The new Apple Magic Keyboard, updated with USB-C, is a fine option if you want Touch ID and if you like laptop-style membrane keyboards. It’s not my preferred typing experience. It also, unfortunately, only comes in a limited number of colors and only two sizes.
It’s the stock keyboard that comes if you order an iMac. It’s also available if you want an external keyboard on your Mac mini, Mac Studio or a desktop-docked MacBook.
The Magic Keyboard is the only way to get Touch ID on the Mac, which is a pretty excellent experience. You just have to pay the rather high price for it — and the even greater sacrifice of giving up on a clicky mechanical keyboard.
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Apple Magic Keyboard review
- Compact layout
- Touch ID authentication
- USB-C connection
- No Page Up/Page Down/Home/End keys
- Nonstandard arrow key layout
Table of contents: Apple Magic Keyboard review
- Design
- Touch ID
- Key feeling
- Compact layout
- Full-size layout
- No multi-device pairing
- Should you buy an Apple Magic Keyboard?
Design
Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
The Magic Keyboard is a chameleon. It perfectly matches the dimensions of the Magic Trackpad you have sitting nearby. The blacks look exactly the same, even though the keycaps are plastic and the trackpad is glass. With an iMac, it comes in six color-coordinated hues that match the color computer you get.
The typeface is San Francisco, the system font used on all Apple platforms since 2015. It’s a beautiful font that’s highly legible. The symbols and icons on the modifier keys and function keys are gorgeous as well.
Even the on-off switch is beautifully machined with a fantastic click action to it.
Pairing it with a Mac is easy; just turn it on and briefly plug it in. And you can plug it in with the nice braided (and color-matching) USB-C cable it comes with; ditch the Lightning cable from your desk.
Touch ID
Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
The optional Touch ID key makes signing into your Mac, autofilling a password in Safari, signing in with a Passkey and buying products with Apple Pay so much easier. Just hold your finger on the special key (or you can click it, if you prefer) and it’ll instantly authenticate. You can also click the button at any time to instantly lock your Mac — much faster than the Command-Control-Q keyboard shortcut. The Touch ID key has a different switch than the other keys; it takes more force to press so you’re less likely to click it accidentally.
Without Touch ID, you have a Lock key instead. Which is certainly more useful in 2024 than the CD Eject key that was in its place before. You can also pair your Mac with an Apple Watch, and get all the same features — though the interface is a little less elegant. It’s much easier pressing your finger on a key (where your hands already are) than it is reaching over and double-clicking your Apple Watch’s side button to confirm.
The mix of whether Touch ID is available and which colors come with what is confusing. The compact layout comes both with and without Touch ID, but only in white (or, if purchased with an iMac, six colors). The full-size Magic Keyboard comes both with and without Touch ID, although only the Touch ID model comes in black — and, black costs $20 extra.
Key feeling
Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
As the snootiest of mechanical keyboard snobs, I’m no longer impressed by the typing feeling of the Magic Keyboard.
It’s one of the best, as far as laptop-style membrane keyboards go. The keys are very stable and don’t wobble. There’s a reasonably sized gap between each key. There’s a noticeable click feeling with a quiet but audible sound with every key press. It’s nothing you aren’t used to and nothing about it will surprise you.
But I still found myself making more typos. The keys aren’t curved, so unless your fingers hit the very edge of the key, you don’t know how close to the center you’re hitting. I like a keyboard with more travel, where the keys have to be pressed down further to register.
People say that only “a bad workman blames his tools.” And it’s usually true that a pro gaming chair won’t make you a better gamer, an expensive knife set won’t make you a better cook, a pair of racing gloves won’t make you a better driver. But as someone with a tested typing speed of 83 words per minute, I can confidently say it’s absolutely true that a bad keyboard will hold you back.
Compact layout
Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
The compact layout saves space on your desk. Personally, I prefer compact keyboards. I don’t need a full number pad; I’m not an accountant. I also like having a short travel between the alphanumeric keys and my trackpad.
The biggest downside is the arrow keys. The Left and Right keys are the same height as the combined Up and Down keys, so it’s hard to identify them by feel. Apple uses this same keyboard layout on the MacBook Pro, except as of 2021, the arrow keys are fixed to be T-shaped. I don’t know why the desktop keyboard gets left out. And on the colorful iMac Magic Keyboard, it would be nice if you had a square where you could really see the color shine through.
Unfortunately, you don’t have physical keys for Page Up, Page Down, Home, End and Forward Delete. You can use Option-Up, Option-Down, Command-Up, Command-Down and Function-Delete to get the same functionality, but that usually requires using both hands, and isn’t as fast.
My ideal compact keyboard layout has full-size arrow and navigation keys, but without the number pad. Among keyboard enthusiasts, this is known as the tenkeyless or 87% layout.
Full-size layout
Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
The full-size layout is a more standard keyboard layout.
You have Command, Option and Control on both sides of the keyboard, arranged in that order, symmetrically, going out from the spacebar.
It doesn’t waste any space on those pointless PC keys — Insert, SysRq, Scroll Lock, Pause/Break. Instead, you have a Context Menu key. (This was previously the Function key, but that’s been moved to the bottom left, like on the MacBook keyboard.) I’m not sure how useful this is, but at least I know what it does.
The other keys, F13 – F19, are blank. You can assign your own actions to them if you dig through System Settings.
The giant surface area it occupies on your desk makes you think it should be heavier than it actually is. Although it’s made of metal, I don’t think it’s artificially weighted at all. I’ve used plenty of smaller, more compact plastic keyboards that are over twice as heavy. It’s really nice.
No multi-device pairing
Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
AirPods use intelligent pairing. They can effectively stay paired to multiple devices at once, so that switching between your Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad and Mac is seamless. If you have multiple Macs sharing one desk, you might not want two mice, or two keyboards or two trackpads. It can get confusing and crowded.
But alas, all of Apple’s latest peripherals still use vanilla Bluetooth, and don’t take advantage of Apple’s own technology elsewhere.
Apple’s answer to that need is Universal Control, which lets one keyboard control multiple devices — even a Mac and iPad — but that only works if all the devices are next to each other and on the same Apple account. If you have a work laptop and a personal laptop, they’re probably on different Apple accounts. Continuity isn’t true multi-device pairing; the keyboard only stays paired to one Mac, which acts as a relay. Take that Mac away, and your Magic Keyboard won’t be connected to the other one.
Review Conclusion: Should you buy the new Apple Magic Keyboard?
Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Personally, I wouldn’t use the Apple Magic Keyboard. I don’t think it’s nice enough to justify its high prices, and neither of the configurations match what I want.
But because I don’t think Apple is going to make a tenkeyless model in black (and because I don’t like membrane keyboards, anyway) what I really want is a solution for those of us who like third-party keyboards but also want Touch ID. Ideally, that would be Touch ID built into the Magic Trackpad.
★★★☆☆
Buy from: Amazon (White, Compact)
Buy from: Amazon (Black, Full-size)
- Full-size 109-key layout
- Touch ID authentication
- USB-C connection
- Black color is more expensive
- Membrane keys
Apple did not provide Cult of Mac with a review unit for this article. See our reviews policy, and check out other in-depth reviews of Apple-related items.
