Apple's Mini Wireless Keyboard Review
- Product:
- Apple Wireless Keyboard (company site)
- What’s Good:
- Quiet, Small, No Numeric Pad, Key Layout
- What’s Bad:
- No USB Version
When I bought my first Wacom Tablet about 5 years ago, my biggest complaint has been the width of keyboards and how it felt like my hands were too far apart. It has also been awkward to type with the center of the keyboard always pushed to the left and I wanted something as comfortable as working directly on a laptop/tablet combination.
Apple finally made that wish come true with a new keyboard that does not have the numeric pad. It is small, light, maintains a similar key layout found on the MacBooks and most importantly, fits nicely against a 6x8 tablet.
It's quiet. The sound of keyboard clicking is annoying and unlike the previous white plastic model, the keys are as quiet or maybe even better then the MacBook. It's a huge improvement.
The slim size did take some time getting use to. The keyboard is very low to the desk and is much more responsive compared to other keyboards. I have been using it full time now for a few weeks and no longer miss keystrokes.
The caps lock feature is supposedly updated so only a firm press will turn it on preventing accidental clicks. This may be true if you have bigger fingers that overlap keys at the same time but I'm not convinced this is much of a feature. With the smaller form, I think I'm actually turning caps lock on more often now.
The key layout is great if you switch between a MacBook and desktop frequently. They are very similar with the exception of a few keys. The first is the option/alt key next to the left arrow key which is the enter key on a MacBook and the second change is the function keys. Screen brightness is still F1 and F2 but the volume controls have been moved to the right and dashboard and expose are now on the left. I'm not sure why this is but the keyboard would have been perfect if it was a complete mirror.
Battery life has been good but I have not been using it long enough to judge time. After 2 months of use, 9 hours a day, I have about 75% battery life remaining on the three included AA batteries.
There is no usb version of this keyboard and only comes wireless. The obvious disadvantage is the keyboard costs twice as much to buy and you need to keep a set of charged batteries available ready to go. Apple still does not make a wired keyboard that does not have a numeric pad.
Overall I love this keyboard and highly recommended it. It's in a league of it's own.
Comments
Steve Dinn - December 5, 2007 10:20 pm
I have seen and typed on this keyboard in the Halifax Mac Store and it does feel really nice. The best equivalent I could find for the PC is Microsoft's Wireless Entertainment Desktop 7000 (http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseandkeyboard/productdetails.aspx?pid=081).
I agree with you that I don't really need a *wireless* keyboard, but they are the only ones that seem to provide the laptop keyboard feel that we seem to commonly enjoy. Does this Apple keyboard work with a PC? I'm curious because if it does, I'd probably jump to buy one.
-Steve.
Stephen DesRoches - December 5, 2007 10:26 pm
Steve: The keyboard is bluetooth and I have not had a chance to test it on Windows. If I can find a system with bluetooth support, I'll check.
Jason - January 18, 2008 5:14 pm
I just ordered the wired version of the new keyboard (plus number pad) for my imac. I've tried them and they are an amazing improvment from the clunky white mac keyboard. I'm hoping it will be as impressive as I think.