Keychron Q1 QMK Custom Mechanical Keyboard - Version 2

I got the barebones version and dropped in some Everglide aqua kings that were hand lubed, and topped it with a MITO keycap set. This thing is damn near perfect. Only thing I would add is adjustable rear feet to increase angle of the board on desk.

G Pro Red switches are great, modded with tempest and force break mods and it sounds perfect. Great keyboard overall and a good first custom mechanical keyboard to purchase. The only improvement will be to put in thinner foam if you are doing the tempest mod.

I'll leave the raving reviews to the others. It is honestly pretty good but i will talk about some preference related items to help future buyers.

1. 75% layout is NOT for everyone, as much as i am impressed with the board, i think i would enjoy the Q3 a bit more. i play games with a mouse to the right side of the board and usually use my thumb to reach the enter key to type in the chat, that extra nav row to the right of the enter key is going to take some getting used to.
2. gateron PRO brown is NOT very much different than REGULAR gateron brown. (this matters because color options dictate available switches options in the full assembled versions.)
3. I got the shell white. I would recommend AGAINST the white. I think any other case color would make this board a lot more premium looking, all in all, the shell white looks better in the pictures than in person. nothing wrong with the aluminum but simply put this is a minor case of buyer's remorse on the color. the keycaps on the shell white are also super smooth, it's the shade of white on the aluminum case being underwhelming.
4. this is not my first keychron, the mac/wind toggle switch on my k8 is a lot more sturdy than this. the mac/wind toggle on this board i am typing on right now is wobbly.
5. the knob is not perfectly centered on my board but fair enough.
6. the white knob color matches the aluminum case instead of matching the color of the white keycaps.
7. RGB very nice on white keycaps.
8. USB-C port a bit less sturdy than my k8. (using a keychron cable)
Again, these are all personal preferences. Besides the white case color, very happy with it!

I watched so many videos on different reviews and different mods to do this keyboard when received. This is the main reason why I got it, since it was going to require most of the mods I figured this would be a great learning opportunity. For this reason I'm a little disappointed because I was looking forward to making the required mods considering the number issue has been the ping based on everyone else reviews.

It seems that Keychron listened because this thing sounds incredible out of the box, no ping that I noticed, stabilizers also sound great, the Gateron Silver switches sound incredible.

Very happy with my purchase.

I just got my keyboard in today, a Keychron Q1 Pre-built w/knob in Shell White and Gateron Browns.
I bought this keyboard because while I do like the keyboard on the Macbook Pro 2021 16', I don't like typing on them for a super long time. I type for probably 6 hours every single day, which feels a lot more enjoyable on a mechanical keyboard because my accuracy is 100% on a mechanical, with a WPM of 140, vs 90% accuracy and 105wpm on scissor switches. I never mistype with mechanicals as I do scissor switches.

I have really enjoyed modding keyboards in the past, usually, I would buy a cheap mechanical keyboard and then upgrade it to be essentially the same as boards costing $500.
Although, many keyboards in the budget range do not have this level of quality in aluminum. This thing is pretty dense and heavy. If someone were to attempt to shoot me, I could probably use this keyboard as a means of preventing the bullet from hitting me. The bullet might literally ricochet off this keyboard.
The board isn't perfect, but it's like 87.5% there. The complaints from youtube of the case ping are at least not present on my keyboard, and I think this is due to the fact that there is a two layers of foam inside now, lessening the gasket-mounted level of movement, but still absorbing a lot of noise. The stabilizers are also pretty solid, I think that the thing that really holds it back is the keycaps. The complaints of poor print quality are at least not present on my specific keyboard, but the PBT does not have a "thocc". I would describe the sound profile more akin to ABS keycaps, with the feeling of the PBT feeling decently slick. The keycaps feel like a $40 set on Amazon, rather than one from DROP for example. I may purchase a different set of keycaps in the future, but I am a weirdo and I kind of like the sound of ABS keycaps more than PBT, I actually do not like the "thocc" sound.
So , as a whole, I definitely like this keyboard a lot. I would just forewarn some that the keycaps are a little mid, but everything else is really nice, hence the 5 star rating.

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My only slight gripe, but obviously I knew this going into it and I am perfectly fine with this fact, is that the keyboard is a wired connection. This is both good and bad, it depends on how you look at it. I personally wouldn't travel with this keyboard in the first place, it's pretty damn heavy (though I like heavy things).
If I were to travel I would probably buy a K2.