1 00:00:00,170 --> 00:00:05,659 - I'm a dad, so nobody got me anything for Christmas, so that's why I'm back here at ShortCircuit 2 00:00:05,659 --> 00:00:08,710 to unwrap stuff, unbox stuff, 3 00:00:08,710 --> 00:00:12,560 particularly stuff that I like, like mechanical keyboards. 4 00:00:12,560 --> 00:00:17,135 In this case, it's the Keychron K4 Version 2. 5 00:00:17,135 --> 00:00:20,840 (angelic choir harmonizes) ♪ Bah ♪ What is this? "Please be gentle and make sure 6 00:00:20,840 --> 00:00:27,250 to align the pins with the socket properly." Okay, so this indicates to me that the model that we got 7 00:00:27,250 --> 00:00:30,260 is the kind that has hot-swappable key switches. 8 00:00:30,260 --> 00:00:35,720 So there's various models. You can get a keyboard that has a white backlight for $69, 9 00:00:35,720 --> 00:00:40,740 nice, or you can upgrade to an RGB backlight for $10 more. 10 00:00:40,740 --> 00:00:45,690 Or for $10 more, you can get an aluminum frame plus RGB. 11 00:00:45,690 --> 00:00:50,450 And for an additional $10 on any configuration, you can get hot-swappable key switches, 12 00:00:50,450 --> 00:00:54,680 which is cool because this keyboard is available with Gateron switches, 13 00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:58,870 either blue, red, or brown. If you want some kind of enthusiast switches to swap it out completely, 14 00:00:58,870 --> 00:01:02,090 or just your numpad or something like that, or just WASD, 15 00:01:02,090 --> 00:01:05,600 then you can just take those switches completely out without doing any soldering 16 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:08,827 and put in the switch of your choice. A-nice. 17 00:01:08,827 --> 00:01:12,570 "If you are a Windows user, please find the appropriate keycaps in the box." 18 00:01:12,570 --> 00:01:15,640 Whoa. Okay, so this keyboard is good for Mac or Windows, 19 00:01:15,640 --> 00:01:18,790 but reading this makes it seem like the Mac config 20 00:01:18,790 --> 00:01:21,970 is what they have on there by default. That was just kind of interesting. 21 00:01:21,970 --> 00:01:25,667 Ooh, you can actually disable auto sleep mode. That's pretty cool. 22 00:01:25,667 --> 00:01:29,910 (groans) Oh, you know what? I'm gonna wait. We're not gonna get the keyboard out of there yet. 23 00:01:29,910 --> 00:01:36,430 Let's look at the... Empty plastic bag it comes with. I guess that's what the keycap puller was in. 24 00:01:36,430 --> 00:01:41,810 There's a cable. USB-C to A. It's a side-jacked one. 25 00:01:41,810 --> 00:01:44,323 And here are my Windows keycaps. 26 00:01:45,340 --> 00:01:50,360 Lighting effects. We've got Alt, Escape... Whatever that one is. I guess that's a Windows key. 27 00:01:50,360 --> 00:01:53,643 And another Alt. Okay, cool. The keyboard. 28 00:01:56,930 --> 00:02:02,760 Whoop! Very compact. This is so cool. It's kinda like a 60%, like a Pok3r, 29 00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:07,650 except it's got a numpad. Oh, and she's a stiff boy! 30 00:02:07,650 --> 00:02:13,140 She is a stiff boy. Yeah, no deck flex at all, really. 31 00:02:13,140 --> 00:02:16,123 This is probably the one with the aluminum. 32 00:02:17,790 --> 00:02:22,010 I'd say so. Okay, on the side we have a USB-C port, 33 00:02:22,010 --> 00:02:26,490 so that's for charging. This is a wireless keyboard. Has to charge sometimes. 34 00:02:26,490 --> 00:02:32,900 It has a 4,000-milliamp hour battery. They advertise being able to charge it in just three hours. 35 00:02:32,900 --> 00:02:39,100 And if you operate it with the backlight off, they can you can get 240 hours of battery life. 36 00:02:39,100 --> 00:02:42,210 If you have the backlight on and it's a single LED, 37 00:02:42,210 --> 00:02:45,460 like the white one, it's 72 hours of battery life. 38 00:02:45,460 --> 00:02:48,660 And, interestingly, if you have an RGB version with that light on, 39 00:02:48,660 --> 00:02:52,680 they estimate you being able to get 68 hours of battery life, 40 00:02:52,680 --> 00:02:57,520 which is kind of weird. I thought that the RGB would take more battery than a single LED, 41 