First Impressions - Keychron K5 Max

I’ve been using two keyboards regularly for the last year; for work, and for times when I want a quiet keyboard, I use a Logitech MX S which is nicely built and feels good. However, about a year ago, I purchased a Keychron K10 v2 because I wanted to try and feel what a mechanical keyboard was like for the first time in a long time. Now, I’d been giving that keyboard some serious side-eye for a while and the price drop as part of a summer offer was enough to tempt me. 

I wrote about my first impressions of that keyboard here, and it has been used regularly at weekends and less regularly through the week. The only challenge I had was that prolonged use could make my right hand tendon hurt, reminding me of damage I did years ago when I was going through an intensive period of writing huge numbers of specifications and dealing with the fallout of a Microsoft Ergonomic Mouse (the kind that had lump on the side and caused me permanent tendon damage as it messed up my posture). It sounds lovely and is delightful to use, but over an extended period I find it quite tiring. 

I started to wonder if the issue was that the keyboard was too upright, so I idly started browsing for alternatives. I eventually found a slimline 100% keyboard that Keychron make, the K5 Max. This is full size with a keypad, but the keys are much slimmer as they are on low profile switches. Once again, I found myself regularly eyeing up a keyboard, and when the Black Friday promotion had it included, I ordered one. 

I went for the brown switches again, as I quite liked how they felt. The keyboard itself has an RGB backlight rather than a white one, and once again can be used with a 2.4 GHz dongle, a USB-C cable or Bluetooth. I was a bit surprised at the delivery time for the keyboard; I ordered it on Friday and it arrived on Tuesday, so obviously it was in stock in the UK. My previous order had taken about a week to ship from China to the UK. I’ve been away with work for three days, so had some nice anticipation about using it when I returned. 

Getting it out of the box, it looked great. It comes configured for a Mac, but with replacement keys for a Windows machine along with the tool and instructions on how to change them. The keyboard is very modular and interchangeable. 

Overall the initial feel is very nice and I am liking the slightly shorter travel for the keys than the K10, which felt more like a classic old-school keyboard. This feels lighter and more modern, and I can immediately feel that my hands are not quite as raised as they were previously. Now I just need to really put it to the test by banging out some words. 

So am I satisfied with what I have purchased? At the moment, I think so, but I guess that only time will really tell. It will be interesting to see just how long the battery actually lasts. In truth, I’m chasing a memory, which was the responsiveness of my first PowerBook keyboard. I suspect that I will never actually find that again but this feels very light and responsive.

5 November 2026