My expertise with Apple’s Magic Keyboard for the Mac has been a admire-abominate dispute, at simplest. It is slim, silent, gives an silent scissor-change, and serves the Contact ID convenience. What’s no longer to admire?
Smartly, for starters, the asking model is a steep $200, which is honest too grand for a non-mechanical keyboard. There’s never such a thing as a backlight. It is never any longer ergonomic. The looks, even supposing understated, are bland.
Merely months into splurging on it, I modified it with a mechanical keyboard for my Mac setup. Nonetheless typing on a mechanical keyboard that used to be destined for gaming wasn’t precisely variety to my fingers.
That is, till I found out the Satechi SM3 Slim, a low-profile mechanical keyboard that is quite tailor-made for Mac productiveness. It gave me all the pieces Apple couldn’t, for nearly half of the model.
Oodles of charm, and substance to head with it
Satechi has been making unbelievable gear focused at Apple gear for a whereas now. Their Mac Studio sinful is a perfect making an attempt section of purposeful add-on, and I seriously admire their trio wireless charging equipment. The keyboard, nevertheless, is an altogether various ball game.
With the SM3 Slim, Satechi didn’t scuttle the signature matching Apple aesthetics. As a substitute, the logo created its possess two-tone fashion language whereas fixing a couple of of the largest flaws of Apple’s costly keyboard.
To birth with, the construct is salvage, because of an aluminum frame. The whole equipment, nevertheless, isn’t too fleshy, as a result of polycarbonate sinful. The resting top profile is over twice that of the Magic Keyboard for Macs.
It’s no longer grand of a controversy, but there’s a kickstand under to finish the elevation you wish for a cheerful wrist enlighten. And oh, it’s backlit, one thing Apple’s keyboard sorely misses out on.
The toes are no longer step-locked, which implies you would per chance presumably’t alter the incline top. What you salvage is a sole elevated profile, or a flat platform. It wasn’t a dispute for me, but you need to to take a look at it out in person, if conceivable, sooner than splurging on it.
You would possibly be ready to alter the brightness ranges and opt from over a dozen backlight patterns. I usually work in a depressing room for optimum immersion, and it used to be somewhat a train of relief to gaze that the Satechi keycaps were backlit.
The optical passthrough by the keycaps is sufficiently lustrous, even at mid-settings. Ought to you’re questioning, sure, there are devoted keys integrated with the purposeful row for backlight adjustment.
It fills quite a lot of gaps
This is a chubby 108-key structure we’re speaking about, and happily, the deck is fundamental ample for clearly demarcated key islands. The route, page control, and the number pad are successfully spaced.
You moreover salvage devoted shortcut keys for connection switching, playback controls, and mode commerce, among others. Talking about connectivity, the suite is form of decked out on the Satechi SM3 Slim keyboard.
It can perhaps also be paired with as much as four gadgets straight away, and switching between them is quite seamless. I on the whole support my iPad shut to my computing desk, and didn’t face any troubles switching the enter across.
Despite the incontrovertible truth that I did idea a couple of occasional enter lags at some level of instrument switching. For wireless connections, you would per chance presumably either opt between the twin Bluetooth 5.0 lane or the two.4 GHz channel. I care for this flexibility, and so will any other one who prefers a tidy desktop see devoid of a wired mess.
I prefer wired enter, so the bundled USB-C cable used to be my most neatly-favored connection route to the Mac. On the other hand, I moreover outdated skool it for a whereas with my Windows PC, and for that setup, the two.4 GHz receiver came in helpful.
Forms admire a tender charm
Let’s focus on about the typing expertise, which is the loyal differentiator here. Satechi has geared up the SM3 Slim with in-home brown switches. Now, there are each and each correct and unhealthy aspects to this implies.
These are proprietary switches, which implies whenever you happen to escape into mechanical points, your handiest option is to contact Satechi customer crimson meat up for replacement items. 2d, these are no longer scorching-swappable, even supposing it shouldn’t topic grand to the goal viewers that is predominantly attempting to acquire it for productiveness.
On the decided aspect, the switches provide a stress-free typing expertise, despite being low-profile. It’s no longer somewhat as fluid as linear switches, but even after working all day, you obtained’t in actuality feel the tardiness that on the whole comes with engaged on mechanical keyboards.
The keys provide an acceptable 2.6mm of vertical streak, and the actuation power value 50gf moreover sits within the comfort territory. The keycaps like a perfect making an attempt inward curve that gives huge resting enlighten for the fingertips.
On a comparative imprint, the actuation level is registered at a vertical depth of 1.4mm, which is a small bit above doubtlessly the most necessary streak you salvage on the MacBook keyboard and a bunch of other laptops available within the market. So, whenever you happen to are starting your streak with a mechanical keyboard, the Satechi SM3 Slim is perchance the most subtle and rewarding transition route.
Suggestions from the switches is satisfyingly springy, and the inward press is moreover quite reassuring. You would possibly be ready to almost in actuality feel the actuation level, which goes a lengthy map at guaranteeing that the keystroke has been registered and you didn’t escape into the proverbial case of a ghost press.
One more good thing about the spend of the brown switches is that they’re quite aloof. And as a result of low-profile structure and the originate undersides, the sound dissipation is moreover quite subtle and no longer as annoyingly clicky as gaming keyboards with blue or inexperienced switches.
Satechi gives further keycaps within the bundle for switching the Dispute and Probability keys with those identical to a Windows structure. Fortunately, you don’t want a tool to take away the keycaps.
Simply pull around the keycap edges and gently press the new ones in enlighten. With a easy keyboard shortcut, you would per chance presumably change the enter mode between the two platforms. Now, this bit is form of controversial, but I love that there’s no further app fervent here.
It’s a easy trot-and-play ability, and handiest a couple of keyboard shortcuts to ease you into your workflow. On the flip aspect, you would per chance presumably’t fashion custom shortcuts. Individually, I don’t tips, since here’s an unabashedly all-work, no-play keyboard.
It’s an effortless opt
Priced at $119.ninety nine, the Satechi SM3 Slim is an silent option for any desktop setup. For getting work done, it’s a long way more versatile and inherently superior to the Magic Keyboard. There are quite a lot of connectivity alternatives to opt from, and the keyboard is backlit with a brightness control perk.
The construct quality is sturdy, the switches provide a nice stage-up within the typing expertise, and the multi-instrument connectivity is an underrated convenience. The best walk away out is Contact ID, but I’m in a position to commerce that out for a password enter if the the leisure of the equipment is inviting.
My handiest advice need to you walk on-line for this one? Decide the Light color option, which gives an silent two-tone white-grey color combo. The dim shade I obtained for myself is terribly a looker, too, nevertheless it doesn’t match my desktop styling.