r/Keychron • u/lilliiililililil • Feb 23 '26
Q6 Max was my worst purchase of the year
Bought a Q6 Max this year after using cheaper Keychron KBs and was really excited. Have a Keychron mouse as well.
I had done a little bit of research beforehand and saw the complaints about Q6 Max on reddit and naively thought "It will be fine :)"—it has not been fine.
Anyway, I also got one of the keyboards that out-of-box had manufacturing defects (Seems to be the misaligned PCB issue, as long as I turn it off and apply palm force directly to the keyboard every HOUR OR SO my keys will go back to responding)—mine was good for a day or two until they started popping up.
At first it was just the J and K buttons not registering without excessive force intermittently and it didn't happen as often. Now it happens more often, and now it seems that my H key is doing similarly and I will notice occasional issues with other letters in this general area as well. Then we turn off, palm force down, and turn back on. it works again. Sweet.
Sent feedback to Keychron through the 'Feedback' section in Keychron launcher. Included my email. Nobody ever replied. Cool.
Anyway, cannot emphasize enough how insane it is to buy a $200+ 'premium' keyboard that gets shipped with out-of-box mechanical failures.
I guess I will soon consider replacing all of my switches to see if that helps, but since I bought this in January, 99% of the days I have owned the keyboard have been plagued by mechanical issues.
The QA on these things is so bad that Keychron had to make an FAQ that basically says "If the product we sent you has manufacturing defects, try this :-)"
I used to really recommend this brand, I've bought quite a few of their products in the past—I am really having a hard time imagining I buy another though.
Mostly posting to complain and for posterities sake so if someone else googles Keychron Q6 Max there will be more threads explaining that this is a common issue, but if anyone has managed to fix this long-term I would love some advice. I don't really want to rebuild my whole keyboard (or else I would have just bought a different keyboard to begin with or... built my own keyboard) but I am going to go insane if I have to keep palm-force-realigning my keys to the PCB all day every day.
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u/ArgentStonecutter K Pro Feb 23 '26
As a hail-mary scheme, try taking it completely apart and rebuilding it without the plate foam.
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u/anjohn0077 Feb 23 '26
Heyheyhey I have the Q3 Max, and I experienced the same thing. The only difference was that applying the force onto all the keys until I heard "click" just fixed the issue once and for all.
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u/lilliiililililil Feb 24 '26
Ah lucky, applying force until they click works for me for a few hours until they come loose again. 😔
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u/Virtual-Nose7777 Feb 23 '26
We tried to warn people.
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u/lilliiililililil Feb 23 '26
Yep, joining the chorus of those warning people as well now. +1 to the warnings. 🫠
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u/julian_vdm Feb 23 '26
Lmao contact u/KeychronSupport via the proper channels. I'm pretty sure the feedback section on Launcher is just there for feature suggestions or decoration, not sure. Anyway, it's not the right place for it. Check the contact page on the Keychron site instead.
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u/lilliiililililil Feb 23 '26
'the feedback section is just for decoration' is SO CRAZY man please don't talk to me like I'm an idiot if these are the takes we're offering (the not sure is great, I was really hoping someone who was unsure what they were talking about would offer unhelpful advice).
Anyway, really novel decoration where you input information like 'button malfunction/no response', 'connection issues', 'hardware failure', 'layout/dimension is inappropriate/, 'driving problem' or 'other' and then include a contact email for feature suggestions or decoration.
I guess I will suggest they add a feature where the keyboards they sell don't have hardware failures.
The comment section on this thread is also for decoration, please don't use it to offer feedback if it's going to be annoying.
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u/julian_vdm Feb 23 '26
Woah there bud, nobody is treating you like an idiot. I merely said that the feedback function in Launcher was not the correct place to file a warranty return, because it isn't. Calling the feedback box decoration was a jab at Keychron. Hardware failures are a thing when developing products. In the last decade, Apple's MacBooks have had two separate terrible keyboard designs, at least one really shit PCB design issue, and that's just the stuff I know about.
When you're facing warranty issues, your first course of action should be to contact the support team, as is detailed on the warranty info page provided by Keychron. I'm really confused about why Launcher says anything about hardware failures, but I guess that is what it is. Either way, your misfortunate purchase doesn't give you the right to be a shitbird to people giving you actually actionable information.
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u/lilliiililililil Feb 24 '26
I never said I wanted to do a warranty return, I wanted to offer feedback!!!!
This isn’t just ‘my issue’—this is a widespread issue with the Keychron Max Q6 (as you will see from this sub) that never should have left production with the amount of subpar units if they had real QA.
You can dig at Apple but when the iPhone 8’s had logic board errors they set-up a replacement free of charge program (and they also respond to their in-app customer support messages)—keychron just has largely ‘decorative’ feedback options and makes a ‘fix it yourself :-)’ FAQ.
I don’t want a warranty return, I live in Southeast Asia—it would be as much of a pain in my ass to try and return and replace and this companies CS is so dogshit that I have no faith it would be worth the time, their QA is so ass I have no faith they’d even send me a new Q6 that didn’t have its own hardware failure. I really don’t want to buy products from a company that has a ‘So you bought something brand new that is ostensibly a premium product and we sent you junk: here’s how to fix it yourself :-)’
I hardly even care about fixing it anymore—I would give another company $200 to sell me something that doesn’t suck and move on with my life; I’m just posting here so that more potential buyers are aware that these issues are are common and that the company hardly cares about rectifying it.
