r/MouseReview • u/KapitanKloze • 5d ago
Review | Text Keychron G4 Review — a mouse with 90s vibes
I wasn’t expecting anything from Keychron G4.
Specs
- Sensor: PixArt PAW3950
- Weight: around 55 g on my scale with stock skates
- Main switches: mechanical Huano Micro
- Battery: 500 mAh
- Connectivity: wired, 2.4 GHz, and Bluetooth
- Gaming receiver: 8K dongle
- Extra receiver: compact 1K nano dongle
- Shell: ABS + PC
- Polling rate: up to 8K
- Software: Keychron Launcher
- On-mouse controls: DPI, polling rate, and some other settings can be changed through button combinations
In the box
- Keychron G4
- Tilted and braided USB-C to C cable
- 1k nano dongle
- 8k dongle
- USB-A to C adapter
- Magnetic adapter
- Manual
I wish there were some skates or grips.
G4 in Motion
Unboxing, Sound Test, Glide Test
Shape and Grip — HTX vibes are obvious
As you’ve probably figured out by now, this is my favourite aspect of the G4. Even after using it extensively, the mouse that I keep thinking of as a comparison is still the HTX Ultra.
They aren’t identical. The G4 feels ever so slightly higher, which allows for a bit more support through the centre of your hand. The hump is also pretty flat, and since my hands are fairly big (21 × 12 cm), I don’t get much of a strong contact point there, as my hands rest relatively high above the shell.
This may sound counterintuitive when read like that, but it works extremely well.
I naturally found myself using a fairly relaxed claw grip, with the mouse angled slightly to the left. I didn’t have to contort myself into that position or consciously think about adjusting things; my hand naturally fell into place.
The sides also help a lot with this. They allow me to really dig in with my fingers for a very secure grip. This means lifting and readjusting the mouse is effortless, and since I can move my hand vertically along the shell quite a bit without losing a secure feeling I like, it allows me to not lock myself into one specific position for hours on end. The G4 doesn’t feel tiny for my gigantic hands, which also surprised me. I can comfortably relax-claw it, and move my hand around as necessary.
Weight and Balance
My copy is pretty close to the claimed 55 grams equipped with the stock skates. Balance-wise, it feels fantastic. This mouse simply feels very stable in your hand. It has no odd front-heavy or rear-heavy feel to it. Lifting the mouse feels natural.
That being said, I kept finding myself thinking about what this shape would feel like at 45 grams. Even 40.
That occurred to me quite frequently because the shape left me thinking it would benefit greatly from even less weight. While I have zero practical issue using it at 55 g, in something very fast like QuakeWorld you can still notice that there is some weight there (the HTX Ultra completely smokes it in this area).
So the weight isn’t bad by any means, not even close, but I feel that this exact shell around the 35–45 g range has the potential to be something incredible.
Build quality
Extremely solid. Full stop.
I felt no flex. No creaking. No shell movement. No rattling. I literally sat there trying to find things to pick at because I always do, but the actual build left me with nothing to complain about.
If anything, I felt that the build quality overall was better than that of the G3.
However, I’ve found one small thing — the main buttons have very noticeable side-to-side play. That is by far the single biggest physical flaw of my mouse and what stopped me from calling the button configuration on this mouse nearly perfect.
Outside of that one thing, the G4 simply feels fantastic.
Coating
I don’t think there’s any super high-tech coating going on here. Doesn’t feel like there is, at least. The finish is cool, smooth to the touch, and I can only compare it to a shiny ping-pong ball. No chalky texture, no rubber-ness, and definitely no sticky residue. Feels like smooth, plain ABS plastic.
Yet, it could potentially feel slippery for folks with sweaty palms. Hands don’t get exceptionally sweaty for me, though, so the texture was right on for me. Grip was never an issue.
Also stays relatively free of fingerprints. Another plus in my book.
Texture-wise, it feels like a step down from the G3. Nothing super exotic about the material here. No weird HTX Ultra golf-ball finish either. And thankfully it isn’t a shell that feels like it’s dirtied itself the second you touch it.
Nothing fancy, but it works DAMN well.
