At a look
Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Typical Keychron construct high quality
- Bluetooth and a couple of.4GHz wi-fi
- Lots of extras
Cons
- No per-game programming
- No adjustable typing angle
- Takes endlessly to disassemble
Our Verdict
The Lemokey L3 presents a variety of what we love from a Keychron board, corresponding to top-notch construct high quality and customization, and even makes just a few nods to avid gamers with 2.4GHz wi-fi and a few additional programmable keys, but it surely falls wanting matching the greatest wi-fi gaming keyboards on the market.
Best Prices Today: Keychron Lemokey L3 keyboard
Keychron is a favourite right here at PCWorld. The Q1 Pro has had a spot at the high of our greatest keyboards checklist ever because it was launched. So the model’s very first shot at a gaming keyboard, together with the new Lemokey sub-brand, was a giant deal to me. The L3 would possibly simply be the good intersection of gaming and premium mechanical keyboard designs.
It is perhaps, but it surely isn’t. Despite the new label, the L3 is kind of a re-skinned model of the current Keychron baseline design, with an additional USB-based wi-fi choice. Aside from the sooner wi-fi and the additional programmable keys, there actually isn’t a lot additional to make this board stand out for avid gamers particularly. It’s missing per-game programming choices particularly.
While Keychron’s signature laundry checklist of options and wonderful construct high quality are current, I can’t assist however discover that this first shot at the gaming market is a little bit of a miss. Those who desire a Keychron with 2.4GHz wi-fi might be happy with the Lemokey L3, however avid gamers used to extra strong software program choices will discover it limiting.
Further studying: See our roundup of the greatest wi-fi gaming keyboards to find out about competing merchandise.
Lemokey L3: Design that by no means will get previous
The Lemokey L3 is, in bodily phrases, extraordinarily much like the current Keychron Q3 Pro design. Aside from the barely retooled macro keys on the left column and some trim items, they’re virtually equivalent. And that’s not a nasty factor, in the event you’re already a fan of Keychron’s chunky, super-heavy aluminum our bodies and high-quality supplies.
Michael Crider/Foundry
If you’ve learn a overview of the Q sequence earlier than, what this seems like. For the sake of brevity I’ll go over the L3’s headline options double-quick:
- CNC-milled all-aluminum physique (4.3 kilos on my kitchen scale!)
- Hot-swap change sockets with RGB lighting
- High-quality PBT keycaps
- Gateron “Jupiter Red” linear switches
- Two layers of inside foam for sound and vibration discount
- Double-layer gasket mounting for a slight “give” to the typing
- Programming with the open-source VIA and QMK methods
- Bluetooth and a couple of.4GHz wi-fi
That final bullet level is the greatest change right here. The Lemokey L3 is Keychron’s first keyboard with an choice for devoted USB-based wi-fi. Combined with the 1,000Hz customary polling fee, this makes it quick sufficient for the demanding inputs of PC avid gamers. That, and the tweaked aesthetics and further programmable buttons, is what provides this board its “gaming” pedigree.
The remainder of the options stay as much as Keychron’s wonderful customary. Notably, the keycaps you get with the L3 are a normal Cherry profile. That implies that they’re shorter and fewer dramatically curved than Keychron’s traditional KSA keycaps on the Q sequence, which mimic the super-high, bowl-shaped caps of traditional pre-2000s keyboard designs. I’m ambivalent on this explicit change since I favor even shorter caps myself, but it surely ought to make an adjustment from one other gaming keyboard simpler for many customers.
Michael Crider/Foundry
In the field, Keychron consists of two Allen wrenches and a tiny screwdriver for disassembly, the customary keycap/change puller device, and a few alternate keycaps. In addition to the traditional PC and Mac alternate options, it consists of customary Cherry profile keys for the 4 macro keys, which have a singular form of X-shaped hatch mould by default (additionally seen on the backside of the case). If this doesn’t tickle your fancy, the alternate options have O, X, sq., and triangle prints — matching the traditional face buttons for the PlayStation controller. It’s a pleasant contact.
The solely different large modifications from the customary is the lack of a devoted Mac/PC profile change (no large loss, since you continue to get 4 profiles in VIA) and devoted LEDs for battery, wi-fi, and caps lock standing above the arrow keys. I appreciated the subtly modified look — it’s a bit extra chunky and “military” with out going overboard on the gamer aesthetics.
