At a glance

Expert rating

Benefits

• Excellent form factor
• Cheap
• Mechanical switches

Disadvantages

• No adjustable feet
• No profile per game

Our Verdict

The Lemokey X0 is a great entry point into a fantastic, but unfortunately overlooked, one-handed keyboard format. Give it a try if you’re curious or on a budget and want to experiment before upgrading to a more expensive design.

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The keyboard best suited for typing is rarely the one best suited for gaming. This is why I like small side keyboards, like the Razer Tartarus. I love them so much that I cut one GameSir so I can add better switches and a bigger battery since there aren’t any decent wireless options.

But over $100 for what is essentially half a keyboard is a lot, especially if you’re not sure you’re as obsessed with the form factor as I am. Enter the Lemokey X0, a budget-friendly option that’s quickly become one of my favorite gadgets of the year.

As I said, it’s basically a half keyboard, meant to be used with the left hand only. It’s also pretty cheap – and I mean that with no insult in mind – at $33. But at this impulse buy price, I’d recommend it to almost any PC gamer who regularly uses a keyboard.

One-handed design

The X0 features six rows of keys cut off at the F5 column. It adds a few modifiers and an oversized cross-shaped Space key. Underneath it all, there’s a large, sturdy rubberized pad for your palm. It also features mechanical switches (again, rather cheap) and keycaps (ditto), something a little difficult to find in this extremely niche form factor. A non-removable USB-A cable, red LED lights and compatibility with Lemokey/Keychron’s online programming tool round out the features.

Michael Crider/Foundry

The usefulness of this kind of gadget should be obvious. They’ve been around in one form or another for over 20 years – I think the Belkin N50 SpeedPad was the original, eventually morphing into Razer Tartar I mentioned it earlier. This is a dedicated left-hand-only keyboard, intended to be a more focused and ergonomic tool than your typical full-size keyboard, while still letting your right hand handle mouse duties.

(Unfortunately, there’s really no way to make this work if you’re using your left hand for the mouse, and I mean that sincerely, since I’m left-handed. Maybe try a fully split keyboard design and a wrist rest.)

Michael Crider/Foundry

I really like this layout and have been using something like this since I switched from console gaming to PC gaming in college. Not only is it much easier to position a smaller gamepad for more comfortable and ergonomic gaming, but it allows me to keep a fully dedicated, typing-focused keyboard. Which, as someone who writes all day to put food on my table (usually next to the keyboard), is a big deal.

Not much competition

I’ve tried a lot of these things. I wouldn’t say the X0 is the best – that goes to my custom GameSir pad, with the mechanical (and discontinued) Razer Orbweaver a distant second. But among the cheap devices I’ve tried, the X0 shines as the best of the bunch.

Layout-wise, it’s exactly what most PC gamers want, a faithful reproduction of all the keys you’re likely to reach with your left hand. The only exception is the double Fn buttons for expanding programming options and the space bar, which isn’t really a bar. Like Tartarus and the old Logitech G13it repositions the grasped space to more naturally fit the positioning of your thumb.

There is one important omission here: a D-pad. It’s a feature that initially attracted me to Belkin-slash-Razer designs, as a way to get away from the console-style movement. And this still persists in certain modern ramifications, like Azeron. But as a big fan of this category, I’m okay with its omission, especially on a budget device. If you’re used to the much more flexible WASD input for most shooters and first-person games, I think you’ll agree.

Michael Crider/Foundry

Lemokey (born Keychronfor its non-gaming parent company) opted for brown tactile switches on my review unit. They’re not the best in the world, but they’re light and lively, certainly good enough for me to get up to speed. Fortnite right away.

Note that the X0 is also available with red linear switches, even if you won’t exchange them. It’s an acceptable sacrifice for a budget device, especially when almost everything else in this price range omits mechanical switches entirely. You can also use standard mechanical keys on this pad, although sizing can be tricky for the extended T, G, and V keys. If you accept that the legends don’t match, it’s easy to find them on a full-size set real.

Michael Crider/Foundry

Long sessions with the I could use a little more cushion in the palm rest, and I wish there was a way to adjust the angle (I raised the right side of my custom board with the keyboard feet), but it’s still much more comfortable than anything else I have. I’ve been using it for a while.

Programmable…but not much

The X0 can be programmed with Keychron’s browser-based GUIwhich I recommend, or QMK, which I do not recommend. (Yes, mechanical keyboard fans, wag your finger in shame.) It’s simple and overtly VIA-inspired, which is no bad thing, covering just about everything you could need without much complication . This includes up to three sublayers, although none are actually programmed with alternatives from the start. You can adjust the red lighting only on the keyboard… although I don’t really see the point of it. My only big change is to remap Caps Lock to M for easily showing a map in shooter games.

Here I’ll point out the one big problem with the running. You could potentially program the four layers for four different games and then manually switch between them. But it takes a lot of work and tweaking, for something that’s still quite limited – for example, the Keychron tool has no way to program mouse buttons or scroll wheel controls.

Michael Crider/Foundry

This is frankly disappointing, and I’ve reported this on previous gaming keyboards from Keychron and Lemokey. Program-based presets are one of the core features that I consider essential for a gaming keyboard, and it would make sense to offer them here. But I tend to forgive the absence, or forget it altogether, for budget-oriented design. I did the same concession for the G.Skill KM250which remains my favorite choice for a budget gaming keyboard.

If you must If you have programmable profiles that activate with a game or program, the Razer Tartarus is there… for more than triple the price and with far fewer keys. And it’s worth pointing out that none of the other alternatives below the $100 mark offer this gaming profile option.

A great impulse buy for PC gamers

So yeah, I’d be happy to recommend this little gadget to anyone who wants a primary typing keyboard and a gaming keyboard, and can’t find one that works for both. Note software limitations and form factor – I doubt one StarCraft pros would agree by cutting their immediate keys in half, for example.

Michael Crider/Foundry

But even as an experiment, it’s definitely worth the $33 asking price. If you like it and want to go further, you can go up to Tartarus, or consider the ReDragon K585 if you want something wireless.

In the meantime, I’ll wait patiently for someone (Lemokey, maybe you guys?) to make a wireless version of this gadget with a big battery, a nice metal body, and hot-swappable switches . Something tells me I’m going to wait a very, very long time.