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Apple’s Magic Keyboard Has A Rival With The Superb New Logitech MX Keys

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This article is more than 4 years old.

If you use a Mac desktop or laptop featuring one of Apple’s keyboards with a low-profile butterfly scissor-mechanism, you'll know they haven’t exactly met with universal praise. There’s been so much criticism of Apple's keyboards that the brand-new 16-inch Mac Pro laptop now features a completely redesigned mechanism.

The main criticisms of Apple’s keyboards are the lack of key travel and the temperamental nature of the scissor mechanism beneath each key. This has been the cause of much cursing and countless typos. Fortunately, the latest Apple Magic Keyboards for Mac desktops have been redesigned to include greater travel in the keys. However, the price of one of these full-size keyboards with a numeric keypad is am eyewatering £149/$139, which is rather a lot of money for what is a fairly basic wireless keyboard that doesn’t even feature a backlight.

With this in mind, I thought I’d cast my eye around for a substitute keyboard that not only costs less than Apple’s Magic keyboard but which offers more in terms of features and flexibility, yet would still be compatible with the Apple layout that Mac users are used to.

Logitech has been making great keyboards and mice for many years now and the company has a good reputation for reliability and great ergonomic design. The latest premium wireless keyboard from Logitech is the MX Keys, a beautifully ergonomic and full-sized keyboard that’s fine with both Macs and PCs, plus the MX Keys has a backlight and the ability to switch between up to three separate devices, meaning you need only one keyboard to operate a Mac, a PC, and a tablet.

The Logitech MX Keys can work as a wireless keyboard – using a tiny USB dongle that plugs into a Mac or PC – or you can opt to use Bluetooth for the wireless connection instead. This makes the MX Keys ideal for using with something like an iPad as well as a desktop computer. The USB wireless dongle is what Logitech calls a Unifying Receiver. That means it can work with more than one compatible Logitech item at once and only needs the one receiver for working with a mouse and a keyboard.

MX Keys uses a small piece of software called Logi Options that can reassign special keystrokes to the function keys on the top row of the keyboard. As well as offering the same macOS system keys as Apple’s Magic Keyboard, the keys can also be customized for individual software applications. For instance, if you want to change a word from upper case to lower case in Microsoft word with one keystroke, you can assign that keystroke function to one of the keys.

The Logi Options software also has other settings for the keyboard layout or whether the backlight is on or off.  The keyboard also has three Easy-Switch keys for switching between other devices. For example, you could set up the Easy-Switch 1 key to work with a Mac, using the Logitech Unifying Receiver, while the Easy-Switch 2 key could be made to work with a PC via Bluetooth with a PC layout. It’s an incredibly useful and flexible piece of software that turns the MX Keys into a really productive keyboard.

The quality of the key switches on the MX Keys is superbly fluid. There’s plenty of travel in the keys and each key is dished to fit the tips of the typist’s fingers better. The pitch of the keyboard is a little wider than the smaller Apple Magic keyboard but it didn’t take too long for me to get used to the larger width keyboard.

Perhaps the biggest attraction of the Logitech MX Keys for most users will be its backlight. There’s a proximity sensor built into the keyboard that illuminates the keys as soon as a hand goes near them. The backlight is a white LED and it’s great if you’re working in low light levels or if your hands are casting a shadow over the keys. The backlight can be placed in an energy-saving mode which turns it down or off when the ambient light in the room is bright enough for the backlight not to be needed.

The energy-saving setting extends the charge of the MX Keys built-in lithium-ion battery so that it lasts longer between top-ups. A rechargeable wireless keyboard is far better for the environment and a single charge of the MX Keys will last for up to 10 days with the backlight turned on all the time. Turn the backlight off and the battery will last for an incredible 5 months. Recharging is via a USB-C port at the rear of the keyboard, plus there’s an on/off switch that will turn the keyboard off completely if it isn’t going to be used for a while.

Verdict: The Logitech MX Keys keyboard is probably the best Mac-friendly keyboard on the market. I love the fact that it can be used via the 2.4GHz Unifying Receiver or Bluetooth. The three Easy-Switch keys mean the Logitech MX Keys can effortlessly switch between macOS, Windows, Linux, Android or iOS devices. The backlight is incredibly handy, and the rechargeable battery means you need never worry about the keyboard dying on you for want of a couple of AA batteries.

Pricing: £105.30 / $99.99 / €109.99

More info:  www.logitech.com

Specifications:

·      Dimensions: 131.63 x 430.2 x 20.5 mm (H x W x D)

·      Weight: 810 g

·      Connectivity: USB receiver or Bluetooth. 

·      Distance: 10 meters 

·      Easy-switch keys connect up to three devices

·      Hand proximity sensors turn on backlighting

·      Ambient light sensors for adjusting backlighting brightness

·      USB-C rechargeable

·      On/Off power switch

·      Caps Lock and Battery indicator lights

·      Compatible with Logitech Flow-enabled mouse

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