If you buy a Mac Studio or a Mac Mini, you get nothing.
No display, no Magic Mouse, and no keyboard.
As Steve Jobs put it, it's BYODKM.
On one hand, it's a little annoying that your brand new computer isn't usable out
of the box. On the other, you, a Mac user, can now venture beyond the Magic Keyboard and choose, or
make, something much, much better.
What a dream. This should be easy.
Meet Nicholas Plouffe. He's a writer from the Orange Channel who loves keyboards.
He loves keyboards so much, he's the go-to guy for ShortCircuit videos on the subject.
He loves keyboards so much, he set up a workstation in his home devoted entirely to the making
and modifying of them. It's one of those things where you see a picture of something on someone's desk and
you're like, wow, that looks really cool. Once you experience it and you feel the jump in quality that comes with a much nicer, custom
mechanical keyboard, it's just like a rabbit hole.
He loves keyboards so much, that's what he streams about.
God, watching that sounds like something second only to paint drying.
This is why he's going to be helping me out in this journey to find the perfect keyboard
because there are a lot.
Hey, you're the keyboard guy.
Sure. And there are a couple of new Macs that don't come with keyboards.
That's crazy. So I'm wondering if you can help show me the world of mechanical keyboards.
What do you need on your keyboard? I want it to sound exactly like the keyboard from the Sims 1.
That's like really mechanical and funky. And it sounds like Buckling Spring, like a Model M or something like that.
I don't know if that's possible. Okay, so where do we start?
Keyboard from the Sims sounds like an abomination. What do you mean?
It doesn't sound like an abomination. It does. It sounds amazing.
No, I hate it. But the game was so good. Yeah, the game was good. That doesn't mean the keyboard sound is good.
Oh, so like these things? No, don't use those.
Are there more? Yes. Even Mac users are spoiled for choice.
Wait, what are you doing? I'm not done yet. There's a lot to consider if you're looking to get into keyboards.
The feel of a mechanical keyboard is largely driven by the switch you choose.
These are browns. You don't want these. What kind of switches do you like?
The Sim switches. We're not going to find those. I don't like that.
Vulcan. You don't like this? There's also a layout.
What about this layout where they're all aligned? That's ortho-linear.
Like teeth? The numpad's on the left side?
Yeah. Why are there two space bars? Because if you want two space bars, why not?
It's just not Mac layout, but that's kind of nifty looking. And then there's the endless variety of qualities like case material and color.
Where's the white keyboards? This should be good, right? No.
This is full mechanical. Those feel like rubber dome. The type of plate you want to use.
How it's mounted. Yeah, they put that on the bottom. And even weight.
That's heavy. These are all things that help contribute to how the keyboard feels under your fingers.
That's it? One of these drop boards. A drop board?
Where's the new fee? Well, he's a mountain. A mountain?
Yeah, a mountain. This is a mountain. There you go.
Maybe you like the TKL. I picked the blues for you.
Kale blues. I like the clicky stuff. Is that going to sound like the Sims?
No. What's in that suitcase? Oh, you want this?
You want the cyberboard? Okay, don't drop this. It's expensive.
You good? Yeah. Cool.
Where are we going? Oh my God. Why is this lit up?
This is the group of keyboards Ploof has piled on me to take to the lab.
It's a diverse lot and as interesting as they look, I want to start off by getting his
thoughts on Apple's option. To give ourselves something to compare to, let's start with the Magic Keyboard.
Touch ID. I think it's $200. What?
$200. Did you watch that episode of NCAX? Oh yeah, the double hacking?
Yeah. It's not mechanical, huh? It's just kind of a chiclet.
Chiclet style. I hate the fingerprint reader stuff.
It's great. The clickiness of it for what it is is actually pretty decent.
I think it's perfectly fine. From the keyboard person, and considering all the keyboard options there are, would
you suggest to a Mac user to skip this and go elsewhere?
The only reason I would ever tell them to get this is if they want the ultimate importability.
Take this out of here. I don't want it out of my sight. I don't want to look at it.
You're so nice about it. It's fine.
I'm just being elitist. This is the grand irony is that the PC people, particularly in keyboard circles, are elitist.
What I think most normal people are going to do is they're going to go straight to their
Logitech store and they're going to get one of these.
I don't like Logitech keyboards for the most part, which is crazy because I love Logitech
mice and I love Logitech headsets as well. This is literally the MX for Mac.
Wow, crazy. I should note that they just expanded the lineup of Mac specific keyboards and mice.
It comes in a nice silver to go with your... It's not space gray.
I like the silver. I like the silver and the off-white.
I don't like the typing experience though. No?
No, not at all. It feels gross. It feels great.
What? What about the... Compared to the Magic Keyboard?
I'd take the Magic Keyboard over this. Really? Yeah.
Thanks for those options, Jonathan. But I want to show you what a really nice keyboard looks, sounds, and feels like.
So how much is that one? This one's about five or six hundred dollars and this one's also about five or six hundred
dollars. For this, you're really paying a lot for the screen here and this one is kind of just
pure quality. This is so... I know.
I love it. That's my favorite right now. It's eight pounds?
Eight point two. Yeah. This is a similar like seven...
What are these? Ivory? No.
Those are ceramic. Those you buy separately. You buy the keycap separately.
I ruined it with my grimy hands.
Pretty nice keyboard still. It doesn't sound like the Sims though. No.
