Better than the MX MASTER? Keychron M6 LITE Review

I’ve been using some version of the Logitech MX Master for the better part of a decade, and honestly, I can’t imagine using my PC without one. From the comfortable grip, satisfying feel and the infinite scroll wheel, to the gesture controls and side scroll wheel, this is almost the perfect mouse. Now there are some things wrong with it, the soft touch coating degrades heinously quickly for me, and when the battery is low the damn scroll wheel reboots the mouse if you scroll too fast, but regardless of that I can’t live without one. Happily though, Keychron thinks they have something even better. This is the Keychron M6 LITE, the newest version of their MX Master killer. Let’s find out if it’s actually any good though…

Let’s start with a look at the thing. The biggest standout from just seeing this IRL is dayum that hump. The box and images on the product page really don’t do this justice, because my god it’s high. It’s a lot higher than the MX Master, and the peak is a little more forward than the MX Master as well. You do still have a side scroll wheel, back and forward buttons, and a metal endless scroll wheel. This is much more like the G700’s infinite scroll wheel though, as the button on top is a mechanical toggle. It has a satisfying thunk when you actuate it. On the bottom you’ll find two large PTFE skates on the front and back, along with one on the thumb plate, and another surrounding the sensor. You’ve also got three buttons and a switch, with the switch controlling the power mode, basically left is 2.4GHz wireless to the dongles, middle is off/USB cable, and right is Bluetooth. You have a DPI button with different colour LEDs, a polling rate toggle with more LEDs, and a device toggle. This lets you toggle between up to three devices at a time. Oh and of course you have left and right clicks, and a USB C port in the front. 

As for what else is in the box, this is pretty comical. Of course you have a nice braided and colour matched USB C cable – this is a Type C to Type C cable, which means if you want to plug this in to a USB A port you’ll need an adapter. Luckily, Keychron includes one in the box! Wonderful. You of course have a USB A dongle included, but what if you want to have this on your desk with the cable available for charging, you’d need a C to A adapter. Luckily, Keychron includes one too! But what if you’re a Macbook hipster that only has USB C ports? NO PROBLEM, KEYCHRON HAS YOU SORTED! They include a SECOND DONGLE, specifically a USB C dongle. Both of these work instantly without pairing or changing modes. This is excellent Keychron, great job! It’s just funny to find four dongles in the box.

Let’s talk feeling and comfort. Sadly, the second I got this out the box, I knew instantly this isn’t as nice as the MX Master. With the soft finish plastic does feel nice, and damn the metal scroll wheel is on point, but the switches, buttons and side scroll wheel… They ain’t it chief. The MX Master’s side scroll wheel is buttery smooth, it feels like a tripod fluid head, it’s gorgeous. Plenty of resistance, but such a beautifully smooth action. The M6? It’s ok, it’s notchy, which some might prefer, but it just isn’t as nice. The side buttons too have a hollow, almost cheap click to them, compared to the silent but effortlessly tactile feel on the MX Master. And my god, the left and right clicks? Dayum. This uses Huano silent microswitches, which, one, are technically a downgrade from the regular Huano 80 million click switches as these are only good for 20 million (hardly deal breaking, but worth pointing out) and two, feel like membrane switches! They’re soft and squidgey. Sure, they’re quiet and do still have a tactile bump, but it feels mushy and just.. Urgh. Let’s just say they’re not for me. 

Comfort wise, it’s a mixed bag. Straight out the box this isn’t as comfortable as the MX Master 3 I use every day. The ultra high arch and sharp rake make this less comfortable to me – I’d describe the difference as with the MX Master you can rest your whole hand on the mouse and just use the bottom of your wrist as a pivot point. With the M6, you can only really rest your index and middle finger knuckles on it, with the majority of the weight landing on your wrist instead. The upside for the M6 is the weight, this thing is just 86g, compared to 141g for the MX Master 3. This is significantly lighter, and therefore a little more comfortable to use all day, at least on the muscles. 

It’s probably worth noting a couple of things here though. First is the MX Master is limited to a frankly shocking 125Hz polling rate, meaning motion can be a bit jittery on screen, especially with high refresh rate displays, whereas even this M6 Lite runs at 1000Hz, and Keychron do offer 4 and 8KHz options, although only this PixArt 3311 based 1KHz and PixArt 3950 8KHz are the newer version of the M6 with the metal scroll wheel. The other thing to note is just that, there are four different versions of this M6, and frustratingly Keychron doesn’t do a great job explaining which is which. This 3311 based “Lite” version (which you’d never know was called the M6 Lite until you got the box) is the newer “Gen 2” version with the silent switches and metal scroll wheel, along with the 3950 based 8KHz one. The two 3395 based versions, both the 1 and 4K versions, are the original rubber wheel and Huano 80 switch versions. I should also add, while trying to get the information for this review correct, I’ve realised that Keychron’s UK website is separated from the US site, where they do at least have a correct product info section for this newer version. The UK site doesn’t even list this 3311 sensor version at all, and the main product page info is all about the first gen versions. The US site has the up to date info, so that’s what I’ll reference here, especially in terms of pricing. 

As for actually using the thing, beyond the comfort, I am happy to say it’s still a pretty nice time. There are some things you need to get used to – the lack of the gesture controls being one of them. I actually only use one gesture control, that’s button + forward which just presses F5 for me, it’s really handy, and I thought I could get around that by using the “tilt control” options on the scroll wheel. Basically instead of just middle mouse button, if you push the wheel left or right, that’s two extra “buttons” you’ve got. Sweet! I mapped both to F5 to see what sticks, but I found out a hilarious issue. When you actuate the thonking button for the infinite scroll wheel, that triggers one (or both) of the side buttons. What that means is that now when I go to unlock (or lock) the scroll wheel, the page I’m on refreshes. That’s quite funny, and kind of annoying as it seems like that’s a hardware issue too. Actually, upon further inspection it’s the left button. You can see as you start to press the lock button that the wheel tips left. You could take that as the lock button now has two functions, or just disable the tilt left option, but it’s worth knowing about!

Speaking of customising functions, thanks to the UK site being so outdated, and Keychron not making any distinction between the original M6 and these new ones, I downloaded and installed two different versions of their M6 mouse configuration tool, only to find out these new versions just use a web UI instead. Amazing. Once I found it though it was fairly simple, you can customise all of the buttons onboard, including both scroll wheels, change the DPI, create macros, and even change the debounce delay (which is set to 4ms by default, which is perfectly fine for an office mouse). You can also set a pairing combination, which by default is left click and forward, and even see the battery percentage up the top. Pretty handy!

Finally, let’s talk price. This new 3311 1K version is just $40, which I think is a steal. Sure, this isn’t as nice as an MX Master, but with the MX Master 3S still being $110, this easily takes the cake, plus it shouldn’t degrade and fail within a year which’d be nice. The 8KHz version, which seems genuinely pointless to me, but I guess if you want the best of both worlds I guess why not, that’s $70, which is still a steal by comparison. This could use some refinement for sure, a slightly less steep arch would be fantastic, and some work on a more premium feel would go a long way to make this feel less like the $40 mouse it is, and more like the $120 mouse it very much could replace. Will I be swapping my MX Master 3 for this? Not just yet, but when the MX Master does finally kick the bucket, or get too annoying, yes. This is a decently worthy replacement, it just takes a bit to get used to.