How do you open the Lemokey L3?
That is, till I attempted to open the keyboard. Keychron’s Q sequence has typically been pleasant to the customized keyboard crowd, inviting straightforward modification with a simple disassembly course of. The L3 isn’t tough to take aside…it simply takes a very, actually very long time. In addition to 2 screws on the left and proper aspect of the board, you’ve obtained three separate ornamental aluminum plates on high of the case, every of which requires 4 extra screws, plus one other eight screws on the essential plate beneath it.
Michael Crider/Foundry
That’s twenty-four totally different screws, with two totally different Allen wrenches (each included, which is good!), and a stable 15 to twenty minutes to get this factor all the way down to the bones. Woof. I respect that 95 p.c of customers, conservatively, won’t ever really do that. But if being modification-friendly is a part of your model, then making precise entry to the keyboard’s {hardware} an afterthought is a particular ding in opposition to the design.
Here I’ll level out that Razer’s BlackWidow V4 75%, occupying an identical gamer/customized area of interest, is accessible with simply six Phillips-head screws on the backside of the keyboard. But in Keychron’s protection, they received’t void your keyboard’s guarantee — customary 12 months — only for opening the case.
How does the Lemokey L3 carry out for gaming?
Using the L3 for gaming was just about the identical expertise as utilizing a Q sequence keyboard in wired mode, which permits the identical 1,000Hz polling fee. The polling fee is the variety of occasions the keyboard refreshes its enter detection — the sooner the fee, the extra typically it could actually detect you urgent the keys.
The most costly gaming keyboards go as much as 8,000Hz proper now. But in the event you can press a button 8,000 occasions a second, you’re Commander Data, and also you’re utilizing these bizarre pulse oximeter thingies to play anyway. More virtually, even the best multiplayer video games don’t refresh inputs greater than 128 occasions a second, so that is all a bit ridiculous. Long story quick: 1,000Hz is okay.
Michael Crider/Foundry
The Gateron “Jupiter Red” switches that got here with the overview unit are stable, if not spectacular. They really feel a bit of smoother and extra secure than customary linear Red switches (no tactile bump or loud “click”), however lack the satisfying suggestions of extra unique decisions. Which is okay, since in fact you may swap them out in the event you like. I’ll be aware that the stabilizers, the brackets that preserve lengthy keys like the spacebar secure, are properly above the common by way of smoothness and sound.
Long typing and gaming periods have been wonderful, properly according to Keychron’s excessive requirements. The molded macro keys are an awesome alternative, as I can really feel the distinction between them and the left-most common keys with out wanting down at the board. I’ll say that the lack of keyboard toes, a non-feature inherited from the Q sequence, is beginning to bug me. The Lemokey L3 feels significantly extra “shallow” than a Q board, and with out devoted toes, I needed to slide a few bottlecaps beneath the heavy aluminum physique to be able to get it to my desired peak.
Michael Crider/Foundry
Dear Keychron: Please begin together with some magnetic or screw-in toes with these large, premium our bodies — they actually really feel incomplete with out them.
Wireless efficiency with the 2.4GHz dongle, which I used for many of the overview interval, was faultless. And switching to my iPad through Bluetooth was straightforward, I simply slid the {hardware} change (which additionally features as an influence change). Oddly, although the 1, 2, and three keys can change between Bluetooth gadgets, and there’s a generic wi-fi emblem on 4, you may’t change from Bluetooth to dongle mode with operate keys alone.
Software: VIA simply isn’t sufficient for gaming
Software is the large failing of the Lemokey L3. Which is unusual, as a result of that is normally the place I reward Keychron for going with standardized and open-source QMK and VIA programming choices. VIA is nice, if a bit fiddly for the uninitiated. You simply go to the VIA web site, add the related JSON file, and get customizing through the graphical interface. Keychron has a information right here, in the event you’re new.
And for the most half, VIA works positive for the L3, together with its rotary dial and further macro keys on the left. You can set them to any customary keyboard operate or programmed macro, together with media keys (which is what I take advantage of them for many of the time) and even switching between keyboard layers, as traditional. In reality you get two greater than a normal Q sequence, since there’s no synthetic distinction between Mac and PC layers.
