WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.160 What if Keychron made a gaming focused keyboard? 00:00:03.160 --> 00:00:09.360 Well, that's kind of what they've done with the LimoKey. It's their, ah, it's their brand 00:00:09.360 --> 00:00:13.240 that is a subdivision of Keychron. And we've got the L3 here, 00:00:13.240 --> 00:00:17.800 which is a TKL wireless keyboard. You know, oh, they do say gaming, 00:00:17.800 --> 00:00:21.640 gaming mechanical keyboard with endless possibilities. 00:00:21.640 --> 00:00:26.320 The only real difference between this guy and other stuff from Keychron, as far as I can tell, 00:00:26.320 --> 00:00:30.100 is they've got 2.4 gigahertz wireless now, which is actually really good 00:00:30.100 --> 00:00:33.420 because it lets you hit 1,000 Hertz polling rate on wireless. 00:00:33.420 --> 00:00:38.240 I use them all wired anyway, so I like them and I'm fine, and they do 1,000 Hertz polling rate wired, 00:00:38.240 --> 00:00:42.760 but they only have Bluetooth, typically. Does it come with a dongle? 00:00:42.760 --> 00:00:46.500 Where is the dongle? Yes, we have our dongle. Ask anyone around here. 00:00:46.500 --> 00:00:53.040 I basically never use wireless anything, but if it uses a dongle, there's a good chance 00:00:53.040 --> 00:00:56.800 it's gonna at least be okay. Bluetooth, I just don't trust it, I'm sorry. 00:00:56.800 --> 00:01:00.440 Man, I just love saying the word dongle, too. It's such a weird name. 00:01:00.440 --> 00:01:07.440 Such a weird word. I feel like a boss on me. Dongle, dang, I got the dongle in my back. 00:01:09.880 --> 00:01:15.520 Oh yeah, they're gonna hate me. They're gonna hate me, they'll be like, that sounds like some garbage, they'll be like, garbage. 00:01:15.520 --> 00:01:19.400 So we've got a screwdriver, an Allen key, 00:01:20.600 --> 00:01:24.240 and a key cap and switch puller. Very handy. 00:01:24.240 --> 00:01:29.360 I actually really like that they include a little screwdriver and two Allen keys, actually, 00:01:29.360 --> 00:01:33.280 so that if you do wanna open this, you're not without the proper tools. 00:01:33.280 --> 00:01:38.440 We've got some extra key caps here. That looks like it's for, you know, if you wanna convert this to an Apple or Mac layout, 00:01:38.440 --> 00:01:41.680 so it's got command instead of control or Windows key. 00:01:41.680 --> 00:01:45.440 Oh my God, I am such a fan that more and more companies 00:01:45.440 --> 00:01:50.920 seem to be including extra hardware. I love that they've got extra, two extra case screws, 00:01:50.920 --> 00:01:54.640 and then we've got four screws that go to the PCB, probably for your stabilizers. 00:01:54.640 --> 00:01:58.680 Really teeny tiny guys. We've got some feet. 00:01:58.680 --> 00:02:02.000 I don't know if these are extras, let's take a look. 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:06.440 Yep, feet are already pre-installed, so these are just extra feet, which is always nice. 00:02:06.440 --> 00:02:11.960 And then we've got a bunch of extra, it would look like gaskets. It is gasket mounted, double gasket, apparently. 00:02:11.960 --> 00:02:16.400 They've also got a handy dandy quick start guide. This is pretty typical for Keychron in general. 00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:22.520 And they've, yeah, they've got the Type-C extension adapter in case you don't have a USB-A port to use, 00:02:22.520 --> 00:02:26.600 which is actually becoming more and more common on laptops. It's not male. 00:02:26.600 --> 00:02:31.560 Okay, I don't like the adapter as much as I thought I did because it's not just a pure adapter. 00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:36.280 It's female-female on both ends. 00:02:36.280 --> 00:02:42.480 So unfortunately, you can throw this in here, but then you're gonna need a USB-C to C cable. 