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Jan 21, 2024

Keychron’s Lemokey L3 is a premium keyboard aimed squarely at gamers

By Jon Porter, a reporter with five years of experience covering consumer tech releases, EU tech policy, online platforms, and mechanical keyboards. If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media

By Jon Porter, a reporter with five years of experience covering consumer tech releases, EU tech policy, online platforms, and mechanical keyboards.

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Keychron is launching a new keyboard on Kickstarter today that’s notable for being the first under its new gaming-focused Lemokey subbrand. The Lemokey L3 will be available via the Kickstarter running this month, and Keychron expects it to ship later this year. Prices start at $209 for a fully assembled model, or $189 for a barebones model without switches or keycaps.

Fundamentally, the Lemokey L3 is a modified version of Keychron’s existing Q3 Pro, a tenkeyless wireless keyboard equipped with a volume dial and four programmable macro buttons. What distinguishes the Lemokey L3, aside from its slightly different look, is the inclusion of a 2.4GHz USB dongle, which allows the keyboard to be used wirelessly with a 1,000Hz polling rate. In comparison, the Q3 Pro only supports Bluetooth for wireless connections, which maxes out at a much less responsive 90Hz.

In practice, that should mean the Lemokey L3 will feel almost as responsive to use wirelessly as it does wired so long as you’re connected via its 2.4GHz dongle. Otherwise, it still supports Bluetooth (it can remember connections to up to three different devices) as well as good old-fashioned USB.

At this point, it’s worth pointing out that while this is the first time Keychron is offering a 1,000Hz polling rate wirelessly, the feature has previously been available on keyboards from more gaming-focused brands like Razer. Corsair even offers a 2,000Hz wireless polling rate on its K100 Air.

Like the Q3 Pro, Keychron’s Lemokey L3 comes with durable double-shot PBT keycaps, though in the L3’s case, they use a more traditional (in the world of keyboards at least) Cherry profile rather than Keychron’s retro-style KSA. The four macro keys to the left of the L3’s keyboard are also square rather than rectangular like on the Q3 Pro.

Otherwise, the Lemokey L3’s specs are largely in line with Keychron’s existing wireless Q Pro keyboards. It uses a gasket-mount design that should offer a premium typing feel, has a solid aluminum case and RGB lighting, and is customizable thanks to its hot-swappable switches. There’s also support for remapping using QMK / VIA, which is how you control what those macro buttons and dial on the left side of the board do. The Lemokey L3 has a 4,000mAh battery just like the Q3 Pro which is rated for 200 hours of use over 2.4GHz if you leave its RGB off. That’s slightly less than the 300 hours the Q3 Pro offers via Bluetooth with its backlighting off. Finally, the keyboard is available with both US (ANSI) and EU (ISO) layouts, but the Kickstarter only has the ISO layout available in a barebones configuration without switches or keycaps.

A note on crowdfunding:

Crowdfunding is a chaotic field by nature: companies looking for funding tend to make big promises. According to a study run by Kickstarter in 2015, roughly 1 in 10 “successful” products that reach their funding goals fail to actually deliver rewards. Of the ones that do deliver, delays, missed deadlines, or overpromised ideas mean that there’s often disappointment in store for those products that do get done.

The best defense is to use your best judgment. Ask yourself: does the product look legitimate? Is the company making outlandish claims? Is there a working prototype? Does the company mention existing plans to manufacture and ship finished products? Has it completed a Kickstarter before? And remember: you’re not necessarily buying a product when you back it on a crowdfunding site.

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