Keychron upgraded my favorite mechanical keyboard and packed 8,000Hz polling and 660 hours of battery into it — here’s my verdict after a week of testing

In January 2026, keyboard giant Keychron unveiled its Ultra series which brings 8,000Hz polling and 660 hours of battery life to its V and Q series of mechanical keyboards. As someone who loves the original Keychron V1, I couldn’t wait to test the Keychron V1 Ultra 8K — and after a week of testing, it didn’t disappoint.

The V1 Ultra 8K offers 8,000Hz wireless polling and packs an incredibly long battery life, and throws dual RGB lighting systems into the mix as well. It’s a delight to type and game on, and it’s an exceptional keyboard for mechanical keyboard enthusiasts who want latency issues and input lag to be a thing of the past. It doesn’t break the bank, and customization remains as easy as ever via web-based software.

Is this the best mechanical keyboard for you? Read my full Keychron V1 Ultra 8K review to find out.

Keychron V1 Ultra 8K review: Specs

Keychron V1 Ultra 8K review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? An upgrade of the original Keychron V1, now with 8,000Hz wireless polling
• Who is it for? Hardcore typists and gamers
• How much does it cost? The Keychron V1 Ultra is available in the U.S. only for $114
• What do we like? The 8,000Hz wireless polling, excellent typing and gaming performance, long battery life, dual RGB lighting, and the competitive price tag
• What don’t we like? Some flex in the body

Keychron V1 Ultra 8K review: The ups

From its highly customizable RGB lighting and wonderful typing experience, to its powerful gaming performance, the Keychron V1 Ultra 8K is a stupendous keyboard.

Beautifully lit up

I love how the OG Keychron V1 is designed: minimalist yet charming. The Keychron V1 Ultra 8K is designed similarly, with black and gray keycaps as well as a singular orange keycap which make the keyboard inconspicuous and fit for the office. An addition I love? The dual RGB lighting systems. The top plate is lit up by “Mix RGB” as well as per-key RGB.

Per-key RGB is just like the one you find on the original V1, where every single key’s lighting can be individually customized and over 22 effects can be applied. Mix RGB goes a step further by splitting up the keyboard into two custom lighting zones, each with unique effects. I love this as it enables me to set different lighting effects for different keys via Keychron Launcher.

For instance, I set the alphabet keys to reactive lighting, so they only light up when pressed, and the other keys (Function row, Pgup, Pgdn, etc.) to remain always lit up in a rainbow wave. This extensive RGB customization is sure to please anyone who likes a colorful keyboard.

Still a dream to type on

When I tested the Keychron V1 nearly two years ago, it was a long time before it left my desk. It offers a strong typing experience with its responsive switches and lovely keycaps, so I’m over the moon that the Keychron V1 Ultra 8K offers a similarly rich typing experience too.

Firstly, the keyboard comes with one of three stock switches: Keychron Silk POM Red (linear), Brown (tactile) or Banana (tactile) mechanical. I tested the Banana switches which are a little on the heavy side of things as they require 57g of force to activate. I usually prefer lightweight linear switches, such as the 35g Sea Salt switches found in the Epomaker RT100 ($115). Even so, I didn’t mind the Banana switches much, and I didn’t find the V1 Ultra 8K’s Banana switches fatiguing to type on — I even wrote this review on the keyboard! And I like that the V1 Ultra 8K is hot-swappable so I can change the switches as and when I like without de- and re-soldering them to the PCB.

Secondly, the V1 Ultra 8K feels and sounds lovely. It uses a gasket-mount, which offers a cushioned feel, reducing vibrations from key presses. The gasket, in tandem with the V1 Ultra’s several layers of enhanced acoustic foam, negates any unwanted metallic pings that would otherwise take away from the board’s sound profile. Together with the double-shot PBT keycaps, the keyboard sounds poppy and — although I’m more of a thocky fan — I can’t deny that the V1 Ultra 8K sounds delightful.

