Feb 06, 2019  When you use a Windows (PC) keyboard on a Macintosh computer, the keyboard shortcuts that you use map to different keys. In particular, the primary key that is used in keyboard shortcuts in combination with other keys is frequently different. The following are the primary key substitutions on the Windows keyboard, and their Macintosh equivalents. Mar 11, 2020 If comfort is your main priority, then spring for the Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic keyboard. The unusual design offers a natural arc layout that helps mimic the curved shape of your fingertips for the most comfortable typing experience around. Add in a cushioned palm rest and your wrists will feel comfortable.

BestKeyboards for Mac miniiMore2020

The new Mac mini finally refreshes Apple's smallest Mac, which comes as a huge relief to Mac mini fans everywhere. As with the previous Mac mini, you'll need a few things to make it a viable computer, and that includes a keyboard. Whether you want a mechanical, USB, or Bluetooth keyboard, there are tons of great options for you to use with your Mac mini.

Apple's keyboard: Magic Keyboard

The classic Apple keyboard that you know (and maybe love?), that comes with all the features you need to run macOS smoothly and seamlessly. All the shortcuts you could want are present, and the slim and small profile makes it really great for small spaces.

$87 at Amazon

More color options: Matias Wireless Aluminum Keybaord

Matias' keyboard looks very similar to the Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad and has a nice, comfortable slant for typing. You can also pair up to four different Bluetooth supported devices, including your Apple TV. You can get the standard Matias Wireless Aluminum Keyboard in space gray, gold, silver, and rose gold.

$100 at Amazon

Easy multi-pairing: Logitech Easy-Switch K811

This little ditty is a personal favorite of iMore Managing Editor, Lory Gil. It's a compact keyboard designed with Mac in mind that has plenty of useful additional features. It has the added benefit of being specially designed to control features on your iPhone or iPad, like navigating to the Home screen and audio playback controls. With one button, you can switch between three different devices, making it great for using with your other Apple product around the house

$100 at Logitech

Budget friendly: Anker Ultra Slim keyboard

For a low-cost alternative to Apple's Magic Keyboard, you'll be happy with Anker's universal Bluetooth keyboard. It uses the Magic Keyboard's scissor mechanism keys, so your typing experience will be very familiar. It doesn't come with a lot of bells and whistles, but for the price, it's the perfect alternative.

$22 at Amazon

Best mechanical: Das Keyboard 4 Professional

Das Keyboard 4 Professional gives you the choice between Cherry MX Brown or Blue, depending on how loud you like your keyboard, and it even has dedicated media controls, including an oversized volume knob, as well as a number pad. Two USB 3.0 ports make it perfect for the ultra-productive folks. If you like the click-clack of a mechanical keyboard the Das Keyboard 4 Professional is one of the best out there.

$149 at Amazon

For power users: Logitech G710+

Logitech's G710+ has a huge feature set for its price. You've got high-speed keys with great feedback, dual-zone backlighting, which means you can adjust the brightness of the WASD on their own — perfect if you do any gaming on your Mac. You can even configure 6 buttons for 18 different gaming functions, including single key presses.

$117 at Amazon

Call me crazy, but I really like Apple's Magic Keyboard. Its simple, clean, and super compact design makes it easy to use on my small desk in my apartment. Any of the keyboards listed above are going to make typing with your new Mac mini a breeze, and a keyboard you love will make working, playing, or browsing on your Mac mini a lot more enjoyable!

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All around protection

Protect your Mac mini in transit with these cases

The Mac mini is easy to carry around. When you do, however, be sure your Apple computer is being protected by a case or sleeve. Here are our favorite solutions.

By William Gallagher
Monday, November 19, 2018, 08:31 am PT (11:31 am ET)

Apple has always expected you to bring your own keyboard, monitor and mouse to the Mac mini. Yet, today there are issues to consider before you even start narrowing down your choice from the many, many dozens of possibilities. And, given as much as we type daily, we have opinions on the matter.


If you've got a new Mac mini and you've already got a keyboard that works with it, you're sorted. Plug that in and use it forever —or until you start to miss some features that you can get in alternatives like backlighting or a numeric keypad. Or until you wear yours out. Or until you just want a change.
Don't underestimate the difference that swapping keyboards makes And definitely don't underestimate the value of a keyboard that you like. Maybe you spend all your time staring at a screen but if you skimp on the keyboard, you'll forever find typing a chore.
So given that there are about three issues to consider and then an impossible number of different keyboards to choose from, here's what you need to think about —plus some of our favorites as recommendations.

Start with where you'll be typing

If you were getting an iMac then you'd be putting the keyboard right in front of the screen. If you were getting a MacBook then, well, you'd have a keyboard built in but there are still reasons to buy alternatives.
MacBooks can work with the lid closed, like a flatter Mad mini, for instance. If you want to do that or maybe want to elevate your MacBook on a stand, you're still going to position that external keyboard in front of the machine.
In comparison, people can and many do use their Mac mini on their desk or on a shelf somewhere else.
This makes two differences. One is that if your Mac mini is halfway across your office then you're not going to be using a wired keyboard. The odds are, though, that you also just won't be typing on anything all that much. That distant Mac mini is going to be a server more than a machine for general, everyday working.
So if that's you, get a cheap wireless keyboard for occasional use. Many of the same portable keyboards we've recommended for iOS devices would do you for this too.

