We’ve seen mechanical keyboards constructed of many different materials: budget clickers made of cheap plastic, premium keyboards made of alloys. (Heck, we’ve even seen some with LCDs for keycaps.) We've never seen one made of concrete, though, until now. The Keychron K2 HE Concrete Edition ($199.99) is a neat novelty board, and yes, it is also available in configurations made of more conventional materials, if concrete isn't your thing. The K2 HE features magnetic switches, multiple wireless-connectivity options, and a great typing experience. It's a satisfying daily driver all around, even if its concrete construction isn’t enough on its own to unseat the OnePlus Keyboard 81 Pro, our current Editors’ Choice pick for tenkeyless keyboards.

Design: Keeping a Stone Face

One thing we need to clear up before we start this review properly: The Concrete Edition isn’t 100% concrete. We guessed this would probably be the case as we waited for the keyboard to arrive in PC Labs. (Concrete is simply too fragile to use for all the tiny pieces needed for a keyboard.) But there’s more concrete here than we were expecting.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The whole bottom frame of the K2 HE is concrete with a smooth finish, though with enough texture that the material is easily identifiable when you touch it. The entire frame measures 1.7 by 12.7 by 5.2 inches (HWD) and weighs 3.5 pounds. That's a bit heavier than other similarly sized keyboards, and as you'd expect, the majority of that weight is in the frame itself. The rest of the keyboard is made of fairly standard metals and plastics.

As previously stated, the K2 HE is available in configurations other than the concrete featured in this review. The standard K2 HE features an aluminum body, while the K2 HE Special Edition features wooden trim. Another variant has a resin frame but is otherwise identical to the Concrete Edition. The standard version and Special Edition are both $129.99; the concrete and resin versions are $199.99.

As with other Keychron boards, the K2 HE's keycaps are made of PBT plastic. They’re a plain gray that matches the frame—I was instead hoping for a patterned look to match the concrete’s texture. The box also includes extra keys for a macOS-aligned layout, and yellow accent keys to add flair—something we've seen before with the red and black keys included with the Keychron C3 Pro.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The K2 HE Concrete Edition's key layout matches that of the standard K2 HE. Along the left side of the keyboard’s frame, near the rear, is a USB-C port for charging and wired connectivity. Here, you'll also spot two toggle switches: one for switching between Mac and Windows layouts, and the other for switching the wireless-connection type.

The board lacks adjustable feet, and Keychron offers a detached wrist rest as an optional extra. The absence of tilting feet might be an ergonomic concern for some, but know that the concrete base lying flat on your desk allows for an ultra-stable typing experience.

Features and Connectivity: Hot-Swappable Switches

The two wireless-connection options are Bluetooth and 2.4GHz, the latter via a USB dongle included in the box. The keyboard lacks a compartment or niche for the transmitter dongle, so you’ll need to keep it in a safe place or risk losing it. You can have up to three devices paired at once, and you can cycle among them with a keyboard shortcut: Hold down the function key, and press 1, 2, or 3.

The keyboard lacks dedicated media controls, such as a volume knob, but those features are available on the function row. By default, shortcuts for things like changing the RGB effects or volume take precedence in this row over the F-functions. If you don't like this setup, you can easily swap the key functions in Keychron's Launcher control utility, which I'll discuss below.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The K2 HE features hot-swappable magnetic key switches, so you can swap out the default Gateron Nebular switches (the only factory option) if you're handy and you'd prefer something different. Out of the box, though, the typing experience on the K2 HE is incredibly satisfying. As a linear switch, the Nebular is non-tactile, and the mechanism itself produces no discernible click or tick when a key engages.

Typing, though, isn't actually silent. The keyboard has a deep "thock"-iness enhanced by the concrete frame; any sound you hear is from the keys bottoming out as you type. If you’ve ever yelled inside a concrete room, you’ll know that concrete is excellent at reflecting sound waves, so keypresses have a nice, deep thump to them.

The key switches have a pleasing finger-feel, as well. Although I’m accustomed to tactile switches on my personal keyboard (the Epomaker TH96), I find myself enjoying the K2 HE's thumpy sound profile much more. A Monkeytype test gave a score of 68 words per minute (wpm), slightly lower than my personal average of 71wpm.

Software: Launching Into Launcher

To customize all the features of the Keychron K2 HE, you’ll need to use Launcher, the web-based control utility for most Keychron keyboards. Given the presence in this board of magnetic switches, it's here that you can adjust the actuation points of the keys to make them more or less sensitive. You can even add extra actions to a single key based on how far down the key is pressed.

(Credit: Keychron)

You can also adjust RGB effects, configure macros, and run firmware updates—all fairly standard features of competing brands' control utilities.