Introduction

Matias is a company that I have been aware of as I remember a few of their keyboards as I look back on some of their EOL products. I never really gave them any real thought when I was looking to buy a mechanical keyboard a couple years ago. It seems the name Matias doesn't come up like Deck, Das Keyboard or even the newer ones from Corsair and CoolerMaster, along with many other names. Upon closer inspection I found out why. It seems that while Matias is making great products, most are geared for Apple products whether it is an iPod, iPad or a Mac. That isn't to say they aren't Zune, Android or PC friendly, it's more that users of the latter list of products is unaware of these little gems.

Cameron my editor had seen the news blast for the latest of mechanical keyboards from Matias and promptly went into action acquiring a sample for me to test. Since the craze of mechanical keyboards is in full effect and I have seen quite a few offering and switch types, but with the Matias keyboards I get to play around with a whole new brand of switches by Alps. What is obvious about the keyboard and keys is the entire thing is made of white plastic and makes for an obvious Apple replacement keyboard, even down to the plungers in the mechanical switches. This isn't just your basic mechanical keyboard either, it has keys specific to Mac's and has a pair of symbols on each key for super simple access to type them into something as you go.

While I currently don't own anything with the Apple name or anything running a Mac OS, I am assured via emails and the information on the site, that with a simple driver install, any PC user can benefit from all but six specific Apple keys and one of the secondary symbols which just happens to be the Apple logo.

Stick around for this one. I am pretty sure whether you are a Mac user or a PC user, the handiness and functionality of the Matias Tactile Pro 3.0 is a keyboard that any writer would love to own and for everyone else, you will see the pricing isn't out of the range of most other solutions that don't come close to this level of usability at your fingertips.