Keychron Q60 Max Review

Introduction

The Keychron Q60 Max is part of an exclusive club of mechanical keyboards with a weird layout.

To be specific, it comes with the strange, but popular, HHKB layout and is one of a handful of properly mechanical choices with this arrangement. One of the others is the more ‘official’ HHKB Studio I looked at last year.

As is seemingly common for keyboards with niche layouts, the Q60 Max costs a pretty penny at £202.99/$199.99. This gets you that HHKB layout alongside all the usual benefits of Keychron’s Q-series keyboards with a hefty machined aluminium case, hot-swappable mechanical switches and versatile connectivity. It is slightly cheaper than the Studio, too.

I’ve been using the Q60 Max as my main keyboard for work and play for the last few weeks to see if it can pry me away from my own beloved HHKB, and if it’s one of the best mechanical keyboards we’ve tested.

Design

• Clever, smaller form factor layout
• Fantastic build quality
• Thoughtful interface

The Q60 Max comes in this, at first glance, odd two-tone beige and light blue colourway across its machined aluminium case and PBT keycaps, which is a far cry from their usual black keyboards. It is also the only colour option you have with this ‘board.

Keychron calls it ‘retro’, and with the general beigeness of it, I’m inclined to agree. However, there is a deeper meaning as to why they’ve chosen this option. The actual original HHKB, or Happy Hacking Keyboard, Classic models come in an identical colourway, and it’s an homage to the origins of this style of keyboard. A pleasant and fitting nod.

General build quality is classic Keychron in that it’s simply lovely. As with their Q1 Pro and Q6 Pro models I’ve tested in the past, the Q60 Max is well-appointed with a hefty machined aluminium case that weighs 1.5kg, as well as durable Cherry profile PBT keycaps for an extra dose of quality. It’s thoughtful, too, coming with both Mac and Windows keycaps depending on the OS you’re using.

The most startling difference between the Q60 Max and any other ‘normal’ 60% keyboard is that unique layout.

Wada designed the layout to work with the range of different computers and operating systems he had to deal with during the mid-1990s, and has become a bit of a cult sensation ever since, being lauded by supporters as one of the most comfortable and sensible key layouts available.

A lot of its comfort is down to small but important changes to a typical ANSI US keyboard layout, such as removing the backslash key that usually sits between the Backspace and Return keys, while the Control key has also been moved to where the Caps Lock key should be to make reaching across to it as a modifier for functions such as copy and pasting less work. 

It also moves the Function key to a row above its placement on a traditional keyboard on the right-hand side. This makes it a lot easier to access the keyboard’s function layer.

If you haven’t used the HHKB layout before, it can take some getting used to. As someone who dips in and out of using it as part of my rotation of mechanical keyboards, I find it a breeze with that modified key placement. That especially goes for the movement of the Control key and the Fn key to access the secondary layer where the arrow keys live – that’s on the square bracket, semi-colon, apostrophe and the backslash key, if you were wondering. 

The interface around the back of the Q60 Max is also in keeping with some of Keychron’s other wireless keyboards, with a simple but effective offering. There is a USB-C port for charging or connectivity, as well as toggle switches for means of connectivity and for the operating system you’re using.

Performance

• Smooth, linear switches with a responsive feel
• Versatile wireless connectivity
• Solid battery life

For the inside of the Q60 Max, Keychron hasn’t necessarily sprung any surprises against their other options, sticking with what works. That means a choice of three Gateron Jupiter switches – a linear, light Red, a heavier and soft tactile Brown, and another soft-tactile Banana. If I had the choice out of the box, I’d pick the Banana switches, as they’re a genuinely lovely middleweight tactile switch with a crisp and firm response.

My sample instead came with the light and linear Reds, designed as clones of the Cherry MX Reds, with a 45g actuation force, and standard-issue 4mm travel distance with a 2mm actuation point. They are a smooth and snappy switch with a good consistency across the keyboard, and benefit greatly from being pre-lubed with no noticeable scratchiness under finger.

Being a lightweight switch meant that felt responsive for both typing up thousands of words a day, as my job involves, and for periodic gaming, too. The Q60 Max is also gasket-mounted, so has a bouncier typing feel that can also aid responsiveness and general enjoyment, too.

If, for whatever reason, the switches that the Q60 Max comes with aren’t to your tastes, then this keyboard is also hot-swappable, so you can bung in whichever MX-style 3 or 5-pin switches with ease and change the feel of the keyboard completely. I had some spare Cherry MX Ergo Clear switches knocking around, and putting them in was a doddle with the keycap and switch pullers that Keychron bundles in the box, and it turned the Q60 Max into an even more lovely soft-tactile keyboard, as I traditionally prefer to use.

Having a properly mechanical HHKB layout keyboard is sacrilege for some, given that part of the HHKB’s appeal from then and now is the presence of its electro-capacitive Topre switches. They aren’t necessarily mechanical in the traditional sense of the word, and operate instead via a plunger which pushes down on a rubber dome. The dome pushes down on a conical spring onto a PCB pad. When the resistance decreases between the spring and the PCB pad, it registers an input. It essentially leads to a soft and crisp feeling that is unlike any mechanical switch I’ve used, and while it may not be for some, the Q60 Max at least offers a more ‘standard’ way of trying out the layout without going the whole hog.

Connectivity is either via Bluetooth, the bundled 2.4GHz receiver, or USB-C . I had no issues using the Q60 Max either over Bluetooth with my MacBook Pro or with the receiver and my main Windows PC. Pairing is nice and simple with the dedicated function buttons, and the Q60 Max will technically work on up to four devices at once.

As for battery life, Keychron rates the Q60 Max to last for up to 180 hours if you don’t want its RGB lighting enabled. Turn that lighting on and you’ll see the number drop to 30 hours. 

Software and Lighting

• Bright lighting, although a little muted
• VIA is some seriously powerful software

As for its lighting, the Q60 Max falls foul of the issue that other Keychron keyboards face in that with their solid keycaps turns the RGB lighting more into an underglow, and on lower brightness settings, is barely visible. If you swapped the keycaps out for shine-through options however, then you would be able to see it a lot clearer.

You actually have a couple of options when it comes to software, with this keyboard working either through QMK flashing or the lightweight VIA suite that allows you to program macros, remap and test keys and configure the Q60 Max’s lighting effects.

You can also do away with downloadable software altogether if you connect the keyboard via its 2.4GHz receiver or over a connection with Keychron’s web-based launcher. This is much the same in functionality as VIA, but is based in a web browser for convenience.

Should you buy it?

FAQs