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Offline ergo_typing

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Mistel Sleeker Keyboard Review - a Mac Users Perspective
« on: Tue, 16 January 2018, 10:35:51 »
Mistel Sleeker Keyboard Review - a Mac Users Perspective

TL;DR

A Mac first, premium mechanical keyboard. If you love the aluminium finish of Apple keyboards but need some clicky goodness, the elegantly designed Mistel Sleeker should be high on your list to try.



Keyboard Background

To place this review in context, my previous keyboard experience is: Kinesis Freestyle, Ergodox (Cherry Red with PBT caps), Mistel Barocco (Cherry Brown with PBT caps) Matias Ergo Pro (quiet clicks) and the UHK (Kailh Red). I also used an AEKII back in the day. The Sleeker model that I’m using is Cherry MX Brown switches in an ANSI layout. I am also a died in the wool Mac enthusiast. Note: this Sleeker was provided by Mistel for an un-biased review.

Courting macOS Users

As a Mac user with a passion for clicky keyboards, you often feel like a second class citizen. Not only are you lucky if you even see macOS (or OS X) listed as supported but best of luck with finding native keycaps legends on the keyboard. Either you’re hunting around for third party macOS keycaps, or just dealing with having an ugly Windows key on your board every time you look down. I know, first world problems, right?



The Mistel Sleeker is definitely a keyboard looking for a Mac user to love. From the first look at the box and the slow reveal of pulling out the close fitting inner section of the packaging, the Sleeker screams Mac minimalism. In a world of Windows gaming blinky-blinky LED keyboards, the Sleeker is a welcoming, calm experience.

The Unboxing Experience



From the first moment you pick up the box, the Sleeker feels like it means business. The restrained graphics on the outer box give way to an inner cover with the Sleeker logo emblazoned providing a slow reveal for the keyboard within.



Inside, there is a keyboard bag, which I would describe as something to keep dust off your keyboard, rather than providing a sturdy method to transport your keyboard back and forth on a regular basis. But nevertheless, a nice inclusion for a well rounded set of accessories.

Tucked away in a small section of the box are the rest of your accessories. And there are a surprising number of them. A nice wire keycap puller is there along with 13 additional keycaps (more on this below in the Switches and Keycaps section).

A USB Type C white plastic (not braided) is right there along with a Type A adaptor and finally, some alternative extra metal feet. The only attachment option for these is at the back of the keyboard, so positive tilting is your only option here. Not necessarily a great ergonomic choice but if positive tilting is your thing, you are well taken care of.



Build Quality

One of the signature features of the keyboard is the construction of the case body. A solid piece of CNC aluminium and it really feels like quality. To call the body of this keyboard solid would be somewhat of an understatement.



The Sleeker weighs a delightfully sturdy 1350 grams. To put this into context, the diminutive Apple bluetooth keyboard weighs a slight 280 grams. To put this difference another way, the Sleeker could double as a charming keyboard and a defensive weapon — should the need arise. Now how much would you pay?

This is not a keyboard which you should be planning on travelling back and forth to the office. Think of it as the kind of keyboard that would draw the right kind of attention from any setup picture you might post online.

My final observation on the case body of the Sleeker is that of the finish of the metal. The treatment of the aluminium does not feel like Apple’s keyboards. Rather than the smooth brushed feel, the Sleeker is much more textured. When looking down at the keyboard, as the light reflects of the texture, you’re almost reminded of looking at the wood grain on a quality wooden wrist rest.



Switches and Keycaps

The Sleeker that I am testing has Cherry Brown switches. They feel, unsurprisingly, like Cherry Brown switches. The switches feel sturdily mounted on the plate and have a pleasant clack. It’s great that Mistel haven’t cheap-ed out with lower quality clones and are shipping with multiple Cherry options for your tactile pleasure.



PBT! Need I say more? Well OK, maybe a little. The low profile Cherry keycaps are nicely thick — to give you an idea in this picture, you can see a comparison of the relative thickness of the keycap walls (Sleeker, Signature Plastics and Leopold). There is very little warping on the shape of the keycaps. That classic ‘dry’ feel of PBT also extends to the space bar. As you run your thumb across the top of the space bar, you get that wonderful, slightly rough feeling — it’s so nice to have the whole keycap set being PBT.

The legends of the keycaps are set in Helvetica. Traditionally, Apple keyboard legends have been set in VAG Rounded and now more recently, the new Apple custom font San Francisco. As an aside, the Apple Extended II used Univers 57 Oblique. So to use Helvetica is a slightly odd choice until you consider the macOS brief dalliance with Helvetica Neue. And as the saying goes, you can never go wrong with Helvetica.

The legends appear to be vertically aligned, rather than using visual alignment as Apple does with their keyboards. I find the difference particularly noticeable on the D key, where the legend feels right biased. But this is a very nit-picky observation and not a big deal.

