There’s no other input device that can do its job as well as a keyboard. No matter how good character recognition or speech recognition will ever be, there will be no faster way to get thoughts out of your head until they perfect the direct brain link.

It’s quite common in computer geek circles to have a favorite keyboard. For a long time, my all time favorite was the original Microsoft Natural Keyboard. I stashed away several so that I could avoid the horrible later iterations. Only the latest Sculpt keyboards have been able to live up to the legacy of the twenty year old original.

In the meantime, keyboards have been steadily dematerializing. Laptops drove keyboard design towards the ever thinner and, along the way, ingenious people figured out clever tricks to make these thin keyboards not only livable but actually quite lovely to type on. In fact, one my favorite keyboards of late has been the one on the 15" MacBook Pro. Not the 13" model, mind you.

Now, I’ve got one of Apple’s new Magic Keyboards on my desk. I wasn’t sure what to expect out of it. It’s tiny, thin, and lightweight. Yet, when I started typing on it, I was surprised how solid it feels. As much time as Apple has been putting into simulated haptic feedback—such as 3D Touch—they’ve evidently been putting a lot of time into real haptics.

I’m not sure that it’ll stay in the center of my desk. I do like my swoopy Microsoft Sculpt keyboard, especially for long periods of work. But this one… This one is quite the surprise. It types way above its size.