00:02:42.480 --> 00:02:45.880 Yeah, just a really minor thing. Like it's nice that they've included the adapter, 00:02:45.880 --> 00:02:51.520 and it's nice that they've also included an adapter going the other way for the USB-C cable. 00:02:51.520 --> 00:02:54.520 However, I really wish this was a female-to-male connection 00:02:54.520 --> 00:02:59.120 so that you could just take the dongle and slot it into your laptop or computer. 00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:03.960 Otherwise, we've got a nice long cable, which does come with a female-to-male connector. 00:03:03.960 --> 00:03:08.560 The only problem is it's USB-C female side and then USB-A male side, 00:03:08.560 --> 00:03:12.680 which might not be what you're looking for, especially not with this if you wanna use the dongle. 00:03:12.680 --> 00:03:16.720 But you know, it's like a good, what, five or six foot cable, that's great. 00:03:16.720 --> 00:03:19.720 You know what, we're not gonna use the cable today. 00:03:19.720 --> 00:03:22.000 Boom, we're gonna try the dongle. 00:03:23.200 --> 00:03:26.560 That's a great question, Bill. Does it have a dongle storage on the keyboard? 00:03:26.560 --> 00:03:31.280 Because you know what, a lot of people do lose those things, especially when you wanna grab it and go, 00:03:31.280 --> 00:03:34.360 and it does not look like there is a spot to put the dongle. 00:03:34.360 --> 00:03:38.360 So that's a bit of a miss, kind of annoying when you can't just like, 00:03:38.360 --> 00:03:42.000 slot it in somewhere, especially if there's a little cover there to keep it in place, keep it hidden, 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:45.840 keep it secret, keep it safe. You know how I know it's a key-cron company, 00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:49.440 Limo Key, because I got this key-cron thing here. Make sure switch pins are straight 00:03:49.440 --> 00:03:53.800 before inserting switch in, wow. If it wasn't clear already, this is hotswap. 00:03:53.800 --> 00:03:58.400 I think just about everything from key-cron is hotswap these days, if not everything. 00:03:58.400 --> 00:04:03.120 And they got this really nice guide here, if the quick start guide isn't enough for you. 00:04:03.120 --> 00:04:07.280 Oh, I love how they've got a item list. So the fully assembled version, 00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:13.720 you've got everything that it comes with, you've got everything for the bare bones version, just to make sure that you haven't actually lost anything. 00:04:13.720 --> 00:04:17.080 There's nothing missing from your package. It defaults to Windows. 00:04:17.080 --> 00:04:21.800 This is via QMK compatible, although I think the firmware isn't uploaded yet, 00:04:21.800 --> 00:04:25.640 so you have to get it yourself and then map it or something. It's on their website. 00:04:25.640 --> 00:04:28.760 Watch the building tutorial on our website. That's always nice as well. 00:04:28.760 --> 00:04:32.760 Most kits that you buy will have some kind of build guide somewhere, 00:04:32.760 --> 00:04:37.320 but it's not always readily apparent. So it's nice when they have it just on their website. 00:04:37.320 --> 00:04:43.400 As for the actual design and construction of the keyboard, it is aluminum CNC 6063 aluminum, 00:04:43.400 --> 00:04:48.320 and it's been anodized to whatever color you want it in. It comes in black, blue, or silver. 00:04:48.320 --> 00:04:53.400 We've clearly got the black one here. I've never seen this before, but it has, aside from the actual case, 00:04:53.400 --> 00:04:58.600 it's got these sort of face plates on the top. And I don't know if you can take those off. 00:04:58.600 --> 00:05:02.160 It looks like you can use a really tiny Allen key. Let me check and make sure 00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:06.860 that you can use the small one they include. Yep, I can confirm the tiny Allen key 00:05:06.860 --> 00:05:11.320 that comes with the device will fit into these guys here. 00:05:11.320 --> 00:05:16.000 I don't know if you have to take the face plates off to fully disassemble it, but they're kind of neat. 