Newly Released Matias Mini Tactile Pro Keyboard for Mac, Version 5

I really wanted to like this keyboard. I looked at a lot of different tenkeyless boards and settled on this one due to some great reviews. Unfortunately, after two days I'm returning it. It works, but as someone who cares about key feel this is basically unusable. Given the price, there's no justification.First, the good. It's reasonably good looking. I wasn't sure from the photos whether it would look alright in person and I was pleasantly surprised. It's much sleeker than the photos suggest. The build quality is good - the board is heavy enough to feel solid and has no flex. It shipped with two different USB cords, a short and a long one, which was nice. The sound of the keys is pleasant, less sharp than Cherry Blues that I'm more used to.Now the bad.Some commenters had said the USB connector on the back of the board was iffy. I can confirm this. Getting the USB cord to actually fit in the connector took a lot of work. It seems that the connector is somewhat recessed from the plastic casing of the board and the hole in the plastic isn't quite large enough, so I had to push the connector very hard to get it to plug in.The keys feel reasonably nice, without a lot of wobble, but the printing on the key caps is slightly raised and noticeable on your fingers. This may not be a problem for some people, but I found it bothersome. Maybe over time it would improve, either I'd get used to it or the printing would wear down a bit.All this is excusable, but the big problem is the actual key travel. The keys are completely inconsistent. The actuation point of the key is very high, somewhat higher than a Cherry MX Blue, but requiring a similar amount of pressure. It's nice, and unlike a Cherry key it seems to offer slightly more resistance past the actuation point, which helps prevent heavy typists from bottoming out quite so hard. I could imagine that this would help to prevent finger fatigue. However, on some keys this only applies if you hit the key dead center. Some are better than others, but I found the V key, which my finger naturally hits in the top left corner, wouldn't register at all because it requires so much force. It feels like plastic sliding on plastic and sticking. If I had to guess on the effort, I'd put the regular dead-center resistance at 60-70g, and the corner resistance at 200g. It's really that bad and completely unusable. This affects most keys to some extent, though those with stabilizers (space, return, shift) seem fine. 150% width keys (command, control, tab, etc) seem very prone to it. The backslash key on mine is the worst of all, probably needing in the range of 250-300g force in the top left corner.For this price it's simple unacceptable to have this level of quality control. Very disappointing.

Generally I would give this a perfect 5. As is, the product I purchased is working beautifully right now. It is taking a little bit of time to get used to the key spacing. A tad different, as one would imagine, from the longer keyboard. I needed a smaller footprint due to new desktop constraints. The key placement affects me as a heavy VI user (using HJKL for movement). The keys are offset compared to the larger Matias Quiet Pro. Meaning I hit J when I want H, etc... Not a defect, just a user adjustment.The only reason for not 5 stars is I figured this is the best way to get attention that I really desired a backlit option for the keyboard. In reviewing the one or two other tactile Mac keyboards (I want my Mac symbols not just compatible non-descript keys), I still felt this was an overall better product. Great keyboards. Please consider adding backlit. Not asking for crazy bells and whistles everywhere, but backlighting actually helps when you are in a shaded, darker area and not a touch typist and has been around for a while. It isn't a gimmick for all of us. Multicolor could be considered gimmicky (I use Razer Chroma for my personal/non-work Mac keyboard), but at least white backlighting, please please.

I love the keyboard for fast, reliable typing. It's noisy as hell due to the mechanical keys - so if you're on the phone talking with people while typing, they're going to hear the clickety clack. I like the compact size without a number keypad, but with the keys you need on a Mac. But I've had repeated issues with keys starting to stick/repeat etc. These occurred before the 1 year warranty was up, and they have excellent support, but it's still a big irritant to have to get a key puller [a tool the keyboard doesn't come with] and then use alcohol & dust guns to try and get them back in working order. Ultimately I've had to replace several - but I stick with it as I don't think there's another keyboard out there like the old IBM/Apple keyboards that manage to be equally tactile as well as reliable over time.

I have gone through three of these now and am giving up on finding a good one. I cannot recommend this product. Some of the keys feel excellent, but there is a lot of inconsistency. I finally got one that all of they keys actually click on (which was not the case on the previous two), but now the stabilized keys are absolutely horrible. If i press the delete key on the corner it will not even depress. I wanted to like this, but oh well. Be very weary of the reviews for this product. I don't think many people on here have gone through the hassle of purchasing the product three times and have seen just how inconsistent the quality is. Unfortunately people like to post good reviews after spending lots of money on a product. This product is definitely not worth the high price. For what this costs it should be perfect, and it is not even close. I am going to order a unicomp space saver m (mac) buckling spring keyboard to see if they key-feel is any better, even though I have heard the fit/finish is not the best. I just want something that is a joy to type on. The search continues...

Not sure if I just got a defective product or what since the other reviews were stellar, but this keyboard feels pretty awful.The space bar is REALLY sluggish if I press anywhere even slightly left of center. Won't even depress all the way if I'm hitting it way on the left. Also, half of the keys have a different weight to them than the other half. No rhyme or reason to which ones. A different half of the keys also sound different than the other half.It's not even about having poor feel or anything... the keys are inconsistent with each other on the same keyboard. Unusable in my opinion, and I will be returning this.

Best keyboard out there. Has the tactile feel I crave from the old days. Smooth motion and solidly built.