You Can Now Buy the First OnePlus Mechanical Keyboard

OnePlus started out making cheap smartphones years ago, but it has since branched out. Its main product is still smartphones, but now it makes a few other things as well, and toys around with completely different products as well. Case in point: it’s making a keyboard.

We’ve seen OnePlus release everything from earbuds to tablets to watches, but it’s not really a known name in the PC hardware world — at least not by those who don’t keep up with smartphone news. The company has now partnered with Keychron, a brand that’s actually known by keyboard enthusiasts, to make the OnePlus Keyboard 81 Pro, a mechanical keyboard with an 80% (81%?) layout and no numpad that strives to give users both a premium keyboard experience and bring the “OnePlus experience” to your typing. The keyboard was first announced in February, but now it’s actually available to purchase.

OnePlus

The keyboard itself has an aluminum build and comes in a gray/red color hue with a transparent volume knob on the corner. The keyboard also comes in two flavors — Winter Bonfire, with PBT plastic keycaps and tactile switches, and Summer Breeze, with “marble-mallow” keycaps and linear switches. Like other Keychron keyboards (since this is, after all, made by Keychron despite the over-the-top OnePlus marketing), this has a double-gasket design with hot-swappable switches.

Keychron is largely considered to be one of the top keyboard makers out there, and we actually happen to have a couple of Keychron keyboards in our list of the top mechanical keyboards to buy. So by that virtue, this OnePlus keyboard should be really good quality. That being said, this might be a product to buy if you’re a fan of the OnePlus brand and smartphones, and you want something that follows the same general aesthetic. We’re not saying it’s bad — it will likely be a very good product. But it’s a product made to pay homage to the OnePlus aesthetic.

Buy OnePlus Keyboard 81 Pro

If you like red and gray and this keyboard is your jam, you’ll be able to buy it from the OnePlus website starting on July 26th. It will start at $219 for the Winter Bonfire version, while the slightly more premium (and linear) Summer Breeze will cost $239. You can buy it from OnePlus’s website.