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:19.800 Aside from that, it's just kind of a typical TKL. Almost. 00:05:19.800 --> 00:05:24.000 We've also got these four, what I'm guessing are macro buttons right here. 00:05:25.680 --> 00:05:29.640 Ooh, these are nice. And they're full key switches too, which is great. They're not like little extra. 00:05:29.640 --> 00:05:32.720 Cause we've had a couple of keyboards recently that they had macro buttons, 00:05:32.720 --> 00:05:35.800 but they were like buttons, like click buttons more than they were keys. 00:05:35.800 --> 00:05:42.200 So this is nice. You can fix and replace these if you need to. We've got a nice knob here, which does click down. 00:05:42.200 --> 00:05:46.040 I don't know what these three little strips are here. 00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:49.800 I'm guessing that their LEDs with maybe like, 00:05:49.800 --> 00:05:53.680 it tells you caps lock is on or something like that. We'll find out once we turn it on. 00:05:53.680 --> 00:05:58.160 And then aside from that, you know, we've got our USB-C port on the left side, 00:05:58.160 --> 00:06:01.620 which is good for people who want to, you know, some people like it on the middle. 00:06:01.620 --> 00:06:07.720 Some people like it on the right. Some people like it on the left. This one's on the left, just so you are aware. 00:06:07.720 --> 00:06:12.560 And then on the bottom, it's actually got this neat like X cross design 00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:16.240 on three little sections here, along with the feet. 00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:20.740 I kind of like it. It's got south facing RGB. That's how, you know, it's really for gamers. 00:06:20.740 --> 00:06:25.540 Oh, it turned on. Oh, look at that. It's a lot more noticeable in person, 00:06:25.540 --> 00:06:29.080 like directly in front of me here. I can very easily see that. 00:06:29.080 --> 00:06:33.160 That being said, you know, the one thing that you might want to consider is shine through key caps 00:06:33.160 --> 00:06:36.760 cause these don't look like they are. No, it doesn't appear to be. 00:06:36.760 --> 00:06:41.080 Ooh, and these things do light up. The only thing that I'm a little confused about 00:06:41.080 --> 00:06:45.440 are these ports down here. There's like a grill with one, two, three, four, five, 00:06:45.440 --> 00:06:50.080 six ports. And then there's a seventh one with something. 00:06:50.080 --> 00:06:54.200 It kind of looks like a light, you know, like one of those factory lights or, 00:06:54.200 --> 00:06:57.360 oh, what are those lights called that you like hang on things in workshops? 00:06:57.360 --> 00:07:00.640 I'm not sure why that's there. We thought maybe it's for the dongle 00:07:00.640 --> 00:07:04.840 to slot the dongle in somewhere, but they're not big enough for the dongle to slot in. 00:07:04.840 --> 00:07:08.100 So that's definitely not the case. And I don't think there's a built in speaker 00:07:08.100 --> 00:07:11.460 on the, I guess back of the keyboard. We've also got limo key. 00:07:11.460 --> 00:07:15.060 They're a little badge up here, which is, you know, it's fine. It's nice and understated, 00:07:15.060 --> 00:07:19.000 not like when you're buying a red dragon keyboard and it's like red dragon, like right there. 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:25.340 As for the switches, let's check them out. We've got Jupiter red switches from Gateron. 