Mechanical keyboards in a UK layout

The Keychron C3 Pro 8K is the cheapest board here at £54.99 in UK ISO^[1]: a wired tenkeyless with hot-swap sockets, Cherry-profile PBT keycaps and QMK firmware. It's the easiest recommendation for a first mechanical keyboard on a UK layout.

The Corsair K70 Core is £69.99^[2] for a full-size board with a numpad, linear switches, a volume dial, an aluminium top plate and two layers of sound-dampening foam. It isn't hot-swappable, but if you want a numpad on a budget it's good value.

The Ducky One 3 SF is a wired 65% with hot-swap sockets, genuine Cherry switches and thick double-shot PBT keycaps, and Overclockers sells a UK layout version^[3]. The UK price we found was £84.99. Ducky doesn't offer QMK or VIA; settings are changed with key combinations on the board.

The Cherry KC 200 MX is a plain full-size office board with Cherry's MX2A switches, an anodised aluminium top plate and no lighting, for £90.40 in a British layout^[4]. The switches are soldered, so choose between the Silent Red and Brown versions with care.

Keychron sells almost its whole range in UK ISO through its UK store, which makes it the easiest place to start if you want wireless and remapping. The Keychron V1 Max is a 75% at £109.99^[5], and the Keychron V6 Max is the full-size version with a numpad at £114.99^[6]. Both have gasket-mounted polycarbonate plates, hot-swap sockets, a knob, wireless over Bluetooth or 2.4 GHz, and QMK and VIA for remapping any key, including moving the ISO keys if you'd rather have them elsewhere.

If you want the heavier aluminium version of the same idea, the Keychron Q1 Max is £219.99 in UK ISO. Our Q1 Max against V1 Max comparison covers whether the difference is worth it.

The Logitech MX Mechanical is £149.99 from Logitech UK in a UK layout^[7]. It's a slim full-size board with low-profile switches, a choice of Tactile Quiet, Clicky or Linear, a white backlight that comes on as your hands approach, and Bluetooth or Logitech's Bolt receiver. It suits people coming from a laptop or a membrane office keyboard.

The be quiet! Dark Mount is the quiet option for a desk you control. Scan listed it at £229.99 in UK ISO^[8], with hot-swappable silent linear switches, a detachable numpad and a media dock with a small display that can sit on either side. It's wired only. The Cherry KC 200 MX above, in its Silent Red version, is the cheaper quiet choice. Our quiet keyboards guide has more.

Corsair sells most of its range in UK ISO. The Corsair K70 PRO TKL is a wired tenkeyless board with magnetic switches, actuation adjustable from 0.1 mm to 4 mm and rapid trigger, for £169.99^[9].

One thing to watch for with gaming boards is a "UK" version that only changes the printing. As far as we can tell, the SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Gen 3 sold in the UK has UK legends on the US key shape^[10], so there's no tall Enter. If that matters to you, the Razer Huntsman V3 Pro Tenkeyless 8KHz has a confirmed UK ISO version. See our Huntsman against Apex Pro comparison.

Some of the most recommended enthusiast boards weren't available in UK ISO when we checked. The Aula F75 comes in ANSI and in German, Spanish and French ISO, but we found no UK version^[11]. The Epomaker TH80 V2 Pro, the Leopold FC660M PD and the NuPhy Air65 V3 were ANSI only in the listings we found, and the HHKB (PFU) HHKB Professional HYBRID Type-S comes in US and Japanese layouts.

A German or French ISO board has the right key shapes but the wrong legends, and some keys (Z and Y, or A and Q) swap places. You could fit UK keycaps later, but UK ISO keycap kits are scarcer than ANSI ones, so it's an extra cost and a hunt. If you're set on one of these boards, learning ANSI is the other option, though switching between layouts at work and at home can trip you up.

Look at the product photo, not just the title. A UK ISO board shows a tall Enter key that is two rows high, a short left Shift with an extra key beside it, and £ printed on the 3 key. If the photo shows a long, flat Enter, it's ANSI, whatever the title says. Some retailers reuse US photos for UK listings, so check the model or part number too: Corsair's and be quiet!'s UK part numbers, for example, end in UK.

On boards that run QMK or VIA, such as Keychron's, you can move any key afterwards, but you can't change the shape of the Enter key. Choose the physical layout first. Our ISO layout keyboards page lists every board we know is sold in ISO, and each board's page shows which layouts it comes in.