Last year, Apple accomplished something that surprisingly had always eluded the company: creating a keyboard that actually looks good.

Apple’s thin aluminum keyboards, available in a full-size wired configuration or a smaller Bluetooth version, take the most underrated and overused part of a computer and make you really want to use them.

The minimalist design is unique both in its dimensions and the actual keys, which are perfectly square as opposed to traditional trapezoid keys.

The benefit of this design is that they look much cooler and prevent as much debris from falling under the keys.

The downside is it will take a bit of time for your fingers to fully adjust to the keys, and it’s much harder to get debris out from under the keys.

Looks aside, there are a few things I love about the keyboards:

• the low-throw laptop-style keys improving my typing speed, since I don’t have to press each key in as far
• the Bluetooth version is so tiny and lightweight it’s ideal for a media center Mac mini
• the full-size wired version has two USB 2.0 ports (most keyboards have USB 1.1 ports)

Neither keyboard is unreasonably priced, either:

Full-sized wired keyboard: $49 (Amazon)
Bluetooth wireless keyboard: $79 (Amazon)

Like other Apple wares, it’s near-impossible to find a reseller selling the keyboards for less than the suggested retail price. But at least from Amazon you can avoid tax and shipping charges.