So what keyboard and mouse do you use?

[Ragashingo]

I'm very pleased with the Logitech Mechanical Mini I found for half price at Newegg a month or so ago. I got the very clicky one and it turned out great. Battery life was much better than I expected, Logitech claims something like 15 days between recharges but it's like at 70% more than a month on. Maybe not the most programable or fancy lighting, but for a small, few frills keyboard, it's quite good.

For a mouse, I've been on the MX Master series for years and years. I have a 2, a 3s, and now a 4. The 2 is just beat up and old, the 3s is stick thanks to its hard to clean outer shell, but the 4 is doing great. I do kinda want to be tempted by their little foldable travel mouse, but I haven't worked to committing to it just yet...

 

[FranzJoseph]

After my beloved (for its num block and full F1‑F19* fn keys) Apple A1243 Aluminium Wired Keyboard finally died of liquid ingestion, I resurrected my 'two decades plus' old Dell AT101W PS/2 keyboard with Alps SKCM Black switches. To much chagrin at home, as it can be both quite silent if being careful and sounding like a machine gun in full burst mode if not...

* I often used F13‑F19 for switching spaces, the launchpad and all the other stuff

Alas, the PS/2 to USB adapter was getting wonky, it was missing a few keycaps from the top row and since Alps keycaps for it are pretty rare, I finally took the plunge and bought a pretty cheap 65% (?) mechanical hall‑effect keyboard, thinking I'll finally try this "newfangled" TKL thing...

Which was surprisingly quite nice! A Savio Astral, which is just some EU reseller for the OEMs building the exact same keyboards with ROYUAN hardware (there are apparently 952 keyboard models under various brands using the same chipset and a few general PCB designs). I settled on a 82‑key TKL compact layout (65%? Still new to this!) with a rather wobbly, but still usable knob. "OUTEMU White Jade" hall‑effect switches, whatever that means. But I do actually like typing on it.

Top left is some random wired macropad from AliExpress, also pretty good. Currently mapped for switching spaces and Exposé. Left is obviously Magic Trackpad, zooming scrolling and mousing. Right is Logitech MX3 Master, missing most of its rubber since it started flaking. Also missing is the pile of crap that is LogiOptions+, since I nuked that shite right after installing it. Mapping of the mouse and macropad is via USB Overdrive, as Logitech apps are an utter pile of crap.
The macropad usually lives attached to my monitor stand via a magnet from an old dead HDD. It's also quite good quality for something that costs under €10. Trackpad gets replaced with a Wacom tablet or iPad when I draw or photoshop.

The biggest problem with all the various ROYUAN‑based mechanical keyboards? Programming. They don't support QMK or VIA or whatever the magic sauce is. Their apps only work under Windows, and just suck.

Fortunately, somebody reverse‑engineered the ROYUAN protocol, and a new app Sharkfin supports most of them in their various guises. Macros, lighting setup, fn key remapping, all except the actual hall‑effect actuation tweaking. Browser‑based, Linux and Mac OS. Can't vouch for it not using LLM coding, but it hasn't bricked my keyboard yet and it works well enough for me.

One thing I do really miss from the old A1243 is the integrated USB hub. All wired keyboards should come with one, IMO. With all the wireless dongles I use (Logitech, Wacom,…), having them slotted in the keyboard instead of just hanging off of some random USB extension cables worked much better, also for interference (left port was Wacom, right port was Logitech, minimising any 2.4GHz interference).

 

[Companion_Noob]

Bluetooth Logitech keyboard and small portable mouse for the HTPC Mini but other than that, it's just laptops and phones here.

 

[Genome]

For my Mac, I've been using an MX Keys Mini and Logitech MX Vertical for years now. Very happy, especially with using a vertical mouse.

But during the summer, when I was vacationing with the family for three weeks, I only brought my iPad Pro (M5) with a Magic Keyboard (the folio kind) and since it worked so well for me, I've thought about starting to use it with a monitor as well. However! The MX Vertical is useless with an iPad, since it's clear that iPadOS wants to use touch paradigms when it comes to using a mouse. Using a non-Apple mouse feels clunky. Scrolling is terrible and scroll wheel clicks are not possible. The MX Keys Mini is also a second class citizen on the iPad, since a lot of shortcuts require the Globe key - which the MX Keys Mini doesn't have.

I've been considering a Magic Keyboard - the basic version without TouchID, since it's useless with the iPad - for connected iPad use. (I'll keep using the MX Keys Mini and MX Vertical for the Mac, since I can also just press a button on both of them and have them connect to my work laptop which uses Windows.)

