Apple’s new keyboard and mouse, reviewed

It’s such a rare pleasure these days to read about a new Apple product in the morning — one which was a total surprise, unspoiled by supply chain leaks or Apple’s rigid iOS product cycle — and carry one out of an Apple Store that afternoon.

The new iMacs announced today are cool and all, but I am all about keyboards and mice. Literally, if I were to die today, and someone came into my attic to learn what I was about, they would see the pile of input devices and conclude I was some kind of professional keyboard tester.

Earlier, between meetings, I ducked over to the Apple Store in NYC’s Meatpacking District to buy the new Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse 2. (They didn’t have the Magic Trackpad 2; I’ll pick that one up later.)

This is my review.

Magic Keyboard

Apple refreshed their wireless keyboard for the first time since 2011, and changed its form factor for the first time since 2007. If that doesn’t deserve a “finally”, I don’t know what does. What used to be simply, prosaically called the Apple Wireless Keyboard is now called the Magic Keyboard, out of what I assume is just a desire for consistency with its siblings, the Magic Trackpad 2 and Magic Mouse 2. There is nothing magical about this keyboard; it’s just simple, good, and well-made.

I’ve owned both of the last two Apple wireless keyboard designs, both of which were decent, if not exemplary. That said, I haven’t used one day to day in over two years. My current keyboards of choice (besides the one permanently attached to my MacBook Pro) are:

• Logitech’s K811, a wireless, rechargeable model that’s been mentioned in nearly every single Magic Keyboard review as a superior, cheaper option. That’s hard to deny. Apart from having beaten Apple to rechargeable batteries by over a year, Logitech’s current keyboards have an “Easy Switch” feature that lets you pair them with up to three Bluetooth-enabled devices, and switch between them with a simple button-press. Needless to say, the Magic Keyboard does not do this. The K811 is also not as nice-looking as the Magic Keyboard, or at least, it is not as Jonathan Ive-designed-looking.
• The CODE keyboard, a giant, hulking, mechanical keyboard, with clicky keys that never fail to annoy co-workers on conference calls. I bought it to replace a smaller, quieter Filco keyboard, partly because the Filco didn’t have backlit keys, and the CODE does. (Speaking of: the Magic Keyboard’s keys are not backlit. The K811's are backlit. If you care about having key backlighting, feel free to skip the Magic Keyboard.)

So, what’s new and different about the Magic Keyboard? Well, it’s rechargeable. Not only that, it recharges via a Lightning port, similar to the upcoming Apple Pencil, or for that matter, the iPhone. Not only that, but plugging the keyboard into your computer seamlessly and automatically pairs the two devices. Plug the thing in for half a second and you can skip a solid minute of Bluetooth hassle. Apple claims that if you plug it in for a whole minute, you get a day’s worth of working battery life, via the same quick-charging behavior as the iPhone, Watch, and Pencil. Here’s a cool thing: if you leave it plugged in, it becomes a regular USB keyboard.

Apart from that is the new form factor, which is ridiculously minimalist. It’s a very short, shallow keyboard. It’s not as flat as the keys on the New MacBook, but there is definitely less travel and a more solid feeling than a regular MacBook keyboard. The keys are bigger and less generously spaced. Overall, for such a thin keyboard, it feels good to type on.

The Magic Keyboard retails for $99, which is a lot for a keyboard. The K811 costs less and does more. The CODE costs more, and does the same stuff, only louder. One thing I will point out about Apple’s ridiculous new peripherals pricing is that all three Magic devices ship with Apple-made Lightning cables in the box. Apple sells Lightning cables for $20 by themselves, so feel free to factor that into your assessments of value.

