USB Keyboard for MBA?

[urbantea]

Where can I buy a USB wired keyboard for my macbook air? Can I use any of the PC ones?

My ultlimate thing is to use the bookarc stand for my MBA, hook it up to a bigger monitor and use a wired usb keyboard. USB keyboard is cheaper than the bluetooth ones, i'm cheap

 

[Jonr515]

Amazon has a bunch of them, Apple used to have a wired USB keyboard with 10 key, but I don't see it up there now. A quick search showed anything from $15 bucks up, apple specific.

 

[NoBoMac]

Apple pulled the wired keyboard around June 2017.

There is a knock-off out there. Have not used as I bought the Apple model a number of years ago.

https://www.frys.com/product/940133...MI8oeX04WJ2QIV3brACh3Y2ALPEAQYAiABEgINS_D_BwE

 

[Audit13]

Pretty much any USB Windows keyboard will work with a MBA.

 

[Boyd01]

Amazon has a bunch of them, Apple used to have a wired USB keyboard with 10 key, but I don't see it up there now.

Those were great, still have one that I use with my Mac Mini. I used it for a couple years with my MacBook Air but there were some strange issues. Every so often, it just wouldn't be recognized. A reboot would usually, but not always, fix that. And the really weird thing was that it sometimes would only work on the left USB port. Then, inexplicably, it would switch and only work on the right port!

I finally did some Googling, and these issues were not uncommon on that keyboard. Something strange about the USB interface evidently. So I finally gave up and used it when I got a new Mac Mini. It has been flawless on that machine for a couple years.

Anyway, as much as I like that keyboard, it's probably not a good choice for the MacBook Air. These days when I use my MBA with an external monitor, I just use the built-in MBA keyboard.

 

[tzd]

Hi urbantea, this is not USB but I heartily recommend it:

https://www.amazon.com/ThinkPad-Com...-3&keywords=Lenovo+compact+bluetooth+keyboard

I tried using my MacBook Air with a USB keyboard (also Lenovo ThinkPad) and BookArc stand for a while. The cable started to bother me and made it a hassle to attach two USB drives (one is permanently attached for Time Machine).

I then switched to the above Lenovo ThinkPad Bluetooth keyboard and it is excellent, worked seamlessly with the MacBook Air and feels even better than the Mac Bluetooth Keyboard that comes with my iMac. Battery rarely requires charging, and is easily and quickly charged via included cable. It cost only about $10 more than the USB version of the keyboard, totally worth it.

 

[urbantea]

bam. thanks!

 

[ActionableMango]

I think the Matias aluminum keyboards are the closest to what Apple used to sell. They are clearly Apple inspired.

They also have other variants, such as wireless, illuminated, other Apple-like colors (Space Grey), etc.

Better than a PC keyboard, IMHO, because they have proper Mac keys.

http://matias.ca