MCHOSE Ace 60 Pro Keyboard Review

The MCHOSE Ace 60 Pro has a compact 60% form factor that leaves plenty of room on your desk for mouse movement, However, it lacks a function row, navigation cluster, and dedicated arrow keys found on a full-size keyboard.

The MCHOSE Ace 60 Pro has great build quality. It feels very sturdy, with good fit and finish and minimal deck flex. The bottom case is made of thick plastic, and the plate is aluminum. There are layers of foam and silicone inside the case, and the spacebar is fitted with a silicone gasket that provides some impact dampening and helps round out the sound profile somewhat.

The keycaps are made of doubleshot PBT plastic. They have a smooth finish but aren't slippery. The keys exhibit very minimal wobble, and the stabilizers are very stable without any noticeable rattling or ticking sounds while typing.

On the underside, there are four rubber feet set in the corners. They're thick, have rounded edges, and do a good job of keeping the board in place without slipping.

This keyboard has a standard profile without any additional incline angles. It's comfortable to type on without straining your wrists to reach all the keys, but most people would benefit from using a wrist rest, especially for longer typing sessions.

The hot-swappable PCB is compatible with magnetic switches. The software has pre-programmed calibration settings for the following switch options:

• Ice Jade Magnetic
• KTEK Magnetic
• TTC Uranus Magnetic Switch SE
• TTC Uranus Magnetic Standard
• TTC Magneto
• Ice Blue Magnetic
• Ice Rhino Magnetic

If you're interested in potentially using an aftermarket case for this keyboard, note that it doesn't use the most common GH60-compatible USB position.

Alternatively, if you're interested in a gaming keyboard compatible with both magnetic and mechanical switches, check out the Akko MOD007-HE PC.

The legends have great overall clarity, but there are some minor obstructions and dim spots on some keycaps. When set to display white-only backlighting, the lighting has a slightly cold blueish hue.

The MCHOSE Ace 60 Pro comes with a thick braided cable with virtually no kinks from its packaging.

For a list of supported hotkeys, see a PDF user manual on MCHOSE's website.

The spacebar is fitted with a dampening gasket, which slightly softens the impact of bottoming out and somewhat reduces its noise.

If you remove the spacebar keycap, you can access a button on the PCB to reset or flash the keyboard's firmware.

• USB-C to USB-A cable
• Switch/keycap puller
• 2x extra KTEK Magnetic switches
• User documentation

The MCHOSE Ace 60 Pro offers impressive typing quality. Its switches and stabilizers come pre-lubed from the factory, and the PBT keycaps have a smooth, pleasant finish and exhibit very minimal wobble. Silicone and foam layers inside the case, along with a silicone gasket under the spacebar, help dampen bottom-out impact and smooth out the sound profile to some extent. However, the typing noise is still on the louder side, and the overall feel is quite stiff.

The typing noise on the MCHOSE Ace 60 Pro is fairly loud. There are layers of silicone and foam inside the case, and the spacebar has a silicone-dampening gasket. However, these elements don't significantly reduce the overall volume as the plate is aluminum and noise is fairly resonant within the plastic bottom case. This keyboard's volume may be irritating for those around you, especially in noise-sensitive environments.

We tested this keyboard with KTEK Magnetic switches, but we expect each of the switch types available at purchase will produce similar noise.

For this test, we produced measurements using the default actuation setting of 1.5 mm and a Rapid Trigger release setting of 0.5 mm.

With the KTEK Magnetic switches we tested, the lowest actuation point you can set in software is 0.1 mm, and the highest point is 3.4 mm. You can adjust the actuation in increments of 0.01 mm.

The MCHOSE Ace 60 Pro provides superb input granularity with near-complete travel control and fine-grained precision facilitated by a high detection ratio and exceptionally low minimum step depth. It also has good linearity and extremely small deadzones, allowing for fast initial and follow-up inputs. These attributes can help if you play with low actuation and reset settings in competitive FPS games, for example.

It doesn't support true analog output, though this isn't a significant limitation for most gaming scenarios. However, it does mean that you can't emulate gradual gamepad- or joystick-style inputs, which can be helpful for playing platformers, racing games, or flight sims.

We bought this keyboard with KTEK Magnetic switches, but other switch options are available at purchase. On their product page, MCHOSE has an image with a basic comparison between these switches.

The software has pre-programmed calibration settings for several switches, which we've listed in the Hardware Customizability section.

The MCHOSE Ace 60 Pro has exceptionally low single-key latency. It provides a remarkably responsive and consistent experience for gaming in all genres, at any competitive level.

We conducted this test using the following settings:

• Polling rate: 8,000Hz
• Stability mode: On
• Key repeat optimization: On
• Berserk mode: On (enables 0.01 mm RT)
• Deadzone: Off
• Actuation: 0.1 mm
• Rapid Trigger: 0.01 mm Press, 0.01 mm Release
• Continuous Rapid Trigger: Off

The MCHOSE Ace 60 Pro provides superb and exceptionally consistent multi-key latency performance. It's very well-suited for playing any game that requires additional keystrokes while multiple keys are pressed and maintained.

We conducted this test using the following settings:

• Polling rate: 8,000Hz
• Stability mode: On
• Key repeat optimization: On
• Berserk mode: On (enables 0.01 mm RT)
• Deadzone: Off
• Actuation: 0.1 mm
• Rapid Trigger: 0.01 mm Press, 0.01 mm Release
• Continuous Rapid Trigger: Off

NKRO is enabled by default. MCHOSE advertises this keyboard has a 128,000Hz scan rate, which we aren't able to confirm. That said, we've verified that it achieves an effective update rate of 8,000Hz. It isn't bottlenecked by other latency elements and can fully to advantage of its 8,000Hz polling rate.

This keyboard has impressive chord split performance. It has low 4-chord and 8-chord split delay, making it well-suited for playing rhythm titles or other games that require many simultaneous inputs.

The MCHOSE Ace 60 Pro uses web-based software that you can access using Chromium-based browsers. Unfortunately, there isn't a downloadable offline version. The software is fairly complex and can be intimidating for beginners, but the options are fairly well laid out on several different tabs.

The trigger tab provides adjustable actuation settings. It also allows you to specify what switches you're using for calibration.

The performance tab provides a range of options, including polling rate adjustment, macOS compatibility mode, and Windows key lock. It also provides a "stability mode," key repeat optimization for multiple presses of the same key, dynamic calibration (which attempts to automatically calibrate keys in the background), and a "berserk mode," which unlocks a 0.01 mm Rapid Trigger setting.

In addition to these performance settings and basic actuation adjustment, this keyboard also supports more advanced features, found under the advanced key tab, detailed below:

Rapid Trigger: This setting can dynamically adjust your switches' actuation and reset points based on distance rather than being fixed at a specific point along the keystroke. This allows for faster follow-up inputs, which can be especially beneficial in scenarios like counter-strafing in FPS games.

Rappy Snappy: Monitors a pair of keys and activates whichever one you press down further.

SOCD: Monitors a pair of keys to activate based on custom trigger parameters. The default mode only registers input from the latest activated key, but there are additional parameters below:

• Last Input Priority: The last activated key takes priority over the previous activated key.
• Priority (key 1): The first designated key always takes priority over the second.
• Priority (key 2): The second designated key always takes priority over the first.
• Cancel Mode: When both monitored keys are pressed, neither activates.

Note: Using SOCD may not be allowed in some competitive online games, such as Counter-Strike 2.

DKS (dynamic keystroke): Allows you to map up to four different actions to a single key based on actuation distance.

Hold/Tap (MT): Designates a given key with two functions: one when you hold the key and another when you only tap it.

Toggle Key: Allows you to set a key to act as a toggle switch to register continuous input. Tapping the key turns this behavior on or off.

In macOS, you can use the web-based software using Chrome-based browsers. However, we noted during testing that when the macOS compatibility mode option is enabled in the software, the keyboard is limited to 6KRO. Additionally, the actuation point visualizer in the software doesn't accurately display keypresses. Otherwise, all functions work as expected.

For Linux users, all functions work as expected, but you'll need to adjust your udev permissions to use the web-based software. You can find basic instructions from this Reddit thread.