I have a problem. I keep buying mechanical keyboards. I only have one set of hands, and I don’t type with my feet, so why do I keep buying new ones? Partially because I’m hard on my keyboards. I gave up on non-mechanical keyboards years ago, but I didn’t buy really expensive ones. I bought a moderately priced ones. And I keep looking for new options in that. The pictures you see are the Keychron C3 Pro Keyboard. This particular model, an Amazon exclusive, retails for more, but I was able to get it for $29.99 on sale, which made it worth a try. I’m typing this post on it right now.

The keyboard comes in two switch varieties, red and brown. It offers a red backlight. The keycaps are replaceable, but the switches are not. Keychron makes plenty of keyboards that allow you to swap the switches as well. It is well-built for a budget keyboard, and neither version is overly loud, something people tend to comment on with these keyboards. It has many of the features a more expensive keyboard would.

I’m clearly not a keyboard aficionado, despite my keyboard purchases. I have generally bought budget mechanical keyboards, there are too many color switches I don’t have an opinion on…I don’t know the lingo. The feature that interested me particularly is something called QMK/VIA. The feature allows reprogramming the mapping of the keyboard. Never use your Scroll Lock key? Turn it into a Mute button for Zoom. Build macros into the keyboard instead of software. Certainly an interesting thing to play with. With a few custom keycaps…you can repurpose keys you barely use.

There are upgraded models from Keychron, and competing models from other companies, but for the price and features, I doubt they can beat it…especially if you get it at $30.

Update: April 2024 – Keychron is now offering the C3 Pro in an RGB hot swappable variation for only $10 more than the regular price of the variation they originally released.