00:07:25.340 --> 00:07:28.820 Man, I love hot swap. It's just so nice. You just, you take the switch out, 00:07:28.820 --> 00:07:31.880 you put the switch in, it just works. They're reds, all right. 00:07:31.880 --> 00:07:35.780 They're linear, they feel and sound pre-loobed. 00:07:35.780 --> 00:07:39.640 I'm not sure how I'll like them because I'm kind of leaning towards 00:07:39.640 --> 00:07:43.760 a very heavy linear these days or a tactile. 00:07:43.760 --> 00:07:47.880 The PCB looks all right. Can't tell too much without, you know, 00:07:47.880 --> 00:07:52.800 actually opening it up and taking a look, but it's not some stock green PCB. 00:07:52.800 --> 00:07:56.000 It's nice and black to match the rest of the keyboard 00:07:56.000 --> 00:07:59.080 and all the inside components. In typical Q-Series fashion, 00:07:59.080 --> 00:08:03.880 which is the more premium lineup from Keychron. Under the top case, you got gaskets, your plate, 00:08:03.880 --> 00:08:07.480 sound absorbing foam, a nice PCB, some case foam, 00:08:07.480 --> 00:08:11.120 silicone gaskets, of course a battery because, you know, it's wireless. 00:08:11.120 --> 00:08:14.800 How does it sound and feel and type? You know, that's the real question. 00:08:14.800 --> 00:08:18.440 Like it looks cool. It's definitely for certain people 00:08:18.440 --> 00:08:21.840 and not for certain people. If you don't like this kind of weird industrial thing 00:08:21.840 --> 00:08:27.240 they're going for, I don't think it's gonna be for you. I kind of dig it, but we're gonna do our typing test 00:08:27.240 --> 00:08:31.200 to truly evaluate it. Setting up device, we're setting up limo key link. 00:08:31.200 --> 00:08:36.160 Whoa! Yo, that's cool. I love it when it just recognizes it like right away. 00:08:36.160 --> 00:08:39.360 That's fantastic. It's working! 00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:43.040 So I don't know what they're mapped to originally, but VIA isn't detecting them 00:08:43.040 --> 00:08:48.040 as like one of the alternate keys that's already on your keyboard. So it's not set to like F13 or anything. 00:08:48.040 --> 00:08:51.600 Actually, you know what? I'm gonna use something that's not VIA. Yeah, even keyboardtester.com 00:08:51.600 --> 00:08:55.480 isn't pulling anything up for these. But you can set them to whatever you need. 00:08:55.480 --> 00:09:01.080 So it's always nice having extras. I actually don't really use macros for anything. 00:09:01.080 --> 00:09:06.040 I hardly, I don't even use VIA. Like I just, I don't know. I'm not one of those people who likes to remap things. 00:09:06.040 --> 00:09:10.680 Even in most games, if the control scheme sucks, I just kind of deal with it and learn it. 00:09:10.680 --> 00:09:14.480 And then it's too late. All right, so let's try monkey type and away we go. 00:09:14.480 --> 00:09:15.320 Oh. 00:09:24.200 --> 00:09:28.440 116, 98%. That's not bad, but I've definitely done better. 00:09:28.440 --> 00:09:34.280 What? I've been like damn, only 168%, this keyboard walks. 00:09:35.280 --> 00:09:39.960 No, it's a good keyboard. One thing I noted though, while typing on it, 00:09:39.960 --> 00:09:43.760 is one problem with the Q series that a lot of people experience, 00:09:43.760 --> 00:09:50.080 and it's kind of like one of the only downsides, is the stabilizers aren't always perfectly done. 00:09:50.080 --> 00:09:53.280 And so what you end up with is a very different sound 00:09:53.280 --> 00:09:58.680 when you go to hit the spacebar compared to any other key. And that's just kind of always gonna happen 00:09:58.680 --> 00:10:02.520 just because it's like a really long key instead of a small one. 00:10:02.520 --> 00:10:07.320 But it's not massively different on a lot of keychrons that we have here at the office 00:10:07.320 --> 00:10:12.120 that's everyone's complaint is like, oh yeah, you know, I can really hear the spacebar every time. 00:10:12.120 --> 00:10:16.720 But this one is nice and muted. And it's not massively different 00:10:16.720 --> 00:10:22.560 from the other sounds of the keys. So it actually sounds really good. 00:10:22.560 --> 00:10:27.320 Especially if you like that kind of more high pitched sound a little bit, like it's got foams in there. 