I've been using AppleDesign keyboards (wiki/AppleDesign_Keyboard) for the last 25 years both at home and at work. But it's time to move on and get something new. At this point I have no more spare keyboards and one of my remaining units is becoming a bit glitchy.
I do understand that the AppleDesign does not make use of mechanical switches. But it would be nice to find a mechanical keyboard that comes as close to the feel and sound of the AppleDesign as possible. Aspects like the angle and pitch of the keys would be nice to maintain, or get close to.
I find I have great difficulty typing on anything but the same keyboard model I’ve been using for the last 25 years… granted anything else I've used would just be ordinary cheap membrane keyboards found in your typical office environment. But keyboards like the current generation of Apple's flat keyboards are quite difficult for me to type effectively with.
Any guidance is appreciated...
Are they any specific key switch sample packs I should start with?
Mechanical equivalent to the old AppleDesign?
- TNT
- Location: Germany, Karlsruhe
- Main keyboard: Ellipse Model F77 / Zenith Z-150
- Main mouse: Logitech G203 Prodigy
- Favorite switch: It's complicated
- DT Pro Member: 0250
I personally have no experience with the switches Apple used in the ADK, but it sounds like "Dome with Slider"-like switches should be right up your alley. BTC Dome with slider and Topre come to mind. Might be worth checking that out.
- Muirium
- µ
- Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
- Main keyboard: HHKB Type-S with Bluetooth by Hasu
- Main mouse: Apple Magic Mouse
- Favorite switch: Gotta Try 'Em All
- DT Pro Member: µ
The ADK is among my most hated of all keyboards. I had one for free for all of a day (came with a vintage Mac on Freecycle) before I tossed it into electronics recycling. Mea culpa! I hardly ever do that. I should have kept it for 10 years until you came along. It was still in nice shape.
The board it most reminds me of in feel is my most loathed of all time: the Apple terrarium of doom. I’d have never gotten into keyboards if I had not been exposed to and radicalised by a few of those.
FWIW: I adore Topre. I commend it to everyone. But, well, *stiffens resolve* it is no AppleDesign keyboard.

The board it most reminds me of in feel is my most loathed of all time: the Apple terrarium of doom. I’d have never gotten into keyboards if I had not been exposed to and radicalised by a few of those.

FWIW: I adore Topre. I commend it to everyone. But, well, *stiffens resolve* it is no AppleDesign keyboard.
-
- Location: USA
- Main keyboard: Drop Alt High Profile
- Main mouse: Logitech M570
- Favorite switch: Glorious Panda
Dell AT101R and AT103R seem to use the same switch but are Pc keyboards. An AEK II (or Matias keyboard with Quiet Click switches) would also be very “Apple” and quiet. As Muirium said, Topre might be similar in feel.
- Muirium
- µ
- Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
- Main keyboard: HHKB Type-S with Bluetooth by Hasu
- Main mouse: Apple Magic Mouse
- Favorite switch: Gotta Try 'Em All
- DT Pro Member: µ
Expertly trolled, sir.

That was TNT above me. I posted basically to refute it. I am yet to toss a Topre keyboard into the e-waste skip, or laugh aloud and tell it where precisely to go in hell while I was doing it.
-
- Location: Stockholm, Sweden
- DT Pro Member: 0011
Hmm. Topre Realforce with Macintosh legends only in Japanese layout, right? Not for everyone.
- Muirium
- µ
- Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
- Main keyboard: HHKB Type-S with Bluetooth by Hasu
- Main mouse: Apple Magic Mouse
- Favorite switch: Gotta Try 'Em All
- DT Pro Member: µ
How about my own favourite?

Mac compatible, correct legends, and currently available for £80.
Boring Realforces (regular sized Topre keyboards) are also available and the caps pull off even easier than they do from MX. No stabilisers to gotcha. Put on whatever Topre mount caps you like.

But, honestly, with all that said: they don’t feel like the AppleDesign keyboard. You’d have better luck replicating its feeling by going for a traditional rubber dome over membrane keyboard, like the ADK itself, which are by far the more common technology; they were ubiquitous through the 1990s and 2000s till laptop style chiclet desktop keyboards took over, thanks of course to Apple.
Any USB Apple keyboard from the original iMac era in 1998 to the aluminium iMac in 2007 should be right up your alley.
Mac compatible, correct legends, and currently available for £80.
Boring Realforces (regular sized Topre keyboards) are also available and the caps pull off even easier than they do from MX. No stabilisers to gotcha. Put on whatever Topre mount caps you like.
But, honestly, with all that said: they don’t feel like the AppleDesign keyboard. You’d have better luck replicating its feeling by going for a traditional rubber dome over membrane keyboard, like the ADK itself, which are by far the more common technology; they were ubiquitous through the 1990s and 2000s till laptop style chiclet desktop keyboards took over, thanks of course to Apple.
Any USB Apple keyboard from the original iMac era in 1998 to the aluminium iMac in 2007 should be right up your alley.
- soyuz
- Location: Iceland
- Main keyboard: buckling ******
- Main mouse: mouse bad. keybor good.
- Favorite switch: alp white damp
Really? Nobody just mentioned "Try the Apple Extended Keyboard II"?
It might not feel similar to the AppleDesign board but it's the closest thing you're going to get in general terms that's mechanical.
It might not feel similar to the AppleDesign board but it's the closest thing you're going to get in general terms that's mechanical.
-
- Location: USA
- Main keyboard: Drop Alt High Profile
- Main mouse: Logitech M570
- Favorite switch: Glorious Panda
Err…oops! Sorry. Long day.Muirium wrote: 06 Jun 2023, 21:12Expertly trolled, sir.
That was TNT above me. I posted basically to refute it. I am yet to toss a Topre keyboard into the e-waste skip, or laugh aloud and tell it where precisely to go in hell while I was doing it.
-
- Location: Stockholm, Sweden
- DT Pro Member: 0011
There are the Matias TactilePro and QuietPro. They were made for Mac, but the feel is not for everyone and they have a reputation of quality issues.
Out of mainstream brands, Varmilo and Ducky have made individual models for Mac.
But every keyboard with USB will of course work with Mac. You can swap the function of the Windows/Command and Alt/Option keys in settings in MacOS. Better mechanical keyboards can also do it with sliding DIP-switch or changing a setting with a special key combo.
Only that some gaming keyboards for PC will require MS-Windows for being able to change backlighting and other crap that you won't need.
Out of mainstream brands, Varmilo and Ducky have made individual models for Mac.
But every keyboard with USB will of course work with Mac. You can swap the function of the Windows/Command and Alt/Option keys in settings in MacOS. Better mechanical keyboards can also do it with sliding DIP-switch or changing a setting with a special key combo.
Only that some gaming keyboards for PC will require MS-Windows for being able to change backlighting and other crap that you won't need.
- Muirium
- µ
- Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
- Main keyboard: HHKB Type-S with Bluetooth by Hasu
- Main mouse: Apple Magic Mouse
- Favorite switch: Gotta Try 'Em All
- DT Pro Member: µ
Fair point. Even has the same ADB output and legends. Just a huge upgrade, and generally very affordable. A simple Command Z on Apple’s mid-nineties mistake.soyuz wrote: 06 Jun 2023, 23:29 Really? Nobody just mentioned "Try the Apple Extended Keyboard II"?
It might not feel similar to the AppleDesign board but it's the closest thing you're going to get in general terms that's mechanical.
