I spent 2 years designing a mechanical Magic Keyboard
Hi HN, today I’m revealing Altar II, an ultra-low profile (4.75mm) mechanical keyboard designed to replace your Magic Keyboard. It’s the keyboard I wish Apple made. Altar II has fully mechanical switches, plus a magnetically detachable dial, haptic feedback, a red backlight, and a native macOS companion app. I’m a heavy Mac user and I feel that Apple hasn’t given its keyboards the attention they deserve, in terms of hardware, software, and features, so I set out to try and change that. It was a massive undertaking and it has taken almost 2 years to get to this stage. One of the main…
In plain words
Altar II is an ultra-low profile mechanical keyboard designed as an alternative to Apple's Magic Keyboard. It features mechanical switches, a magnetically detachable dial, haptic feedback, red backlighting, and a macOS companion app. Built after two years of development, the keyboard prioritizes the hardware and software features the creator felt were missing from Apple's own offerings, with careful attention to battery life and component optimization within its compact 4.75mm frame.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
Hi HN, today I’m revealing Altar II, an ultra-low profile (4.75mm) mechanical keyboard designed to replace your Magic Keyboard. It’s the keyboard I wish Apple made. Altar II has fully mechanical switches, plus a magnetically detachable dial, haptic feedback, a red backlight, and a native macOS companion app. I’m a heavy Mac user and I feel that Apple hasn’t given its keyboards the attention they deserve, in terms of hardware, software, and features, so I set out to try and change that. It was a massive undertaking and it has taken almost 2 years to get to this stage. One of the main obstacles was fitting a reasonably sized battery into the chassis, and aggressive power profiling without messing with the user experience. Another issue was we couldn’t fit any components on the underside of the PCB because there was literally no space to do so (and there are a lot of components). Around 4 years ago I posted my first keyboard to HN (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32507172). Its response blew me away and ultimately led to me quitting my job and making and selling keyboards full time. I’ve taken some of the feedback from that original post and incorporated it into Altar II (e.g. the detachable dial). I’ll be around to answer any questions. Please let me know what you think, I’d love to get some feedback.
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