I received my Keychron K4 today. For those who don't know, this is Keychron's third keyboard - the first was a low-profile mechanical switch keyboard, and the second was a "ten keyless" board (lacking the numpad), which received good reviews. The K4 has a full keypad layout, but it's a "96%" keyboard, meaning it occupies 96% of the footprint of a standard keyboard. They accomplished this by removing the gaps that usually exist between the standard keyboard, the arrow keys, and the number pad.
They offer this keyboard in plastic and aluminum chassis options, and I went with the aluminum chassis. They also offer it with many switch options: four mechanical switch options from Gateron, and two different optical switch options. I chose the blue optical switches (which are provided by LK optical, based on what I've read). Even though optical switches are current marketed toward gamers, I chose the optical switches over the Gateron blue switches for two reasons. I live near an ocean and one of my mechanical keyboards has started to repeat key presses on some keys; maybe it just needs a thorough cleaning, but I started worrying about corrosion, which shouldn't be an issue with the optical switches. The other reason is based on quality of life: I've read that the Gateron blues are similar to the Cherry MX Blues, but louder, whereas the LK Optical blue switches supposedly offer a more definitive key press feel than Cherry MX blues, but come at a softer volume. That would be win-win if true.
My initial impression is favorable, overall. I'll have to do a bunch of typing with it but the optical switches are interesting. They're not as loud as my Das Professional S with Cherry MX blues; maybe more similar to my Das Professional 4 with Greetech brown switches. (The pitch is similar to the Cherry MX blues but the volume is closer to the browns, if that makes sense). So the claim about the sound factor is probably true, although it's always hard to tell how much of the sound is due to the switches and how much is due to the chassis and keycaps.
Build quality is solid. The lighting options are nice. There is no software to change lighting - you get some patterns and a switch to toggle between them, and that's it. It's all I wanted, so I'm happy. Maybe it's because the keys are fairly close together and the chassis comes up high on the edges, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of light leak. Like Apple's keyboards there is an ability to adjust the brightness level, although it doesn't seem to have the degree of fine brightness control that Apple's do (based on my memory... but this isn't an issue to me).
That's all well and good, but the question is really how the keyboard feels in use. The switches feel good overall - I still rank the Cherry MX blues as being better, but these are about equal to the Cherry MX browns, which I think are better than the Greetech browns. Some of the keys (like the backspace key) feel slightly different, which is interesting, but for the keys that count (your letters and numbers, including the number pad numbers) the keys feel crisp and clicky. The Gateron blues probably feel closer to the Cherry MX blues.
The biggest thing to get adjusted to will be the keyboard layout. Twice while typing this I already accidentally hit the up arrows and backspace key, when I meant to press the del key (which is located very far from where it is on most full-length keyboards). The right shift key, which is the one that I tend to use the most, is also smaller than on the left - which is to say, it's about 3/4 the size of a usual shift key. The lack of any space between the arrow keys and the rest will also take some getting used to, as I'm fairly certain that I used to briefly rub my fingers over the gap to ensure that I was positioned over the arrow keys without looking at them.
Is the reduction in size worth it? I have a small keyboard tray that could accommodate both an Apple Magic Keyboard (version without any number pad) and an Apple Magic Trackpad, but that could only fit a full-sized keyboard without the trackpad. The 96% keyboard does allow me to place the trackpad back onto the tray, but both the trackpad and keyboard are slightly hanging off. It works, but it's not optimal. Still struggling with the slightly different key layout, I don't think it's worth it - but it's impressive that this can work at all and still be a full-sized layout, so I'll roll with it. I know that I'd need the tenkeyless keyboard to fit everything nicely. The fact that the K4 can also operate in Bluetooth mode is a boon that also makes its ability to fit into tighter spaces a bit nicer.
Long story short, I'll go through the learning curve with this keyboard layout and plan to put my Das Professional 4 up for sale, and use this one as my primary. However, if and when Keychron releases a similar keyboard but in a full-size layout (or if Das finally makes something like the 4Q in a Mac layout and with full Mac support) I might trade out keyboards once again. That is, assuming I haven't fully gotten used to the K4's keyboard layout at that time. However, the K4's placement of the "del" key at the far upper right of the keyboard is problematic and makes me realize just how heavily I used that key, and no amount of getting used to the key layout will change the fact that the key is now farther from the standard keys than it is on a standard, full-sized keyboard layout... and while the function key can be held to turn the backspace into the del key, unlike the Apple Magic Keyboard it's a smaller key located on the lower right side of the board. Key bindings can always be redone, but it raises the question of how far a person would want to go to get around a different key layout.
edit: A few days in and I find that I really like the feel of the keys. It's still a bit mushier than I expect compared with Cherry MX Blues, but once I get to typing then it feels crisp. I'm probably just adjusting to how much I need to press the keys down to get the press actuated; perhaps with even more time I won't have that first minute where it feels mushy.
Keychron provides a key cap puller with the keyboard, and they also recommend using Karabiner for remapping keys. I was still having a hard time getting on with the Del key being so far, away, so I swapped it with the num/clear key and remapped it. I'm still not using the Del key as much as I normally would, but it feels better to have it closer.
Still getting used to the right shift key being smaller, and still getting used to the 0 key on the numpad also being the same size as the other numbers. But at least I'm not hitting the up arrow key as often when I'm trying to hit the shift key on the right, and I don't have to look down at the arrow keys quite as often to make sure that I'm pressing the right one. I'd still favor a standard full-sized keyboard so that I don't need to relearn any keyboard layouts, but the muscle memory is developing.
