I think the Laptop Pro might also only be available with an US layout.
Recently bought a Keychron K2. First mechanical keyboard ever (except the older keyboards that came with computers in the 90's/early 00's).
It's pretty great. Bluetooth and wired modes. Has keycaps for Command and Option. Has the media key icons on the function keys.
It also has a switch so you can quickly set it for Windows (and it comes with keycaps for that as well).
I have one I got gently used from a coworker, who special ordered it... it's got a sticky spacebar that will random lock up and need to be lubricated; the keys are just printed on ABS so they're already wearing out and they look ugly as sin (plus they get so grimy so quickly).
the only pro on this thing is the volume wheel / media keys, and the fact that the mac will recognize it and follow the "correct" behaviour. had tons of problems with previous keyboards since mac osx doesn't seem to have the same level of customization as eg kde.
they're also advertised as having cherry keys, but they're really no-names -- not even Kalih, Outemu, or Gateron (who at this point are as reliable or better than cherry).
Hard pass. My coolermaster keyboard ended up being a lot better. not holding my breath that apple gets its shit together and adopts a better keyboard layout. did wish someone made a mechanical that maybe used a dip switch or something easy to switch between layouts.
So no worries, I'll just buy a Magic Keyboard if mine breaks. Or maybe I'll buy the Matias clone of the A1243.
I'm currently dithering between buying that or the Das as my own A1243 is slowly dying, but at least that one looks like all the buttons are in the right place.
I don't know why people find it so hard to believe when I say that there are no mechanical keyboards with a Mac layout. There just simply aren't. The best is the Matias Tactile Pro and even that has slight shortcomings (short Option and Eject button replaces F19). Pretty much everything else is just the manufacturer's generic PC keyboard with Mac-specific keycaps.
This one is exactly that: a generic mechanical keyboard with Mac-specific keycaps. Just look at the non-Mac variant: https://www.keyboardco.com/keyboard/uk-va109m-sakura-pbt-bac... It's exactly the same layout.
Probably because they have a looser definition of Mac layout than you. Many people just mean that there's a command and option key and that the media control keys are in the right place.
I cringe a little seeing all this affection for the A1243, after having seen scads of them go into the scrap heap at my local nonprofit electronics recycler.
+1 for eBay, anyway. I've made an exception for my M1 MacBook, but generally I try to buy everything used.
AASPs were also able to order the iMac Pro space gray keyboards the same way, back when they were exclusive to the iMac Pro and weren't sold standalone.
Apple low-profile keyboards have been my keyboard of choice for over 10 years on any platform and for any use (gaming included). I know a lot of people swear by mechanical keyboards, but personally I type much faster with the low-profile keys and love the feel of them.
After all, in the life of a keyboard it probably types 10,000 characters per day for 50 years. Call that 400 Million events that need to be sent to your mac via bluetooth low energy.
The system can be entirely powered down when no key is pressed, so the only energy loss is a pre-keypress amount. That works out to about 3 Watt-hours (assuming each keypress is transmitted 3 times for interference-resistance and has a packet length the same as an advertisement). A long-life alkaline battery has a low enough leakage to last 50 years, and about the volume of an AA cell can easily power daily use for 50 years. If you want to go smaller and lighter, you could get 10 years out of a coin cell.
It would probably work out cheaper because you don't need to ship the device with a cable or charge circuitry too. Users don't have one more thing to worry about charging either.
Knowing Apple they'd probably solder or glue the battery so that you have even one less thing to worry about
Just got an M1 MacBook and it’s so nice to have a pretty consistent feel compared to my other keyboards.
Not surprised these are totally unrepairable by the way. Luckily they rarely need to be repaired.
It was only sold for a year or so before the wireless model replaced it, and it's hard to find them now. What I did was to look for used iMacs from 2010, see which ones have the A1242, then ask the seller to only sell me the keyboard.
Based on the replies I wasn't the first one to ask! Seems like there are still some fans around.