Keychron K2 HE SE Wood Black

Keychron K2 HE

I'm surprised to find out it's been nearly six years since I've changed my main keyboard, as can be seen in this old blog post. Perhaps it's time to reflect on keyboard choices.

The HyperX Alloy Origins Core was by no means a bad keyboard, the HyperX Red switches seem to have a good reputation and it was not showing signs of breaking up.

But it was slightly noisy, and to be really nit-picky, the accumulated dirt at the base showed easily on it, the LEDs basically highlighting the gunk.

Back then I considered TenKeyLess (TKL) as the sweet spot between keyboard minimalism and useless numeric keypads. I've since felt I could go with a more minimal layout, the 75%. There's always the Mac Mini keyboard, but it was troubling not to have proper HOME/END, PGUP/PGDN, Print Screen keys, and no separate DEL/BS keys.

So, enter Keychron K2 HE. There are various Keychron models, ranging from low to high profile, minimal to full layout, but overall the boxy shape, old fashioned keys, I just knew I wanted it. There is something vaguely 1970s about it, maybe the wood details and no-nonsense font connects it to those old Sol-20 terminal computers. It also weighs nearly one kilogram.

I hesitated when I saw it was marketed as "wireless", not something I look for in keyboards. But after I learned there is a cable data mode (it's not just for charging) I was fully sold. The USB cable was included. There are BT and 2.4GHz modes.

The wood panels are a nice touch

From a minimal experience I'm not going to comment how well it works with games. It was fine for Manic Miner on a Spectrum emulator. The magnetic switches mean there's no added tactile sensation for the key presses, but I've not given much thought about such matters. HyperX didn't do that really either, and here the feel is already nicer if only for the better sound. I guess I've simply become used to the lack of a definite "click" feel in keyboards. It was already so in Atari ST days.

There is an app that can help configure and calibrate the keyboard, but I've not looked at it, as I'd need to fire up my Mac to do it. Obviously it won't work on Linux. Supposedly each individual key can have a different sensitivity. Also, the lights options are very limited from the keyboard itself, but I was able to find a muted non-animated lighting which was fine for me.

By default, there are the Macintosh style Hannunvaakuna symbols instead of ALT and ALT GR. Just as I was about to write about this strange choice, I noticed there were extra keycaps included in the package, such as a black ESC instead of the default light brown one. A nice gesture.

Included tools, the receiver and extra keys

In that old blog post I still lamented the HyperX would not transmit as many keys at once as one Blackstorm keyboard did, possibly some kind of side effect of not using it on Windows or Mac, can't remember. I can observe the Keychron passes this arbitrary "qwertyuiop" test, meaning I can push the whole row simultaneously and all keys will be transmitted.

And yes, my 65% Blackstorm has an even smaller footprint than this Keychron, but I now consider the Blackstorm woefully noisy. I believe 65% would be too minimal for my needs.

Here the transition from TKL to 75% means there are no Scroll Lock and Pause keys. Thankfully Print Screen exists, it has a "crop" symbol on it. DEL is not as comfortably positioned, but can be learned. Positively, HOME and END are in a nice location and PGUP and PGDN are close at hand.

For my current setup, it's good to have the cable on the left side

Then to my only real gripe so far.

Insert is missing, which is concerning when using tracker music software. Instead of the dedicated light-key, I'd rather have INS. The light-key doesn't even appear to register as an event in the system, as xev indicates, so it likely cannot be customized from the system either. Wasting one key to an operation I don't really need that often, is a crime.

Also, for some older Keychron keyboards, fn+DEL functions as INS, but no such luck with this one. Reading about it, it does sound like a minor scandal. 

Whereas the included extra keys felt like a nice gesture, now I'm a little soured they didn't include an INS too. In fact Keychron doesn't appear to sell individual keys.

I was prepared to say I've learned my lessons as a keyboard buyer, but had I spotted the lack of Insert key I might even have diverted my money elsewhere.

But all is not lost. I installed input-remapper on Linux Mint and recorded the Crop key and made it into KEY_INSERT. Easy enough.

input_remapper

I usually adjust quite fast to minor changes in keyboard layouts, but I note the INS and DEL pair are somewhat far from cursor keys. Perhaps some Sinclair QL style remapping of modifier+cursor keys to perform as INS and DEL and learn a genuinely quirky practice?

I still needed Control+Crop key to function as PrintScreen, as the Crop key now performs as INS. This had to be remapped to KEY_SYSRQ which does not sound very intuitive but wasn't hard to find out. The Autoload needs to be turned on for the changes to work after reboot.

So, despite this gripe the Keychron might be the best keyboard I've ever had. Of course, time will tell if it will break apart or start misbehaving.