When you're going to be doing a lot of typing work on your Mac mini, however, keep that Mac close and the keyboard closer. Keep it close enough that it doesn't make a difference whether you go for wired or wireless.

Wired or wireless

Wired keyboards where you directly connect them to your Mac mini have the obvious advantage that they get their power from the machine so you never have to think about recharging them. Plus you never find that the Bluetooth connection has mysteriously dropped.
They should also be faster that wireless ever can be yet we defy anyone but a gamer to tell the difference in typing between the two sorts. Also, battery power is sufficiently good now that having to recharge every month, every three months or sometimes just every year is a burden we can live with.
Consequently our recommendation is that there's nothing in it —unless you're going to be travelling. It's not the most practical thing to take your desktop Mac's keyboard with you wherever you go but you can do it and wireless keyboards will typically work with iOS just as well as they do Mac.

Apple's wireless Magic Keyboard ($99) is good for travelling because it's small, flat and has an off-switch to stop the battery being run down through accidental jostling in your bag. That off switch doesn't matter on your Mac mini but being flat can be good because arguably it gives a good typing experience. And the smallness is definitely useful on a crowded or messy desk.

Best Microsoft Keyboard For Mac Free

This keyboard would be the one all others are measured against simply because It's what Apple bundles with the iMac but it's also just very good.
We were partial to the Logitech K811 wireless keyboard which is just a little bigger than Apple's but this is now discontinued and only available at inflated prices by secondhand sellers.

Logitech's current closest equivalent is the Logitech K380 which is a very good $22 or so. Where you can only pair Apple's keyboard with one device at a time, the K380 can be paired to three. Which means from the same keyboard you can tap a button and be writing on your Mac mini, the iPhone or your iPad.
These are both wireless keyboards that come without numeric keypads but you can get similar models that have them.
Such as Matias keyboards which like a combination of the old Logitech K811 and Apple's latest space gray Magic Keyboards with numeric keypads.

Numeric keypads

It used to be easy: you got a keyboard with a numeric keypad because there was no other choice. The numeric keypad was always on the right, too, which was a pain if you're left-handed.
Now, though, you need to choose between having a numeric keypad or not. Clearly, though, the chief consideration is whether you need one or not: if you don't enter a lot of numbers, you don't need one.
Only, it's not that clear-cut. For as well as the numbers, a keyboard that has a numeric keypad also has arrow keys that aren't squeezed in around the space bar.
They also have a block of six or nine keys that include the useful Page Up and Page Down ones. They tend to also include Print Screen which does something on Windows but you'll never press it on a Mac. Then there's often a Forward Delete key which you either rely on hourly or you've never been heard of.
Even if it were only for the better position of the arrow keys, a keyboard with numeric keypad would appear to always be the best choice because it gives you options. You can choose to ignore a numeric keypad if you have one, you can't pretend one's there if it isn't.
Take a look at Apple's own Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad, which costs around $120 in silver from Amazon.

Except those options take up space on your desk and in the most significant part of it, too.
If you place your trackpad to the right or if you use a mouse with your right hand, then the numeric keypad gets in the way. It's significant enough a difference that when you're used to using a keyboard without keypad it will be difficult to adjust.

Chiclet keys

In theory, you also need to decide between two types of keys on a keyboard. There's the older sort where you have to press down quite far and they make a lot of noise. Or there's the more modern ones known as Chiclet-style which a much shallower depth of travel and tend to be quieter.
In practice, you're going to buy a Chiclet keyboard. The older ones, known as mechanical keyboards are very good and you may well enjoy the feel and the sound. However, they're so outnumbered by the modern style that they're practically a niche product.

If you want a mechanical keyboard, look at the $160 CODE illuminated one from WASD.

Wireless Keyboard For Mac

This is a niche product within a niche product range, though. Even though we all use keyboards, the giant majority of us stick with whichever one comes with our computer and never change them. You, too, may well never change your Mac mini keyboard but you've got to get one first.
And there is still one more decision to make.

Backlit or not backlit

Easy. You don't need a backlit keyboard for your Mac mini. Where are you planning to work on it? In a basement with no lighting? Backlighting is no aid to typing: if you want to speed up the work you do on your Mac then learn to touch type and you'll never look at the backlit keys again.
However, backlit keys do have one thing in their favor. They look tremendous.

Expense

It does look great having a backlit keyboard. And wireless is appealing too: there is also a certain neatness in having a keyboard without a great big wire stretching out across your desk.
Aesthetics matter: you may spend more time at your Mac than you do sleeping at night so it's worth getting something that is comfortable and looks good to you too.
Which is a quick way of saying if you want a gold keyboard, you go for it. Satechi now sells wired and wireless aluminium keyboards for Macs.

You'll pay from about $60 go $100 for one of these and that's not money you'd casually throw away on a whim.
Yet for the difference a good keyboard makes to your Mac mini, it's a steal. We've spent much more over the years, trying out different keyboards and we still think that was worth it because finding the right keyboard is worth money, time and effort.

Best Microsoft Keyboard For Mac Windows 10

If it weren't worth it, if keyboards weren't so important, it would be possible to pick out a single recommendation for absolutely everyone and we can't. No one can.
However, if you think about wired or wireless, if you think about the numeric keypad plus the feel and color of the keys, you're on your way to finding the single best one for you.

Best Microsoft Keyboard For Mac Pro

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