Speaking of legends, the Command key is right there out of the box either side of the space bar, just as Susan Kare intended. I know this sounds like a minor thing to a Windows user but to a Mac user, this is the way I wished all mechanical keyboards looked. I know this is never going to happen but a man can dream, right?

A final welcomed touch for a Mac user is that the sequence and icon of the function/special keys is correct. Mission Control, brightness controls for laptops and native media playback for iTunes control are all right there, just where you would expect them to be. Should you want to use this keyboard with a Windows machine, Mistel thoughtfully provided replacement keycaps with the relevant legends.



Other Details

Wrapping up, there are four little details to discuss: Feet, LEDs, USB C and programability.

Let’s talk about feet. An oft overlooked feature on a keyboard but an important one — who wants their typing slipping all over the place? The Sleeker has four, large rubber feet on the base and those, along with the overall weight of the keyboard, really help to keep this keyboard rooted to your desk.



The Sleeker forgoes RGB LEDs fitting with the more minimal atheistic of Apple and just has plain white LEDs. These LEDs can be toggled on and off (with F13) and also put in a breathing mode where they pulse on and off. Out of the box, the breathing rate is a little on the fast side, more breathing after a quick sprint than after a gentle jog. Thankfully, this is customisable. Once in breathing mode, Fn + right and left arrows respectively will alter the rate. Confusingly, the right arrow slows the rate, while the left increase it. As you can see in the picture below, the keycaps are solid, so the LEDs shine around the keycaps, rather than illuminating the letters themselves.



Since Apple made the switch on their newer machines to USB C/Thunderbolt 3, we have been living in a dongle adaptor world. As with any keyboard looking to attract Mac users, USB C is obviously the way to go and Mistel have done the right thing. As you can see, even R2D2 is impressed by this future looking connectivity!



Finally, as to the programming functionality of the Sleeker: None. Well, OK, not strictly true; there are a few things you can remap:

  • Remap the left Control Key to be another Fn key
  • Remap Capslock to left Control Key
  • Remap the layout to be a Windows layout (if you really have to)

Conclusion

Truly, a Sleeker alternative (see what I did there?) to the aluminium keyboard Apple ships, filled with mechanical goodness. With Plug and play macOS support out of the box, your choice of Cherry switches and well made PBT keycaps, the Mistel Sleeker really is a love letter to a Mac using mechanical keyboard enthusiast.

Pros:

  • Build quality
  • Native Mac support out of the box
  • PBT keycaps and Cherry switches

Cons:

  • Expensive
  • Very little programability


Offline Riverman

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Re: Mistel Sleeker Keyboard Review - a Mac Users Perspective
« Reply #1 on: Sat, 20 January 2018, 15:54:28 »
Very nice review!  I just got one of these in the mail.  I have to agree that is a beautiful keyboard for the Mac, but I've noticed that some of the keycaps fit loosely, like Return, Caps Lock, F, and J.  It seems like the Cherry-style stabilizers they use are pretty noisy, too.  I figure some tape will tighten up the loose keycaps, and the stabilizer noise isn't anything I won't get used to.  Overall, it's a keeper, and it's replacing a Varmilo VA108Mac.  That one has the best keycaps I've ever felt, and even the stabilizers are pretty quiet, but I like the font on the Mistel keycaps, the colors, and most of all, the aluminum case.  If they would just make a full-size version!

Offline ergo_typing

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Re: Mistel Sleeker Keyboard Review - a Mac Users Perspective
« Reply #2 on: Sun, 21 January 2018, 09:08:14 »
Thanks! Isn't it great having something specifically for the Mac?

I haven't had any real problems with loose fit - just when it arrived one of the caps had popped off in transit but it slotted back on fine. Some plumbers tape might help with tightening up a little. I read a couple posts of people using scotch tape but I've never tried that.

The aluminium case really is quite something isn't it!

Offline tuxkey

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Re: Mistel Sleeker Keyboard Review - a Mac Users Perspective
« Reply #3 on: Tue, 23 January 2018, 08:50:07 »
Nice review..
Currently i’m typing on my FC660C with Hasu controller doing my work behind a mac and several virtual linux machines..
Totally agree with you on the windows key ...hahaha windblows key ..
Having typed on the K-type for a couple of weeks i found it a bit loud and harsh to be honest. of course that’s a different build and a low profile case vs this beauty of a high profile case.. i definitely prefer a high profile case..
Having watched a couple of whitefox vids on youtube i hear the same harsh sound that i don’t hear watching type vids of other boards like the more expensive boards the guys from TopClack keep showing of..But the Tada68 metal case seems also to be on the quitter sound of things so that gives me hope for the less expensive full metal keyboards out there..

