UK VA109Mac PBT Backlit MX Brown Tactile Mac Keyboard

Great all round keyboard for both Mac and Windoze use. The USB cable could be improved by being right angled at the keyboard end. The fold out feet collapse a little too easily and could do with being made more stiff. There is no manual in the box and finding the online manual was a mission but the lovely people at the Keyboard Company made short work of it for me.

As others have said, this is a great and versatile KB which can be used for Mac or PC.
I feel this KB will last longer than I will ;)

Pros:
- Great tactile Cherry MX Brown switches remind me of my long gone Apple Extended KB II
- Long life with replaceable industry standard switches
- Not too noisy for a shared office, but just 'clacky' enough
- Controllable white backlighting, but the keys are not translucent
- Switchable from Mac to PC layout, very useful for me
- Windows legends marked in grey on the front face of modifier keys
- Gold-plated removable and replaceable USB cable
- Faultless, friendly, patient pre and post-sales support from TheKeyboardCompany
- Solid weighty KB with adjustable rubber feet.
Cons:
- Some USB hubs or extender cards will not recognise this KB. Better plug it into the main chassis USB.
- The supplied USB cable was too short for my layout, I had to buy a longer one.
- No built-in USB hub which would have been useful for wireless dongles etc
- Instructions a little vague, particularly for Mac users
- Not a true white colour, more a very pale cream
- This is a biggie, some startup key combinations are not recognised, such as ALT+CMD+P+R and CMD+R
these are essential for troubleshooting and recovery. You will have to keep an original Apple wired KB around just in case you need these.
Holding ALT to access the early startup screen is recognised.

Great keyboard, solidly built, would have preferred Cherry Blue switches but these weren't available but the Brown are still nice.

Although this keyboard is billed as a Mac one, and indeed it is on the top of the key caps, it also has, on the key cap fronts, the appropriate Windows labelling in light grey.

This is because, by just holding down either FN+A or FN+W for a few seconds and waiting for the Caps Lock LED to flash, you can change between Windows and Mac mode. This is really useful in many ways as it allows fast switching without having to do anything system wise.

Everything is beautifully finished, with no issues with any of the keys or key caps. The body is weighty, as a good mechanical keyboard should be, and also has a removable USB connection cable, so you can replace it if it get's broken.

It comes beautifully boxed, with a replacement Cap Lock key with LED window, so you can have Caps Lock with or without an LED window if you find those annoying; the obligatory key cap remover is in the box and the supply the best one for this (wire). Also included is a separate USB-Mini to USB-C cable in case you've already moved away from USB-A.

I switched my Caps Lock round straight away and found no issue with the blue switches or finish of the key cap connection finish.

Overall if you're a Mac user and looking for your first mechanical keyboard you can't go wrong with this one. And there are a lot of them out there that you can.

So as the Keyboard Company states in the description, this Varmilos keyboard is high quality and I would definitely recommend it. I just wished they stock a few more models.

Best keyboard ever! I have to buy a second one for the office 😀

This is a wonderful keyboard with one fault that I could not live with.

The F5 and F6 function keys are only useable as fn-F5 and fn-F6.
I use F5 all the time and having to use a modifer key is not acceptable to me.

This is the best keyboard I have ever used to date, replacing my Poker 2.

2 things I wish this keyboard had that the likes of the Poker 2 has...

1.) USB-C connection instead of the classic MINI-USB
2.) HiddenRouted cable underneath

These two points have no bearing on the quality and feel of this keyboard and I highly recommend it.

First, hold down the 'fn' + 'A' keys, hold for 3 seconds, and when the Caps Lock flashes you can let go. You are now in 'Mac' mode! Your Command and Option keys will now work correctly.
This keyboard is the closest I have come to using the fabled Apple Extended keyboards of the late 80s - early 90s. This was the best keyboard I have ever used, by a country mile.
This keyboard is a pleasure to use. Do your fingers a favour and buy one :-)