Keychron - Q3 Pro Special Edition

Personally i have a keychron keyboard Q3 Pro, one of the best things i have purchased, what i like the most is the keycaps (KSA Double Shot PBA) the best i have ever tried, typing is much easier now, and gaming too.

Okay ... special edition is the one that has the butt-ugly huge knob and fat macro keys, but if that's what you need that's what you're going to have to get. If you want it black you can get it prebuilt, if you want one of the fancy colors it looks like you need to get the barebones. I would get the banana switches. Hopefully they built these boards before their recent quality and production issues. :(

 I adore my Keychron Q3 SE in red with knob,  I chose heavy Mint switches.  Keychron is a mass producer of mechanical keyboards.  There are nicer but also more expensive brands with higher end finish etc,  Keychron is the nicest keyboard I have ever owned, and while still somewhat "expensive" it seemed like a solid value for what you get.  The Q series includes QMK, which is excellent, open source and not dependent on Keychron at all, also available on other manufacturers. The Q series is solid Aluminum and steel, no feet to break, its very heavy and stays planted, The sound is good to me but that is subjective. They have lower priced plastic boards, don't think I would have liked that as much. But they are more affordable. I went with the version with the knob and I set it as volume/mute I love a numpad also but I wanted more room for my mouse,  My solution was TKL and a seperate numpad off to the right of my mouse, that is working very well for me, YMMV. 

I have Keychron as well. They are incredibly well built machines that are fully modular and swappable. The good news is that even if something was damaged, odds are it would be completely replaceable with a (somewhat) cheap replacement part. The board, membranes, switches, caps, etc. they're all replaceable. I love my Q3 Pro and it's clickety clacks lol, I'm sure you'll love your Q1.

Keychron Q3 SE in red with knob, heavy 67g Mint switches.   The Keychron Q series is made from cast aluminum with an added weight, very sturdy, stays put and has a great feel.   I will echo others here, whatever keyboard you get, QMK is excellent, open souce so not tied to any one manufacturer and easy to configure. the configuration lives on the keyboard itself, so boot into another distro, a live session USB, whatever, my configuration moves with me.  Mouse is a G502, but I am old and starting to get pain in my wrist and forearm, considering moving to a vertical mouse.  About a decade ago I gave up on wireless and went back to wired, very glad I did. batteries no mater the form limit the life of a component and place you on a replacement treadmill.  My G502 is a decade old, the rubber skin is starting to deteriorate. Still going strong otherwise. 

Hi, I'm just looking for additional opinions on keyboards to check out. My prior keyboard was a WASD Code V3 (I think?) and I loved it until it broke, would have bought another if they were out of business. Over the last 6 months i've been struggling with a Keychron Q3 Max but the board had a huge QC issue and am getting a refund, not sure I want to roll the dice with them again. My priorities: I don't care about hotswapping, just want something to work well out of the box, prefer tactile switches similar to the Browns I've been using, and prefer a TKL/80% layout. Any advice?

HE/TMR is a buzzy gamer feature that has resulted in a ton of boards that are meh coming to market and the amount of switch options you have is kinda limited, that's what you'd be getting with something like the thing you've linked. Mind you, it's gonna be a perfectly usable keyboard and you're probably gonna like it. Still way better than logitech . There are a bunch of EXTRA NICE ones like the Monsgeek M1 V5 or Womier SK75 or Lemokey P1 HE or Keychron Q HE series that have a metal chassis and had people spend time making them sound and feel and making sure they don't screw up the basics. I'd personally stretch the budget and get one of those but the MCHOSE is probably decent enough. The Womier isn't even that far off with current aliexpress discounts.

Mac user here who went down this exact rabbit hole. 🍎 **1. Cross off the HE (Wooting/Magnetic) boards immediately.** You said you 'very, very rarely' game. HE switches are linear (no bump) and hyper-sensitive. Coming from a Magic Keyboard (which has a sharp tactile snap), HE switches will feel like typing on a wet sponge. It is tech you do not need. **2. Important Correction:** You listed the **IQUNIX Magi75** under 'Slim Keyboards.' **It is not slim.** It is a standard-height mechanical board. *However*, that isn't a bad thing. I switched from a Magic Keyboard to an aluminum IQUNIX (Zonex 75), and while it took a week to get used to the height (get a wrist rest), the build quality feels like an Apple product. It is heavy, solid aluminum—not plastic. **3. The 'Chinese' Fear:** In the mechanical keyboard world, 'Chinese' doesn't mean cheap. It usually means Enthusiast. * **Razer/Logitech/Corsair:** often use cheap ABS plastic caps and non-standard layouts. * **IQUNIX/Nuphy/Keychron:** use PBT keycaps, aluminum cases, and open-source software (QMK/VIA) that doesn't need to run in the background. **My Advice:** Since you have a huge budget: * **If you MUST stay Slim:** Get the **Nuphy Air75 V2** (ISO). It feels closest to the Magic Keyboard. * **If you want Premium Quality:** Get the **IQUNIX** or a **Keychron Q-Series** (ISO). Just make sure you get **Tactile** switches (Browns/Bananas), not Reds, to mimic that Apple tactile bump.

i own both keychrons and razers. Also logitech gpro x and g915 TKL. Matter of the fact: software in keychrons has no issues and build quality is objectively better, specially in Q series of keychrons. If you want to get a keyboard and want something reliable, ready to go, well built and easily programmable, just get a keychron. Wooting/Logitech/Steelseries/Corsair/GenericComercialOrGamerBrand is just like razer level, not best in class Razer gets closer altough not there yet to best in class features in the last blackwidow v4 75% (asus also does great with Azoth boards) but the board has really low reliabilty, so not best in class at all. check out r/MechanicalKeyboards for advice, they will guide you to get something real good and it can easily be cheaper or cost the same as razer boards.

So you're looking for 75–100%. I can recommend something from the Keychron Q series. Plenty of really clean boards there, and they have keycaps with secondary legends for stuff like media control. A lot of them also have macro columns that can be assigned to various functions.