The stabilizer problem mentioned by Riverman is something i also noticed on the K-type.
And perhaps the one thing that could be a let down.. frankly i don’t understand why manufacturers do this ??? in a metal enclosure it’s even more noticeable so whyyy....
With the k-type one had the option to easily remove the switch and the stabs without desoldering...

Perhaps you could do a typing test ??
Also is there room for a thin peace of isolation in between the pcb and the case?
That would be something worth knowing as a potential buyer that is worried about the sound.

One thing i have to have in my boards is programability so for me if Hasu says he’s going
to make a controller for this board i’m getting it hahaha..

btw love that Mistel is doing such a good job.. i’m not looking for a TKL rather a 66%..
Still worth keeping in mind for apple folks and linux rather have cmd key then windblows key.

Offline ergo_typing

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Re: Mistel Sleeker Keyboard Review - a Mac Users Perspective
« Reply #4 on: Tue, 23 January 2018, 09:48:57 »
Thanks @tuxkey  :D

We need to start the revolution of Mac user targeted mechanicals!

I would certainly *not* characterise the keyboard as loud and harsh. This is with brown Cherry so with blue or something it might sound louder.

Could you link to the videos you been watching and I could compare?

How are you liking that Hasu controller? And speaking of, you know that he does a USB-USB controller i.e. should work on any device?

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=69169.0

Offline Riverman

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Re: Mistel Sleeker Keyboard Review - a Mac Users Perspective
« Reply #5 on: Tue, 23 January 2018, 23:07:40 »
I just got done modifying my Sleeker a little bit.  I installed QMX clips, which seem to have completely eliminated any pinging.  Strangely enough, the keyboard still has a much crisper feel than my Cherry G80-3000 with QMX clips that I have at work.  The rattle from the stabilizers is a lot less now, too.  I also put some small pieces of Scotch tape on the stabilizers for the delete, return, and right shift keys.  All three of those would pop off of their stabilizers if you pressed the key way off center.  The caps lock key was also very loose, so I put a small piece of Scotch tape on it, too.  The tape really tightened up all of those keys.  Now I just to spend more time with it so I can get used to not having a numeric keypad.  :D

Offline ergo_typing

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Re: Mistel Sleeker Keyboard Review - a Mac Users Perspective
« Reply #6 on: Thu, 25 January 2018, 10:34:56 »
@Riverman - nice work! How was it installing the clips?

I think the board is nice and crisp too - I wonder if it's to do with the plate? Pleased that the Scotch tape worked out. Is there anything it can't do :)

Offline Riverman

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Re: Mistel Sleeker Keyboard Review - a Mac Users Perspective
« Reply #7 on: Sun, 28 January 2018, 00:38:34 »
The clips were pretty easy to put on. Once you get a few on, you can get in a pretty good groove. They take a little less time to install than o-rings, I'd say.

Offline ergo_typing

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Re: Mistel Sleeker Keyboard Review - a Mac Users Perspective
« Reply #8 on: Sun, 28 January 2018, 09:20:28 »
The thing I spend most time on with an o-ring install is looking around on the floor trying to find them after I drop them :)

Offline Leslieann

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Re: Mistel Sleeker Keyboard Review - a Mac Users Perspective
« Reply #9 on: Sun, 28 January 2018, 17:50:52 »
This looks pretty nice, though I'm on the fence with the engraved lettering, in some pics it looks nice, others gaudy. In it's defense, the Magicforce68 was similar, but it looks good in person it just doesn't photograph well.

The price actually seems pretty good considering the case, I found $199 listed as MSRP on one site, I'm curious what the internals look like because at that price it could very well be little more than an Ajazz shoved into an Aluminum case making the whole thing kind of meh.

Also saw a picture of it black anodized... drool.
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Offline ergo_typing

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Re: Mistel Sleeker Keyboard Review - a Mac Users Perspective
« Reply #10 on: Tue, 30 January 2018, 05:58:59 »
The engraved lettering doesn't really attract much visual attention for me. I think it looks a little more obvious in the black version you linked to - but I've not seen that version in public. I wonder what the black version would look like with black keycaps too - very stealthy I suspect :)

Offline Leslieann

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Re: Mistel Sleeker Keyboard Review - a Mac Users Perspective
« Reply #11 on: Tue, 30 January 2018, 18:34:46 »
The logo is more obvious, but the brushed anodized finish looks fantastic. May have to try and duplicate it on my Filco.

They don't offer black keycaps far as I know.
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| Filco MJ2 L.E. Vortex Case, Jailhouse Blues, heavily customized
More
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| GH60
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| Logitech Illumininated | IBM Model M (x2)
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Offline ergo_typing

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Re: Mistel Sleeker Keyboard Review - a Mac Users Perspective
« Reply #12 on: Thu, 01 February 2018, 09:03:04 »
The joy of cherry style switches - lots of third party keycaps available. Now if only Signature Plastics weren't so expensive!