• Finding a mechanical keyboard that you can use in an office is tough. They can be loud and annoying to noise-sensitive neighbors.
• The Logitech Alto Keys K98M solves that problem with a gasket-mounted design, which softens the sounds of the keys.
• It also has a nice, light typing feel, making it a great choice for most workers.

I’ve reviewed a lot of keyboards in my career, and have recommended different ones for different circumstances: Some are made for pure typing, others have overly sensitive hair-trigger keys and features for gaming. Sometimes you might want a keyboard specifically because it has a small desk footprint, or low-profile keys, or programmable buttons.

One of the hardest needles to thread, I’ve found, is finding a nice, comfortable keyboard for the office. I’m not talking about a home office, where you have the privacy and freedom to do whatever you please. No, no, that’s easy.

But in a crowded, open-plan office, where everyone you work with looks and sees and hears everything? You need a keyboard that’s fairly vanilla, and doesn’t make too much noise. That rules out many of the mechanical keyboards I’d usually recommend.

Leave it to Logitech, masters of office technology, to solve the problem. Its latest keyboard, the Alto Keys K98M, is a gasket-mounted wireless mechanical keyboard that meets most of my personal needs, and fits all the requirements of the office. Better yet, it’s shockingly affordable, less than $120, which feels like an easy investment for a device that you will spend eight hours tapping on every day.

Office Casual Mechanical

The ways in which K98M are better than your average office keyboard are subtle, but combine to make a big impact if you’re the kind of person who sweats the details on your tech. It’s a full-size keyboard with a number pad, but cuts a few keys—it has just 98, versus the 104 of a standard full-size. By cutting a few non-essentials like “Insert” and “Print Screen,” Logitech creates a more compact design that feels “full,” but takes up less space on your desk—about 15.8- by 5.8- by 1.6 inches. You aren’t going to mistake it for a smaller TKL or 60 percent design, but it doesn’t feel as sprawling as other keyboards.

Of course, the reason to buy this (or any mechanical keyboard) is typing feel, which comes down to the quality of the mechanical switches underneath the key caps. The K98M features linear-style Marble switches, which give them a fairly light touch. Linear switches, such as Cherry MX Reds, are usually preferred for gaming keyboards and gives them a bit of a hair trigger, which isn’t great for typing. These switches feel a bit more firm than that, though: They have a springy feel without giving you the sense that you’re about to mis-type the moment your finger rolls too far to one side.

That said, the keys are also “hot-swappable,” which means you can remove and replace them, something that Logitech has been hesitant to do outside of gaming in the past. If you want to tinker with the feel, it’s always nice to have the option.

A New Use-Case for Gasket Mounting

The feature that really makes the K98M special, though, is its “UniCushion” gasket mount. Gasket-mounted keyboards have some form of padding in the body of the keyboard, which softens the sound of your key-presses to a softer “thunk” instead of a sharper “clack.” I generally associate it with the custom keyboard community and high-end models made for folks who care about every little detail of their desk setup, down to the sound of their typing. As a result, the gasket-mounted keyboards I’ve tested have been pretty pricey.

Here, the gasket mounting has a more utilitarian purpose. The latex foam gasket, which you can actually see through the clear plastic top-plate, makes the sound of the keyboard less distracting to nearby folks. In fact, the soft, rhythmic pattern of the keys falling actually sounds quite pleasant.

When I first started using it, one of my coworkers actually stopped as she was walking by to ask about it because she “thought it sounded nice.” I also asked a few people if my keyboard was too loud for them: Not one person said they noticed. It may be that I work with anaccommodating crew—most of us test gear, so we all have a better-than-average tolerance for office distractions—but I do think there’s a big difference here.

The clear case over a white gasket and keys also gives the K98M a look that’s distinctive, but also decidedly office-friendly. As someone who would often opt for an RGB-laden gaming keyboard, given the chance, I think it’s nice to have a keyboard that stands out just a little bit.

Battery Life and Special Features

The K98M offers strong battery life, though maybe not as strong as Logitech suggests. The brand estimates that the keyboard should work for 12 months on a single charge with the backlighting off. That’s obviously a long time. But you should know that, using Bluetooth and keeping the backlighting on, I’ve found you need to charge it every two months or so. It is not uncommon for backlighting to reduce keyboard battery life by more than 50 percent, so this isn’t necessarily a huge knock against the keyboard, but it’s something to keep in mind. And, since you can keep using the keyboard as you charge, you likely won’t even notice.

As with most of Logitech’s premium office tech, the K98M has access to a wider array of power user features, most notable of which is the “easy swap” feature that lets you connect to and hot swap among up to three wireless connections. This way, you could connect to a laptop, desktop, and an iPad, and switch between them as your workday demands. (I find that this is more useful at home, where you may have a personal computer and a work computer in the mix.)

There’s also an array of customization options, like the brand’s configuration app, Logitech Options+, including the ability to remap keys for specific apps. These are nice power user features, and always good to have, though I personally use them more often for testing than I do in my actual day-to-day.

Should You Buy The Logitech Alto Keys K98M?

Other than a few small nitpicks, like the fact that you cannot connect the keyboard to your computer with a cable, the Logitech Alto Keys K98M is a perfect keyboard for getting work done. (You can charge it from your laptop, but you still need to use Bluetooth or a wireless dongle to connect.) Its light typing feel makes long writing tasks (like writing this review) easy and breezy. And the soft sound of the keyboard sounds good, and probably won’t bug anybody.

Are there more feature-rich keyboards out there? Yeah. And smaller ones. And cooler ones. And ones with special gaming features. But if you want to keep it simple and avoid spending too much, this is an easy pick that is going to satisfy a lot of people. It is simply the best “plain” keyboard I’ve used in a long time.