Matias Tactilepro 3
Review

Matias Tactilepro 3
Company: Matias
Price: $149.99 USD

Keyboards are very personal computer peripherals. The criteria you use to choose your keyboard can be very different than the criteria I use to choose mine. There are plenty of keyboards but most people use the Apple keyboard that came with their Mac. While the current Apple keyboards are fine, other keyboard manufacturers offer different functions, keys and options.

Its all about the keys

For me, and I believe for most people, the main differentiator is the keys: how they feel, and how much effort it takes to depress one. If you are a long time Mac user then chances are very good that you used the Apple Extended Keyboard in the past. This keyboard was widely recognized as one of the best keyboards ever made mainly because it used individual mechanical switches under the keys. The Matias Tactilepro 3 brings this technology forward to modern day while improving on the case design.

The downside of mechanical switches is the clickety-clack of the keys as you type away. This is definitely the loudest keyboard you will probably ever find. While the other attributes of this keyboard out weigh the loudness, you would still not want to use this keyboard in a quiet office setting. However, many keyboards allow only a certain number of keys to be pressed at once and can’t keep up with fast typists. This results in missing characters from what you actually typed, which is called “ghosting.” The Matias Tactilepro 3 has special anti-ghosting circuitry that eliminates this problems and allows you to type as fast as you want.

The Matias Tactilepro 3 has traditional sculpted key tops that are curved to fit your fingertips and keep your fingers from sliding out of the home position.
The key symbols are laser etched on the keys so they will never wear off. A bonus feature: etched onto those keys are all of the extended characters that you can never find andnever remember where they are. Just press the Option key and the character key for the bottom right character, Shift-option for the top right character. What a great time saving feature this is.

Finally, the Matias Tactilepro 3 has the typical Mac keys for volume up, volume down, mute, and disc eject, in a row right above the number pad. The keyboard also sports an Apple Command key, and a lighted caps-lock, as well as a full numeric keypad. The numeric keypads were dropped from the Apple Wireless Keyboards, and I find can’t live without one.

Besides all of the keyboard goodness, you get three extra USB ports. The Matias Tactilepro 3  has three full power USB ports, one on each end and one at the back edge. Most other keyboards I have used have under-powered USB ports. John Nemerovski, our Reviews Editor here at MyMac,  plans to write about this USB power shortage in a future article. I have hooked up an iPad and other “i” devices with no problems. They charge and back up just as they should.

I have used the Matias Tactilepro 3 for well over a month and besides the clickety-clack of the keys (which I have gotten used to) this is an excellent keyboard. Typing seems effortless when you don’t have to strike the keys with a lot of force. This input device lives up to all the hype. I’d give this keyboard a perfect 10 out of 10 if not for the sound.

MyMac Review Rating 9 out of 10