Analog switches come to Keychron's most popular keyboard

Key findings

  • Analog switches offer new customization options at a lower price for a superior typing experience.
  • The Keychron K2 HE offers satisfying keystrokes, comfortable typing, and vibrant RGB lighting.
  • The compact Keychron K2 HE is a great keyboard for the price with excellent analog switches.



Analog switches seem to be the latest trend in mechanical keyboards, and Keychron is going all out. Following the absolutely fantastic Keychron Q1 HE aimed at the premium market, the company has now brought the purple Gateron analog switches to its most popular keyboard, the Keychron K2, launching the new Keychron K2 HE.

Popular doesn't necessarily mean high-end, and the K2 HE is definitely not the most premium keyboard in Keychron's range. But as far as typing feel goes, this is still an excellent keyboard. It's very compact, but has all the keys you need and a satisfying feel when you press them, helped by lovely RGB lighting. It may not have the quality of its more expensive siblings, but for the price, this is a great keyboard, and the addition of analog switches makes it a clear recommendation if you want that extra layer of control.


About this review: Keychron sent us the black standard edition of the K2 HE. The company had no influence on the content of this test.

Keychron K2 HE

Excellent for the price

Keychron K2 HE

Offer analog switches at a lower price

The Keychron K2 HE brings the company's excellent magnetic analog switches to one of the most popular boards in the company's lineup. It adds even more customization to the already great typing experience with satisfying key presses and sounds. The special edition looks great with wood accents, but the standard edition has a more vibrant RGB.

Per

  • Analog switches offer a new range of customization options for this price
  • Satisfying and comfortable typing experience
  • Transparent keycaps provide even more impressive RGB lighting
Disadvantages

  • Not as quiet as higher quality boards
  • Wood look is reserved for the more expensive special edition
  • Could use more RGB customization options

Prices and availability

Keychron launched a Kickstarter campaign for the K2 HE on August 7, 2024, which is still ongoing at the time of writing. A full launch should happen soon after the campaign ends.

During the Kickstarter campaign, the standard version of the K2 HE, which I received for testing, costs $125, with an MSRP of $130. The special edition, with wood accents on a white or black frame, costs $135 during the Kickstarter campaign, and increases to $140 after launch.


Design and appearance

An elegant looking board with just the right amount of flair

The Keychron K2 HE comes in two main editions. The standard edition is all black, with only a few keys having colored keycaps (though you can swap these out for an all-black look). This model has an all-metal frame over a plastic body, so it feels quite premium but isn't too heavy. It also features clear legends on the keycaps, which show off the RGB lighting in a nice way. I love RGB, and clear keycaps are always a lot of fun, especially considering Keychron tends to be very subdued with their keyboard lighting.


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I'm a little jealous of the special edition, which comes in either white or black, with both models featuring wood accents on the sides. Real wood is used in the frame, and just from the renderings, it looks super cool. The downside to these models is that they don't have clear keycap legends, so the RGB is less noticeable. It's a matter of taste, though, and I would have loved to see the wood look in person.

Otherwise, it's a very compact 75% keyboard. The frame itself is barely larger than the key area and there's no unnecessary space between keys, so this is a great option if you want a minimalist setup. It lacks the volume control found on some other Keychron models, but that helps make it more compact.


While it has some nice translucent keycaps, as is typical for Keychron, the RGB customization is still far from comprehensive. The Keychron Launcher app lets you apply effects to the entire keyboard, but that's about it. Also, there are oddly fewer options available in the launcher app than the ones you can switch between with the backlight button on the keyboard itself. There could definitely be more options here, but that just doesn't seem to be Keychron's thing.

The typing experience

It is very comfortable and satisfactory


If you ignore just the looks, the Keychron K2 HE is, as you might expect, a great keyboard. With analog linear switches, the typing feel is just to my liking, super smooth and still a satisfying typing experience. I've always preferred linear switches and it's no different here. Typing feels really good and even the sound of each key being pressed is satisfying, although the space bar is sometimes a little louder than I'd like.


That's what I notice most about this keyboard compared to the more expensive Q1 HE. That keyboard has incredible noise dampening built in and is the quietest keyboard I've ever typed on. The K2 HE doesn't come close to that level, perhaps because the chassis is plastic instead of metal and therefore not as rigid. There are probably not as many dampening elements either. If you have someone else in the room, this may not be the absolute best keyboard, but the noises it makes are not as loud and I really liked the audible feedback the keyboard gave me when typing. I would still prefer a quieter keyboard, but this is far from a bad experience.

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Analog switches are very versatile

Of course, the HE part is the big selling point for the K2 HE, otherwise you could just buy the standard K2, which is much cheaper. Analogue switches are always a hit in keyboards. I first saw them in the SteelSeries Apex Pro and loved them there, but it was the Keychron Q1 HE that really won me over.


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What do analog switches do? While a typical switch has a set actuation point after which a keypress is registered, analog switches sense the entire distance between the top of the switch and the board and simply activate at the distance you set. By default, the actuation distance is 2mm and I never felt the need to mess with it, but you can make it as small as 0.2mm or as small as 3.8mm so it really suits your typing preferences.

Another feature is the use of a “quick release” mode. In this mode, the keys reset immediately when some of the pressure on the key is released. This allows you to repeatedly press a key without having to completely remove your finger from the key. Instead of resetting at the point of actuation, the keys reset as the travel decreases.


That's just the beginning. The Keychron Launcher app lets you map analog controls to the analog switches on the trigger. For example, if a game is designed for a controller with analog movement (because it has analog sticks), you can map the sticks to specific keys on the keyboard, which will use the analog switches to mimic the analog movement of the sticks. Another option allows you to assign multiple actions to a single key, depending on how far you've pressed it. You can basically create a macro with a single key, with different actions for pressing a key to a certain point, releasing it, and more. You can even adjust the curve of the analog switch so that different levels of pressure correspond to different distances of movement in the software. If you tend to press hard in the initial part of the movement, adjusting the curve can change the sensitivity of the switch for that initial movement, so you don't accidentally press harder than you'd like.


Personally, I haven't found a use case for this type of feature yet, but the possibilities with this type of switch are huge.

Should you buy the Keychron K2 HE?

Close-up of the right side of the Keychron K2 HE with RGB lighting activated

If you can see the value of analog switches, the Keychron K2 HE is clearly the best entry into this market. It's significantly cheaper than the Q1 HE and even the SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL, but offers a much better typing experience than the latter. While it lacks a few things like deeper RGB customization or the top-notch noise cancellation, it's still a very satisfying keyboard to type on, with RGB lighting making it look that much nicer. If you can get your hands on the special edition, you'll also be adding a unique piece of hardware to your collection, albeit at a premium.


If analog switches aren't that important to you, you might be better off with the standard Keychron K2 model, which costs less than $100. However, I haven't tested that model, so I can't personally vouch for the typing feel on that model. Another good option for $100 is the Lemokey P1 Pro, which also doesn't have analog switches, but is still fine for typing.

Keychron K2 HE

Keychron K2 HE

Thanks to the analog switches, the Keychron K2 HE is a very versatile keyboard that also offers an excellent typing experience with satisfying keystrokes and audio feedback. While it's not the quietest keyboard on the market and lacks the ability to customize RGB, this is a fantastic keyboard for the price.

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