I took a typing test at 10fastfingers.com to see how the V1 Ultra 8K fared against other mechanical keyboards I’ve tested recently. As you can see from the table above, the V1 Ultra 8K performed formidably. However, my speed is a little slower than on the Epomaker P65 ($119) and the GravaStar Mercury K1 but that’s probably down to the switches being heavier. Still, 94 words-per-minute is excellent, in my opinion.

Powerful gaming performance

The original Keychron V1 is excellent for both typing and gaming as it has a 1,000Hz polling rate. As the name suggests, the Keychron V1 Ultra 8K now features 8,000Hz wireless polling. This means that if you’re using the included 2.4GHz dongle (that neatly slots into the keyboard’s side for safekeeping), you can achieve a blistering 8,000Hz polling rate wirelessly — or wired, if that’s more your speed.

The only other keyboard I’ve tested with 8KHz wireless polling is the Epomaker HE65 Mag ($99) but that’s a Hall Effect deck, and to my knowledge, not many mechanical boards aside from Keychron’s Ultra ones (and the Keychron C1 Pro 8K) feature 8KHz polling. 8KHz polling, while impressive on paper, feels quite gimmicky, and most players (inlcuding myself) can’t tell the difference between 8KHz and 1KHz polling rates. Both negate input lag, and both ensure your inputs are registered instantaneously. The biggest difference is that 8KHz is a massive drain on your system resources as well as the V1 Ultra 8K’s battery life, and can only be really noticed by esports and competitive teams on a macro level.

To test the V1 Ultra 8K, I played a few rounds of Counter-Strike 2 and a couple hours of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 with the 2.4GHz dongle plugged in. I found the Banana switches highly responsive. They have a pre-travel distance of 2mm so they need to be pressed about halfway down to activate. I didn’t find them very fatiguing or problematic, and I appreciated the tactile bump on them too, as it gave me a good idea of when to let go off the switch. It’s worth swapping to lighter linear switches if you want an even smoother gaming experience, though.

I also appreciated the keyboard’s N-key rollover (in lieu of Last Key Prioritization or other gaming-specific features) in both games. N-key rollover is available over wireless and wired connections, and it enables multiple inputs to be registered at the same time. In practice, this means that you can execute two commands simultaneously. If you press, say, Ctrl and Q together in Counter-Strike 2 as I did, you will duck and draw your last used weapon at the same time.

Having N-key rollover in Counter-Strike 2 as well as Cyberpunk 2077, I was running circles around other players and NPCs in both games. In Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, I appreciated my commands being registered within mere nanoseconds and this helped me execute perfectly-timed parries and counter-attacks.

While the V1 Ultra 8K is good, for serious gamers, I’d recommend grabbing a Hall Effect keyboard that enables you to adjust each switch’s sensitivity for ultra-responsive gameplay any day. My top recommendations include the Epomaker HE68 ($59), the NuPhy Air60 HE ($139) or the Epomaker HE65 Mag. Note that the first two are wired-only decks, though, which is a common occurrence in the world of 8KHz polling.

Loooong battery life

The Keychron V1 Ultra 8K packs a mahoosive battery life. It’s fitted with a 4,000mAh rechargeable battery that Keychron says can last up to 660 hours. This, of course, depends on the usage conditions, and to achieve that much battery life between charges, you’ll need to turn off the RGB. Where’s the fun in that? Still, it’s amazing, and it’s the longest battery life I’ve seen from a mechanical keyboard yet.

The V1 Ultra 8K’s predecessor, the V1, has a 190-hour battery life while the Keychron K8 Max ($124) has a 180-hour battery life. The V1 Ultra 8K shares its long battery with its Ultra stablemates too, such as the Keychron Q1 Ultra 8K ($229). I couldn’t get through the 660-hour battery life in my testing, but with polling set to 8,000Hz and RGB brightness in full swing, I only last 5% of battery life in a week, which is outstanding.

