When ceramic keycaps first launched, I kickstarted those. I wanted a set so
badly. So, when Keychron came out with a Q16 HE 8K, a 65% magnetic switch
keyboard that is also, surprisingly, I don't know why they don't put this all
over the box, but this is the world's first ceramic keyboard. That's right,
there's no aluminum. Well, the plate? I don't know, we'll get to that.
That was a really satisfying box slide off. Yeah, so it uses TMR magnetic
switches. So, if you want four different actions per key, you can do that. So, it
does like an action when you barely tap it and when it's fully depressed and then you can set different ones at
different points. Like, a lot of the other HE Hall Effect keyboards that
we've seen come out from like Wooting or whoever else. In the box, we've got our
quick start guide. If you're a Windows user, please find the appropriate keycaps in the box, then follow the
instructions below to find and replace them cuz it what? Shows up with Mac
keycaps? What else we got? A really nice cloth, actually. This is like glasses
cleaner level quality of cloth. They probably included this because ceramic
is a fingerprint magnet. You will see
smudges all over this thing if you're not careful, both on the keycaps and on
the case. We've got a sleeved cable with ferrite bead. It's their 8K polling rate
for 8 kHz gaming. Comes as a USB-C to C
cable, but with a little handy C to A adapter. Always useful. I've got a
couple of these just lying around at home cuz you never know when you're going to use a C to A adapter. Uh we've
got a keycap and switch puller, which you're probably going to need cuz it's hot-swap. Little screwdriver. I love to
see those. Some replacement looks like gaskets and a couple of screws or maybe
feet, actually. These might be the feet. And what else we got? Some extra
keycaps. These are our Windows keycaps. Very nice.
That's right. They're ceramic. I got rid
of my ceramic keycaps. I think I sold them to someone because while I really
liked them for a lot of reasons, um I don't know if it was just the first revision that was done uh that had
issues, but mine didn't always seat properly. And so, I'd be gaming and I'd
go to hit control or alt or something and then it would like the keycap would come off with me as I pulled my finger
off it. So, I think it caused me one or two deaths in Elden Ring and I said,
"No, no more of this. I can't do it." But, this it feels so wild.
>> It's so shiny that it almost looks cheap.
>> Right? So, part of it does feel cheap, but in a really weird way. The thing
about ceramic is it can look and feel plasticky depending on your materials
used and how they're doing everything. Like, I'm not going to sit here and tell
you I know how to make ceramics. I just know that they typically use like clay material along with some other organic
material and center it at different uh heats. The the the palm or like finger
feel definitely feels like you're touching plastic, but it feels like a
very slippery high-end plastic. I don't exactly know how to explain it
otherwise. The weight is about right, actually. We should probably weigh this thing.
2.06 lb. So, it's definitely heavy
enough that it doesn't feel like a cheap plastic keyboard. Like, this thing's got
some weight to it uh and I really really like it. I also just love the blue.
Like, this really dark kind of navy blue that they've gone with is beautiful. I
love how shiny it all is, too. It's so weird. I don't know, ceramic is such an
odd choice, but it's a choice they made and it's a choice they're sticking with and I am all for it cuz the price isn't
even at all that absurd. Uh we'll get to it later, but it's under $300.
And then uh talking about those smudges earlier, uh I've barely been I mean,
I've been handling it more than most people would, I guess, but we've got some smudge action kind of already
happening here. And then so, that's going to happen to your keycaps as you type on them as well, especially cuz you
know you're going to be actually touching these all the time. The other thing to know is the material they went
with is softer than glass. So, you want to be careful with your coffee mugs.
This is like, "Oh, I don't know." And you just hit the corner or something
and then like this whole part just cracks open or something like that. It'd be wild. As for the layout in the
keyboard itself, it's a 65% so, it should be pretty familiar to most of
you. You've got pretty much everything you need with like your delete and page
up, page down, arrow keys. And then if you want like all of your F row, you
just hit function and whatever number corresponds with that.
On the bottom, there's not a whole lot going on, which I'm kind of a fan of.
There's been a lot of fancy weights and stuff recently and uh what I like is
they've just got this like kind of divot running right through the center here.
And then uh the feet are nice and I like that they gave me replacement feet. Uh
and then as for our switch, we've got a little Windows and Mac switch and a
USB-C. Boop. Is it openable?
I don't see any screws and this is a diecast piece of ceramic and I don't see
seams, either. Like, is this a unibody? Is this all one solid piece? We're going
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Check it out today using our link in the description. After taking a couple
keycaps off, you can see that they're magnetic linear ultra-fast lime
switches, which, you know, feel pretty good. And they are hot-swap and I can
see a little screw right there. I bet you I can
pop these out and then it does look like this is one big shell and then you just
pop the whole thing down in there. There's no case sandwiching or anything
like that, which can be totally fine. Like, all the different mounting styles
are, you know, they have their own merits. Yeah, let me take off just a
couple more just to confirm, but there's probably
like 1 2 3 4 5. There's probably something like six screws in here.
I am genuinely afraid of like scratching this keyboard as I use this.
Never. Yeah, they are in fact plate-mounted,
can confirm. Ooh, they've got these nice little pieces of rubber here, too, to
stop some extra noise. I like it. I like it. Yeah, one more screw here. So, it's
probably three on the bottom, three on the top, maybe two more on the sides.
I'm not sure, but uh man, that is slick.
