5. Apple Magic Keyboard – Best for Intel Macs
Apple’s keyboards are a bit confusing at the moment, with two generations of keyboards available, and each generation offering two different keyboards, with or without a number pad.
The older generation of Magic Keyboards are still available and are now primarily intended for use with older Macs with Intel processors. These older keyboards do not have the Touch ID sensor available with the two new keyboards launched by Apple in summer 2021.
However, Touch ID and some of the other features of the new keyboards don’t work with Intel-based Macs. So if your Mac has an Intel processor, these older keyboards are the best options available from Apple – although, of course, there are many other keyboards available from other manufacturers, which we also review here.
The smaller Magic Keyboard may be expensive at $99/£99, but its sleek, slim design started a trend for “low-profile” keyboards that many other manufacturers are now following too.
The aluminum body feels sturdy enough, but the slim design means the keys don’t “travel” very well, so fast typists might prefer a larger keyboard that’s actually designed to do a good job rather than just to look pretty.
The space bar and small set of navigation keys in the lower right corner of the keyboard are also rather small and fiddly. To be fair, though, the small, compact keyboard packs plenty of useful features, with the top row of function keys providing controls for brightness, volume, and music playback.
The Magic Keyboard works like a standard Bluetooth keyboard, and Apple says its rechargeable battery will last about a month at a time. Like all Apple keyboards, it has a Lightning port for charging, but the latest version of the Magic Keyboard – also updated in summer 2021 – now includes a USB-C to Lightning cable, so be sure to do not buy an old model. other online stores, which may still have a USB-A cable instead (unless, of course, you have an old Mac that only has USB-A connectors).
And of course there’s the larger version, called the Magic Keyboard with Numpad ($129/£129). It’s also quite expensive, but adds a numeric keypad for people who need to do some serious math every now and then. This keyboard also has a larger set of navigation keys, which is very useful for scrolling through long documents or web pages, and an additional set of navigation keys that allow you to quickly navigate to the top or at the bottom of a document.
The larger keyboard layout also means there’s room for additional function keys, going up to F19 (rather than F12 for the smaller Magic Keyboard). It’s a shame, however, that macOS’s options for programming your own keyboard shortcuts are quite limited, so power users may prefer to use a third-party utility, such as USB OverDrive or HotKey App, to make full use of these additional functions. keys. This larger keyboard has the same one-month battery life as the smaller Magic Keyboard, although it’s showing its age a bit because (surprisingly) its charging cable still has a USB-A connector.
You can find the best prices for Apple keyboards and mice in our deals summary.
