Kira is a classic-feel mechanical keyboard ‘arted up’ with trippy RGB backlighting

If you consider the typing experience on modern notebooks an insult to your fingers, you might like the sound of Kira ($179 – or $259 for the metal-framed version) – and we mean that literally. Closer in nature to a typewriter than a MacBook keyboard, Kira’s chunky keys use a range of hot-swappable switch types, from the ‘sharp, heavy and clicky’ Novelkeys Box Pale Blue to the ‘light and airy tactile’ Hako Violet. But Kira marries its retro feel with a dash of modern – it’s open source and customisable, so you can turn any key into a multi-function macro. And there’s fully programmable RGB under-lighting, too. The keyboard’s creators argue this makes the Kira a “work of functional art”. Stuff mostly likes the idea of being bathed in multicoloured light, imagining we’re starring in a trashy sci-fi flick while smashing out a masterpiece.

Craig Grannell Contributor

About

I’m a regular contributor to Stuff magazine and Stuff.tv, covering apps, games, Apple kit, Android, Lego, retro gaming and other interesting oddities. I also pen opinion pieces when the editor lets me, getting all serious about accessibility and predicting when sentient AI smart cookware will take over the world, in a terrifying mix of Bake Off and Terminator.

Areas of expertise

Mobile apps and games, Macs, iOS and tvOS devices, Android, retro games, crowdfunding, design, how to fight off an enraged smart saucepan with a massive stick.