(Originally posted in r/keyboards, tried to cross-post by apparently it's disabled in this sub. Remove if it breaks any rules.)

My Keychron C1 has finally arrived. It's my first mechanical keyboard, so I'm posting it to help anyone find answer to the question whether it's a good model to start with.

TL;DR

Yes, it is a good start.

Background and choice

My main use cases are gaming, typing and coding. I had used a membrane keyboard from 1995 for full 25 years, and even though it was working perfectly, I decided that I want the Win and Menu keys, the media keys and USB (that one was DIN, using a DIN-to-PS/2 adapter). After that I tried a couple of cheap membrane keyboards, but wasn't happy with their quality, so in the end I got this beauty.

The choice was simple: I wanted TKL because I rarely use numpad and my desk space is limited, and I didn't want to buy overpriced poor quality shit like the G915 and Blackwidow V3. In Russia there aren't many other options, so Keychron C1 was simply one of the few remaining choices.

I chose the hot-swappable option with Gateron Reds, white backlight (not that I'm going to use it). I also ordered engraving Cyrillic layout characters, lubing and something called StP-sandwitch noise suppression.

In the box

The keyboard itself, a USB-C/USB-C cable with a USB-C-to-A adapter, a keycap puller, a switch puller, some keycaps (Win/Mac stuff, a black Esc...). I don't know a thing about keycaps, so I'll refrain from commenting on these. They look and feel nice enough for what I care.

The switches

Gateron Reds are quite awesome for a light-handed person like me who does a lot of both gaming and typing. They are extremely easy to press and much more quiet than my previous K270 that had a sound as if it was about to fall apart. These switches are virtually silent (thanks to the lubing I ordered?), the only sound is that of keys bottoming out and it's sounds quite thock to me (thanks to that StP-sandwitch?). It's possible to completely eliminate the sound by not pressing the key to the very end, which I can do easily if I just press one key over and over again (when gaming), and is virtually impossible when typing fast.

Haven't tried pulling out the switches yet (and don't intend to for a while), pulling keycaps with the provided puller is a no-brainer. I was easily able to replace the Mac keys to the Win ones and that stupid orange Esc with a black one.

The main body (or whatever it's called)

Well, this one I'm not really happy with. Despite the 9° incline (which is 1° more than the K270), it isn't very high above the desk, probably because some of the incline comes from the keyboard itself which isn't flat, but has a raising, inclined profile. That's why legs are pretty short, which makes it conflict a bit with my monitor stand, even though it isn't very thick. I managed to squeeze it in the sweet spot between the mouse and the monitor stand, but more thanks to luck than to the keyboard. At least it's better than with a full layout when I had keyboard so far to the left my shoulders began to hurt after prolonged typing sessions.

The layout

It's very good, but could be better. A few complaints here. Two Win keys, but no Menu? I fixed that by putting RWin::AppsKey in my AutoHotKey script, but why?! No Pause/Break and Scroll Lock keys (the stupid Cortana and Lighting Control keys instead). There is the Print Screen key, though. Media keys are on the Fn layer of the F-keys, I'm OK with that (holding Fn+X+L switches between F-keys functioning as F-keys with the Fn key being held or without it). The F-keys are: monitor brightness control, Windows Task View, Windows Explorer, keyboard brightness control, rewind, play/pause, fast-forward and the three standard volume controls.

My biggest complaint is the lack of many Fn combos. There are more than 80 keys! They could have easily emulate the full numpad somewhere in the alphabetic part, they could have added a Menu key combo or even keys for firing up a Calculator or something. For those feeling geeky, there's apparently custom firmware supporting QMK/VIA:

https://github.com/SonixQMK/qmk_firmware/tree/sn32_master/keyboards/keychron/c1

I'm fine with AutoHotkey bindings for now, so I don't plan to try it out just yet.

The lighting

Not that I intend to use it, but for those who care: I counted about 17 (seven-smegging-teen!) different lighting modes most of which look like white Christmas lighting. The most useful are the default one when keys are highlighted for a short while after being pressed, and of course the constant lighting mode. I counted five different brightness levels, including the OFF level (adjusted with Fn+F5/F6).

Conclusion

The keyboard feels very solid, very unlike the cheap crap I had before. It's quiet enough, the sound is pleasing and it's very comfortable for both gaming and typing. No immediate regrets, no plans to mod or change to another one yet.

Edit: sound and lighting test

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvOEqdWAaqA