How much time do you spend in front of your Mac every day? If it’s more than an hour or two, there’s one upgrade you can make that will transform your experience in an instant: a mechanical keyboard. This simple change can step up your productivity and make typing the most comfortable it’s ever been.

Take it from me. I’ve been using and reviewing Mac-friendly mechanical keyboards for years. I’d never go back to Apple’s Magic Keyboard, never mind any of the thousands of cheap and nasty rubber-dome alternatives that flood the market.

It really is something you have to feel to understand. Once you do, you’ll never look back. The mechanical hype is real. Here’s why you should make the switch.

Pure typing bliss

As the name suggests, a mechanical keyboard is defined by the mechanical switches that lie underneath its keycaps. Each time you press a key, it moves downward on a spring-loaded mechanism, sends a signal to macOS, then moves back up.

Conversely, on a standard keyboard such as Apple’s Magic Keyboard, the keycap sits atop a rubber dome. As you push the key, it moves downward onto the dome, which squishes down and actuates the key press.

There are several problems with this rubber dome system. The first is durability. The soft dome wears down over time, reducing the consistency of its interaction with the keyboard’s contact points and potentially introducing errors in your typing. The longer you use it, the less dependable it becomes.

A mechanical switch, on the other hand, is made from much more solid metal or plastic that is designed to last. Some mechanical keyboards go a step further and use magnetic connections (based on Hall effect or tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) tech) to actuate each key press, reducing the number of physical contact points and increasing durability exponentially.

In other words, mechanical keyboards tend to be far more reliable in the long term, meaning fewer frustrating mistakes and costly replacements.

The second issue with rubber dome keyboards–the most important one–is the typing feel. Mechanical switches come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, from those that feature a tactile bump as you press the key to those that are entirely smooth in action. That’s important, because the switch you choose can have a big impact on the typing feel.

As someone who types all day, every day, I love a tactile switch because it provides physical feedback that helps me type with greater speed and accuracy than a non-mechanical keyboard ever could. For my use case, the difference between a tactile switch and a linear one–never mind a rubber dome keyboard–is night and day.

Many mechanical keyboards let you swap out the switches on the fly, giving you many different typing experiences that can be customized to your needs. You’ll never get that with a rubber dome keyboard, where you have to stick with its (often unsatisfying) under-finger feel through thick and thin.

A new world to explore

Mechanical keyboards have benefits. But aren’t they just for PC gamers? And what about the price? They’re all eye-wateringly expensive, right?

I used to think that mechanical keyboards were just for Windows users whose idea of tasteful computer design was a blinding array of garish neon lights. But while that’s the stereotype, it’s far from the truth.

These days, many manufacturers are making Mac-specific mechanical keyboards. There are excellent offerings from the likes of Logitech, Keychron, NuPhy, Satechi, and more. Lofree has a superb range of Mac keyboards color-matched to the MacBook Neo, while Corsair even collaborated directly with Apple to create the K65 Plus, which is often on sale for under $120 and well worth the price.

These devices all use macOS key layouts. For example, the Option key is in the proper place, which isn’t the case if you use a keyboard designed for Windows. No adaptation or adjustment is needed. And with high-quality materials and beautiful designs that fit in with your Apple setup, these keyboards are far from the obnoxious gamer aesthetic.

Take the Keychron Q3 Max, for example, which is the mechanical keyboard I’m using right now to type up this article. It comes with macOS keycaps and a switch to toggle between macOS and Windows layouts (so the Option key is in the right place, which isn’t the case if you use a keyboard designed for Windows). Its all-metal case is rock solid; it looks downright gorgeous and sounds pleasing to the ear, and I can change its switches to a different type if I want a fresh typing feel. My fingers have never felt so luxuriated.

All of the devices made by the companies I mentioned above use macOS key layouts, meaning there’s no adaptation or adjustment needed. And with high-quality materials and beautiful designs that fit in with your Apple kit, these boards are about as far from the obnoxious gamer aesthetic as it’s possible to be.

As for the price, sure, mechanical keyboards are often pricey, but so is the Magic Keyboard. And as Apple fans are well aware, expensive doesn’t equate to overpriced. You can easily find a mechanical keyboard that far exceeds the Magic Keyboard for the same price or less.

There are mechanical keyboards that push the price into $200 (or more), but in most cases you’re making an investment in quality. And if you don’t want to spend that much, you don’t have to. Even high-end brands such as Keychron sell entry-level mechanical keyboards starting at around $60.

Touch ID

The only advantage of an Apple keyboard is the Touch ID button. Due to the way Touch ID works, you won’t find a third-party keyboard with it. But this is much less of an issue than it might appear. If you have an Apple Watch, you can log into macOS and confirm purchases using it, just as you would with a Touch ID button. In fact, logging in is actually faster using an Apple Watch than the Touch ID button because it happens automatically.

If you don’t have an Apple Watch, you’ll have to enter your password to log in and at the checkout. On the plus side, the latter can be sped up considerably if you have a password manager that autofills your login details.

I have an Apple Watch, so I don’t miss the Touch ID button at all. But even if I didn’t, I wouldn’t trade it for a mechanical keyboard. The benefits far outweigh what you miss out on.

With a far superior typing feel, a huge range of switch options, plus exquisite quality and ingenious features everywhere you look, every Mac user can benefit from ditching the Magic Keyboard and exploring the world of mechanical alternatives. I made the leap years ago and have never regretted it. Perhaps you should give it a try and take a look at Macworld’s picks for the best keyboards.