00:10:29.560 --> 00:10:31.960 But it sounds almost elegant in a way. 00:10:32.680 --> 00:10:36.960 It sounds like what you expect a mechanical keyboard to sound like, but a little better. 00:10:36.960 --> 00:10:40.520 I'm actually pretty against linears right now, unless they're super heavy, 00:10:40.520 --> 00:10:43.520 but I really enjoy these red jukers from Gateron. 00:10:43.520 --> 00:10:47.560 Maybe I just need to keep typing with linears again. 00:10:47.560 --> 00:10:51.600 It's got a 4,000 milliamp hour battery if you're gonna go wireless. 00:10:51.600 --> 00:10:56.880 I mean, 4,000 milliamp hours actually pretty average compared to other wireless keyboards out there. 00:10:56.880 --> 00:11:00.120 Obviously, if you don't have the RGB either turned on 00:11:00.120 --> 00:11:04.520 or have the brightness cranked, it's gonna last longer. Lights take a lot of battery life. 00:11:04.520 --> 00:11:08.520 And I hit the caps lock. This does light up. Can you even see that, David? 00:11:08.520 --> 00:11:11.880 Oh yeah, you can on the camera. Yeah, you can totally see that this one's blue now. 00:11:11.880 --> 00:11:15.840 If I cycle it on and off, they definitely like come on. 00:11:15.840 --> 00:11:19.040 So you can see it's RGB, it's red, green, blue. 00:11:19.040 --> 00:11:23.280 It does that as soon as I set it to Bluetooth. So we found it in the manual. 00:11:23.280 --> 00:11:26.280 Not in the quick start guide. If you're a little confused, go looking at the manual. 00:11:26.280 --> 00:11:30.720 We've got our charging indicator on the left. The middle is supposed to be 2.4 gigahertz 00:11:30.720 --> 00:11:35.200 or Bluetooth indicator. Okay, it doesn't when I connect it. It doesn't when you connect it, but then it turns off. 00:11:35.200 --> 00:11:39.040 Which is kind of annoying. I actually really like the light staying on. And then the right one, I was correct. 00:11:39.040 --> 00:11:42.920 It is the caps lock light. Cause that was pretty obvious. You hit the caps lock button, it turns on. 00:11:42.920 --> 00:11:46.240 So I do like that they're red, green, blue. 00:11:46.240 --> 00:11:49.920 It's a minor thing, but I mean, it's RGB. It's a gaming keyboard. 00:11:49.920 --> 00:11:54.600 So I like it, I like it, I like it. Honestly, if you've been looking for something 00:11:54.600 --> 00:11:59.780 that's wireless, but is still pretty decent and the best part is this is in stock, 00:12:01.280 --> 00:12:06.080 maybe look no further. A thousand Hertz polling rate isn't anything special these days. 00:12:06.080 --> 00:12:09.520 Just about everyone is doing that. Most companies are actually, I mean, 00:12:09.520 --> 00:12:13.280 most of the bigger brands like Razer and Cort. I think Corsair has an 8,000 now as well. 00:12:13.280 --> 00:12:18.720 They're going up to eight kilohertz now. But the reality is it's diminishing returns, right? 00:12:18.720 --> 00:12:22.360 Like 250 Hertz. Yeah, the latency on that is not great. 00:12:22.360 --> 00:12:25.600 But the problem before is that Bluetooth polling rate 00:12:25.640 --> 00:12:29.640 sucks and people that want to use wireless, like it's fine for everyday tasks, 00:12:29.640 --> 00:12:34.200 but when it comes to gaming, you do want to reduce that leg chain as much as possible. 00:12:34.200 --> 00:12:38.720 And you can kind of do that now with a thousand Hertz. So that's a really nice feature. 00:12:38.720 --> 00:12:41.760 And I've got to say, I'm pretty big on this thing. 