
Apple Aluminium Keyboard review (scissor switches)
- Chyros
- Location: The Netherlands
- Main keyboard: whatever I'm reviewing next :p
- Main mouse: a cheap Logitech
- Favorite switch: Alps SKCM Blue
- DT Pro Member: -
There have been quite a few requests to review one of these. Considering they turned up every week in every recycling centre I ever visited, it wasn't hard to get one of these. Hope you enjoy the video! 

- Daniel Beardsmore
- Location: Hertfordshire, England
- Main keyboard: Filco Majestouch 1 (home)/Poker II backlit (work)
- Main mouse: MS IMO 1.1
- Favorite switch: Probably not whatever I wrote here
- DT Pro Member: -
- Contact:
There are worse chiclet keyboards than that one? Seriously? Next time you find one, do the world a favour and kill it with fire. And send me one so that I can also kill one with fire.
That Apple keyboard has such short travel and so little feeling that you may as well be typing on thin air.
I used an Acer Revo One keyboard briefly the other day, and it's so much better:
http://www.computershopper.com/desktops ... -rl85-ur45
The keycaps are taller and the keys have significantly more travel and more feeling. It's still no Cherry ML, but it's at the better end of the spectrum for scissor switches. Whether it will still be smooth in a few years or whether it will get dome rot and end up feeling crunchy and rotten, I don't know.
The larger laptops of the past didn't kill anyone (except maybe if you put one in a trebuchet), so surely it's not that big of a deal to add a couple of millimetres to the height of the machine to make the keyboard usable again. After all, Apple's objective seems to be that if laptop users are forced to suffer abominable keyboards, then desktop users must share in their pain.
That Apple keyboard has such short travel and so little feeling that you may as well be typing on thin air.
I used an Acer Revo One keyboard briefly the other day, and it's so much better:
http://www.computershopper.com/desktops ... -rl85-ur45
The keycaps are taller and the keys have significantly more travel and more feeling. It's still no Cherry ML, but it's at the better end of the spectrum for scissor switches. Whether it will still be smooth in a few years or whether it will get dome rot and end up feeling crunchy and rotten, I don't know.
The larger laptops of the past didn't kill anyone (except maybe if you put one in a trebuchet), so surely it's not that big of a deal to add a couple of millimetres to the height of the machine to make the keyboard usable again. After all, Apple's objective seems to be that if laptop users are forced to suffer abominable keyboards, then desktop users must share in their pain.
- PollandAkuma
- Location: London
- Main keyboard: keyboard
- Main mouse: mouse
- Favorite switch: switch
- DT Pro Member: -
As a laptop user, Apple's chiclet is bearable, and just a rank below modern Thinkpad keyboards. I hate the super short travel of the new laptop keyboards, but find it troublesome to bottom out on a mech every time, so chiclet is a nice compromise haah
- vivalarevolución
- formerly prdlm2009
- Location: USA
- Main keyboard: IBM Beam spring
- Main mouse: Kangaroo
- Favorite switch: beam spring
- DT Pro Member: 0097
Now this is the review I have been waiting for!
- seebart
- Offtopicthority Instigator
- Location: Germany
- Main keyboard: Rotation
- Main mouse: Steelseries Sensei
- Favorite switch: IBM capacitive buckling spring
- DT Pro Member: 0061
- Contact:
I'll only watch it if Chyros swears in it, my standards are high. 

- Daniel Beardsmore
- Location: Hertfordshire, England
- Main keyboard: Filco Majestouch 1 (home)/Poker II backlit (work)
- Main mouse: MS IMO 1.1
- Favorite switch: Probably not whatever I wrote here
- DT Pro Member: -
- Contact:
Sadly, no, no hilarious tirade against this flimsy heap of rubbish … That would have made it all so worthwhile.
- seebart
- Offtopicthority Instigator
- Location: Germany
- Main keyboard: Rotation
- Main mouse: Steelseries Sensei
- Favorite switch: IBM capacitive buckling spring
- DT Pro Member: 0061
- Contact:
Ah, I see, how disappointing. Thank you for that information Daniel. Apple of all companies needs to be flamed hard. That's why that Smith-Corona video was so brilliant, some of Chyros best work yet.

