Most keyboards today are not at all mechanical. When you push a key, it pushes two different membranes all at the same time, telling your Mac to produce one letter.
With mechanical switches, you have physical switches producing and sending an electrical current which in turn makes them sound louder and you know that you have pressed a key. This is why many people are getting mechanical keyboards because the “mushy” keyboards are not really responsive. This is the same with Mac keyboards – their membrane style keys are uncomfortable to type on and have a low tactile response.
So, for those mechanical keyboard nerds out there, here is a list of the best mechanical keyboards for macs.
DAS KEYBOARD 4 PROFESSIONAL
The Das keyboard will make you hear and feel every single stroke as you type on your keyboard. It offers two models – the Cherry MX Blue and the Cherry MX Brown. The Cherry MX blue will give you an audible click and tactile feedback as for the Cherry MX Brown, the click is not very audible, but you sure will get the tactile feedback.
CHERRY MX CLEAR – ILLUMINATED CODE 104-KEY MECHANICAL KEYBOARD
Another one of the best mac mechanical keyboards is the Cherry MX Clear – illuminated code 104- key mechanical keyboard. We love this for the lovely backlighting besides the tactile feedback. Clear may not be a popular option in the market right now but trust me; you will love the smooth ride while feeling every single stroke. Since the LEDs in full white have seven different brightness levels, you can adjust it to your liking.
CHERRY MX BROWN – KUL ES- 87 MECHANICAL TENKEYLESS KEYBOARD
This one is great for those of you who have minimal desk space or just prefers a compact number pad. This is one of the best mac mechanical keyboards for those of you who are avid gamers, professionals, and just simple power users. This one is for the productive people who love the sound and feel of the clickety-clack as they are hard at work in front of the computer. The extendable feet will enable you to adjust the height of ES- 87 to make it more comfortable for you.
MATIAS QUIET PRO
The Quite Pro from Matias features a very quiet keystroke on top of the traditional and curbed keys. With this, you can stay in home position that is both comfortable and ergonomic all at the same time. The dedicate mute keys and volume up and down are also some of its popular features along with the characters which are burned and laser etched into every single key so that you will no longer have to deal with the problem of fading letters.
CHERRY MX BLUE – LOGITECH G710
This one is for the blue key lovers. It is dedicated for gamers, so it is clicky and highly responsive. You can separately adjust the WASD brightness from the board, and you can also configure the 6 G keys to 18 different types of actions for each game. Both the gamers and the writers are in love with the anti-ghosting keys because most of them have the habit of key mashing sometimes. With just a one-touch key media you can also control the volume and playback on the media in just a snap. This is definitely a must-have for the serious gamer.
KG010 EAGLETEC
The KG010 Eagletec is versatile enough to fit the needs of both the gamer and the professional worker. If you work late at night, you will love the backlit keyboard and the splash-proof keys. The fully numeric pad is also another bonus for you. If you love to work or play in style, you will certainly find this as the best with the eight different lighting options to choose from like the silver, white, blue, rainbow lighting, etc.
APEX M750 STEELSERIES
The Apex M750 Steelseries is probably the best mechanical keyboards for Macs among the gamers because it has the brand’s own switches “QX2”. This one is quite similar to the switches that you will find in Cherry MX Red. What makes this a winner is the companion software which will enable you to customize the overall backlighting effects just like a reaction to a game scenario. With the engine software, you can also control the overall settings of the device like other SteelSeries accessories.
That concludes our list of the best Mac mechanical keyboard alternatives. For a more in-depth review of these keyboards, I highly recommend checking out this excellent buying guide. It goes into great detail of why a Mac user would want to switch over to mechanical keyboards instead of using those crumby default membrane ones.