Michael Crider/Foundry
But herein lies the weak spot: These are keyboard layers, not keyboard profiles. You may assign the third or fourth layer to customized keyboard layouts for particular video games. But that’s it, you solely get two (assuming you additionally want a normal operate layer, and also you do, to manage wi-fi and lighting). So you’ve got a daily typing layer and two customized layouts for video games, at most. And making full use of that requires some deep work in VIA, a far larger period of time than organising per-application profiles in gaming software program.
This differs fairly sharply from virtually any gaming keyboard on the market. One of the key options of a gaming keyboard is its programmability, not only for customary structure features, however for assigning particular profiles to particular video games. Gaming keyboard software program typically runs in the background and prompts these profiles routinely when a recreation launches. It’s not obtainable on each single keyboard — our favourite price range board, the G.Skill KM250, is a notable exception. But it’s so common that it’s secure to imagine anybody spending this a lot on a gaming keyboard would demand it.
Michael Crider/Foundry
To make sure, gaming keyboard software program is usually fairly horrible. Razer’s Synapse might be the better of the bunch, however a nasty software program expertise is sufficient to critically tarnish an in any other case okay design, as with the Asus ROG Azoth. And there are a variety of customers — me included! — who typically don’t depend on devoted software program, preferring to customise profiles in-game, for whom VIA might be greater than ample.
But the most demanding avid gamers completely search for this function. Profiles and settings are sometimes swapped on-line amongst the most devoted gamers, and the greatest gaming software program presents a cloud sync choice if you wish to use them throughout a number of machines. Keychron advertising the Lemokey L3 as a premium gaming keyboard, and missing any choice to customise profiles and auto-launch them together with a recreation (and even change amongst greater than three pretty fundamental programmed layouts) is a giant miss.
A Keychron consultant advised me that the firm is engaged on an software that may enable the Lemokey to activate totally different profiles for particular apps. But I can solely overview the keyboard as it’s now, not because it is perhaps later.
Is the Lemokey L3 a great worth?
In {hardware} phrases alone, Keychron retains its wonderful worth in comparison with related designs. At $214 for the full package and kaboodle ($194 in the event you provide your personal switches and keycaps), it compares favorably to each wi-fi gaming keyboards and wi-fi “custom” boards in the identical class.
Razer’s BlackWidow V4 75% is straddling the identical line of gamer/customized keyboard, albeit approaching from the different aspect. It’s barely smaller and cheaper, and comes with a wrist relaxation, however because it’s nonetheless utilizing a wired connection the comparability isn’t fairly one-to-one. Ditto for the GMMK Pro, which can also be marketed for gaming and has a variety of the identical “custom” options. It’s wired-only, too…and prices $350, totally assembled. Ouch.
Michael Crider/Foundry
Perhaps the greatest comparability amongst gaming manufacturers is the Asus ROG Azoth, which I discovered missing in a variety of methods. While it technically has higher software program for gaming, that software program is such a ache to make use of I can’t suggest the product to anybody, and I discovered the OLED display extra bother than it was price. Keychron beats Asus by virtually $40, and delivers a greater total product, even with its personal software program shortcomings.
There actually isn’t a gaming-specific keyboard that provides a TKL structure, hot-swap switches, and quick wi-fi, a minimum of not from a serious model. If you’re determined for a comparability then Epomaker has the far cheaper Ajazz AKC087, which isn’t actually a match by way of supplies, and I’ve discovered that Epomaker’s software program is much more restricted.
Should you purchase the Lemokey L3?
If all you need is a Keychron Q-series keyboard with sooner wi-fi and some macro keys, then the Lemokey L3 is what you’re in search of. It delivers that little additional sliver of performance that qualifies it as a wi-fi gaming board, whereas preserving the model’s status as the greatest round by way of “custom” boards at this value vary.
Michael Crider/Foundry
But sadly, VIA programming simply received’t minimize it for the most demanding of avid gamers, which is a fairly critical oversight for something marketed in direction of them. And a few different decisions — like the decrease keyboard profile with no toes, and the additional trouble of opening the case — make the L3 a bit much less interesting than Keychron’s traditional stellar designs.
…. to be continued
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