TLDR; If you're used to typing on the MAC keyboard (have high WPM) and want the best Keychron mechanical keyboard that will deliver the same Typing experience (No relearning needed) - Consider only these 3 options - Keychron K3 (Exact same layout as Macbook), k5 (100% keyboard with numpad) or k7 (compact Layout, no fn keys).

Now, if you want to hear the story of how I found the perfect keyboard. for my Desktop setup at home with a MAC mini, continue reading.

Before I started my journey, I'd only used the mechanical Keyboard once, for a couple of days with my iPad when I was staying over at a friend's. I had the following criteria for my perfect keyboard.

i) Mechanical Keyboard with switch options (I love Banana switches, but I have blue now, more on that later)

ii) RGB lighting on Keyboard

ii) No relearning when coming from a MAC keyboard (i.e my WPM should be around 80-90 and can easily switch between Laptop and Desktop).

So, I started my mechanical keyboard search by asking my friend what keyboard was it that I used at his house. He told me that it was Keychron K2, so I went and ordered myself a Keychron K2 with Blue switches as I saw a review on Youtube that Blue switches are the way to go if you want a clicky keyboard.

The keyboard was good, it had that sweet clicky satisfying sound, but my WPM went down and I was mistyping words. I then checked my WPM and it had reduced to 50-54. I was so sad because I really liked this keyboard, the typing feel it gave and how I felt whenever I used this.

I thought the issue was that the keyboard was small and mind you, at this point I had no idea about keyboard sizes. You see the K2 is a 75% keyboard and and the macbook is also 75% keyboard layout but the keys are more spread-out on the MAC.

So, I decided to go all in on Keychron mechanical keyboard and go a size higher as I thought the issue was the 75% layout, I returned the K2 and bought the Keychron Q3 pro SE with banana switches because of the rave reviews banana switches had (This is a 80% keyboard for reference). The design was awesome, I felt like a DJ using it becuase of the knob it had.

The keyboard was awesome, it was everything I wanted and then some. but just when I thought I had found the perfect keyboard, I hadn't. My WPM went down and it was now 32 and I was so frustrated all the time because I was mistyping so much that, I don't think I finished a word without hitting the backspace.

This was really sad because the banana switches felt so good on my fingers and trust me if you're looking for the best switches in the market, in my opinion the banana switches are one of the best. So, I decided to give this keyboard a try and get used to it. However, even after a week, my WPM only went up to 40, and as I still was switching between my MAC and desktop, I started to lose my MAC's typing speed as well. I was frustrated at this point and then I started doing even more research for hours and hours.

Turns out, the key height matters when you're typing, and my Q3 had really really tall keys and they were really close to each other, which was the reason I was mistyping a lot. Based on this information, I set out to find the perfect mechanical keyboard for my MAC again.

During my search, I came across Logitech MX mechanical Mini for MAC. But this laptop pissed me off so much. Because it's a 3rd party laptop from a well-renowned company and they won't let you customize it (JUST LIKE AN APPLE MAGIC KEYBOARD). I mean there's no RGB version, there's no option for choosing switches, I think it comes with brown switches and that's it. (WHY WOULD I BUY THE KEYBOARD FROM YOU AT A SIMILAR PRICE WHEN I CAN JUST GET THE MAGIC KEYBOARD WITH THE TOUCH ID??).

Then it came down to Nuphy Air 75 and the Keychron K3 series. I really wanted to try the Nuphy because people were saying great things about it and they have 3 unique switches they created in partnership with Gateron, but they didn't have any in stock on Amazon and the ones from Nuphy's website said 3 weeks for delivery.

So, I decided to go for the K3 instead. Sadly, there's no banana switch option for this variant, just the standard blue,brown or red. Just before I was about to order, I also saw the k5 and it sounded similar to the k3 except that it was 100% keyboard layout. I got both k3 and k5, hoping I would keep the one I liked. I got k5 with brown and K3 with blue switch.

Both are the exact same in terms of typing experience and my WPM went back to 80 (wooooohoooo). I felt that the k3 was more suited to me than the k5. So, I returned the k5 and now, I'm typing this on my brand new almost perfect k3 keyboard.

I say almost perfect, because I couldn't get this keyboard with Banana switches. I know you can individually replace all the switches but I don't have the time or the patience for it. If anyone knows about how to get the banana switches on the k3 keyboard without much fiddling around, please, please let me know, I miss my banana switches and I'm willing to pay the price of a new keyboard to get them on this thing.

Last note: My search was really difficult as I was not able to find any reddit posts or any post really related to Keychron and the mac keyboard. So, trying upvoting or whatever (I'm relatively new to reddit), to spread the word.

I find that the longer I type on a mechanical, the harder it becomes to type on a MacBook keyboard.

I would love a mechanical that has the exact same layout as the MacBook keyboard.

This means a full-size right shift key. Small inverted T arrow keys below the right shift. And a `fn` key on the left. Also the alignment of the function keys is important.

The NuType F1 had a Mac function key at least - but not the rest of it. It's now discontinued. https://nuphy.com/collections/keyboards/products/nutype-f1

Is there anything else?

Would it be hard to DIY?

Before I buy, I just want to know one key thing that is stopping me from buying any Keychron keyboard.

I frequently switch between my work laptop (Windows) and my personal (Mac). I see that there is a switch on the side to switch between Mac and Windows mode. But since I'm switching too often, I don't want to toggle the Mac/Windows switch everytime.

What would happen if I leave it in one setting? For example, leaving it on Mac configuration while connected to Windows (and vice versa).