This is the MX Mechanical Mini Keyboard from Logitech,
and you've probably seen it plastered
all over YouTube for the last few months.
It seems to be the keyboard to buy right now,
especially if you have a Mac
because it's one of the few keyboards
that ships with a specific Mac version.
It's wireless, has a built-in backlight
allows you to easily switch
between multiple computers with the press of the button
has a ton of customization options and it's mechanical.
(keyboard clacking)
So naturally, I bought it,
because I was curious to see if it's actually good
and worth the fairly premium price tag,
but more importantly how it stacks
up to some of the popular competitors out there.
Now, spoiler alert,
like most other Logitech peripherals I've used
on this channel, I like it,
but it has a big problem that kind of ruins
the appeal for me and might be a deal breaker
for you as well,
and I'll get to that in just a moment.
Also, I bought this keyboard with my own money,
so this review is not sponsored
or endorsed by Logitech in any way.
Okay, so who is the target market for a keyboard like this?
It's wireless. It's mechanical.
It's got a ton of really cool features.
Who exactly is it for?
Well, realistically, the target market is anyone looking
for a high quality wireless keyboard,
but Logitech mostly markets it
towards productivity oriented workflows and professionals.
Like creatives using the Adobe suite or programmers.
Basically people who sit in front
of their computer for hours and hours every single day.
Now you might be familiar
with Logitech's MX Keys keyboard
that came out a few years ago,
and I reviewed on this channel previously.
And this is essentially the same thing
just with mechanical switches instead of membrane.
So let's start with the build quality.
Like most Logitech products, it's not exceptional,
but it's sturdy and it certainly doesn't feel cheap.
The chassis is made from plastic
and there's an aluminum top case
that adds a more premium look
and also helps reduce any kind of flex
of which there is essentially none,
even when exerting a lot of force.
Logitech also went the extra step
and used recycled and low carbon materials where possible,
which is always nice to see.
Now the overall form factor is quite thin,
and it's slightly sloped away from your fingers,
and there are feet on the back that flip out
to give you one extra level
or about eight degrees of adjustability.
Personally, I use the keyboard flat on my desk
without the feet, which is usually the most ergonomic
and comfortable way for me to type.
I also quite like the muted logo at the top
and the minimal gray color scheme
with the alternating key cap colors,
kind of gives the keyboard a little bit of character
while still allowing it to fit into almost any setup style.
And the space gray color scheme is also
the only color option available for the standard version.
So if you want the lighter pale gray color scheme,
you need to buy the Mac version.
Now, if you're curious as to the differences
between the standard and Mac versions,
well there isn't much.
The standard version has dual Mac and Windows icon
key cap labels, whereas the Mac version
has the standard Mac keyboard labeling.
However, the Mac version does not come
with the Logi Bolt USB receiver.
I assume because all Macs come with bluetooth already.
So Logitech didn't think it necessary to include a dongle.
Now this might be an issue for some,
but I'll touch on that a bit later.
Now you might have noticed you can get the MX Mechanical
in two sizes, the standard full sized version
with a numberpad
and the mini version without the numberpad.
This mini form factor has been around for a while
and that's often referred to as 10 kilos.
Functionally, they are the exact same keyboard.
It's just the mini version is smaller,
has less keys and costs about $40 less.
Personally, I never use the numberpad.
I mean I just prefer a more compact keyboard
so that I have more room on my desk
and can position my keyboard right in front of me.
However, I know that there are some Excel fiends
out there for example, that love the numberpad,
so it's mainly personal preference.
Now in terms of battery life, I have zero complaints.
I can easily get six to 10 months of battery life,
which is exceptional for a keyboard.
And it easily beats the Magic Keyboard from Apple.
Now the reason I can get such good battery life is
instead of the backlight, I use a monitor light bar
to illuminate the entire surface of my desk.
It's just what I prefer in a darker environment.
If you do use the backlight, however,
this reduces the battery life significantly
to around 12 to 15 days
depending how often you need the backlight.
The backlight itself is just a single white color
that's bright enough
even during the day in brighter conditions.
No, there's no RGB. Thank God.
It has different modes that can be adjusted
in the Logi Options app.
And yes, the backlight has a hand proximity sensor,
so only lights up when you are currently using it
and auto adjusts with ambient light levels.
Now this proximity sensor is good and bad.
Good because it conserves battery life and bad
because the back light turns off
if I don't type anything for a few seconds.
So when resuming my typing, I have to wait a split second
for the back light to turn back on
making it difficult to quickly find the key I was after.
Now, it's not a massive deal.
It's just something you might notice when you're typing
and it's a particularly dim room or dark night for example.
But again, I mean you can just put an overhead light on
or use a light bar, so it's not a massive issue.
You can also easily see the remaining battery percentage
using the Logi Options app or directly in Mac OS
for Mac users.
And the LED in the top right corner will also flash red
when the battery gets low.
Recharging is super simple,
because there's a USB-C port just
to the left of the on/off switch.
Now, I shouldn't praise Logitech for using USB-C here
because it's 2023 and this should be standard by now,
but I'm just really glad they didn't go with anything dumb,
like micro USB or lightning like on the Magic Keyboard
and that was a really weird design choice by Apple.
So it's good to see that Logitech has gone the right route
with this keyboard.
So let's talk about some of the features
of the MX Mechanical.
Like I mentioned previously, it's almost identical
to the non-mechanical MX Keys
that came out just a few years ago.
My favorite feature is being able to connect the keyboard
to up to three different computers
and switch between them with the press of a button,
something that I, as a dual Windows and Mac user,
can really appreciate.
