Keyboard of the month: Keychron K8 Pro
After my gaming keyboard gave up recently I jumped down the rabbit hole of mechanical, hot swappable keyboards. What is a hot swappable keyboard? One which you can replace individual switches. Why does this interest me? Well in the past 4 years I have been through 4 very expensive keyboards because switches have failed. The idea of replacing a broken switch makes so much sense to me. Not only this, don’t like how the switch sounds or feels? Well change out the switch! When you jump down the rabbit hole of custom keyboards you quickly learn that this is a hobby, hence why I want do a “Keyboard of the month” post. What will I do with all these keyboards? Well once you use one you learn they are really nice, and I think my family and friends need nice new keyboards! For now though here is my new daily driver the Keychron K8 Pro.
I got the K8 Pro with plastic housing and red, linear switches. I would have liked the aluminium variant but I couldn’t find one locally. I am happy with the plastic version though, it is hefty and feels more premium than my last gaming keyboard. The red linear switches are quiet and very sensitive. I have a feeling I might prefer the brown tactile switch option and I might order some to try as my first mod. Mods?? Yes! As I mentioned already the switches are hot swappable but I can also change the dampening materials inside inside it. Don’t like the key cap colour? You can order some in a different colour and profile. Speaking of the keycaps, I really like these stock ones! When looking at pictures and videos I thought they looked a bit ugly but in person I love them! Even when I took these photos I felt like I wasn’t giving the keyboard justice. They remind me of the caps on an old Linux terminal I used to use, but it a good, cool way.
Other notable features:
The board has RGB, I turned this off straight away. I am very tired of everything having RGB now, tried finding a decent computer case without RGB recently? I am now firmly in the anti-RGB crowd.
The board can be connected either with a wire or Bluetooth thanks to an internal rechargeable battery, I have connected it with Bluetooth and it works well! I did have an issue with connecting it to a Bluetooth 5.3 dongle but a 5.0 dongle works fine, maybe this bit of info might help someone.
The board uses open source firmware which means lighting, macros and features can be modified with the QMK VIA software. I haven’t used this so no idea what it is like.
Do I like this keyboard? I love it! As I mentioned custom mechanical keyboards are a hobby so I am going to enjoy seeing what else I can get hold of and who knows maybe I will find another preferred daily driver!