00:12:41.760 --> 00:12:48.040 Like most key crown keyboards, you can get this with a few options, whether it's bare bones, assembled or ISO layout. 00:12:48.040 --> 00:12:52.040 So you get that weird vertical enter that I can't stand. 00:12:52.040 --> 00:12:56.480 But it also comes with a number of switches. Gateron Jupiter red, like we have today. 00:12:56.480 --> 00:13:00.480 Gateron Jupiter brown. Gateron Jupiter banana and bare bone, 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:04.920 which doesn't have a switch at all. You know, it's just bare bone. You just get the kit and that's it. 00:13:04.920 --> 00:13:11.440 Now the current configuration, the one that we've got in front of us today is $216. 00:13:11.440 --> 00:13:18.200 Now it starts at 189 bucks for the bare bone and it's currently only available through Kickstarter. 00:13:18.200 --> 00:13:22.920 It's key crown, even though it's limo key. So you know that they're probably gonna end up delivering. 00:13:22.920 --> 00:13:27.240 We've got a finished product in the box. It looks like they're all ready to go. 00:13:27.240 --> 00:13:30.640 They just kinda wanna get a sense of whether people want this or not. 00:13:30.640 --> 00:13:34.960 They don't wanna commit to fully pushing it out there, which is fine, it's a new product for them. 00:13:34.960 --> 00:13:39.960 Assembled with switches, it's 209 bucks, which honestly doesn't seem too bad 00:13:39.960 --> 00:13:44.800 for a keyboard of this level of quality. And from a company that I relatively trust, 00:13:44.800 --> 00:13:50.320 I recommend key crown all the time because while this is in pre-order on Kickstarter right now, 00:13:50.320 --> 00:13:54.180 chances are if it does well, they're just gonna add it and it's gonna be one of those things 00:13:54.180 --> 00:13:59.400 that is readily available on their website. Don't get me wrong, some of their products go out of stock, 00:13:59.400 --> 00:14:04.000 but they're really good because they're just, if you want a certain layout, it's usually there. 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:09.860 The only problem that a lot of people might have is that while it is a TKL, it's a lot bigger 00:14:09.860 --> 00:14:13.480 than a regular TKL because it's got the knob and all these macro keys here. 00:14:13.480 --> 00:14:18.400 So it's not actually that much smaller than if you bought a full-size keyboard, 00:14:18.400 --> 00:14:22.220 but I don't know, I kinda dig it. I think it looks neat. 00:14:22.220 --> 00:14:26.960 I really like the color scheme on this one, on the gray and black and red keycaps. 00:14:26.960 --> 00:14:31.180 I am digging the cherry profile, although, ah, you know what? 00:14:31.180 --> 00:14:36.540 You know, no, no, no, no, I took a quick look at this and I'm like, oh, I don't like that the macro keys 00:14:36.540 --> 00:14:41.060 are all straight, but now I do like it. I changed my mind, just that fast. 00:14:41.060 --> 00:14:44.180 I'm a fickle, fickle man. As for the keyboard itself, the only thing 00:14:44.180 --> 00:14:50.820 that would really amp it up a notch in my mind is if it had one or two stage adjustable feet, 00:14:50.820 --> 00:14:55.280 especially because, you know, typing angles, people are very sensitive to them 00:14:55.280 --> 00:15:00.840 and everyone likes something different. I just wanna see that more on higher end keyboards 00:15:00.840 --> 00:15:04.020 in general. Anyway, that's the Limo Key L3. 00:15:04.020 --> 00:15:08.080 Check it out on Kickstarter if you want to. If you don't want to and maybe you want to later, 00:15:08.080 --> 00:15:11.860 maybe it'll be on Limo Key's website. Let us know what you guys think in the comments down below, 00:15:11.860 --> 00:15:15.420 subscribe to ShortCircuit. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time. 00:15:16.380 --> 00:15:19.320 Bye. Cut the camera.