Easy-peasy customization

Similar to other Keychron keyboards, the Keychron V1 Ultra 8K can be customized and personalized via the web-based Keychron Launcher. Keychron Launcher negates the need to download proprietary software or bloatware onto your machine, and it works like a charm on Windows and macOS. Here, as I mentioned earlier, you can adjust the keyboard’s per-key and mix RGB which is a lot of fun to do.

Alongside this, you can remap keys, record macros, update/flash the keyboard’s firmware, and even personalize and save multiple profiles to the V1 Ultra 8K’s internal memory. You can also adjust the polling rate according to your needs. Keychron Launcher sports an easy-to-read interface and it’s one of the most user-friendly apps I’ve had the pleasure of testing.

Competitively priced

One of the best things about the Keychron V1 Ultra 8K is that you get a plethora of features for a price that doesn’t break the bank. Its wired-only stablemate, the Keychron V1, costs $74, while the wireless Keychron V1 Max costs $99. Keychron has retained their lovely typing sound and feel and added long battery life and 8,000Hz wireless polling to the mix for $114, and in my opinion, the V1 Ultra 8K is worth every cent.

The V1 Ultra 8K costs the same as the Cooler Master MK770, the NuPhy Air75 V2 and the Lemokey P1 Pro, but the V1 Ultra 8K offers better value for money as it features a longer battery life. It’s also cheaper than the Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro 75% ($299) which offers only 4,000Hz wireless polling and just one switch choice. If you’re seeking great gaming performance with the tactile feel of a mechanical keyboard, the V1 Ultra 8K is the way to go.

Keychron V1 Ultra 8K review: The downs

There isn’t a lot wrong with the Keychron V1 Ultra 8K, but it’s important to note that its body has some flex in it.

Some flex

The Keychron V1 Ultra 8K is made entirely of ABS plastic which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s important to note that due to this, there is some flex in the keyboard’s body. If you hold the V1 Ultra 8K by its sides and try to twist it, it twists fairly easily, which is a little disappointing but not surprising given that the deck is made of plastic. What is surprising, though, is that I didn’t experience this with the OG Keychron V1, but it utilizes a steel plate which is why.

This isn’t the first time I’ve experienced something like this. I’ve faced a similar issue with the Epomaker TH99 ($82) and the McHose x Unbox Therapy UT98 ($139), amongst others. It isn’t a massive dealbreaker but it does make me question the V1 Ultra 8K’s longevity.

Limited availability

Keychron’s ultra lineup was announced in early 2026 and since then, the Keychron V1 Ultra 8K has been available to buy in the U.S. for $114 at Amazon. Unfortunately, if you’re based in the U.K. like I am, the keyboard isn’t available in the British isles yet. I reached out to one of Keychron’s marketing representatives about U.K. availability, so I will update the review once I know more.

If you really like the look of the V1 Ultra 8K, I’d recommend the Keychron V1 Max which costs £109 and is still widely available at Amazon U.K. It’s basically the same keyboard as its Ultra counterpart, but the biggest difference is that it features 1,000Hz polling as opposed to 8,000Hz. If you want an 8KHz mechanical deck, I’d recommend the Keychron C1 Pro 8K (£75). Not many other mechanical keyboards feature 8KHz polling so if that’s something that’s important to you, consider a Hall Effect keyboard, like the Epomaker HE68 (£59).

Keychron V1 Ultra 8K review: Verdict

As mechanical keyboards go, the Keychron V1 Ultra 8K is one of the best out there. It’s competitively priced so rest assured that you’re getting bang for your buck. And for less than $120, you get 8,000Hz wireless polling which negates any input lag, as well as N-key rollover which gives you a competitive advantage. I love the dual RGB systems Keychron has added to the keyboard as it gives you lots of control over the lighting.

Typing on the V1 Ultra 8K is just as delightful as it was on the OG V1, and with powerful gaming performance to boot, it has now become my go-to keyboard for everything — whether that’s writing my reviews or playing video games in my downtime. As long as you don’t mind the slightly flexing body, I really can’t think of many reasons to not recommend the V1 Ultra 8K.