My New Keyboard Is Wearing a Condom

My Apple Magic Keyboard finally gave up on me. The space bar stopped working reliably, which is a fairly fundamental problem for a keyboard. I found myself typing entire sentences without spaces, turning perfectly ordinary prose into something that looked like I was having a minor stroke.

It was time for a replacement.

Enter the iClever BK10 Max, a low-cost alternative to Apple’s Magic Keyboard. So far, so sensible.

But there’s a complication.

Protection, or a mild inconvenience?

The BK10 Max comes with an optional silicone keyboard cover. It’s not a bad idea, really. Between the accumulated dog hair, the occasional coffee spill and the general assortment of debris that finds its way onto a desk, keyboards lead a surprisingly hazardous existence.

A protective cover makes sense.

Unfortunately, it also makes the keyboard feel a little like it’s wearing a condom.

There’s a thin layer of silicone sitting over the keys, presumably protecting them from all the things that might otherwise shorten their useful life. It’s practical, it’s easy enough to understand, and it might even save me from having to replace another keyboard prematurely.

But there’s something faintly ridiculous about typing on a keyboard that’s wearing protection.

I’ve yet to decide whether I can live with it. Perhaps I’ll get used to the sensation. Perhaps it’ll drive me quietly insane over the next week. For now, the experiment continues.

The cheaper alternative

The price is probably the BK10 Max’s biggest selling point. At around a quarter of the cost of an Apple Magic Keyboard, it doesn’t have to be revolutionary to make a compelling case for itself.

It just has to work.

The keys are low-profile, and I quite like that. It’s a laptop feel rather than a desktop one, and I’ll take a short, flat key over a deep, clattery one most days. If you’re the sort of person who wants a solid, clicky mechanical keyboard under your fingers, this isn’t it, and I wouldn’t pretend otherwise. But that’s not what the BK10 Max is trying to be. It’s a compact, everyday keyboard for getting work done without making a fuss, and on that front it delivers.

The construction is pretty solid, too. There’s enough rigidity that it doesn’t flex and creak under even enthusiastic typing — no sense that it’s going to fold in half the first time I get carried away with a blog post.

There’s also a Bluetooth device selector, which I didn’t expect to care about and now wouldn’t give up. Flicking between a MacBook and an iPad without going through the usual pairing dance is one of those small conveniences you only notice when you’ve stopped having to think about it.

And it’s USB-rechargeable. I genuinely can’t comment on battery life yet, but I’ll happily take a battery I can top up over the replaceable AA batteries that so many keyboards at this price still insist on.

The verdict, such as it is

So far, the iClever BK10 Max has earned its place on my desk. It types well, it costs a quarter of what Apple wants, and it doesn’t feel like a budget compromise. For a keyboard I bought in sheer desperation, that’s a better result than I had any right to expect.

The one thing I’m still not sold on is the silicone cover. It might turn out to be a brilliant bit of practical protection. Or I might decide that typing through a layer of rubbery silicone just isn’t my thing, and rip it off in a fit of frustration.

Either way, the keyboard underneath is doing its job.

And, for the moment, it’s keeping its clothes on.