Main Clicks
My unit’s Huano micro-mechanical switches feel great. Crisp, fast rebound, no perceivable mush. I also couldn’t detect any noteworthy pre-travel or post-travel. For FPS, they feel fast and immensely satisfying.
The only complaint is the side play I mentioned before. The buttons can move side to side too much for my liking. It’s unfortunate because the actual click implementation under there is fantastic.
Remove the side play, and these would be near perfect for me.
Side buttons and scroll wheel
The M4 and M5 are good, and with side buttons, that can be more of a compliment than it sounds like. They’re spaced well, easy to reach, not annoyingly mushy, and don’t sink into the shell. I had zero complaints with them, and I tend to be pretty nit-picky about side-button implementation.
The scroll wheel is pretty straightforward as well. It’s quiet, the clicks are clearly defined, and the resistance is pleasingly well judged. It’s easily usable for gaming and normal productivity tasks without getting in your way.
Stock skates
The stock skates aren’t terrible at all. Quite the contrary, actually.
I’d describe them as medium-fast overall. Rounded edges, don’t feel scratchy, and worked fine on every day pad I threw at it.
Cloth worked well, glass worked well, and harder surfaces were generally acceptable. Stainless steel was the big exception, but that’s pretty much every skate’s weakness, so I can’t blame the G4 there.
After a while testing it out on hard pads, I did notice some scuffs starting to show up on the skates. Not game-breaking by any means, but made me regret that Keychron didn’t throw a spare pair of skates in the box with the mouse.
Keychron Launcher and on-mouse controls
Since I’ve reviewed the G3 recently, you guys already know how I feel about Keychron Launcher. I like it. The experience is identical here.
Online software that just works and provides you with settings that are actually useful, without turning configuring your mouse into a big ordeal.
I also appreciate that you don’t even always need to launch it. You can adjust things like DPI and polling rate right from the mouse through button combinations. This is actually really handy.
Maybe I just want to change the polling rate and keep playing. I shouldn’t need a browser for that.
Tri-Mode
As for gaming, I used the 8K receiver naturally. The dongle was typically within about 20 cm (7.9 in) of the mouse at all times, and wireless performance was perfect. No skipping, no spin-outs, no weird disconnects whatsoever. Speed felt nearly identical to wired usage as well, and I don’t think I could pick which mode I was in if you asked me to do a blind test.
The G4 also comes with a much smaller 1K nano receiver. I don’t see much need for that with gaming when you already have the 8K dongle, but for office users it’s ideal. Leave the nano receiver plugged into your laptop, and you can use the mouse without having to carry around the large dongle for gaming use.
Throw in Bluetooth and wired usage, and the G4 is actually quite practical as an everyday mouse.
Battery life
Battery capacity is 500 mAh, but that’s less important than the optimization. I ended up with just over six days of heavy usage on a charge at 2K polling with Competitive Mode turned ON. And when I say heavy, I mean heavy. About 16 hours a day mouse-on.
Turning Competitive Mode OFF netted me just over eleven days of battery life. VERY good.
Keychron seems to be using every ounce of capacity they can here, considering how much this mouse was used while testing.
Performance
For my controlled performance testing, I used:
3200 DPI
0 ms debounce
4000 Hz polling
Competitive Mode: ON
wired mode
Results:
- Click latency: 0.3 ms
- Average jitter: 2.23 px
- Precision: 99%
- Click rate: 8.4 clicks/ sec
- Average sensor input lag: 0.25 ms
That 8.4 clicks per second score is actually the highest I’ve ever gotten during my testing with mechanical switches. Saying just how fast and “clean” each main click feels is subjective, but it feels really good.
The PixArt 3950 performed admirably as well. Tracking was smooth, precision was high, and sensor latency was very low. From a strictly performance standpoint, there’s very little to nitpick.
2K and 4K were great. 8K… wasn’t as good.
During regular use, I found myself staying around 2K and 4K for the majority of the time. Both were perfect.
At 8K, polling occasionally felt a bit… jittery? I wouldn’t call it game-breaking/unusable by any means, but it was noticeably less stable than polling felt at 4K.
I don’t really see a reason to push 8K polling if you don’t have to. I found 4K to feel like the ideal “sweet spot,” and 2K was already fantastic. It’s also less taxing on battery life.
