Keychron K15 Max mechanical keyboard review: Sleek ergonomic keyboard makes painful sacrifices for portability's sake

The unboxing experience of the Keychron K15 Max is nothing short of premium, thanks to the high quality cardboard box and solid feeling peripherals. It definitely feels like a step-up in quality compared to the likes of the Epomaker TH40 we recently reviewed, whose unboxing experience was nothing to really write home about. 

Inside the Keychron K15 Max's box, which has some minimal branding on the top, you get the Keychron K15, a wire keycap puller, a bent metal switch puller, and a really soft, albeit short, braided USB type-C-to-A cable. The included accessories feel premium enough, especially considering the Keychron K15 Max's price. There are also a handful of extra keycaps in the box for Mac and Windows configurations, as well as orange Enter and Esc accent keycaps. 

Overall, the Keychron K15 Max feels quite solidly built. Despite lacking an aluminium bottom case, the case doesn't exhibit much flex when twisting at the edges, although twisting it does result in some pretty unnatural squeaking. Regardless, it's more than stiff enough to hold up against daily use and even carrying around in a bag. 

Unconventional Alice layout aside, the Keychron K15 Max's case is very reminiscent of gaming mechanical keyboards from the mid-2010s. It uses an ABS bottom case and an aluminium top case that also serves as an integrated switch plate, resulting in a floating keycap design. Unlike those protozoic gaming boards of yore, though, the Keychron K15 Max's case is stuffed with sound- and vibration-damping materials, which play a role in making it feel less hollow. 

Presumably this mounting style and case design were chosen as an easy way to make a thin mechanical keyboard, but it has some significant drawbacks when it comes to the typing sound and feel, which we'll explore later. 

While the floating keycap design isn't the best for typing feel or sound, it does have the benefit of being easy to clean, since there is no raised bezel for dust to get stuck under. Another build quality item worth mentioning is the aluminium knob, which feels well made and features a grippy knurled texture and a uniform black anodised finish. Although the rotary encoder under the knob is notched, the knurling makes it easy to overcome the notches, making the knob rather satisfying to use.  

The keycaps on the K15 Max are grey double-shot PBT with an inoffensive white legend on the top. The legend is flawless on all keys, but they are not shine-through, despite the keyboard having per-key RGB. Depending on your setup aesthetic, this might be a major or minor gripe, and it isn't particularly easy to solve because of the low-profile Alice keycaps. 

Keychron does offer a set of shine-through ABS keycaps in the same profile at $23 ($16 during the 2024 Black Friday sale), although finding a set with more varied aesthetics from another manufacturer is going to be challenging. 

Aesthetics aside, though, the stock keycaps are plenty comfortable to type on, with the wide tops making it easy to find the keys. The tactile markers on the F and J keys are also very pronounced, which makes getting used to the Alice layout far easier, since it's easier to locate the home row. The default connectivity, media, and navigation shortcuts are also conveniently labelled in a secondary legend on the relevant keys, which makes remembering those features a breeze. 

The K15 Max's similarity to the standard 75% layout should make it easy to get used to typing on the ergonomic keyboard, but it has actually proven slightly more challenging to use than the 40% TH40, which has nearly half as many keys. Part of the difficulty in getting used to the Keychron K15 Max comes from the separation between the Q and W columns and the P column and the symbols beside it. 

While it's admittedly easier to hit those keys in the Q column and P-adjacent punctuation columns with your pinky, the different spacing sort of leads to a lack of confidence. That said, this will likely differ from person to person, and there's no denying that the Alice layout, which allows for a more comfortable shoulder position, is less fatiguing to use than a regular QWERTY keyboard. The duplicated B keys also proved to be surprisingly convenient, especially for normies, like yours truly, who don't adhere to strict touch typing rules. After about a week of adjustment, though, the layout started to feel like second nature, already. 

The comfort aspect is also helped by the two-stage flip out feet on the bottom of the Keychron K15 Max, which allow for typing angles of 2.7°, 3.9°, and 6.1°, which may not sound like a lot, especially compared to the up to 11° often found in full-height mechanical keyboards, but the low front height makes the shallow angles feel very natural. 

The biggest problem with the K15 Max's typing experience comes from the Gateron Low-Profile 2.0 switches, specifically the Brown tactile switches in our review sample. While they are meant to be tactile switches, the tactile bump is so small, even compared to other tactile low-profile switches, that it may as well be a notchy linear switch, instead. The switches feel fine otherwise, with no significant keycap wobble or dry, scratchiness that was common in Gateron switches of yesteryear. 

The rigid integrated plate doesn't do the typing feel many favours, either, offering an almost imperceptible amount of flex when typing and just barely taking the edge off bottoming out. While the typing feel isn't great with the brown tactile switches, opting for the linear Gateron Low-Profile 2.0 Red switches would make it far more palatable. 

As far as customisation software goes, the Keychron Launcher web app is about as good as it gets, but there are some limitations when it comes to customising the K15 Max in software. For starters, the per-key RGB isn't really customisable on a per-key level, like it is on the likes of the Wooting 80HE. Instead, there are 21 RGB modes, and you can control the RGB colour, effect speed, and backlight brightness. 

Keychron Launcher and K15 Max features: 

• Four customisable layers for custom shortcuts and key binds (0 and 1 are macOS by default, 2 and 3 are Windows by default)
• RGB customisation
• Macro creation with 15 slots
• Keyboard firmware update (requires installation of a tool on Windows, and the update process is convoluted)
  

The macro creation is also feature-rich, since it allows for setting custom static and dynamic delays and editing the macro chords manually after recording them. Those macros are also saved in the keyboard's onboard memory, so that no software or utilities need to be running in the background. One weird quirk that we found is that clicking "Reset" on the macro screen reset the whole keyboard's key bindings to default, instead of just clearing the macro settings. 

Split Space Bars and the customisable knob on the K15 Max really make the keyboard a fantastic option for those who like to tool around with custom key maps, shortcuts, and macros, and the extra row of macro keys along the left edge of the keyboard also serve to increase productivity if you take the time to set things up. 

By default, the first two layers are configured for macOS mode, while layers 2 and 4 are dedicated Windows layers. Even if this were fixed, limiting you to two layers, it shouldn't be a problem for most, since there are dedicated macro keys for macros and shortcuts, and the 75% form factor offers more than enough keys on its own. However, it is actually possible to use the unused OS layers for other purposes if needs be, so the Keychron K15 Max offers a very respectable four customisable layers in total.