00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:03,230 but I guess that the reason it would take less is because white is a lot of energy, 42 00:03:03,230 --> 00:03:06,390 whereas a lower frequency color, like red, 43 00:03:06,390 --> 00:03:09,860 maybe takes less, so... There's some toggle switches on the side. 44 00:03:09,860 --> 00:03:13,270 One is for switching between macOS and Windows/Android, 45 00:03:13,270 --> 00:03:18,930 and the other is for switching between Bluetooth or wired operation, or just off. 46 00:03:18,930 --> 00:03:23,430 One of the things that's new on this version, on V2, are the tilt options here. 47 00:03:23,430 --> 00:03:28,400 It looks like they kinda went Logitech-style and gave you two tilt options, and I like these. 48 00:03:28,400 --> 00:03:32,383 This little one is just ever so slight, which is cool, 49 00:03:33,540 --> 00:03:37,260 because, you know, you might like to have a tilted keyboard, but it is less ergonomic to have that 50 00:03:37,260 --> 00:03:44,263 because it's not good for you to be extended like this with your wrist. So if you do keep it flat, it's pretty flat. 51 00:03:45,130 --> 00:03:48,030 I guess they went with Linus' favorite and gave us browns. 52 00:03:49,410 --> 00:03:52,700 This is the feature key. You ever see people with their painted nails and they have a feature nail? 53 00:03:52,700 --> 00:03:58,390 That's what this key is, the feature key. And like we saw earlier, they give you an option over there. 54 00:03:58,390 --> 00:04:04,073 And why don't I just pull this whole thing out, if I can? This is kinda stubby. These are not my favorite. 55 00:04:04,073 --> 00:04:10,360 Whoo! Okay, so this Gateron keycap has two pins, 56 00:04:11,130 --> 00:04:15,610 but the key switches, the board, supports three- or five-pin, 57 00:04:15,610 --> 00:04:19,180 so that means that if you want to switch to Cherry 58 00:04:19,180 --> 00:04:23,240 or Kailh or those other five-pin designs, that will be supported. 59 00:04:23,240 --> 00:04:26,320 Even on their webpage, actually, there is one little disclaimer, 60 00:04:26,320 --> 00:04:30,540 and it has to do with this Tilde key, Til-dah. For some reason, the Tilde key 61 00:04:30,540 --> 00:04:35,270 only supports three-pin switches. Just this one key is different. I... 62 00:04:35,270 --> 00:04:39,270 I don't know what the reason for that is. Pretty standard typing experience. 63 00:04:39,270 --> 00:04:45,010 Like, I'm not making a huge amount of errors. I really do like the 100-key layout though, 64 00:04:45,010 --> 00:04:49,870 because it's fairly compact, but you've still got all your F keys. 65 00:04:49,870 --> 00:04:54,010 All your media keys up here. You've got a full numpad. 66 00:04:54,010 --> 00:04:58,640 You've got the arrow keys in their regular configuration. They're not compressed or you don't have 67 00:04:58,640 --> 00:05:02,883 one of those keys being split into two, like you'd see on a laptop sometimes. 68 00:05:04,400 --> 00:05:09,070 And one of the things that they improved since last time is the position of the Delete key. 69 00:05:09,070 --> 00:05:12,500 I use this key a lot. The place that they had it last time around 70 00:05:12,500 --> 00:05:17,980 was way over here. I wouldn't be able to hit that quickly, and that would suck, so sweet. 71 00:05:17,980 --> 00:05:22,990 It sounds like they really listened to a lot of user feedback and implemented good changes. 72 00:05:22,990 --> 00:05:27,670 Let's plug it in, hey? Right after this message from our sponsor. (cackles) 73 00:05:27,670 --> 00:05:32,090 Big thanks to Volta for sponsoring this video. The Volta 2.0 is a reliable single cable 74 00:05:32,090 --> 00:05:35,740 for all USB devices, whether that's Lightning or Android types, 75 00:05:35,740 --> 00:05:39,120 and it does both power and data transfer. 