And this goes hand in hand with the Logitech MX Master 3
and more recent 3S mouse.
The MX mouse and keyboard, as you might expect from the name
pair together seamlessly.
And you can customize both in the Logi Options software,
which lets you customize the different keys,
the backlight and also gives you access to the Flow feature,
which again is perfect for those using
more than one computer at their desk
allowing you to use the same wireless mouse and keyboard
to control several computers regardless of operating system
and even transfer text images and files between them
by simply copying and pasting.
Now, as mentioned previously,
I prefer to use the USB dongle receiver
which Logitech has dubbed the Logi Bolt.
It uses Bluetooth low energy technology
to pair up to six Logitech keyboards and mice
to the same receiver,
and I find that it's just a little bit more stable
than connecting directly
to whatever computer I'm using with Bluetooth
and possibly improves latency ever so slightly.
But honestly, I don't think it matters which way
you connect the keyboard.
I've never really had issues when connecting directly
via Bluetooth on my Mac, so I don't think it's a deal
breaker that the Mac version, this keyboard,
comes without the dongle,
so you won't notice the difference.
Okay, so now we're at the most important part of this review
and that is the typing experience.
Let's start with the mechanical switches themselves.
Logitech went with Kailh's new Low Profile Chalk V2 switches
and you get three options here for switches,
Tactile quiet or brown switches,
which I went with, Linear red switches
or Clicky blue switches.
Switch choice is really up to personal preference,
and I can spend 10 minutes explaining the difference
between all of them, but the only way to find out
which one you prefer best when typing
is to actually use them in real life.
That being said, a big reason why I like tactile quiet
switches or brown switches, as they're more commonly known,
is because they are quieter,
as the name suggests when compared to other switches.
Mechanical keyboards, especially with clicky blue switches,
can get very loud and this can be incredibly annoying
in an office environment or at home
and someone is in the next room, for example.
For reference, here is what the tactile quiet switches
sound like when typing.
(keys clacking)
And here are some more clicky switches
on a different keyboard.
You can immediately tell the difference in sound.
(keys clacking)
I feel that brown switches are kind of like
the boring default standard for mechanical keyboards.
So they're a good choice
for people who don't really know which switch
they'd prefer and just want a balanced experience.
Anyway, finally we get to my biggest issue
with this product.
Is it a good keyboard? Yes.
Is it a good mechanical keyboard?
That's where it gets a little tricky.
The entire point of mechanical keyboard
is the typing experience
because and that's what it boils down to
at the end of the day.
You're spending hours and hours pushing buttons
with the tips of your fingers.
Features like wireless connectivity,
back lights and multi-device support, et cetera are nice,
but they're not the primary function
or selling point of a mechanical keyboard.
And I feel like Logitech has focused on
all the other features, more so than the actual
mechanical typing experience.
It's kind of like they just slapped some stock,
standard mechanical switches
onto the body of their old MX Keys keyboard,
just to cash in on the mechanical keyboard hype train.
So let's expand on this a little more.
The actual key caps on the MX Mechanical
are nothing special.
They're just basic ABS plastic
and you can replace these with other key caps
but the space bar uses proprietary stabilizers,
which means you can't use any other space bar key caps
if you don't like the stock one
that comes with the keyboard.
And this is a really weird design choice
I thought in my opinion, just because the space bar
is the most commonly used key on a keyboard.
So if you're going to be wanting to switch one up,
it's usually going to be the space bar.
And when you combine the average key caps with the switches,
which again are nothing special,
it results in a fairly average typing experience
that feels only marginally better than entry level offerings
from Keychron that are one third the price.
For example, this is my Keychron Q4 with brown switches.
It's more premium
than the budget Keychron models I showed before
and costs around the same as the MX Mechanical.
Sure, it doesn't have quite as many fancy features
as the MX Mechanical
and it's not a low profile form factor, but the difference
in typing experience is night and day, have a listen.
(keys clacking)
Now, this particular keyboard isn't wireless,
but if you want that and also something a little cheaper,
at around $50 less than the MX Mechanical,
go for the Keychron K6 Pro.
Regardless of which one you go with,
you obviously can't tell from just watching and listening
to this video, but believe me, there is a huge difference
and you can feel it every single time you press a key.
Just feels so much nicer on the Keychron.
The Q4 and K6 Pro are also completely customizable.
It can be modded and adjusted to suit your exact liking.
Although out of the box, they're still really nice to use.
And the out of box aspect of these keyboards
is also important here.
Now we can get into the whole mechanical keyboard
enthusiast rabbit hole
and talk about double shot PBT Keycaps
or lubing switches, but those users aren't really
what these products are marketed at.
It also doesn't really matter what keyboard you go with,
either from Keychron or another brand altogether.
I'm just trying to say that there are other,
much better mechanical keyboards out there
for either the same price or cheaper
when compared to this Logitech option.
So yeah, I think if I had to sum up this keyboard,
it's kind of a weird combination
between an Apple Magic keyboard
the previous MX Keys keyboard
and a proper mechanical keyboard
like the Q4 from Keychron, for example.
At the end of the day, it's a great keyboard
with awesome features and build quality,
but if you're really
after the proper mechanical keyboard experience,
it just falls short.
And for me personally, that's a deal breaker.
So I won't be using this as my daily driver,
but maybe you're different.
Let me know down below.
Always keen to hear comments from you
and your thoughts and opinions.
So leave a comment down below
and I'll catch you in the next one.