Is it worth a hundred bucks? Let me put it this way: it’s a solid keyboard. It’s extremely easy to set up and use. If you own an iMac, having a Magic Keyboard is a no-brainer. (Literally — starting today, new iMacs ship with one in the box.) Otherwise, it probably comes down to things like size and feel. There is no keyboard this thin that feels this good, and because it’s so thin, it should be easy to carry around with an iPad. Right now, I’m typing on it even though my computer is a laptop, because I like the short key travel, I like the quiet, and I prefer the feeling of my walnut desk under my palms to my laptop’s greasy, dirty aluminum.

I digress. Is it worth a hundred bucks? If you’re asking that question, then no, it probably is not. I bought one anyway. I think I like it.

Magic Mouse 2

After originally being so, so excited to get one — I remember annoying my co-workers at my last job about how Apple was putting multi-touch into a mouse back in 2010— I had put my original Magic Mouse into deep, deep storage for years while I used mostly trackpads, but also a succession of big, ugly, powerful Logitech mice.

It ends up that stuff like Word documents and Keynote decks, which you’d think are just fine with a trackpad, are a lot nicer to deal with if you’re using a mouse. (For one thing, you can scroll through a document with one finger on a mouse, whereas an Apple trackpad requires two.)

The Magic Mouse crept its way back into my daily use — and into my daily carry bag — because though it’s not the most versatile mouse around, and it ran through AA batteries like water, it was one of the more reliable Bluetooth mice that was also very convenient to carry around.

With the Magic Mouse 2, Apple has made it rechargeable. That’s it. I suspect that they have added weight somewhere inside, because it feels no different than my old, non-rechargeable Magic Mouse.

The only major flaw to point out is that the Lightning charging port is on the bottom of the Magic Mouse 2. Here too has Apple added a quick-charging feature; they say you can get up to a full day’s charge in about a minute. That helps to mitigate the annoyance of having to stop what you’re doing and flip the mouse over to charge it; I guess everyone could use a mandatory one-minute coffee break sometimes.

The Magic Mouse also has the same Lightning-based pairing as the keyboard, which works just as nicely. Obviously, you can’t use the mouse over USB, but if you’re the sort of person who wants a corded mouse even some of the time, you probably are not an Apple customer to begin with. (Razer makes very nice mice for those customers; their latest model even has color-changing disco lights! Ask me how I know this.)

Anyway, it’s a Magic Mouse. You can probably get a better or cheaper mouse, but this is the one Apple sells. It’s solid. It’s $79, which is no better or worse than before, and you get a free Lightning cable. Seriously, this is worth considering, because you really can’t have enough of them, and 3rd party Lightning cables are total shit.

Conclusion

Most of you, I would hope, do not suffer from my compulsion to try new input devices the day they’re announced. (Let me know if you do — we can start a support group. I can make flyers. It’ll give me a chance to use the Wacom tablet sitting at the bottom of my closet.) Accordingly, I would expect that very few of you will be as excited as I am to be typing a Medium post on a $99 keyboard whose main feature is a millimeter less key travel.

I am excited, though, and I’m happy I have this keyboard and mouse. Apple has always made solid (if overpriced) peripherals, that (if nothing else) look more elegant and less garish than cheaper, more functional competitors. The design aspect would be annoying if the devices didn’t feel solid and work as advertised. But they do.

If you’re in the market for a Mac keyboard, and aren’t scared off by the $99 price tag, and aren’t drawn to other specialty features like key backlighting, Easy Switching, or mechanical doom switches, I recommend the Magic Keyboard highly. It is an excellent default keyboard. (And, if you are the sort of person who prefers deafening Cherry MX switches, I recommend keeping a Magic Keyboard around to type on during conference calls. Obviously, if you’re buying ridiculous clicky keyboards, $99 is not going to be a problem for you.)

As for the Magic Mouse 2, that’s easier: if you were gonna buy a Magic Mouse before, the Magic Mouse 2 is mostly the same, better and less annoying in many respects, at the same price. Like the Magic Keyboard, it’s a fine default for Mac users who need a mouse, don’t enjoy setup hassles, and don’t have any particular preferences to satisfy.