One of my favorite products of 2025 almost flew under my radar. The Keychron K4 HE is an impressively affordable and fully featured Hall effect keyboard, with a distinctive soft feel and mature design.
I jumped at the chance review Keychron K4 HE. Not because of the whole Hall effect thing, but because I thought it looked really cool. Wood side panels give a retro feel and go well with the wood window frames, doors, flooring, baseboards and furniture in my office. In any case, I was right to judge a book by its cover – it has a great keyboard. It offers all the benefits of a typical Hall effect keyboard, such as customizable actuation for each key, but feels much smoother and less bouncy than other HE keyboards I've tested. I'm not sure if it's the Gateron Magnetic Nebula dual-rail switches, the tray-mount design, or a combination of various factors, but the K4 HE is fantastic for the price.
For those unfamiliar, Hall effect switches are magnetic in design and do not have a stable actuation point. The K4 HE offers adjustable actuation ranging from 0.2mm to 3.8mm, meaning you can trigger your keystroke at whatever travel distance you prefer. If you want the keys to fire when pressed fully, set the actuation point deep. The finer setting allows you to type or play games with light pressure on each key, which can make it feel quite snappy if you take the time to get used to it.
Of course, you can also set per-key trigger settings in the Keychron Launcher web app. This is where things get really interesting: gamers can, for example, set their WASD keys to an ultra-fine actuation point, while leaving other keys with less sensitive settings, for example. This setup allows for fast, smooth in-game movement while reducing the likelihood of accidentally hitting the space bar, E and Q keys, number row, etc.
You can save three user profiles in the K4 HE, and it has some extra features for those who want to take full advantage of the Hall effect's capabilities. The dynamic keystrokes feature allows you to customize secondary actuation points for individual keys, so you can trigger a “run” action in a game when you press the “W” key after a certain point and the like. There's also Rapid Trigger, which improves strafeing in some shooters by resetting keystrokes immediately after lifting your fingers, and Snap Tap, which uses last key priority to instantly change direction in some games. (Snap Tap prohibited in some competitive gameshowever.)
Now, I should take the opportunity to point out that magnetic switches are generally not ideal for typing. I immediately fell in love with the K4 HE as a gaming keyboard, but it took me about a month to get comfortable with it as a typing surface. The trick is to be careful: glide across the keys, don't put too much pressure on your fingers, and become familiar with the actuation distance you've set in Keychron Launcher.
But despite all the good things about this keyboard, it does have one or two drawbacks that really disappoint me. The keys are a little cramped, which is a shame, although you could probably solve the problem with a set of wider, flatter keycaps. In my opinion, the RGB lighting is irredeemably ugly, and the color temperature skews towards blue or orange, even when white is selected. The 1000Hz polling rate in wired mode also looks weird, although I don't think the average person would needs The polling rate is 8000Hz, so it's probably not a big deal.
You can buy the Keychron K4 HE for a suggested retail price of $145 at Amazon, Keychron online store and in other retail stores. There are white and black options, although I prefer the white. There are also several variations of this design, such as full size K10 HE keyboard and compact, keyless K2 HE. By the way, all of these models come with keycaps for Windows and macOS.
8/10
- Brand
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Keychron
- Wireless communication
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Yes (Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz)
- Backlight
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Yes (RGB)
- Media Controls
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Yes
The Keychron K4 HE is one of the most affordable Hall effect keyboards available today, yet it delivers an ultra-smooth, smooth experience with advanced software customization options. This is a great option for gamers who want a competitive edge and a truly fun typing surface.
