are NOT shine through. meaning the light flows around the keys and don't illuminate the actual letters and numbers. Well shit. My room is dark. Even with my huge monitor shining right on my keyboard, I can barely see that there's writing on the keycaps, let alone what the writing is. I rely on those shine through. No worries, they make replacement keycaps. I even bought a set of really sweet blue ones when I bought the keyboard. Well, the blue ones were ALOS double shot PBT and not shine through. So I had to search for more. I couldn't find blue, bud I did find two sets that might work. A purple set and a black one.
The purple set was out immediately. I put a few of them on to make sure and without the lights shining through them, they were not readable at all. And the light barely shone through them. So I never had the full set of the purple keycaps on. The black set worked fine, but still pissed me off. The numbers and letters worked fine. Pop off the old one, pop on the new one, boom. But the longer keys with stabilizers like Tab, Caps Lock, Shift, Alt, Control, Windows, Spacebar, Slash, Backspace, and Function all didn't work. They were just not the right size and the stabilizer system didn't work. It's not a HUGE problem, as they keycaps were already multi colored. I had some blue ones and some grey ones along with a highlighted few that were yellow. This just added another color. But along with another color came a different font. And not even a different font, a different position on the keycap. The color scheme was a little over the top but worked. The fonts were annoying.
I went with it as at that point I'm almost $300 into this keyboard and I'm loving having the number pad separate. But then the wireless issue comes up. These things hog so much power that they'd need charging almost every day. Every other day at the least. And it had the annoying habit that when it went into low power mode it didn't only turn the lights off, it turned the input off. So to start typing I had to hit a key, wait, and then start typing. But there was a delay between turning the lights off and going into full on low power state. So sometimes I'd hit a key and it would type that letter on the screen as well as light up the keyboard. It was inconsistent and therefore unacceptable. So both the keyboard AND the number pad had to be plugged in. Twice as many cables as before.
And then the i key happened. It started double hitting. As in I'd hit i and get ii out of it. On a normal keyboard that's it, the keyboard is done. With this one it's not that big of a deal. I could pull the i switch out, swap it with a key that I rarely if ever hit (the home key for example) and that would solve it. But that was the straw that broke this particular camels back.
I looked over my choices and it came down to three keyboards, all Logitech and all ten keyless as I'd just keep the Keychron number pad.
this year. It's the same as the above keyboard except it's NOT wireless and the switches are magnetic instead of mechanical. Being magnetic has a lot of uses, but for me it's biggest advantage is deciding how sensitive the keys are. You can make it so that the key 'activates' in just 0.1 mm or as much as 2.5 mm. Other than that, they sound and feel just about like any mechanical linear switch.
As a comparison, here's a photo I found online of both keyboards side by side (or... one above the other):
As you can see, they take up around the same amount of space. The 915X is a touch wider and a touch taller, but both are laid out normally.
Having the media keys is NOT a decision maker like it would have been before. By keeping the Keychron number pad, I have a volume knob and media keys. And considering that my hand is generally on my mouse, I have a volume knob THERE on my thumb and the media keys on the number pad are closer. So the 915's biggest advantage is the aluminum built. I remember liking it a LOT when I had the full keyboard before. Nice, cool to the touch, and heavy. It gave a feel of quality.
Thankfully I didn't have to wonder what the plastic on the G515 would feel like. My brother R recently got a Logitech G low profile keyboard that's practically the 915, but plastic. I went up and played with it a bit and... yeah, I want the aluminum even at a price premium of nearly $100.
On a lark I searched for replacement keycaps. I recalled that Logitech used specific keys that didn't take most keycaps so I made sure to look for replacement keycaps for Logitech G915. And I was happily surprised to find quite a few of them!
I had my keyboard delivered on Thursday and my blue keycaps delivered on Saturday. They keyboard setup was easy enough and they keyboard is as expected... the software is fine, the lighting is good, the feel is the best I've had outside of the Keychron, and while the aluminum makes it look and feel premium, I'd still like some color contrast.
I get the keycaps on Saturday, but it's football day so they just sit in their box. Late Sunday I pull them out and go to put them on. The first thing I have to do is separate them into categories as all the keycaps are just in a little baggie. I put the macro keys and all the number pad keys back into the bag, then roughly line up the letter, numbers, F keys, and special keys. It takes me about a half hour, but fine.
As soon as I pull off my first key and go to put the replacement on I realize the problem. The replacement keys have two little prongs to attach to the switch. The switch on the keyboard instead has a little cross space. I double check the keycap that I pulled off and yes, it has a little cross that will fit into the switch unlike the replacement keycap. I was pissed and ready to write a pissed off email until I realized my problem. I'd searched for keycaps specifically for the Logitech G915. The fact that I had the TKL or ten keyless version didn't matter as it just meant I'd use fewer of the keys. Well, my keyboard is also a G915X and it turns out that X is very important.
You guessed it... they change the switches they use.
FUCK
I box up the keycaps and ignore it for the rest of the day.
This morning, as I'm contemplating writing this post, I go online and look for replacement keycaps for the Logitech G915X. None listed. I do a little more digging and find that most low profile Cherry MX key caps SHOULD work. The Logitech switches are based on the Cherry switches, but they have a little ring around the cross which gives it some more stability, but CAN interfere with some keycaps. Fuck it, I've now sold myself on having a multicolored keyboard. So I search and search and search. I can find a lot of different Cherry MX low profile keycaps but they're either not shine through or they're plain black.
Through all of my searching I seemed to come across a brand called Tai-Hao often that people seem to really like, but they're always sold out. And they come in a blue that IS shine through. Well, as that seems to be the ONLY blue set that might work with my keyboard, I finally search specifically for that and find an oddball online keyboard site called Turkey Boards that has it in stock. One.
Most keycaps go for about $15. Most low profile keycaps go for about $20. Good low profile keycaps go for about $30. These Tai-Hao shine through low profile navy key caps go for $50. MOTHER FUCKER!!!!!
So the keycaps will get here while I'm down in Dallas. And if you're keeping count, between my Keychron keyboard, Keychron Number Pad, Keychron aluminum knob, Keychron aluminum escape key, Keychron Keycaps, two sets of other branded keycaps, Logitech G915X TKL, Keycaps designed for G915, and Tai-Hao shine through low profile navy keycaps, have put me $528.42 in the hole for this keyboard.
Yes, I could sell the Keychron and probably get $200 back for the keyboard and keycaps, but I'm going to give that to my nephews instead. This is BY FAR the most I've paid for a keyboard.
Please please please please, let this one last and stay in my good graces!
One last thing. Once I get the colored keycaps and assuming that they work, I'll post a picture of my setup so that you can see the keyboard, the number pad, the mouse, and other things on my desk.
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