76 00:05:39,120 --> 00:05:43,130 It's magnetic and snag-proof. It comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee 77 00:05:43,130 --> 00:05:46,480 and a lifetime warranty. So check it out at the link below 78 00:05:46,480 --> 00:05:50,890 and stop being one of those suckers who has to, like, line up the hole and plug it in, you know? 79 00:05:50,890 --> 00:05:55,040 Just walk away! Just grab it and walk away. All right. I said we were gonna plug it in. 80 00:05:55,040 --> 00:05:57,293 First though, actually, I wanna weigh it. 81 00:05:58,330 --> 00:06:04,960 912 grams? Damn. Their website just said it was 700 and some. 82 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:07,980 That's pretty decent for a compact. Not bad. 83 00:06:07,980 --> 00:06:11,180 Okay, for real now. Do I want to plug it in with the wire 84 00:06:11,180 --> 00:06:14,410 just to make it easier on myself, or do I want to connect the Bluetooth 85 00:06:14,410 --> 00:06:18,930 to show the people the real clean look? 86 00:06:18,930 --> 00:06:24,180 Let's do that. Are you in pairing mode? Don't make me look in the instructions, dammit. 87 00:06:25,020 --> 00:06:29,150 Dammit! "Press Function 1 for four seconds." 88 00:06:29,150 --> 00:06:34,517 Here you go. (dramatic soprano singing) 89 00:06:36,670 --> 00:06:40,610 There it is. I like the legend on the keys. 90 00:06:40,610 --> 00:06:43,830 It's really kind of a fine font. 91 00:06:43,830 --> 00:06:49,160 That, of course, means that the amount of light that can pass through each keycap is gonna be less. 92 00:06:49,160 --> 00:06:52,680 Now, speaking of RGB, let's use this trusty light button 93 00:06:52,680 --> 00:06:56,900 to switch the RGB effect. I believe there are 18 effects. 94 00:06:56,900 --> 00:07:00,940 Heh-leh-lo. They're kinda ostentatious for me, but... 95 00:07:02,860 --> 00:07:05,113 Oh yeah, and this is that row-by-row one. 96 00:07:07,620 --> 00:07:11,773 Static. But you go Function-arrow key, and... Oh, now it's rainbow. 97 00:07:12,690 --> 00:07:14,623 White. You just cycle through. 98 00:07:15,780 --> 00:07:22,050 Very easy to use. And then Function on the light button 99 00:07:22,050 --> 00:07:26,640 is toggling the backlight on and off. Okay, that is basically it. 100 00:07:26,640 --> 00:07:30,570 There is now a dedicated Caps Lock light, 101 00:07:30,570 --> 00:07:35,110 which they didn't have before. And it looks like no matter what color you change the RGB, 102 00:07:35,110 --> 00:07:37,603 that Caps Lock indicator light is kinda red. 103 00:07:38,560 --> 00:07:45,960 Also, you should know, especially if you're a Mac user, the Num Lock button doesn't work on Macs. 104 00:07:45,960 --> 00:07:49,383 Too bad for you, 'cause I leave that puppy on all the time. 105 00:07:50,850 --> 00:07:53,960 On a normal PC keyboard you're gonna have the Control key, 106 00:07:53,960 --> 00:07:57,970 then the Windows key, which opens up the Start menu, and then Alt. 107 00:07:57,970 --> 00:08:01,910 Now, if you're using a Apple keyboard 108 00:08:01,910 --> 00:08:05,910 and you use it on a PC, it's different. 109 00:08:05,910 --> 00:08:10,960 So you would actually have the Command key, would become your Windows key. 110 00:08:10,960 --> 00:08:15,120 But that doesn't happen on this keyboard, 'cause this keyboard is smart and beautiful 111 00:08:15,120 --> 00:08:18,730 and has a switch that tells you that you're working in PC mode. 112 00:08:18,730 --> 00:08:23,130 But just heads-up for people who are Mac users who have developed this muscle memory 113 00:08:23,130 --> 00:08:27,650 where the Command key is the Windows key. If you're one of those freaks, 114 00:08:27,650 --> 00:08:32,990 you might be in for some new learning. Although, what if I change it to Mac mode 115 00:08:32,990 --> 00:08:35,003 while using my PC? 116 00:08:36,389 --> 00:08:40,803 Oh-ho-ho-ho! Now the Command key is the Windows key. 117 00:08:40,803 --> 00:08:44,003 ♪ You can have it all ♪ You can do it all! 118 00:08:46,230 --> 00:08:50,610 This is a cool keyboard. I like it. I did not get it for Christmas. 119 00:08:50,610 --> 00:08:56,100 You cannot get it for Christmas either now. It's a New Year's present. It's a Lunar New Year's present. 120 00:08:56,100 --> 00:09:01,770 So thanks for watching ShortCircuit today and looking at our unboxing of the K4 V2. 121 00:09:01,770 --> 00:09:06,200 Subscribe, or die. Look at that! 122 00:09:06,200 --> 00:09:07,400 Comes with a fidget toy.