No, no, no. This is a linear keyboard. Like this is also linear.
But these are all linear. So these are probably all linear. Yeah.
So what is linear? Linear is a type of key switch. There are three types.
Linear, tactile, and clicky. If you're looking at cherry switches, the linears are going to be red, the browns are
going to be tactile, and the blues are going to be clicky.
And this is kind of works for other brands as well. The linear ones, you can press down on the key and it moves smoothly to the end.
They're also good for typing. I like typing on linear sometimes. It's good for people who don't want anything getting in the way of their kills, I guess.
What could be getting in the way of their kills? Feel.
There's no bump to worry about. With a tactile switch, there's a detent that you can feel as you type.
So what does this mean for my Sims keyboard? The closest thing we're going to get is either a clicky or a very heavy tactile, is my guess.
The other ones are probably going to play better with your Mac because they're specifically
made to work with Apple products.
So do you think I should just make my own keyboard? Wow.
Let me tell you. These days, it's only intimidating because a lot of people fear taking apart or putting
together small electronics. But since you're putting it together yourself, you'll know all the ins and outs of how it
works and what's inside of it. It's just a few extra screws and maybe a ribbon cable or two.
Unless you want to go to the trouble of lubing switches, it should only take an hour or two
to put together your own mechanical keyboard. Easy peasy.
This one has blue switches, so you might actually like it because it's got clickies.
Oh, this is a Mac layout. That's great. And they probably have a little switch on the side somewhere that lets you turn it from
Windows to Mac. Yeah. There you go.
So I mean, you have options. Whoa. What's with all the colors?
You get that sweet, sweet RGB. Oh my goodness.
Can I change the color? If it's not a function, then you can find software that'll let you change the color.
Is this linear? This is tactile, but it's brown.
They're annoying because the bump is incredibly minor. It feels like it's broken.
It's almost linear. No, no, no. It's not broken.
It's just a cherry brown. I think I can safely say that I do not like brown switches.
This is probably closest to your Magic Keyboard.
Yeah, but it like has a clicky switch. It's not the Sims 1, the new fee, one of my favorites.
The backlight on this just lights around the keys. It doesn't actually tell me where the keys are.
Yeah. So these are not double shot. So you can't see through them.
But it is nice to see this Mac layer and the colors are fun. A bit Google though.
Here's the thing. Okay. Apple users have a bit of history of good keyboards.
There's one keyboard I want to show you. There's actually two keyboards. There's one keyboard I want to start off with.
Excuse me. You're going to be so amazed.
You're going to be like, this is the best keyboard I've ever tried.
Wow.
This is Apple's equivalent of the IBM Auto Land.
How is it extended? The Apple Extended Keyboard 2. This keyboard uses the famed Alps switches.
Feels gross. I genuinely hate this.
I would never type on this in my life. You like this?
Maybe you should just buy a memory keyboard. Also, why are the home row keys on my middle fingers?
These Alps keys are legendary in the Apple circles.
That's cool. I don't like them. Yeah, the bump is so mushy and I don't like the recessed caps lock.
Why is this? Oh, it just sticks. That's old.
That's fine. That's what they used to be like. Don't you remember using these as a kid?
I do remember using these because I grew up using the Apple 2s and stuff because my school
was broke. So you can't get this keyboard anymore, but there is a Canadian keyboard manufacturer
that manufactures Alps keyswitches. Maybe I like Alps switches that aren't 30 years old.
Maybe they're just old. Let me go again. Maybe if they're fresh, they're not this mushy.
Matias is a small outfit based in Canada. They have worked to keep the spirit of the Apple Extended Keyboard alive.
For instance, when the Alps switch was at risk of going out of production, they bought
a million switches to keep their keyboards alive.
And when production eventually did end, they loved the feel of the Alps switch so much
that they designed and manufactured their own. This is the Matias Tactile Pro and then the Laptop Pro, which has the quiet click key
switch. What makes it a laptop pro? It's smaller.
It's wireless. Oh, it's wireless. And does it use lightning?
No. It uses Micro-B. What?
Oh my God. They told me it's based off the simple Alps. I like these a lot more than I like these because these are snappier and don't feel as
mushy on the very bottom out. This is pretty close to the sims.
Oh my God.
It is.
It's like exactly the same. It's all a lot in the space bar. You get that ker-chunk in the space bar.
I am so amazed. I found it.
I can't believe it. But do you want to type on this all day? Yes.
Your choice. That's the beauty of it. I always wanted to be a sim.
It's really good. It's fresh. It'll whoop at us now.
Yeah, that's pretty good. It's like a how-to-han and that. For the Mac user, what do you think is the best keyboard for them?
So there's no perfect answer. Everyone's going to have different needs. So really, this is the sky's the limit.
It's sky's the limit. It's a giant rabbit hole that you can just dive right into and get lost completely.
The mechanical keyboard world is full of a dizzying array of choice.
It can be quite overwhelming, but also very personal.
It's nice to be able to choose for yourself. And if you know what you want, you can find the perfect one.
Like this. I can't believe it sounds like the Sims.
Thanks for typing out this Mac Address. If you like the sound of this keyboard, give this video a like.
And if you would rebel against the Magic Keyboard and get any of the alternatives, you might
as well subscribe. Now in the comments, I'm curious what keyboard would you choose or is there one you really
like that we didn't try out? Pop it down below.