With its latest Kickstarter for the Q1 Pro, Keychron aims to further the success of 2022’s Q1, which took the features and quality of limited-run keyboards and made them available in a package accessible to keyboard customization newbies.
This time, Keychron tackled one of the industry’s more significant challenges: the Q1 Pro is its first all-metal keyboard to maintain stable Bluetooth performance. The keyboard is smart enough to remember up to three devices for easy multitasking across tablets, phones, and laptops or desktops. Users with a mixed bag of tech toys need not worry, as Keychron maintained dual support for Mac and Windows operating systems with the Q1 Pro. Hot-swappable keycaps and switches mean that changing between devices with different operating systems is almost as breezy.
Customization doesn’t stop with keycaps: the Keychron Q1 Pro’s QMK/VIA support means key mappings and macros are up for grabs, too. The programmable knob can do everything from zoom to change brush strokes in Adobe. The keyboard also includes an ultra-low-power ARM Cortex-M4 32-bit STM32L432 chip (MCU) equipped with 128K Flash for developer flexibility. When wired via USB-C, the keyboard achieves a blistering 1000Hz out-of-the-box polling rate.
$194 nets backers a fully-assembled Q1 Pro in their choice of color and format (US and ISO), while those looking for an engaging way to spend a Saturday afternoon can choose a $174 “barebone” option that does not include keycaps or switches.
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