Keychron Q4 HE launches as 60% all-aluminium Hall-effect wireless gaming keyboard
Keychron has been on a roll lately, releasing the Lemokey P1 HE and the Keychron Q6 HE double-tap in January, followed by the affordable Keychron K4 HE in March (review coming soon). Today, Keychron announced the Q4 HE, a new 60% Hall-effect keyboard with an all-aluminium case and a handful of premium touches that set it apart from keyboards like the Wooting 60HE.
Keychron essentially takes all the fancy gaming features from keyboards like the Asus ROG Falchion Ace HFX (curr. $147.57 on Amazon) and puts them into a full-aluminium case with a more grown-up, premium look and feel.
| Technical specifications | |
|---|---|
| Form factor and size | 60% US ANSI layout, 121 × 303.7 mm, 23.71 mm front height |
| Typing angle | 5.3° |
| Case material | CNC aluminium, |
| Weight | 1,415 g |
| Plate material and mounting style | Aluminium plate, gasket mount |
| Connectivity | USB-C, 2.4 GHz wireless, Bluetooth 5.2 |
| PCB and switch style | Hall-effect hot-swap switches, compatible with Gateron Double-rail Magnetic switches |
| Default switch options | Gateron Double-rail Magnetic Nebula (40–60 gf) |
| Keycap material and profile | Double-shot PBT, OSA profile, non-shine-through |
| Customisation software | Keychron Launcher, QMK |
| Backlight | South-facing per-key RGB |
| Polling rate | 1,000 Hz on USB-C and 2.4 GHz, 90 Hz over Bluetooth 5.2 |
| Battery capacity | 4,000 mAh |
| Price | $219 |
| Availability | Keychron online store |
Much like the Keychron Q13 Max we reviewed recently, the Keychron Q4 HE uses a gasket-mounted design and multiple layers of sound damping foam to give the keyboard a softer typing feel and a satisfying sound profile. The 2.4 GHz wireless connectivity is also an added bonus for those users who want a cleaner desk setup or want to use their gaming keyboard on something like an Android tablet. The 1,000 Hz polling rate matches the latency of the wired USB-C connection, so gamers should be able to use the Q4 HE for work and play.
The Q4 HE's keycaps are made from double-shot PBT, meaning they will be more oil-resistant than ABS keycaps, and the OSA profile provides a more professional aesthetic without compromising on comfort and familiarity. The 60% layout is compact, ditching the F row, num pad, and navigation cluster in the name of space savings, which inevitably leaves more room for mouse movement and ergonomics. This means that functions like the F row, print screen, and navigation keys are buried in a function layer, which may not be ideal for everybody.
The Q4 HE uses Keychron Launcher or QMK for customisation of traditional features like key remapping, macros, and backlighting and HE-specific gaming features, like adjustable actuation distance, Rapid Trigger, SOCD, DKS, and Analog Mode, which emulates gamepad controller input for more precise controls. As far as Hall-effect customisation software goes, in our experience, Keychron Launcher has been one of the more stable, user-friendly suites around, second only to Wooting's Wootility in functionality and ease-of-use.
The Keychron Q4 HE is only available from Keychron's online store at the time of writing, but Keychron has a whole host of HE and traditional mechanical keyboards available at Best Buy, like the Q1 HE (curr. $215.00 at Best Buy), which is a 75% version of the Q4 HE.
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