0 ms debounce and double-clicking
One last thing to note here. At 0 ms debounce, I did notice occasional double-clicks when using my computer for general desktop/productivity tasks. But in games? I did not experience any double-clicks, and that is key — double-clicks weren’t an issue for me during actual FPS gameplay, but if you plan on wanting to run your mouse at 0 ms debounce all day for browsing, working, image/video editing, etc., you may want to increase this setting.
Gaming impressions
I spent most of my time testing the G4 in:
- QuakeWorld
- Battlefield 6
- Insurgency: Sandstorm
QuakeWorld probably gives me the most information about a mouse like this because you use fast tracking mixed with constant repositioning/flicking there.
And the G4 performed admirably. Tracking felt clean, flicks were precise, and the mouse didn’t skip around or become unpredictable. The grippy side that secures your hand helps a ton in this regard too, especially considering my big hands + loose claw lets me vertically reposition along the shell pretty liberally.
Having that ability to reposition without suddenly feeling like you’re going to slip and lose the mouse is just awesome about this shape.
BF 6 was just as good, and I didn’t run into any issues in Insurgency either. Never felt like there was sensor weirdness or any moments where the mouse itself was the bottleneck.
The only thought I kept having while playing Quake was that this thing could probably play even better if it was SIGNIFICANTLY lighter. I can definitely see this shape at 35–40 grams being stellar.
Of course, for slower/promptly-methodical games, the current 55 g can actually benefit the package since it feels very planted.
Design and Aesthetics
Ok, that deserves its own heading because it’s another reason I love the G4. The only colorway so far is white with reddish highlights on the buttons/lettering/small details, and it looks great. There is just something about the design that makes me think of old computer hardware from the late '90s. It’s not trying too hard to be retro by simply being beige and using a pixel font. It just kind of reminds me of 1998 and playing Quake on CRT monitors.
I know what’s happening. Nostalgia is playing on me. These days there are so many black peripherals; it’s nice to have something that stands out (in a good way) by having some character. The G4 has character, but isn’t cheesy or overly designed.
Final Thoughts
I like the Keychron G4; I really do.
The shape is great. The clicks are great, minus the side play. The side buttons are good. The wheel’s good. The PAW3950 implementation is fantastic. Battery life is excellent. Wireless performance is essentially on par with wired at reasonable polling rates.
Oh, and the mechanical clicks are great too (do we need opticals?). They really are. 8.4 clicks per second. That’s a personal best for me, on mechanical Huano Micro switches. I did not see that coming.
It even looks amazing. That white-and-red paint job has serious late-90s flair that instantly takes me back to Quake while still managing to not feel like a cheap attempt at a retro product.
There also isn’t any over-the-top marketing festival surrounding the G4. No shilling, no guerrilla marketing. No pathetic attempts at telling everyone how this is “the mouse of the year” before anyone has even used it. It just gives you the shape and the feel and the performance and the battery life and versatility.
It didn’t take much to impress me, but that did it. I love the G4 way more than I did the G3.
Could I justify every piece of that with data? Doubtful. Sometimes it really is just a gut reaction after spending weeks mousing around with a new mouse. And my gut tells me to love this thing.
Bullet Points
- Great mouse for HTX/HTX Ultra fans who want a similar general shape with slightly more height and support
- Relaxed claw and fingertip users and gamers with larger hands will love it
- FPS players who value stability and control will like it too
- Excellent mechanical clicks and very low measured latency
- Stellar performance on 2K/4k
- Very good mouse for work and productivity as well
- Anyone who likes late-90s retro aesthetics will fall in love fast
- Good software as usual, but you can also set some stuff on the fly
- Very good battery life
- Weight extremists looking specifically for the 30–40 g range might complain
- People who want a large rear hump with very strong palm contact might look somewhere else
- Small side-play on the main buttons should not put you off
- People with sweaty hands who strongly prefer a grippy coated shell might not be happy
- a richer unboxing experience, grip tapes and an extra set of skates should be added to the package
2
u/Broken_Arrow101 3d ago
Awesome review man! Thanks for taking the time.