But the mouse is giving me a headache. Do I buy a Magic Trackpad or a Magic Mouse? I prefer mice when I'm at a desk, but the trackpad is probably the better choice?

Please help me out, Mac Ach.

 

[wco81]

I ordered the Magic Keyboard and Trackpad (black) for my M5 Pro 16-inch MBP, $328 with tax for pointing device and keyboard.

Ultimately I will get a big display so I'd rather use them now than use the keyboard on the MBP.

Looked at others, ergonomically just used to the Apple Magic keyboard and trackpad. The other keyboards would sit higher on my standing desk so it seems like my wrist angles would change.

 

[diabol1k]

I switched from Windows to Mac at work earlier this year and have settled in with a Keychron K8 Max, MX Master 3S, and a Magic Trackpad.

Switching platforms was a great opportunity to revisit how I manage the jungle of apps I use for work; MacOS desktops are amazing (I’m reliably informed that Windows has had similar functionality for years, but I never used it), and using the trackpad for gestures is excellent.

This is also the first time I’ve daily driven a TKL board (my first career was as a CPA so my 10-key reliance and proficiency were both high), I’ve just about broken the habit of reaching for the number pad. No real complaints about this keyboard; it has the banana switches which I find satisfying and the sweet spot volume wise. The battery lasts a long time, even with RGB going.

 

[Gandhim3]

New free, streamlined option to the Logitech crapware.

https://openlogi.org/

I tried it and seems to work fine.

 

[rodalpho]

Yeah it's excellent. Unfortunately for logitech options devices only, doesn't work with my gamery mouse.

 

[Nihil Nisi Veritas]

Keychron K10 Max and Logitech M570 Ergo on the desktop. Stock on the MacBook (i.e. nothing external). Trying to talk the wife into getting me a Magic Trackpad (in black) for the desktop. She doesn't 'get it' as she does not use the MacBook at all, but I suspect she will if I get one.

 

[Jeff3F]

I hate apple for this but its 2026 and we can’t have mice scroll in opposite direction as touchpads on iPadOS, or natively on macOS.

I use Magic Keyboard for iPad without a mouse, because it drives me mad with scrolling being offsides. Otherwise I like an older MX Keys, and MX Master mouse du jour (currently a rotting MX3 at work, and a lovely but pricy and shitty-haptics MX4 at home). I love the feel of the MX4, but the haptics are a pale, pale, nearly-nonexistent echo of Logitech’s 2001 iFeel mouse. I enjoy them when I accidentally press that area of the mouse but it does nothing useful and makes a menu that has to be dispelled.

 

[iljitsch]

The Logi Options tool lets you reverse scroll wheel direction on an LG mouse so you can be industry-compliant with your mouse and sanity-compliant with your trackpad.

Fuck Apple for sticking to forcing users to have trackpad and mouse scroll directions tied, though. Every decision they make I hate them more. It's just that the competition is not really any better and muscle memory is a thing.

For sure I am definitely not buying a Mac with a screen with all rounded corners. The iPhone Duo intrigues me, but not to the degree to part with pretty much a month's income and having a brick in my pocket that I can only use with the wrong hand.

 

[Bonusround]

Fuck Apple for sticking to forcing users to have trackpad and mouse scroll directions tied, though.

Hear, hear.

 

[Genome]

I’ve been using Scroll Reverser for so long on my Mac that I’ve forgotten it’s not a default thing. Works per device, just sits there and handles it. Perfect little program.

 

[Megabat]

so you can be industry-compliant with your mouse and sanity-compliant with your trackpad.

I'm an input maven and I hate that apple doesn't let you do this. They sell mice at the apple store!! There are lots of good reasons to use both the magic trackpad and magic mouse, but there's always a tinge of compromise.

The other thing, which I'm going to just go ahead and say (imo) is so much worse: inertial scrolling is not optional per device. I could get used to "natural" scrolling; but I need normal steps if I'm using a wheel instead of a touch surface. They categorize this option with accessibility; that team should probably know better.

Anyway: I keep trying mice. I just got a benq INFTYLAB M mouse. The zowie FK1/2 is my favorite mouse (driverless, tracks perfectly, and the geometry and plastics are perfect) but has lots of downsides for non-gaming stuff (ratcheting scroll is tedious outside games). I've been hoping they'd try a productivity mouse for a long time, and this one is good so far. Nice materials, freewheel scrolling, thumb rest, and for the love of god, horizontal scrolling that doesn't require software to be usable. I do need to keep the setup app running to set standard scrolling independent of my macbook's trackpad. It's a bit small and encourages a claw grip. But it polls at 1000Hz and doesn't use soft touch plastics; I like it so far.