One of the best-sounding keyboards around — I’ve been testing the Keychron V3 Ultra 8K, and here’s everything you need to know

The Keychron V3 Ultra 8K could be one of the best mechanical keyboards for customization newbies, office workers and gamers alike. There’s a lot to love about this board, including the comfortable typing thanks to the responsive switches and OSA keycaps; a great sound profile from layers of foam and a polycarbonate plate; and impressive battery life. The Ultra series brings an upgrade to the original Keychron V3, introducing 8K wireless polling and 660 hours of battery life.

But there are some very minor drawbacks. The board isn’t available in the U.K. at the time of writing, although there are other similar options; the case feels a little cheap, and the Brown Switches that came with the board I tested lacked a tactile bump for gaming.

To find out more details about the board, keep reading this full Keychron V3 Ultra 8K review.

Keychron V3 Ultra 8K review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? An 80% TKL mechanical keyboard
• Who is it for? Typists and gamers who want a comfortable board, and anyone who wants to try keyboard modding
• How much does it cost? $114
• What do we like? The comfortable typing and switches, great sound, scope for customization, and impressive battery life
• What don’t we like? The plastic casing feels a little cheap

Keychron V3 Ultra 8K review: Specs

Keychron V3 Ultra 8K review: The Ups

The Keychron V3 Ultra 8K is a great board that offers lots of customization, comfortable typing, and satisfying sound. The impressive 660-hour battery life seals the deal.

Easy-to-actuate switches

The first thing that stood out to me when using the Keychron V3 Ultra 8K was how easy the keys are to type on, and this is all down to the switches under the hood. This board is available with a choice of Red linear, Brown tactile or Banana tactile Keychron Silk POM switches.

The board I tested was preloaded with Brown POM switches, and despite their 55g actuation force, I found them very easy to type with. I didn’t feel any sort of fatigue, even when typing all day at work. The linear switches have polyoxymethylene (POM) stems that reduce friction, creating a smooth, comfortable and effortless typing experience.

When I went back to typing on my Keychron C1 Pro 8K ($59), which uses Keychron Banana Super switches, I felt more resistance when typing, as they have a heavier actuation force of 57g. If you’re a typist by day, I can highly recommend the Silk POM switches.

Flexible type feel

The Keychron V3 Ultra 8K has a delicate yet purposeful type feel. It’s lovely to type on. The keycaps are made from double-shot PBT and use Keychron’s OSA profile. The double-shot PBT means that the keycaps have a decent amount of grip for secure typing. They’re also pretty resistant to oils from your fingers, and the embossed letters won’t rub off easily.

Meanwhile, the sloped tops of the OSA-profile keycaps are lovely to type on as they feel like they’re catching your fingers as you hit the keys, creating that purposeful feeling. And since all of the keys rake outward from the center of the board, it’s easy to move to the board’s extremities without stretching.

As you can see from the table above, I had a good typing experience on this board, hitting my fastest typing speeds while maintaining above-average accuracy. The flexible gasket mount helped propel my fingers from key to key, and the comfortable Brown Silk POM switches were ideal for my long typing sessions.

While the Brown Silk POM switches are designed to best suit gaming, on this board, they are also great for long typing sessions and all day in the office. The screw-in stabilizers feel great under the bigger keys, and pretty much eliminate any wobble.

Nice sound

The Keychron V3 Ultra 8K’s sound is a muted thock, and there’s no untoward reverb or obnoxious clackiness from the keys. It has the same dampened sound effect as the Keychron K8 Max ($124) and absolutely no harsh clacking like the Redragon Galatin Pro K719 ($79).

This muted sound comes from the polycarbonate plate in the board. This reduces resonance, so the sound of the keys doesn’t ring out as dramatically. This isn’t as effective as the polycarbonate plate and brass damping plate combo in the Wobkey Zen 65 ($165) — which sounds phenomenal — but as a result, that board is very heavy in comparison to the V3 Ultra.

The V3 Ultra 8K has a more dulled sound than the C1 Pro 8K, but I think this makes the sound of the keys far more palatable in a working environment. While you still get the satisfying feel and sound, it’s not as disruptive to the people working around you.

Customization

The Keychron V3 Ultra 8K is another highly customizable board from Keychron. It’s hot-swappable, compatible with three or five-pin south-facing mechanical switches. It’s super easy to swap out keycaps and switches with the included keycap and switch puller, and I didn’t face any sort of resistance. The plastic case makes this process much easier, as you get a little flex.

If you want to make any other changes to the inner workings of the board, you can unscrew the casing, which is easy to do as the hex bolts are visible, and you get a hex key included with the board.

To remap keys and customize macro commands, the board is compatible with Keychron Launcher software. You can use this to streamline efficiency in work and gaming by setting up macros. Although this board features ZMK firmware (which has typically been more restrictive than QMK), you can set macros like a QMK board. The benefit of ZMK is typically lower power consumption, which I’ll cover a little later.

Backlighting on this keyboard is also impressively customizable. You can use Keychron Launcher online to create custom lighting zones and assign lighting effects to specific keys with mixed RGB, which is an upgrade from the original Keychron V3.

