Co-hunting something so physically beautiful with @conduit_design.
He called it “the wildest keyboard I have ever seen”🤯
At 4.75mm, Altar II barely looks like a mechanical keyboard. It sits almost as flat as a Magic Keyboard, without the usual height that comes with mechanical switches.
The whole product is built around fitting a real mechanical typing experience into that almost impossibly thin frame. The switches still have 1.8mm of travel, and the engineering gets obsessive enough that even the USB-C housing had to be custom-made because normal ones were thicker than the keyboard.
It’s rare to see a hardware project nail the industrial design and acoustics this well!
Altar II is an ultra-low profile (4.75mm) mechanical keyboard designed to replace your Magic Keyboard. It's the keyboard I wish Apple made.
It has fully mechanical switches with 1.8mm of travel, a magnetically detachable dial, haptic feedback, a red backlight, a speaker, and a native macOS companion app. The chassis is a single piece of CNC-machined aluminium.
I'm a heavy Mac user and I feel Apple hasn't given its keyboards the attention they deserve in terms of hardware, software or features, so I set out to change that. It has taken almost two years. The hardest parts were fitting a reasonably sized battery into the chassis and getting the power profiling right without touching the typing experience. There was also literally no space on the underside of the PCB, so every component had to go on top. Even the USB-C housing is custom because a standard one is thicker than the keyboard.
I've taken a lot of the feedback from our first keyboard, Altar I, and incorporated it into Altar II, including the detachable dial and pairing button placement.
Reservations are open now ($1 locks in the $249 price, against $349 retail). Kickstarter launches 10 November 2026.
A 4.75mm mechanical board is a compromise I did not think was possible. My Magic Keyboard is flat and lifeless, and every mechanical I tried sat on the desk like a brick. Did the short travel keep a real bottom out, or is that the tradeoff?
@yelyzaveta_kibets In terms of typing feel, the closest comparison is a MacBook keyboard, but with more vertical travel and snappier feel. Altar II has 1.8mm travel whereas a MacBook has around 1.2mm. It doesn’t sound like a lot but it makes a big difference. There’s also a tactile “bump” which means you can feel when the switch actuates, and the weighting is heavier than a MacBook. It is a much different feeling than typing on a typical mechanical keyboard.
@aemerson 1.8mm with a real tactile bump is more than I expected at that thickness. The bump is the part that makes typing feel accurate instead of mushy, so that answers it. Thanks for the numbers rather than adjectives.
At 4.75mm it is actually travel-viable. My current keyboard is a small brick that never leaves the desk. Question on the companion app: how much of the dial and haptic customization lives in app versus firmware? Asking because I want to know if my setup carries over on a second Mac or if I start from scratch each time.
Replies
Flowtica Scribe
Hi everyone!
Co-hunting something so physically beautiful with @conduit_design.
He called it “the wildest keyboard I have ever seen”🤯
At 4.75mm, Altar II barely looks like a mechanical keyboard. It sits almost as flat as a Magic Keyboard, without the usual height that comes with mechanical switches.
The whole product is built around fitting a real mechanical typing experience into that almost impossibly thin frame. The switches still have 1.8mm of travel, and the engineering gets obsessive enough that even the USB-C housing had to be custom-made because normal ones were thicker than the keyboard.
It’s rare to see a hardware project nail the industrial design and acoustics this well!
Electronic Materials Office®
Thanks @zaczuo and @conduit_design for hunting this, much appreciated!
DiffSense
@zaczuo @aemerson Love the vibes! This keyboard is the new gold standard. Also the instagram is worth checking out: https://www.instagram.com/electronicmaterialsoffice/
Electronic Materials Office®
Thank you for the kind words @DiffSense !
Electronic Materials Office®
Hi everyone, I'm Andrew, the creator of Altar II.
Altar II is an ultra-low profile (4.75mm) mechanical keyboard designed to replace your Magic Keyboard. It's the keyboard I wish Apple made.
It has fully mechanical switches with 1.8mm of travel, a magnetically detachable dial, haptic feedback, a red backlight, a speaker, and a native macOS companion app. The chassis is a single piece of CNC-machined aluminium.
I'm a heavy Mac user and I feel Apple hasn't given its keyboards the attention they deserve in terms of hardware, software or features, so I set out to change that. It has taken almost two years. The hardest parts were fitting a reasonably sized battery into the chassis and getting the power profiling right without touching the typing experience. There was also literally no space on the underside of the PCB, so every component had to go on top. Even the USB-C housing is custom because a standard one is thicker than the keyboard.
I've taken a lot of the feedback from our first keyboard, Altar I, and incorporated it into Altar II, including the detachable dial and pairing button placement.
Reservations are open now ($1 locks in the $249 price, against $349 retail). Kickstarter launches 10 November 2026.
How does it sound when someone is typing? 👀
Electronic Materials Office®
@ryanwrites There's a typing test recorded on our website: https://electronicmaterialsoffice.com
Scarlett.
Will this be available in ISO format at any point?
Softorino 💻📲
A 4.75mm mechanical board is a compromise I did not think was possible. My Magic Keyboard is flat and lifeless, and every mechanical I tried sat on the desk like a brick. Did the short travel keep a real bottom out, or is that the tradeoff?
Electronic Materials Office®
@yelyzaveta_kibets In terms of typing feel, the closest comparison is a MacBook keyboard, but with more vertical travel and snappier feel. Altar II has 1.8mm travel whereas a MacBook has around 1.2mm. It doesn’t sound like a lot but it makes a big difference. There’s also a tactile “bump” which means you can feel when the switch actuates, and the weighting is heavier than a MacBook. It is a much different feeling than typing on a typical mechanical keyboard.
Softorino 💻📲
@aemerson 1.8mm with a real tactile bump is more than I expected at that thickness. The bump is the part that makes typing feel accurate instead of mushy, so that answers it. Thanks for the numbers rather than adjectives.
Electronic Materials Office®
@yelyzaveta_kibets My pleasure!
At 4.75mm it is actually travel-viable. My current keyboard is a small brick that never leaves the desk. Question on the companion app: how much of the dial and haptic customization lives in app versus firmware? Asking because I want to know if my setup carries over on a second Mac or if I start from scratch each time.