- Stabilized
- Location: Edinburgh
- DT Pro Member: -
I can't believe the newer magic keyboard is selling for £100 new! There's reports that it has even less key travel then the one reviewed here.
- Chyros
- Location: The Netherlands
- Main keyboard: whatever I'm reviewing next :p
- Main mouse: a cheap Logitech
- Favorite switch: Alps SKCM Blue
- DT Pro Member: -
I'd have ranted more if it was rant-worthy :p . It's honestly not the worst I've tried, though. Basically, it could've been a lot better if they had changed everything xD .
- Tuntematon
- Location: Canada
- DT Pro Member: -
So a major American company uses the North American spelling of aluminum. Seems fair 

- Chyros
- Location: The Netherlands
- Main keyboard: whatever I'm reviewing next :p
- Main mouse: a cheap Logitech
- Favorite switch: Alps SKCM Blue
- DT Pro Member: -
- Daniel Beardsmore
- Location: Hertfordshire, England
- Main keyboard: Filco Majestouch 1 (home)/Poker II backlit (work)
- Main mouse: MS IMO 1.1
- Favorite switch: Probably not whatever I wrote here
- DT Pro Member: -
- Contact:
"Aluminum" is just as British: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium#Etymology
"mom" is used in Britain. My paternal grandmother (from the West Midlands) was "mom" to my father, while my maternal grandmother (from York) was "mam" to my mother.
"burglarize" and "burgle" are both from ca. 1870s — I guess that was a really bad time for crime in both countries?
"mom" is used in Britain. My paternal grandmother (from the West Midlands) was "mom" to my father, while my maternal grandmother (from York) was "mam" to my mother.
"burglarize" and "burgle" are both from ca. 1870s — I guess that was a really bad time for crime in both countries?
- daedalus
- Buckler Of Springs
- Location: Ireland
- Main keyboard: Model M SSK (home) HHKB Pro 2 (work)
- Main mouse: CST Lasertrack, Logitech MX Master
- Favorite switch: Buckling Spring, Beam Spring
- DT Pro Member: 0087
- Daniel Beardsmore
- Location: Hertfordshire, England
- Main keyboard: Filco Majestouch 1 (home)/Poker II backlit (work)
- Main mouse: MS IMO 1.1
- Favorite switch: Probably not whatever I wrote here
- DT Pro Member: -
- Contact:
Maybe the new ones are just pieces of cardboard with photos of keyboards printed on them. I need to check their patents more closely …
- Chyros
- Location: The Netherlands
- Main keyboard: whatever I'm reviewing next :p
- Main mouse: a cheap Logitech
- Favorite switch: Alps SKCM Blue
- DT Pro Member: -
I didn't say it's not British, I just said it's wrong :p . The only reason IUPAC considers "aluminum" as an "acceptable alternative" is because they're basically all American themselves :p . They outlawed "sulphur" for the same reason.Daniel Beardsmore wrote: "Aluminum" is just as British: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium#Etymology
And "mom" just sounds terrible when spoken in an American accent - "MAWM". Someone from the Midlunds would pronounce "mom" as fairly close to "mum" anyway, right?
- Daniel Beardsmore
- Location: Hertfordshire, England
- Main keyboard: Filco Majestouch 1 (home)/Poker II backlit (work)
- Main mouse: MS IMO 1.1
- Favorite switch: Probably not whatever I wrote here
- DT Pro Member: -
- Contact:
You said that "the Americans have done [something] to the English language" — and all they are guilty of is accepting the name that the British gave to the element, and then not playing along when we changed the name yet again. Americans didn't remove the "u" from "colour" either — that was added later in Britain to make Latin-derived -or words look more French. Most of what people spout about UK vs US spelling, especially all the anti-US sentiment, is pure nonsense. I don't like American spelling, but it's not their fault! I assume I simply prefer what I grew up with.
I don't recall hearing "mom" said with a Birmingham accent (if I did, it was too long ago), but the issue did make it briefly into the news here: http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/mi ... k-10475107
I don't recall hearing "mom" said with a Birmingham accent (if I did, it was too long ago), but the issue did make it briefly into the news here: http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/mi ... k-10475107
- Daniel Beardsmore
- Location: Hertfordshire, England
- Main keyboard: Filco Majestouch 1 (home)/Poker II backlit (work)
- Main mouse: MS IMO 1.1
- Favorite switch: Probably not whatever I wrote here
- DT Pro Member: -
- Contact:
I have no idea either … I can't figure out what's wrong with you.
-
- Location: New Jersey
- Main keyboard: Ergodox
- Main mouse: Razer Naga
- Favorite switch: Box Jade
- DT Pro Member: -
I like to say al-u-minium like a brit because it's fun and everyone in chemistry thought I was crazy. But in an every day setting its an overbearingly long word to use in a sentence and brits like their antiquated extra vowels and such. Also its the Brits who changed their pronunciations not the Americans changing their pronunciations so we are right and you are wrong
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*ducks*

*ducks*
- Chyros
- Location: The Netherlands
- Main keyboard: whatever I'm reviewing next :p
- Main mouse: a cheap Logitech
- Favorite switch: Alps SKCM Blue
- DT Pro Member: -
- seebart
- Offtopicthority Instigator
- Location: Germany
- Main keyboard: Rotation
- Main mouse: Steelseries Sensei
- Favorite switch: IBM capacitive buckling spring
- DT Pro Member: 0061
- Contact: