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Ever wish you could take that 100% keyboard on the road? The K13 pro from Keychron may not be perfect, but you can finally take your number pad to go without having to pack a separate device.

The K13 Pro solves a problem for a specific scenario: you need a portable keyboard that is low profile, but also need a number pad and don’t want to carry a separate device around. Keychron took a footprint the size of a typical TKL layout and squished a number pad into the top right corner without increasing the size. And it turns out, this layout is indeed both useful and portable.

The Good

The K13 Pro provides the same mechanical typing feel as the more traditional layouts in the K Pro line, like the K3 Pro (75%) and K1 Pro (TKL). The sample I received had Gateron Low Profile 2.0 Brown switches, which are the tactile option. You can get the K13 Pro as a fully hot-swappable RGB model or you can go with a non-hot-swap model with white backlighting if you don’t require the ability to change the switches or use multi-color lightning. So far I’ve found that it successfully walks the line between utility and portability.

The battery life also seems to be about the same or just a bit longer than my K3 Pro, and the battery capacity is a little more at 2000mAh vs 1550mAh in the K3 Pro. With the backlighting off I had no issue using it as my secondary keyboard for a full week without charging.

The QMK/VIA compatibly makes the K13 Pro a great option for a second keyboard if you want to duplicate your primary keyboard’s customizations. If your main keyboard is a 96% to 100% layout and you’ve added custom key mapping or macros, the K13 Pro allows you to keep the numpad and recreate your customization in a much more travel-friendly format (even if the travel is just to another room in your house).

The Not So Good

The downsides here are relatively minor in my opinion. As with all of Keychron’s current low profile keyboards, there is no 2.4GHz connection, only bluetooth for wireless connectivity. While 3 bluetooth connections is plenty for multiple devices, 2.4GHz is lower latency and generally more stable than bluetooth so it would be nice to have that as well.

I’ll mention the battery life here as well, because it’s more of a neutral thing than a strong pro or con. The battery life is just ok in my opinion – not great, but not super disappointing either (I felt the same with the K3 Pro).

The last minor con is a tradeoff of having a number pad in a compact layout. It’s not a traditional number pad, as it’s missing the plus and enter keys normally to the right, and the multiply, minus, and divide keys above. If you have long-term muscle memory built up of entering numbers following by hitting the enter key to the right, you’ll have to slow down and remember to move left to hit the enter key with the K13 Pro. To me this is not a dealbreaker, just the price you pay for having a number pad in a portable format. On the plus side – the arrow keys are nicely separated from the alpha and right shift key like they are in a TKL layout.

Check out the K13 Pro

Keyboard Specs: