Apple's best keyboard, but smaller

August 01, 2022

For some strange reason, I can only touch-type on keyboards with very long key travel.

Usually, I'm a hunt-and-peck typist who pecks away with a couple of fingers. It's slow and painful.

But sit me in front of an ancient old typewriter with keys that travel inches, and I can type with 10 fingers and don't need to look at what I'm doing.

I'm not fast, and there are lots of errors, but for some reason I can type in a way I can't with a modern, low-travel keyboard.

Why? No idea!

It's unfortunate, because the keyboard I use the most is a modern, chiclet-style Apple keyboard with built-in Touch ID.

I did try a clacky old computer keyboard that sounded like machine-gun fire as I tapped out emails, but it didn't work great for touch-typing: mostly because it had small, round keys, I think.

So I'm intrigued by the Matias Mini Tactile Pro, a modern update of the best keyboard Apple ever made -- the long-lamented Apple Extended Keyboard II.

The Apple Extended was a mechanical keyboard with springs below the keys, not rubbery buttons, and is much, much loved by aficionados.

We put the Matias Mini Tactile Pro keyboard through its paces to see if it held up. Read on to see the results.

-- Leander Kahney, EIC.

In its entire 46-year history, Apple has made only one truly great keyboard: the Apple Extended Keyboard II. Dating from 1987, the Apple Extended Keyboard II has been dubbed "the greatest computer keyboard of all time." The Matias Mini Tactile Pro keyboard is the Extended Keyboard’s spiritual successor: a modern mechanical keyboard in a mini package that plays nice with modern Macs.

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One more thing ...

"I've always wanted to own and control the primary technology in everything we do," -- Steve Jobs

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