Low profile mechanical keyboards are a popular choice for anyone that prefers the short, snappy feel of a great laptop keyboard but wants something a little more capable, durable and customisable. While full-height mechanicals were the first to go mainstream, low-profile alternatives are becoming increasingly common, and there’s an exciting arms race resulting in some truly impressive designs.
Today we’re looking at three such keyboards: a refined gaming-focused board from industry giants Logitech, a fancy typists’ offering from Chinese boutique brand iQunix and a weird, stylish and unmistakenly early Apple keyboard from London one-man-brand Electronic Materials Office.
Despite being nominally part of the same category, these keyboards couldn’t be more different in terms of their intended use cases – and that has lead to fascinating differences in design. Here are reviews of the G515 Lightspeed TKL, Magi65 Pro and Altar 1.
Electronic Materials Office Altar 1 review
To call the Altar 1 stylish, anachronistic or just odd would be an understatement. The first Electronic Materials Office keyboard is also the first I’ve seen to use low profile keys that are also at .
Most of the keys you’ll type on are flat, but the function keys and modifiers are pushed upwards to make them taller, while the numerals and arrow keys are scooped out to make them shorter. It’s a deeply odd arrangement, but to the designer’s credit it does mean that you can instantly tell where you are on the keyboard – and centring to the home row is easy thanks to extremely prominent tabs on the F and J keys. Kailh Choc Low Profile v1 Red linear switches provide snappy response, though I might have prefered a more tactile or clicky alternative as an option.