Verdict
The Lemokey P1 Pro is a fantastic wireless mechanical keyboard. It’s especially well-built and customisable while offering supremely tactile switches and brilliant acoustics. It also has vivid underglow lighting and excellent software, while retaining a more affordable price point. If you’re in the market for a brilliant all-round enthusiast-grade keyboard, this is the one to go for.
Pros
- Incredibly sturdy construction
- Sublime typing feel and acoustics
- Versatile software
Cons
- Web-based software requires a wired connection
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Super Banana switches:The P1 Pro comes with soft-tactile Super Banana switches to offer a creamy, soft-tactile typing feel. -
Bluetooth & 2.4GHz wireless connectivity:It can also connect via either Bluetooth or 2.4GHz wireless, as well as offering a USB-C wired connection. -
VIA/configurator support:The P1 Pro also has versatile support for VIA and Lemokey’s own configurator available to allow for customising functionality and lighting.
Introduction
The Lemokey P1 Pro represents Keychron’s slightly more affordable entry into the wireless mechanical keyboard market with enthusiast trimmings and an aluminium case.
This a path that the brand has trodden previously with one of my favourite mechanical options in recent years, the Keychron Q1 Pro, and this Lemokey-branded variant takes the innards of the Q1 Pro, makes some small changes, and brings the price down to £127/$129 – a bargain for what it is.
That price tag means it competes virtually against itself with the Q1 Pro, as well as the Epomaker TH80 Pro V2 and wired choices such as the Drop Alt. Competition is therefore quite fierce – I’ve been testing the P1 Pro for the last few weeks to see how well it stacks up.
Design
- Eerily similar to the Keychron Q1 Pro
- Incredibly sturdy aluminium case
- Simple, but effective interface
The P1 Pro borrows a lot of its design tropes from its more expensive brother from Keychron with a similar two-tone black and grey colour scheme on the keycaps, which looks excellent, as well as a 6063 aluminium case that’s ridiculously sturdy.
The Lemokey iteration also features lots of heft with a total weight of 1.65kg, which helps it to feel especially well made.
As with the Q1 Pro also, the P1 Pro features a functional 75 percent layout, with useful additional keys such as arrow keys and a function row, as well as a single-column nav cluster. It’s become an especially popular layout for enthusiasts, offering a lot of the functionality of a larger TKL keyboard in a form factor that’s not much larger than a smaller 65 percent option.
For this reason, it’s my preferred keyboard layout for day-to-day working, alongside the HHKB layout. The P1 Pro also comes with a knob in the top right corner for volume control , and while it isn’t textured like the one on the Q1 Pro, it’s still made of aluminium and feels excellent.
Aesthetically, the first major difference lies in the keycaps. The Q1 Pro, in its stock pre-built form, came with OSA-profile keycaps, which are taller with a spherical top. In comparison, this Lemokey variant goes with Cherry profile keycaps, which are flatter, and arguably easier to type on. They also offer a more rounded typeface, which is legible, while they are also doubleshot moulded and made of PBT plastic, offering a durable finish with legends that will never fade.
You can also change the keycaps out, if you so choose, given Lemokey offer a wide variety of different colours and profiles to pick from. As well as this, the P1 Pro features switches with MX stems, offering an even wider variety of third-party keycaps in varying colours and styles.
The interface around the back is nice and easy, with a USB-C port for wired use and charging, as well as a selector switch between using the P1 Pro on a Bluetooth connection, a cable, or the included 2.4GHz receiver. For ease of use for pairing, the 1,2,3 and 4 keys are labelled with Bluetooth and wireless symbols respectively.
The P1 Pro’s packaging isn’t the best with the keyboard coming wrapped in a plastic bag, alongside the keyboard’s accessories including its wireless receiver and a screwdriver, which also come in individual plastic bags.
Performance
- Exceptional typing feel and acoustics
- Vast scope of wireless connectivity
- Fantastic battery life
Inside, my sample of the P1 Pro features Keychron’s own Super Banana switches, which are a similar switch to those found in the Keychron Q6 Pro, although they are a fair amount lighter with a force of 47g needed for actuation. They also come with a shorter 3.6mm total travel distance, helping them to feel a little snappier overall, and are smooth with factory lubrication.
For day-to-day usage, the Super Banana switches felt responsive and wonderfully tactile with a similar actuation to Drop’s Holy Pandas, which Keychron themselves claim.
The tactile bump here is stronger than some other soft-tactile switches I’ve used in Keychron keyboards such as the K Pro Browns fitted by default in the Q1 Pro, as well as other Cherry MX Brown clones. The Super Banana switches are fantastic for productivity workloads, and worked a treat for when I was writing a range of articles, reviews included for a week.
These switches, with their lighter force, are also more suitable for gaming than the heavier Banana switches found in the Q6 Pro, and while linear switches will arguably provide a more responsive keypress for gaming, the Super Banana switches felt solid in runs of CS:2 and COD Warzone. It’s handy to know that Lemokey also sells the P1 Pro with either Red or Brown switches, giving you plenty of choice.