Decent for gaming

The Keychron V3 Ultra 8K has a top polling speed of 8,000Hz over 2.4GHz wireless and wired connections, and features N-key rollover (NKRO). 8K polling is a bit of a gimmick, as 1K is enough to reduce the chances of missed inputs for almost all gamers out there (and 8K risks hogging your computer’s system resources), but it’ll be nice to see for those that want the fastest board out there.

NKRO is useful, though, as it allows the recognition of multiple commands at once from the board. If playing games such as Counter Strike 2 where you want to move, shoot and change weapons simultaneously, this is no problem as the N-key rollover is going to catch all of those commands.

The V3 isn’t a powerful magnetic board, like the Lemokey L5 HE, but it’s more than adequate enough for most gamers. If you do plan on gaming, the lighter Red linear switches will likely be the best to go for, as these will be more responsive than the heavier tactile options.

Typing angles

The Keychron V3 Ultra 8K is extremely comfortable to work on all day long because of the adjustable typing angle. I always appreciate this feature on my office keyboards as it allows me to set the board at the perfect height for my wrists. Throughout the day, I also often move around, switch to different chairs or even work standing up. This affects the angle at which my wrists feel most comfortable, so it’s nice to have the adjustment there to accommodate.

The angles you can choose from are 4º (the angle the board sits at by default), 7º, with the shortest feet deployed, and 10º for the steepest angle. Other boards, like the Keychron Q3 HE ($239) have a fixed typing angle, which can mean it’s fatiguing on wrists and forearms.

Battery life for days

The Keychron V3 Ultra 8K has up to 660 hours of battery life with backlighting turned off. But let’s be honest, you’re not going to have backlighting turned off. So, battery life, like with everything else, is dependent on usage.

Nonetheless, the battery of the V3 Ultra 8K is very impressive. When I started using the board, it had 50% battery and I used it every day for a week before I needed to charge it at 15%, which is pretty good going since I had the RGB lighting set to the highest setting and I type all day, every day.

The V Ultra 8K series, which includes the V3, has over three times the battery life of the V Max series, so it’s a great option for anyone who doesn’t want to charge their device often or be bogged down by using it wired.

Connectivity options

The Keychron V3 Ultra 8K can be used wired or wireless over Bluetooth or with the 2.4GHz dongle, which can be found at the back of the board.

You can use the board with Windows and macOS, and you toggle between these settings with the handy switch at the back of the board. It also comes with macOS and Windows keycaps, making it more convenient to use the two systems.

However, some keyboards like the Lenovo Multi Device Keyboard ($39), geared towards productivity, come with dual-labelled keycaps, which eliminates the need to swap them out if you’re someone who works between operating systems. But since it’s hot-swappable, you can use any compatible keycaps you want.

Keychron V3 Ultra 8K review: The downs

While minor, there are some issues with the Keychron V3 Ultra 8K. It’s not available in the U.K. at the time of writing, and the plastic case is a little cheap-feeling.

Not available in the UK

Unfortunately, at the time of writing this, the Keychron V3 Ultra 8K is not available for purchase in the U.K. If you’re in the U.K. and think this keyboard sounds like the right fit for you, something like the Keychron V3 Max ($99 / £89) would be ideal. This is still part of the V series, so it features a similar build and design. However, the Max version runs QMK firmware instead of ZMK and comes with Gateron Jupiter switches pre-installed instead of Silk POM Switches (they’re both great). It has a weaker battery life and polls at a lower maximum frequency of 1,000Hz, although that’s still fine for almost all gamers.

Plastic casing lacks a premium feel

If you’re looking for something sturdy that won’t move an inch on your desk, even with tapping all day long, you’ll need to look elsewhere. Since the case of the Keychron V3 Ultra 8K is made of plastic, it is extremely lightweight, at just 2.1 pounds. I’ve been taking it on my commute back and forth to the office while I’ve been testing it, and I haven’t even noticed the extra weight in my bag, which is a good thing. But this also means that there isn’t as much downforce keeping it in place on your desk like with heavier boards.

When making modifications to the V3 Ultra 8K, I also noticed that because of the thin plastic case, the keyboard can twist slightly. This could be an issue if you need to exert some force when swapping out switches.

That said, the Keychron C1 Pro 8K, which I use daily, also features a plastic casing, and I have no issues with it staying put on my desk or with it flexing. But it’s worth noting that the plastic casing is what allows adjustable feet on the underside of the board, which is a feature I appreciate. The only metal-cased board we’ve seen with adjustable feet is the Lofree Flow 2.

Keychron V3 Ultra 8K review: Verdict

The Keychron V3 Ultra 8K is an impressively comfortable keyboard that provides a lot of scope for customization while remaining a great choice for use straight out of the box. I can type on this board all day long without experiencing any sort of fatigue, and the gliding Silk POM switches make the experience extra smooth.

The flexible gasket mount and sound-dampening layers provide a muted sound that makes it perfect for use in an office or at home without any major distraction from loud clacking. My only qualms are that the plastic case feels a little cheap and unstable at times, plus the lack of availability in the U.K. Other than that, this is a board that is perfect for pretty much anyone.