The two wireless-connection options are Bluetooth and 2.4GHz, the latter via a USB dongle included in the box. The keyboard lacks a compartment or niche for the transmitter dongle, so you’ll need to keep it in a safe place or risk losing it. You can have up to three devices paired at once, and you can cycle among them with a keyboard shortcut: Hold down the function key, and press 1, 2, or 3.
The keyboard lacks dedicated media controls, such as a volume knob, but those features are available on the function row. By default, shortcuts for things like changing the RGB effects or volume take precedence in this row over the F-functions. If you don’t like this setup, you can easily swap the key functions in Keychron’s Launcher control utility, which I’ll discuss below.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
The K2 HE features hot-swappable magnetic key switches, so you can swap out the default Gateron Nebular switches (the only factory option) if you’re handy and you’d prefer something different. Out of the box, though, the typing experience on the K2 HE is incredibly satisfying. As a linear switch, the Nebular is non-tactile, and the mechanism itself produces no discernible click or tick when a key engages.
Typing, though, isn’t actually silent. The keyboard has a deep “thock”-iness enhanced by the concrete frame; any sound you hear is from the keys bottoming out as you type. If you’ve ever yelled inside a concrete room, you’ll know that concrete is excellent at reflecting sound waves, so keypresses have a nice, deep thump to them.
The key switches have a pleasing finger-feel, as well. Although I’m accustomed to tactile switches on my personal keyboard (the Epomaker TH96), I find myself enjoying the K2 HE’s thumpy sound profile much more. A Monkeytype test gave a score of 68 words per minute (wpm), slightly lower than my personal average of 71wpm.
