Keychron has released the C100 8K, a macro pad-style keyboard featuring 100 keys and per-key RGB lighting. It looked a bit like an April Fool’s joke to us at first, but it may end up being a dream come true for macro enthusiasts and video editors.
Unlike traditional keyboards and Stream Deck-like add-ons, this ridiculously sized pad takes a massive square shape with 10 rows and 10 columns, requiring more depth space than any standard-layout keyboard. Aside from the four corner keys, which are dedicated to controlling the macro pad lighting effects and thus cannot be customised, all the remaining 96 keys can be reprogrammed to your heart’s content. Considering the nature and target audience of this pad, I would have preferred control over said corner keys too, but hey, 96 programmable keys are more than enough.
Each of these keycaps hides Keychron Apex Red switches, which the company says deliver smooth keystrokes and precise feedback, thanks to their POM stems and nylon bases. These come topped with transparent ASA keycaps that let per-key RGB lighting shine through the tops. As standard, all the keycaps come blank without any fonts. Likewise, all the keys on the C100 8K come unbound by default, meaning you’ll need to program at least some of them before use.
You can individually customise the colour of each key, and reprogram them using Keychron’s QMK launcher, which the company says makes it easy to customise the keyboard through a web browser, without any software installation. Whether you want to assign shortcuts for everyday apps, program macros for games, or automisations to simplify workflows, the Keychron C100 8K should have you covered. Plus, with its 8KHz polling rate, you won’t notice any lag while using it.
If for some reason you don’t like the feel of the bundled switches, you can even replace them with any hot-swappable 5-pin or 3-pin switches. Note that the RGB LEDs are north-facing.
Having so many keys in one location might also be appreciated by flight simulator players, and image/video editors, who sometimes use a secondary keyboard dedicated to software shortcuts.
The Keychron C100 macro pad is available directly from the brand’s website and Amazon for $64.99. This is a surprisingly good price for a product targeted at a niche user base.
