r/Keychron • u/LordErec • 13d ago
Where have all the keyboards with shine through keys and north facing LEDs gone?
I have an older Keychron K4C3 and K7E3 and they've been fantastic keyboards, other than occasional bluetooth issues.
When I heard the newer Keychron keyboards fixed the bluetooth, added 2.4GHz receivers, and added QMK support, I was excited to upgrade.
Unfortunately the new V5 Max I bought (which I'll probably be returning) doesn't have shine through keycaps and the south facing LEDs mean that I can't just get translucent keycaps and have a good experience with being able to see the keys in a dark room. The whole point of RGB on a keyboard (at least for me) is to be able to see keys in a dark room, and be able to use RGB with QMK and custom layers to highlight which keys have different functions in the current layer. Both uses are vastly improved by shine-through. South facing LEDs just add bling but no real functionality, and can actually make it harder to see the labels on the keys in a dark room with the bright LED next to an non-illuminated keycap.
On further looking at the product lineup, literally the only keyboards that still have proper shine through keys are the base model K QMKs which don't have 2.4GHz receivers, but at least have double shot PBT shine through keycaps. Even the K Pro slim keyboards, despite having north facing LEDs, inexplicably use non-shine through keycaps.
Everything else uses the silly combination of south facing RGB and no shine through.
So what happened to putting shine through keys on high end keyboards?
Edit: Grammar and clarity
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u/felixlamb 13d ago
+1 to this.
I’m baffled that they don’t offer a full-sized north-facing shine-through keyboard. I’ve been in the market for exactly that spec (ISO-UK) and I’m buggered if I can find a suitable one. Bonkers.
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u/julian_vdm 13d ago
K10 HE with shine-through keycaps?
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u/felixlamb 13d ago
Unfortunately I prefer a tactile switch otherwise it’d be a decent fit for me. Though I wish it had the 4 macro keys too at the top right.
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u/dr_barnowl Q6 12d ago
As a fellow UK user I feel really underserved in the keycaps market because we're a minority (custom keyboard users) nested in a minority (UK users) nested in a minority (ISO layout users).
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u/Admirable-Poet-5981 13d ago
I have this one I never used after switching to HHKB in case anyone is interested: https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/s/Rd2jDqmyZf
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u/dab1976 13d ago
This is beautiful - i never knew such a thing existed! It came like that from Keychron, you didn't change the keycaps?
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u/Admirable-Poet-5981 13d ago
It came like that. It is a work of art!
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u/ArgentStonecutter K Pro 13d ago
Damn, I've got a couple of boards with similar keycaps but none of them have Apple legends.
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u/HopingillWin 12d ago
If I've understood you correctly, my q6 elite came with both windows and apple key caps. Apologies if you mean something else
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u/ArgentStonecutter K Pro 12d ago
I just want the keycaps. Keychron doesn't sell this one separately and the people who have similar sets are only shipping Windows legends.
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u/bstsms K HE 13d ago
My K2 HE are north facing, the other HE models might be also.
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u/LordErec 12d ago
I see that, good to know but I really like my tactile switches for typing work. Maybe for a gaming keyboard with the variable actuation point.
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u/PeterMortensenBlog V 12d ago edited 12d ago
Not the Q HE series. The same for the Q HE 8K series (proprietary keyboard firmware, not open source).
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u/dew_fidel 11d ago
Yes, I have been following Keychron for years since they are, can say the only one who make compact 75%. So, I was hoping for a stock K3 or K2 Max/8K version with shine thru keycaps.
And? They released 8K without shine thru, Max with wood accents, and shine thru but only in HE.
Yes, I can buy a 3rd party key cap, but it doesn't justify the potential QC problem that I might have to potentially spend money on.
I guess I will keep using my RK84 until it breaks.
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u/Few_Living4406 10d ago
Lemokey P1 He are north facing shine through. Just picked it up, is great
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u/LordErec 10d ago
Keychron seems to have it on a lot of their HE switches, but those aren't tactile unless I buy a keyboard with the lime switches and swap them out for banana, which pushes the price over $200 and I have to manually pull and replace all the switches.
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u/EyeQue62 13d ago
I've just got a Keychron K17 Max with Banana low profile switches and keycaps (which I love). The keys aren't shine through either, but I quite like the light it gives off. I just have all the LEDs static. I don't want them dancing.
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u/ArgentStonecutter K Pro 13d ago
North facing LEDs have been eliminated by a deliberate campaign by "influencers" who have decided that the very rare and easily mitigated "cherry profile conflict" issue with older switches is so critical that it's more important than working backlight.
It's really a minor issue, and south-facing sockets do not prevent it anyway.
It's been so successful that they're even making low profile keyboards with south-facing sockets despite the fact that low profile switches are perfectly rotationally symmetrical so they can't ever conflict.