Sunday, November 18, 2012

Review: Matias Quiet Pro keyboard offers old-school keys without the noise

Review: Matias Quiet Pro keyboard offers old-school keys without the noise:


Matias has long been a champion of mechanical keyboards, which use real, physical switches underneath the keys. The company’s flagship Tactile Pro 3 keyboard is the current go-to keyboard for many long-time mechanical-keyboard enthusiasts. The only problem is that typing on the Tactile Pro is loud. Antisocially loud, especially if you work in a shared office environment, need to type when you’re on the phone, or need to work (or play) in the evening hours when others might be trying to get some shuteye. Matias has worked hard to fix that complication in the company’s newest mechanical keyboard, the $150 Quiet Pro Keyboard for Mac.

Matias sells the Quiet Pro in versions optimized for Mac or Windows PCs. The Mac version comes in a silver case to mimic Apple’s hardware, while the PC version comes in black. (The keys are black on both models.) The Mac version’s silver-plastic finish looks a bit cheap. The keyboard itself also looks a bit clunky and heavy, but that’s par for the course: Mechanical keyboards are, by their nature, much heftier than their membrane (non-mechanical) and laptop-style counterparts. Despite the inexpensive-looking finish, the Quiet Pro is solid and very well constructed.

The Quiet Pro’s 109-key layout will be familiar to anyone with experience using Apple’s current-model keyboard with numeric keypad. There are 18 F-keys, with most of the first twelve offering special functions: F1 and F2 are mapped to brightness down and up, respectively; F3 opens Mission Control (or Exposé, if you’re still using OS X 10.7 Lion or earlier); F4 pulls up Dashboard; F7, F8, and F9 serve as skip back, play/pause, and skip forward, respectively, for media playback; F10, F11, and F12 are volume controls (mute, down, and up, respectively). As on Apple’s keyboard, F5 and F6 are blank. These F-keys, unlike with many recent Mac keyboards, are separated from the main area of keys and are grouped into the traditional pods of four (F1 through F4, F5 through F8, and so on). This arrangement makes using these keys by touch much easier.



The keys are sculpted to fit your fingers, not unlike Apple’s old Pro Keyboard. Two feet on the underside of the Quiet Pro let you elevate the top edge of the keyboard about an inch if you prefer an angle. The keyboard connects to your Mac using a black, six-foot USB cable that emerges from the center of the keyboard’s back edge.
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