Das Keyboard Model S Professional — for Apple Mac computers — a review

© 2016 Peter Free

02 July 2016

 

Premise

Keyboard design matters to those who touch type accurately at speed.

 

Why did I try Das Keyboard? — Apple keyboards substitute attractive visual form for sensible function

The key rows and buttons on currently manufactured Apple keyboards are slightly too close together for me. There is also no way to tilt the board to achieve better ergonomics at varying height desks.

 

Enter Das Keyboard Model S Professional for Mac

According to a high proportion of user reviews, Das Keyboard should cure the above ailments at a relatively expensive $133.

 

The good

Das keyboard has invitingly spaced and shaped keys. Unlike the Apple, I almost never hit two keys at the same time.

Using the Das felt good. Almost as good as an IBM Selectric typewriter.

 

The (almost incomprehensibly) bad

The Model S is astonishingly loud. People with normal hearing can hear me typing throughout the house.

Second, the keyboard comes with a bifurcated USB cable. It occupies two ports on a USB hub. If you do not need to use the keyboard’s own built-in USB hub, you can leave the USB fork of the cable dangling on your desk. Where it provides unnecessary clutter.

Third, the keyboard has flip-out legs to tilt it. These are made of flimsy plastic and lack rubberized feet. In tilted position, the keyboard slid around on my desk. An anti-skid pad would help.

Fourth, the key strokes seem a bit deeper than necessary. This characteristic probably slightly slows maximum typing speed. When I got the Apple keyboard set at the perfect desk height, it could keep up with the Das output, even though the Das felt a bit more capable overall.

Fifth and last, I did not like the lower case font that this Das model uses to label its keys. In too many instances, without reading glasses, it was difficult for me to detect which letter they represented. This matters to me because sometimes I want to type something without sitting down in touch typing position. Logins, for example. I have never had a problem with a Logitech MK710 (for PCs), which uses large capital letters to label its keys.

 

The moral? — Lots of people love Das Keyboard Model S, but I did not like mine

Waking the peacefully dead is not my idea of a keyboard virtue. The four other glitches just added more negatives.

If you want to explore other Das Keyboard model options, go here. Notice that the manufacturer’s explanation of the functional differences between models is hazy. Noise-reduction is evidently not a priority.

There are not many capable alternatives to Das Keyboard for Apple computers. Logitech makes a solar keyboard for Macs that looks mildly similar to its MK710 for PCs. But the solar version has no backup power source. And a relatively high number of Amazon customers indicate that the solar unit is not reliable. It also lacks a “caps on” light.

One would not think that making a decent keyboard would be difficult, given the past’s plethora of them. Things do not always get better, do they?