Recently I got my hands on an Apple Magic Keyboard with Touch ID. This tiny piece of aluminum and plastic costs a whopping $150 dollars. A $50 dollar premium over the already expensive Magic Keyboard that doesn’t have Touch ID. All for the privilege of unlocking your Mac with your finger.
I was intrigued: my MacBook Pro lives “clamshell” mode plugged into a Pro Display XDR at all times. Therefore I don’t use the built-in keyboard. Which means I can’t use the built-in Touch ID sensor. Gone is the convenience advantage to not having to type in my password every time. It’s the one feature I miss most in running the MacBook Pro in closed position.
The $150 dollar keyboard from Apple fixes this problem, but I was never going to pay that kind of money just for the convenience. And now that I’ve had one on hand to test, my choice is confirmed. Indeed it is wonderful to be able to wake and unlock the Mac from sleep in one press of the button. However, the keyboard itself is utterly crap. The deck is so shallow and thin that it’s like typing on a piece of paper. Especially coming from a keyboard with full-height mechanical keys.
The ease of Touch ID unfortunately cannot trump typing comfort. I can foresee getting hand fatigue rather quickly in using the Magic Keyboard. It’s a shame Apple doesn’t allow third-party keyboard makers to integrate a Touch ID sensor. Or Apple can simply make a keyboard worth of avid typists. The company certainly used to make external keyboards with proper height and key travel.
I’m sticking with my Keychron K8.
Not the one.