Key Press Latency of Popular Keyboards ⇥ danluu.com

Dan Luu tested a bunch of popular keyboard models and recorded their latency. Something that might surprise you: Apple’s Magic Keyboard, when connected over USB, had the fastest response time — albeit imperceptibly so in actual usage.

That goes to show that Apple can build great keyboards. They have, repeatedly. Apple’s trackpads are also widely considered to be the best in the industry. These products are fantastic from a technical perspective, an ergonomics perspective, and a longevity perspective. Their mice haven’t been praised to nearly the same extent, but I still think the Magic Mouse — at least — is a great product.

The latest batch of keyboards and the software that interprets input devices should be considered an anomalies, but they are worrying ones.