Keychron M6 8K Wireless Mouse
design
The resemblance between the Keychron M6 8K and Logitech’s flagship is immediately apparent. Let’s be real, Keychron hasn’t really tried to be sneaky about copying its homework, though you can’t blame it either. You get the same general ergonomic shape with a sizable thumb rest, a horizontal scroll wheel on the left side, and a multi-function main scroll wheel. At first glance, the body looks quite chunky, but it isn’t actually as large as some other ergonomic mice and I found myself shifting from my usual full palm grip into more of a hybrid fingertip-claw arrangement to compensate. It’s comfortable, but personally, it wasn’t quite as comfortable over longer work sessions as it would have been if I was able to fully grab the mouse with confidence. Mouse grip is a subjective thing though, so I won’t hold it against the M6.
Build quality across the Keychron M6 8K is generally good. Nothing creaks or flexes across the ABS shell, it just doesn’t carry the premium edge of some more expensive competitors. The matte coating feels pleasant enough and handles fingerprints remarkably well, which is a nice change from the rubberised finishes that tend to deteriorate over time. At 86g, the Keychron M6 8K is one of the lightest full-body ergonomic mice you’ll find on the market, and this is apparent in general use. For reference, that’s just over half the weight of the MX Master 4, and it felt noticeably hollow and almost insubstantial by comparison. Anyone transitioning from a lighter or gaming mouse will likely find this change less stark, but to me it lacked the reassuring density and planted feel a heavier weight brings.
The Huano Silent Micro switches keep things quiet and have a noticeably soft feel to them that some may enjoy. I found them a little mushy overall though, and on a few occasions I experienced what I think were missed inputs. I’m not entirely sure whether I’d actually fired a click that didn’t register on the switch, or whether I’d failed to properly trigger the switch at all, but it seemed like I had to go back for another go every now and then.
The upgraded metal scroll wheel is a nice touch visually and it comes with pleasantly clicky lateral inputs too. As you’d expect for a productivity mouse there’s a free-scroll mode which is useful for navigating long documents or pages, but the experience isn’t as sleek as what Logitech offers. The M6 8K’s scroll is surprisingly loud in ratcheted mode and the toggle button for switching to free-scroll is positioned too far back and requires quite a bit of force to activate. That’s good for preventing accidental switches, but it meant I found myself completely ignoring the free-scroll feature rather than repositioning my hand each time to reach the toggle. The MX Master’s automatic switching between modes is a feature I didn’t realise I relied on so heavily until it was gone, though that’s also the kind of feature that doubles the price of a product, I guess.
Within much easier thumb’s reach on the side of the mouse are a horizontal wheel and a pair of additional buttons. The wheel is really nicely positioned, close enough to need no thought to move your thumb to, but far enough out of the way to avoid accidentally rolling, though I’ll admit I’m not much of a side-scroller on any mouse and didn’t get much actual use out of it. That pleasant positioning is also true of the Keychron M6 8K’s two side buttons, which would usually be forward and back by default, though the back button doesn’t register at all in Safari on macOS. It’s fine in Edge and this isn’t necessarily a Keychron-specific issue, as macOS has long been finicky with third-party mouse inputs, but other brands have cracked the code so it’s a shame to see it missing here.
performance
It may lack the premium edge and experience of others, but where the cheaper Keychron M6 8K pulls ahead of more expensive rivals is in sensor performance. The PixArt PAW3950 tracked flawlessly across every surface I tested, including a desk mat, solid wood, my leg, the sofa, and even a glass window. Got a funny look from my neighbour checking that one. Keychron claims glass tracking at 4mm minimum thickness, and it delivered, so no concerns for glass desk users.
DPI can be adjusted from 100 to 30,000 and polling rate from 125 to 8,000Hz, numbers that extend the Keychron M6 8K from just a productivity mouse into a gaming option too. At the higher end of those settings and coupled with the light overall weight, the M6 becomes super responsive and should keep up with every flick during intense gaming sessions. I settled on 1,200 DPI and 1,000Hz polling for daily work, which felt perfectly sharp. Both settings can be adjusted on the fly through customisable presets using physical buttons on the mouse, which is a great touch, or you can use the Keychron Launcher web app for more granular control.
That browser-based configuration software was a surprise highlight for me. It’s feature-rich, cleanly laid out, and very familiar if you’ve used Keychron’s keyboards. Personalisation features like button remapping, sensor settings, macros, lift-off distance, and scroll acceleration are all accessible without installing a single background process. You can also check battery levels here, though you won’t need to do this often as the M6 8K seems to sip on its 800mAh battery, so it’ll be weeks between charges at reasonable settings like I was running.
Connectivity covers all bases with USB-C wired, 2.4GHz wireless via an included dongle, and Bluetooth 5.3 with three device profiles. The connection mode switch sits on the bottom of the mouse and there are five on-board memory profiles meaning you can configure everything through Launcher, unplug, and take your settings to any machine without needing the software again.
summed up
As if it’s come straight from the likes of Lidl or Aldi, the Keychron M6 8K is a good dupe of a more expensive mouse. It does a lot of things well, but perhaps most importantly, it’s at a price that lets you forgive the things that aren’t quite so good.
The scroll wheel lacks the refinement of Logitech’s implementation, the clicks can feel a little mushy, and Safari users will miss having a working back button. But the sensor is superb, the battery life is excellent, and the web app is near best-in-class for this kind of mouse. If you can’t justify the MX Master 4’s asking price, this is where you should look instead.
