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Marathon battery life makes Keychron’s Ultra 8K keyboards its best yet
Tech Close Tech Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Tech Keyboards Close Keyboards Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Keyboards Reviews Close Reviews Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Reviews Marathon battery life makes Keychron’s Ultra 8K keyboards its best yet The V5 Ultra 8K and Q1 Ultra 8K are faster, sound better, and last longer. If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. by Antonio G. Di Benedetto Close Antonio G. Di Benedetto Reviewer, Laptops Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All by Antonio G. Di Benedetto Apr 19, 2026, 12:00 PM UTC Link Share Gift If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge Part Of Look at this keyboard see all updates Antonio G. Di Benedetto Close Antonio G. Di Benedetto Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All by Antonio G. Di Benedetto is a reviewer covering laptops and the occasional gadget. He spent over 15 years in the photography industry before joining The Verge as a deals writer in 2021. Keychron’s expansive keyboard catalog covers everything from basic full-size mechanical boards to niche layouts like southpaw Alice or a one-handed half-keyboard for gaming . Its Q and V series are among our go-to recommendations for off-the-shelf keyboards, and the latest iterations — the Q and V Ultra models — are a straightforward upgrade to the lineup, with benefits for regular users and deep-in-the-weeds keyboard nerds alike. I’ve been testing two Ultra keyboards: the Keychron V5 Ultra 8K and Keychron Q1 Ultra 8K . The $119.99 V5 Ultra is a near-full-size 1800-layout board with a number pad in a plastic case, while the $229.99 Q1 Ultra is a 75-percent layout (my preferred size) with a much heavier milled-aluminum chassis and much more robust build and typing feel. Aside from case material and layout, they’re very similar keyboards that are both excellent. 9 Verge Score Keychron V5 Ultra 8K $ 120 $ 120 The Good Good typing feel Amazing battery life, even with 8K wireless polling and RGB lights turned up Flip-out feet for adjustable height The Bad Plastic case feels and sounds cheaper than metal keyboards $120 at Amazon $120 at Keychron $120 at Mechanical Keyboards How we rate and review products 9 Verge Score Keychron Q1 Ultra 8K $ 230 $ 230 The Good Very nice typing feel, build, and sound Amazing battery life, even with 8K wireless polling and RGB lights turned up The Bad No built-in storage for USB dongle $230 at Amazon $230 at Keychron $230 at Mechanical Keyboards How we rate and review products The Ultra 8K lines are the highest-end versions of the V5 and Q1 keyboards to date, preceded by the Max versions (which added 1,000Hz 2.4GHz wireless) and Pro models (which first went wireless with just Bluetooth ). The 2.4GHz wireless connections have been upgraded from 1,000Hz polling to 8,000Hz (hence the 8K suffix) for maintaining fast response times — especially when gaming. Most people won’t notice the difference, but that’s not the reason to get the Ultra anyway. Unlike the older Q and V series boards, the Ultras run on ZMK, an open-source firmware often used by advanced keyboard enthusiasts ( absolute sickos ) for building their own custom boards. ZMK is powerful, but updating keymaps can be a pain, and ZMK’s remapping software is less polished than the options like Via or Vial that are available for QMK-based boards. (Keychron’s older keyboards run on QMK.) Fortunately, the Ultra boards use Keychron’s browser-based Launcher software to remap keys, dial in customized lighting patterns, or set macros, just like other Keychron models. The V5 only adds about 2.5 inches of length over a 75 percent board like the Q1. I still prefer the smaller layout, but 1800 format is a nice alternative to full-size. ZMK’s most obvious benefit for most people is its battery efficiency. It’s the reason Keychron claims you can get up to 660 hours of use on an Ultra 8K board — about four times longer than its claims for the Max models. If you use your keyboard for about eight hours a day with the backlight off, that’s 83 days before you’re bothered to plug in — or longer, if you’re using Bluetooth. It’s not the one to two years of battery some membrane keyboards offer, but this kind of battery life in a mechanical keyboard was unheard of not long ago. Even some of the best wireless mechanical keyboards from recent years usually require charging every other week or so (depending on your usage). This marathon-level battery life goes a long way to making the V5 Ultra and Q1 Ultra my favorite Keychrons
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- Follow Follow See All Reviews Marathon battery life makes Keychron’s Ultra 8K keyboards its best yet The V5 Ultra 8K and Q1 Ultra 8K are faster, sound better, and last longer.
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