- [Jeff] This is not just a great keyboard option,
it's one of the best Mac accessories
that you can buy today. (keys click)
Of course, I'm talking about the Keychron K2 V2.
Check it out.
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So, with the original Keychron K2 that I reviewed last year,
I was very impressed.
This keyboard checked off most of the boxes,
as far as I'm concerned.
It was number one, a great mechanical keyboard experience.
That is most important.
But it was also a wireless keyboard,
and that used to be a very rare thing,
to see a wireless mechanical keyboard.
But Keychron has definitely perfected
the idea of a wireless mechanical keyboard,
and with the V2 version, it's even better.
So let's talk about the inclined bottom frame,
so this is the most striking visual difference
between the original Keychron K2, and the V2 version,
now you have this incline,
built right into the base of the keyboard,
and that provides a more comfortable typing angle,
notice the difference here, this is the old Keychron,
and you can see it's a much more flat experience,
with the V1 on the right,
and the V2 on the left with the built-in angle.
So when combined with the inclined feet,
you get a more comfortable typing experience
with the Keychron K2 V2.
Now I will say it's not a drastic difference,
I mean, you can see how they differ here,
but you definitely can tell
there is more of an incline on the version two on the left,
versus version one on the right.
Now the original K2
had feet on the bottom of the keyboard to incline.
But version two adds an additional pair of feet,
so that you have two different incline options.
So you get this smaller incline here, and the larger.
There's the small, and here's the large.
So this enhancement, while admittedly subtle,
is going to help you even more to dial in
the perfect angle for your typing experience.
So let's go ahead and retract the smaller feet
and open up the larger feet.
And I've tested it out, and while it's subtle,
I did notice a slight difference.
And I prefer the version two.
Now one of the complaints about the original Keychron K2
was that the caps lock key
didn't have any sort of indicator that it was active.
But now on the V2,
Keychron provides a dedicated light for the caps lock.
And the update provides improved tactile slider switches
on the side of the keyboard,
so these switches are of course,
to switch between Windows and Mac OS mode,
and Bluetooth in cable mode.
You can see the difference there,
you don't have that little tactile surface,
on the original version, like you have on V2.
See those little dots,
those provide a little bit of tactile response
for your fingers.
And then, Bluetooth 5.1 is available here
on Keychron K2 V2.
And Keychron says that this is going to improve
the reliability of the Bluetooth connection
when connecting to your Mac
or any other Bluetooth-enabled device.
Truth be told,
I never really noticed any connection problems
with the original version.
I wish the Bluetooth update would have resulted
in more battery life.
But like the original,
I was able to yield about three weeks of real world usage
with the backlight enabled.
By the way,
this features the same 4,000 milliamp hour battery
of its predecessor.
Now if you opt for the K2,
definitely go for the one with the outer aluminum casing.
It costs a little bit more,
but you get a more premium-feeling device.
It's gonna be a little bit heavier,
it's gonna feel a little bit more solid on your desk
when compared to the plastic casing.
Another thing I really appreciate are the Mac-centric keys,
so you have things like Mission Control and Launchpad.
You have the Option key and the Command key.
Things that make a Mac user feel right at home.
But don't worry, if you're a Windows user,
you can pull those key caps off,
replace them with Windows-centric keys
that are included in the box.
And then flip the switch to Windows mode
and you're ready to go,
so let me just show you how easy it is
to replace those key caps,
you just simply pull like that.
That'll expose the Gateron switches,
I'm using the brown switches here,
we'll talk about that a little bit later.
And just press down, and there you go.
You're ready to use Windows, folks.
This also comes with a braided, this time, USB-C cable.
It is a right angle cable.
So that's gonna facilitate
recharging the battery inside
that 4,000 milliamp hour battery.
Or you can use it in just cable mode, wired mode.
But you can also pair this keyboard
with up to three different devices
and switch between those three,
simply by pressing the Function,
combined with either the one, two or three key,
so that is super convenient.
Easily switch between a Mac, an iPad, an iPhone, et cetera.
Now, of course, I can't forget the RGB aspects,
and if you opt for the aluminum frame version,
it comes with RGB backlight built in.
So of course you have the ability
to adjust the backlight brightness,
but you also have this bulb button
in the upper right hand corner,
that's what allows you to change between
the 15 plus RGB effects.
So I'm just going to cycle through all these,
just to show you,
I'm gonna dim the lights just a little bit.
There we go.
Alright, so, you can see that's one of the effects there,
and if I tap or press the bulb key again,
it'll cycle through to the next effect.
I'm not a huge fan of RGB, I have to admit.
But I will say that that is something
that makes this keyboard stand out,
if you're a fan of RGB backlight,
this is gonna be a very appealing keyboard for you,
it's more of like a bonus feature in my opinion,
because the other aspects of this keyboard
are just already solid.
There's no need to really rely on a gimmick,
I won't say it's a gimmick.
It's just that there no need to really rely on RGB
to pull users in,
because the other aspects of this keyboard
are just that solid.
And you can also cycle through different colors
for the different effects as well.
You just simply hold the Function key
and press the left or right arrows on the keyboard.
And you can, of course,
disable the RGB backlight altogether,
by holding Function and pressing the bulb button.
So that gets rid of it,
and then of course you can just dim the backlight
all the way down if you want to do that as well.
So admittedly a very cool feature,
it may not be your cup of tea,
but you can always disable if you want to.
Now let's hear how those Gateron brown switches sound.
(keys click)
Now Keychron offers this keyboard
with either red, blue or brown Gateron switches,
and I definitely prefer the brown,
they're tactile, but not as tactile as you'll get
with the blue switches which are super clicky,
and there's a lot of tactile feedback
with those blue switches.
I think browns are great for typing,
and it's just my personal preference.
So I'll go ahead and remove some of the key caps
so I can showcase those brown Gateron switches there,
there they are.
And that's what gives you that nice tactile clicky response.
And I can't emphasize this enough,
if you've never tried a mechanical keyboard,
you owe it to yourself, the tactile response you get,
is so much more satisfying, in my opinion,
it's better on your fingers,
than something like the Magic Keyboard,
which is a good keyboard,
but look at the sheer amount of key travel difference
between these two keyboards,
that speaks for itself.
It's like having a nice shock absorber for your fingers.
So here's a question.
If you already use the original Keychron K2, Version One,
should you upgrade to Version Two?
And I'd say, no,
I don't think the changes are that drastic
to warrant paying again,
for what is more or less the same keyboard.
But, if you don't already use a mechanical keyboard,
I highly recommend the Keychron K2 V2.
In fact, I'm willing to take it a step further,
I think this is one of the best third-party Mac accessories
that you can buy today.
So ladies and gentlemen, if you appreciate this video,
if you think it was valuable, please leave me a thumbs up,
that helps others to find this video as well.
So what do you think about the Keychron K2 V2,
let me know down below in the comments section.
This is Jeff, with 9to5Mac.
(soothing electronic music)