We’re massive followers of Keychron’s premium keyboard designs right here at PCWorld. They constantly stomp the competitors when it comes to options and construct high quality, all whereas coming in at costs considerably decrease than comparable high-end builds. But there’s a obvious omission in Keychron’s sprawling lineup: While it provides a rising number of wi-fi choices, they’re all Bluetooth, leaving avid gamers out within the chilly if they need a high-speed cable-free choice. Enter the Lemokey L3, the primary board in a brand new Keychron sub-brand.

The L3 provides a well-known suite of choices for anybody who’s regarded on the in style Q sequence. We’re speaking full aluminum body, gasket mounting, RGB lighting, inner foam, hot-swap swap sockets, PBT keycaps normal, and programming with the favored cross-platform VIA instrument. You know, all that stuff your favourite keyboard nerd (responsible) gained’t shut up about. But the design has three massive modifications designed particularly to enchantment to avid gamers.

Keychron

First and most significantly, you get each 2.4GHz and Bluetooth wi-fi, with 1000Hz polling on the previous, all of which have N-key rollover. That makes the connection speedy sufficient for all however probably the most caffeinated of eSports execs. The dongle + Bluetooth wi-fi setup is frequent from main manufacturers like Razer, Logitech, Corsair, et cetera — actually it’s additionally on the SteelSeries wi-fi gaming board I’m reviewing proper now! — so it is a dependable improve. The different tweaks are 4 devoted macro keys on the appropriate facet beneath the radial dial and a chunkier, faux-military look to the keyboard case. Again, each pretty standard choices for a gaming-specific keyboard.

The solely potential pitfall I’m seeing is reliance on QMK/VIA. Now, VIA is superior as a instrument for personalisation on a normal keyboard and one which’s actually preferable to a number of the terrible customized software program supplied up on most gaming keyboards. (Looking at you, Asus.) And I consider most avid gamers will prefer it as a result of it doesn’t truly require any software program in any respect: You can load up customized layouts and macros proper in a browser. But with out an lively Windows program, the Lemokey L3 gained’t have the ability to swap profiles on a per-game foundation. That’s much less important for a keyboard than a mouse since most PC video games supply customized structure choices anyway. Even so, I can see it being a problem for a small slice of PC avid gamers.

The Lemokey L3 can be supplied in three colours: white, black, and blue, with Keychron’s standard contrasting keycap choices on prime. It’ll debut on Kickstarter later in July, with a daily launch coming someday later. More particular worth and launch particulars weren’t introduced.