Cherry MX LP 2.1

Verdict

Smooth, stable, and absolutely tiny, the Cherry MX LP 2.1 mechanical keyboard is one of the firm’s best yet. It isn’t priced entirely out of its depth, and it excels in both style and substance, bit it’s not built for speed.

Introduction

Ultra-compact keyboards are starting to show up all over the place now. With Cherry, the makers of the mechanical switches that kicked off the keyboard craze, continuing to put out its own boards, it’s the Cherry MX LP 2.1 that feels like one of their best.

This board is about as small as they come, with plenty of core commands mapped to pre-existing keys: the Print Screen lot to the YUI cluster, media keys beneath, and Home and more just below that. 

Featuring triple profile Bluetooth pairing, snappy 2.4Ghz wireless, and USB-C, it’s ready to jump between devices and tasks. It’s also whisper quiet, following a recent trend of sweet but silent clackers that still manage to welcome sublime keystrokes.

Design

• Bright and soft or blocky and professional colour options
• Uniform RGB lighting
• A frameless design with a metal backplate and patterned plastic chassis

Typically available in three different colourways (black, red, and white) it’s the playful pastels of the white model we’ve fallen in love with.

The primary keys are all white, leaving secondary keys around everything but the top edge coated either a soft blue or soothing red. Bright and powerful RGB lighting illuminates the whole board.

The keys initially appear uniform in size, shape, and status, but there’s a very slight slope, best viewed from the far ends, that guides you toward the centre. When you consider its size, feature set, and 427g weight, it practically begs to be slid into a bag and taken for a ride.

Though slimline chiclet caps, the switches themselves still protrude from the deck. This isn’t an entirely flat board, but it still manages to have the air of one. At 27mm tall, 308mm long, and 99mm wide, it doesn’t eat up much desk space.

Despite typically folding flat, you won’t find any pop-out legs on the underside of the Cherry MX LP 2.1. Each corner features some small flexible rubber feet for grip and noise isolation. The back pair can be pulled out and reversed to bulge out, offering a slight bit of lift at the rear.

Neither is there a bezel, edge, or frame to the chassis. If you prefer a little ledge when typing, a wrist rest might be something you want to add to your basket at checkout.

The basic cardboard packaging has everything you need: a 1.63m USB-C/A cable, a tiny 2.4Ghz dongle with an instantly recognizable red tip, and the board wrapped in a clear plastic sheet.

Performance

• Smooth, silent typing when required
• Low actuation with long travel
• Great wireless performance with no noticeable latency

Typing with the Cherry MX LP 2.1 can take some getting used to. Then again, my experience could be wholly linked to immediately coming from a board that couldn’t be further from this: a scissor switch beast.

The slim ABS keycaps feel fantastic. The legend font won’t be for everyone, but it’s not going anywhere: it’s laser-etched and UV-coated. The switches are built to last as well.

Using lubricated, Cherry MX Low Profile RGB Speed switches, which are best compared to traditional Linear Red switches, it’s a sublimely smooth typing experience. There’s minimal gap between the keys, making touch-typing nice and easy.

The lubricated nature and solid stability efforts make the Cherry MX LP 2.1 wonderfully quiet, too – which will alienate fans of loud and clicky keyboards, but immediately entice those who want the feel of a mechanical switch without the noise.

Red switches don’t click, but traditionally would still make noise as they hit the deck beneath. That’s still partially true here if you’re typing with force and speed, but it’s a considerably softer sound. Slow down, and near-silent use is a breeze. They actuate long before hitting their maximum travel distance: which isn’t even documented on the Cherry site.

The battery life, which is also undocumented, lasted throughout our week-long review period. It’s confirmed to support fast charging, though, so juicing up won’t take long.

2.4Ghz is always the preferred wireless protocol here, but hook up a wire when gaming. It isn’t immune to interference from everyday objects placed a little too close to the back, or too many wireless dongles hooked up to your machine.

Software and Lighting

• Simple software
• Vibrant RGB
• Little control over lighting patterns

Click around the Cherry website enough and you’ll come across two different software suites. Cherry Keys is the one you want for the Cherry MX-LP 2.1, but you don’t need it at all: it’s a driverless device.

The software is very clean and simple. Almost too simple. Device names are non-existent when connected over Bluetooth: you’ll need to rely on the icon to figure out which you’re working with.

Similarly, over Bluetooth, you can only use the software to record and set macros to the top row of keys, or assign pre-made instructions and shortcuts (like opening your preferred web browser) instead.

Hooking up a USB-C cable or running over 2.4Ghz wireless unlocks the full UI. Here, you can customize lighting and assign macros to more than just the Function keys.

The reference image won’t match your particular model nor will it animate to show configuration changes. You also can’t adjust anything like polling rate or auto standby time.

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