One thing about these ceramics Oh, these
are different. On the first run, these were fully ceramic, if I recall
correctly, because I remember hearing the like crunch as you were putting them
onto your keyboard, which is a little disconcerting, but you know, it said
it's compatible. I get I'm going to believe them. But, the problem is the tolerances uh have to be [music] perfect
on those molds and that's why I was having keycaps like come off uh with my
fingers as I'm lifting them up. They're sticking to it just a little bit and they're not really on there properly cuz
they're too loose. So, what they've done, it looks like I'm not sure if this
interior white >> [music] >> material is ceramic. It feels like it.
Uh but either way, they've gotten they've gone and put these little plastic inserts into them so that they
can actually fit properly on top of the stem. And the nice thing is plastic, you
can make it a little too tight cuz it can stretch and bend and what and you know, not much, but it can. Whereas
ceramic, yeah, ceramic's not going to do that, it's just going to shatter. So, that's really cool and I'm really happy
to see this update. This is cool. I always love looking at Hall Effect switches, too. Just looks like a normal
switch except it's a little different on the bottom here. You don't have those uh there's no pins. Instead, they've just
got these two little pogo stands that you pop down into there. They're
north-facing RGB, uh which is great if you've got shine-through keycaps. You
probably won't see it a whole bunch on this board, but they're north-facing. Uh
let me pop this guy back in here and then I'll fix my keycaps cuz I put them
on in the wrong spots. I got so excited that I did it incorrectly.
I think there's something about this sound that really resonates with me
personally and I love it, but I think to some of you it's going to sound almost
plasticky.
Ah, I don't know. I really I Spacebar so deep.
Also, like zero rattle.
Maybe the tiniest bit.
All right, let's plug it in. Boot it. Where's my north-facing RGB? I
was promised it. Oh, it's on a like per type.
Ah, wow. I love the way it's coming up
through the cracks and just kind of shining on the edges of the keycaps. It
really makes for some like OSL kind of look with the object source lighting.
I haven't been this excited about a keyboard in a pretty long time. And I think that I really want some of the
revisions on the keycaps. I don't know if it's the same company. I don't know who's making the keycaps, but I like
them and I want them and I'm so glad they fixed that issue I had. So, let's
do a typing test.
121.99. >> [sighs and gasps] >> With ceramics, your fingers almost stick
on the keys as you like wiggle them around and that's partly just because of
like the oils on your skin, I'm guessing, reacting with the material.
Whereas like on a plastic, it does stick a little bit, but it's not the same. I
don't know how to explain it. You got to try it for yourself. It's just got this like odd skin feel. And then on top of
that, uh it's you typically cold because ceramic like I don't know what it is
about plastic, but these plastic keycaps, I mean, it's okay, to be fair,
they're in a laptop, so those are heated up by the laptop, but even on a keyboard
like my keycaps always feel room temp, whereas these feel ever so slightly
cold. And like the funny thing is I normally dislike when a spacebar sounds
vastly different from the rest of the keys, but because this is such a subtle,
nice and low deep kind of thock, it sounds like it complements it instead of
having that like >> [music] >> high-pitched hollow spacebar sound. Oh,
actually, I want to check the spacebar and I want to see if it's got anything inside. It does. Ah, I knew it. It's got
just a couple of little foam inserts here just to help it with the hollowness
that most spacebars experience. And again, yeah, they've got this big insert
[music] for the plastic to actually fit on here nicely.
I told myself I wasn't buying any more keyboards. I really did.
>> [laughter] >> But this is like this is perfect. The
colorway fits me perfectly. I love dark blue. It could fit on my desk. I like a
65%. I love that the ceramic looks and
feels so good. I like how shiny it is. Like it looks plastic shiny. Like
And I wasn't lying to you. It's only 220 bucks if you buy it on Kickstarter. 230
regular price if you miss out on that. I think when I first bought my ceramic
keycaps, they were I mean they're keycaps, but I think that was like 150
bucks by themselves or something. It was expensive. And yeah, those felt more
premium than the Q16 HE, but if the quality went up, I expect the price
would as well. And the best part is at that $220 price, you're getting
everything. Same with the 230, you're getting your keyboard fully assembled, keycaps, switches, everything. So, you
don't have to spend 200 bucks on a board and then, you know, another 80 bucks on
switches and 50 to 150 on keycaps after that. You're set. Yeah, it's 8 kHz. We
tested it. It definitely pulls at 8 kHz. And on top of that, the latency is super
good. I think the max we saw was like 1.47 milliseconds, which is for a max
number, like that's great. And they've even got their own version of Snap Tap called Rapid Trigger. It'll reset right
when you take your finger off of it. And if you're pressing two keys at the same
time, it'll take the input from the deeper one. So, if you're resting your
hand a little too heavily, but you know, this key is definitely actually being
pressed and the others are just kind of being pressed, it'll actually take the input that you want. This thing's got
pretty much everything I'm looking for. And I don't need another 65%, so I'm
probably not going to buy it personally, but if they make the same keyboard in
like a 104 key full size board, maybe a weird condensed layout, I could be
enticed. And I could also be enticed to watch another video from ShortCircuit,
like the Pixel keyboard. That thing's not the Flux, but it's close enough.
Will the Flux ever come out? Probably not.
Who the Flux knows? >> [laughter] >> That was pretty good.
Goodbye.