Keychron is known for its line-up of wireless mechanical keyboards, but it also has more basic scissor switch designs for office and productivity use. With the launch of the Keychron B40 and B39, the brand has brought some of its mechanical layouts into the scissor switch realm with two Alice layout keyboards.
The Keychron B40 is a 75% Alice layout keyboard, while the B39 features an 1800 Alice layout, which just means it packs a num pad to the right of the navigation cluster and alpha block. The B40 is available for $49.99, while the B39 launched for $54.99 on the Keychron online store.
Keychron's B40 and B39 both feature scissor switches, which Keychron claims are more silent than mechanical switches, but the switch mechanisms are still pre-lubed from the factory, and the switches still have 3.5 mm of total travel distance—a claimed 59% taller than traditional scissor switches.
The B40 and B39 both run ZMK firmware, which is designed for wireless efficiency, and Keychron claims that this allows the keyboards to reach up to 520 hours on a single charge in 2.4 GHz mode, despite the relatively small 800 mAh batteries. Read full story
