Magic Keyboard Touch ID review: Apple’s wireless office keyboard

The build quality of this Magic Keyboard is, as is often the case with Apple, impeccable. The anodized aluminum chassis gives it a high-end look and, despite its extreme thinness, is also very stiff (barely 0.4 cm at the front and 1.1 cm at the rear). The slight tilt of the keyboard is really limited, but mostly fixed, due to the lack of retractable feet; the keyboard rests on 4 non-slip pads. At the very least, such finesse has the advantage of not having to use a wrist rest to raise his hands.

At just 369 g on the scale, it can be taken anywhere, even if its length is not suitable for all backpacks due to the presence of the numeric keypad. Although it is 41.9 cm wide, which is fairly standard for a full-sized keyboard, it is quite shallow (11.5 cm).

The coating of the black keys is smooth and pleasant, but beware, many fingerprints remain. The layout of the keys is quite classic for Mac and at the level of the “F” function keys we will find some interesting shortcuts; first multimedia keys, but also the very practical Spotlight search function, a key to activate the concentration mode or the one especially for adjusting the screen brightness.

Between the F12 and F13 keys, Apple has slid its Touch ID, its fingerprint reader that is used to quickly unlock your computer – the equivalent of Windows Hello – but also to go through secure steps or, for example, to browse the Apple Store or iTunes. pay , without having to enter your password. A handy feature, which is unfortunately reserved for computers equipped with an M1 chip.

You connect the keyboard with a few clicks via Bluetooth or connect it to your Mac with the included Lightning cable with which you can also charge it. That said, by 2022 we would like to have a USB-C connection, which has now become the standard connection. Please note that unfortunately we cannot access the battery in the event of a problem.
Apple advertises a battery life of one month or more (depending on usage). A long service life possible due to the absence of backlighting. However, this is present in some high-end competitive keyboards such as the Logitech MX keys value Razer Pro Type Ultra†

The Magic Keyboard can also be connected to a PC. Just turn it on and it will be instantly recognized by the computer in Windows Bluetooth settings. Unless you’re a fan of the keyboard design, this isn’t recommended, of course, as Apple’s screen printing is different and many of the keyboard shortcuts just don’t work.

Finally, there is an on/off button to the right of the Lightning connector.

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