What you need to know
- Keychron's latest mechanical keyboard is a budget offering in the C series, dubbed the C3 Pro.
- The keyboard has a TKL design, double-mounted gasket chassis, and red LED backlighting.
- It is available with Keychron's red or brown mechanical switches.
- Retailing at $35, it is the most affordable keyboard to integrate with the open-source QIA software.
Keychron is doing all the right things in the keyboard segment; the brand's Q series has over a dozen designs with varying layouts, and in recent months, Keychron built out its Pro portfolio, offering gasket-mounted designs and other high-end features for significantly less than its rivals. The result is that the Q1 Pro is the best overall mechanical keyboard available today, and if you're thinking of picking up a high-end board, it is the obvious choice.
But if you don't want to shell out $200, plenty of other options are available, and Keychron's latest offering has an exciting feature set at a bargain price. The C3 Pro is now available on the brand's website and listed on Amazon for just $35. It has the distinction of being the most affordable keyboard with a gasket-mounted design.
As a high-level overview, a gasket mount is basically where the top and bottom halves of the case are isolated from the PCB by gaskets to reduce resonance and add a bit of flex to the board. The C3 Pro uses two layers of foam to absorb sound and increase feedback, and you can configure it with either red linear switches or brown tactile switches.
I used over a dozen gasket-mounted keyboards this year, and the C3 Pro is the most affordable by a sizeable margin — most of the options in this category tend to cost over $100 at the least. What makes the C3 Pro that much more enticing is that it works with QMK/VIA, the industry-standard keyboard software that works in a browser — no need for additional drivers.
Rounding out the features, the C3 Pro has adjustable feet to increase elevation, toggles between macOS and Windows modes, and while you miss out on RGB lighting, there's red LED backlighting with 14 different modes. The keys have shine-through legends — which means they allow light to pass through — and they're made out of double-shot ABS, so they're highly durable.
The only feature lacking here is hot-swappable switches; you can't change the switches on this board to something else. That's not a vast omission considering what the C3 Pro is, and given the rest of the features and the gasket-mounted design, you are getting an unmatched value here.
Heck, I have individual artisan keys that cost more than this entire keyboard.
The gasket-mounted design and integration with QIA make the C3 Pro a fantastic value. Look no further if you're in the market for a new mechanical keyboard and want something on a budget.