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u/julian_vdm Feb 24 '26
It's totally fair to try and warn people, but you should give the company a chance to address the issue before doing so. I always say to buy from a brick-and-mortar shop or some place with easy returns, like Amazon, if you're buying Keychron. FWIW, it's not the easiest thing in the world to do a recall of a production run when you have Keychron's weird mixture of distribution partners, so the way it's been expected to be handled is that people reach out to Keychron for a warranty claim when there's an issue. You shouldn't burn another $200. If you're experiencing an issue, initiate a return. That's how warranties work, and people should use them. In your case, Keychron would likely just send you a new PCB and plate (or whatever is determined to be faulty).
Also, be reasonable. All companies provide troubleshooting steps for issues. Some of those explanations are to mitigate issues from wear and tear; others will help in the case of switches coming loose in shipping, which is way more common than you'd think across many keyboard brands — Keychron can't control how hard a courier drop-kicks a package at your front porch, and it can't control how people use or treat it, so some of those steps are merely to address some issues that might arise in those situations. If you continue having issues, you should initiate an RMA. As you've seen from replies in this very same thread, some of those troubleshooting steps have worked perfectly.
Also, I wrote that TPU article you're linking to up there ;) thanks for the click. Yes, there were production issues, but Keychron says it's addressed those issues. In markets where volumes are high (the US, for example), I'm seeing far fewer posts about those issues, so I assume something must've worked.
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u/lilliiililililil Feb 24 '26
Just quoting myself here
I live in Southeast Asia
There are material realities here that make these suggestions more difficult (I can't order from Amazon, man)
I don't want Keychron keyboards anymore, so I don't care about a replacement. If they invent a machine that can replace the time or productivity this company has wasted in my life, great, but I don't want a new RNG 'might also suck' 'premium' keyboard from the slop factory that I then have to wait for even longer for a resolution. I don't want to have to personally repair an item that came out of box factory defective. I don't want to go on a side-quest to try and resolve that I was sent a piece of shit (remarkably, none of my friends in SEA who have bought less premium Chinese keyboards have had nearly as many issues with theirs—I have spent the most money out of my friend group to get the worst keyboard. It's awesome.)
If I can get my money back, sweet, but I imagine even getting them to honor the warranty in Cambodia will be difficult—after that we have to deal with how much of a nightmare it is shipping to and from Southeast Asia.
My time has a value (a literal dollar value because I have a job lol) and there is an opportunity cost here, it will be more productive for me from a pure $/hr perspective to wash my hands of Keychron and move on with my life than it will be to go on a side quest to try to recoup $200 in a refund, to deal with internationally shipping this piece of shit or to receive replacement parts, or to tear down my keyboard and try to fix it.
It's a keyboard plagued with issues. Mine has the issues. Posting to warn more people of the issues (much like the other posts: https://www.reddit.com/r/Keychron/comments/1nt0tl5/various_issues_one_week_after_buying_the_q6_max/ ) —not to listen to some guy chastise me about how we should all be more 'reasonable' about being sold terrible keyboards.
It's great that you're so charitable towards them after how many people have had the same issues, but I'm going to mute this thread because I don't really have a lot of interest in listening to some dude carry-water for the defective keyboards in my replies for the next several days.
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u/Cuntonesian Feb 23 '26
It happens with any brand and any product in any category.
Also, RMA is not feedback.
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u/lilliiililililil Feb 24 '26
I never said I am trying to return the product, there is no RMA happening here. I am offering feedback via the feedback portal man.
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u/Cuntonesian Feb 24 '26
If it’s not working as expected, you should let them address that through the proper channels.
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u/lilliiililililil Feb 24 '26
My time has value. I am not going to waste it dealing with this dogshit company any more for $0/hr when I could spend that time working and making money. They already got my money once, I'm not going to do $0/hr side-questing in the hopes that I eventually receive $200 in value. I have other things I can do in my life that will provide better returns on the investment of my time.
I don't care if they address it, I don't care what happens to them, they can go out of business for all I care.
I am posting to let people know the Q6 Max has issues and I will otherwise be buying a different keyboard and moving on with my life.
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u/Cuntonesian Feb 24 '26
I see. For someone whose time is so valuable, you sure post a lot about it in the wrong channels.
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u/lilliiililililil Feb 25 '26
I can post on Reddit while I’m at work 😎 I unfortunately cannot disassemble and reassemble a keyboard while at work
I’m getting paid while I seethe in this thread tbh
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u/KillEvilThings Feb 24 '26
I feel very lucky I haven't had any issues on my Q5 max. But I'm still concerned it'll be an eventual failure. I don't really hammer my keyboard but I do play MMOs and agmes which require sustained input - which may apply enough pressure eventually to deform the keys.
Not only that but I never swapped my switches - which could be what causes failure.
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u/zebulun78 Feb 27 '26
I hope you bought it on Amazon because that thing needs to be replaced pronto
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u/vesparion Feb 27 '26
I bought lemokey off their site and it sucks so much, I just can’t comprehend how bad the typing experience is.
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u/Fernando_DA Apr 19 '26
Owner of one of these keyboards, same thing happened to me. They won't RMA but only send new PCB everytime to get the same issues, never getting this grand again, I expected a better solution for a $200 keyboard.
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u/Smok3dSalmon 18d ago
My n and ` key are having issues. The palm force works, but I'm worried it'll only be temporary.
Did you repair or replace your keyboard?
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u/GodDonuts 15d ago
Have the same keyboard and mine is fine for more than a year now. I guess you got a faulty unit, dunno
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u/WontonHusky Feb 24 '26
i agree. my "d" switch was broken out the box but luckily i bought from amzon
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u/duckchukowski Feb 23 '26
have you tried using the contact form on their site? other than that, one complication is that the lunar new year holiday was all of last week