Keychron Q5 QMK Custom Mechanical Keyboard

This keyboard is great, I didn't know what a good keyboard felt like until I touched this one! I wish there was a practical way to have the volume knob be a bit bigger but it's not a big deal.

I purchased a q5 non-knob barebones kit (black color) and quite to my surprise is remarkably solid. Nearly to a fault but I think it's growing on me.

I installed some budget Akko Radiant Reds that I had leftover from a previous build. Because of the mass of the chassis, its composition, and the steel top plate, it really highlights the higher-pitched sounds of a linear (non-silent or stem damped) switch can have on top-out. That plastic-on-plastic slapping sound that lubing won't really help and if so, not for too long. Factory stabs are entirely acceptable but could use some lube/tune work as customary.

The build is absolutely PACKED with noise damping material. There's a light sheet of open-celled foam in the bottom of the case, paired with a thin vibration-damping film. Between the PCB and top plate, there is a denser foam layer and of course, the gasket-mounting foam strips. Bearing in mind just how much is included means that there are several avenues you can use to tune the sound to your preference. It helps to a point but because it comes from the factory in such a beefy configuration, the combination of your switch of choice, cap density, cap composition, and the total of that reciprocating mass has a big impact on the resulting sound/feel.

Bottom line: this is a really sturdy, premium foundation so if you take the budget/quick/easy route in switch selection or run an under or lightly lubed switch, it magnifies that decision. If you pair that with flimsy, thin caps, you'll hear it. I'm immensely happy with the build quality of the case, and how everything fits and works together. It's a unique 'compact-full' form factor; I want for nothing but some more premium switches. But I can fix that.

This is a great keyboard with minimal mods. Tape mod and pe-foam switch pads makes this a excellent sounding keyboard. I was dissapointed with the blue version of the knobless board. The blue is not a vibrant as it shows in the publicity pictures. Its more like a dull navy blue. Nothing like the navy blues on the first models. Wish they would rectify that. Should've gone with the standard black, but that blue looked so good. Steer clear from it! Aside from that, its just a great keyboard.

Have bought three Q5's and one Q1 (mint colour) to date (all with no knob, one of each colour plus FR4 plates for all of them) for myself and family members. Plan to get one more Q5 with a knob later this month. Keychron is definitely improving the Q series with each iteration thus reducing the amount of modding required to get the sound signature you may want. It seems that for many people this keyboard should be fine as is. I am very happy that Keychron have made the q5 and q6 available as I really needed the number pad on a nice relatively affordable mechanical keyboard with decent flex and modding opportunities. Have custom switches and personalised keycaps sets on each Q5/Q1 as each family member have their own favourite scheme. Have an Akko mod003 which also well built but it has some shortcomings in regards to plate material and lack of a daughterboard for the USB C connection which limits the amount of flex. The Q5's only needed tape mod, a little bit of extra force break mod and that was it. Be careful when opening the case though as the silicon pads that Keychron have used as a force break can fall off (I lost one somehow), they are easy enough to replace or augment though.

no this is not a paid review, I ordered the keyboard a month ago and I have been using it for 2 weeks now. It is by far the best keyboard I have used and I have used many different types. I work at a computer I'm a software engineer and I make so many less errors and have to backspace way less than I ever have with other keyboards. I customized it and moved a few keys around to make it easier to write code for my job. I honestly wouldn't change anything except probably the UX of the app that you have to install to customize the keys. I'm buying another, probably the larger version next.