The P1 Pro is also gasket mounted, and offers a softer, slightly bouncy typing feel by design. Combined with the tactility of the Super Banana switches inside, it meant the P1 Pro was excellent for both typing and gaming workloads.
However, it isn’t as bouncy as the Q1 Pro, given the Keychron-branded keyboard features what the brand calls a ‘double gasket’ design. In reality, this means a much more bouncy feel under finger. While the P1 Pro sacrifices this slightly, it still helps it to feel responsive.
If the P1 Pro’s switches aren’t to your tastes then you’ll be pleased to know this is a hot-swappable keyboard, meaning switches can be swapped out with no need for soldering or desoldering.
As long as you’ve got a keycap and switch puller to hand, the process is simple, as the P1 Pro supports both 3-pin and 5-pin switches, and swapping the switches out is as easy as taking the keycap off, pulling the switch out, getting a new switch and lining the pins up with the respective holes and pushing the switch down into place until it clicks.
Acoustically, the P1 Pro impresses too, with a distinctive creamy sound afforded by its lubricated switches, as well as with the layers of foam and dampening inside to keep rattle and ping to a minimum.
Compared to its more expensive sibling, the P1 Pro actually wins out on the point of connectivity. It supports both Bluetooth and a 2.4GHz wireless connection, as well as working over a USB-C wired connection. Bluetooth pairing works on up to 3 devices, with the receiver adding another channel. Switching between them is as easy as picking the relevant channel using the Fn key and the relevant number. The P1 Pro also works happily on Windows or Mac, despite the lack of a toggle switch between operating systems.
On the front of battery life, Lemokey rates the P1 Pro to last for up to 200 hours with the backlighting off, and up to 100 hours with it on, albeit at its lowest setting. This falls short by comparison to both the Q1 Pro with its 300 hours of runtime with no RGB, and also the Asus ROG Azoth, but still offers you the chance to use the P1 Pro for a few weeks between charges. It’s also a lot longer than the similarly-priced Epomaker TH80 Pro V2, which only lasts for up to eight hours between charges.
Software and Lighting
- Bright, underglow-style lighting
- Powerful software with both VIA and web-based configurator
The P1 Pro offers a vibrant RGB underglow of lighting by default, offering a vivid display of colour underneath the keycaps.
This is largely thanks to the Super Banana switches’ clear housings, allowing the RGB lighting to shine through, even if they are muted somewhat by the solid keycaps. Add in switches with black houses, however, and the lighting won’t diffuse anywhere near as much, and it will mute the lighting to the point where it becomes especially hard to notice.
As for software, the P1 Pro offers two different suites, working with both VIA and Lemokey’s online configurator. VIA offers means for programming four separate function layers, as well as remapping functions onto keys and programming macros.
By comparison, Lemokey’s online launcher offers much of the same functionality in a web browser, which is seriously clever – you do have to have the keyboard plugged in for it to be recognised by the software though, which is a bit of a shame for wireless-based customisation fans
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Should you buy it?
You want a brilliant typing experience:
The tactile Super Banana switches, combined with the creamy acoustics, make the P1 Pro a joy to type on. For the price, you won’t find many better keyboards.
You want a full-size layout:
As much as the P1 Pro is an excellent keyboard overall, the 75 percent layout may not be for everyone. If you’re after either a more conventional or fuller layout, then you may want to look elsewhere.
Final Thoughts
Admittedly, I was sceptical when the Lemokey P1 Pro was first announced, given that Keychron is essentially competing with themselves. However, the P1 Pro is a fantastic keyboard that acts as a slightly more affordable alternative to Keychron’s other options and doesn’t sacrifice much in the way of features with a useful price cut.
It’s remarkably sturdy with a similarly machined aluminium case, while offering durable PBT keycaps and a lot of convenient features for an excellent stock experience, including lots of case foam and dampening for great acoustics.
The Super Banana switches inside are also marvellous soft tactile switches, although if you don’t like them, the P1 Pro also has the flexibility for them to be swapped out.
This is a much more complete product for not much more in the way of outlay compared to the Epomaker TH80 Pro V2, while remaining cheaper than the Keychron Q1 Pro and offering most of its feature set. If you want to grab a fantastic mechanical keyboard that outshines the competition at its price point, the P1 Pro is a marvellous choice. For more options, check out our list of the best mechanical keyboards we’ve tested.
How we test
We use every keyboard we test for at least a week. During that time, we’ll check it for ease of use and put it through its paces by playing a variety of different genres, including FPS, strategy and MOBAs.
We also check each keyboard’s software to see how easy it is to customise and set up.
Spent at least a week testing
Tested the performance on a variety of games
Compared the build quality with similar priced keyboards.
FAQs
The Lemokey P1 Pro uses a 75 percent layout, offering arrow keys, a function row and a single column of navigation keys alongside the usual alphanumeric keys.
The Lemokey P1 Pro connects either via Bluetooth on up to 3 devices, as well as via a 2.4GHz wireless receiver and a USB-C wired connection.
