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Tech · Das Keyboard · 2014

Das Keyboard 4 Professional

A full-size Cherry board that runs with no driver, no account, and nothing resident in the background.

Three things retire a mechanical keyboard — #2

Overall

7.8

out of 10

Axis scores

Tech is scored on these 5 axes. The total is their plain average — nothing is weighted.

Das Keyboard 4 Professional — axis scores out of 10Horizontal bar chart of editorial scores out of 10 across 5 axes. Bars run from a shared zero baseline; longer is better. Das Keyboard 4 Professional: Performance 8.2, Value 6.4, Durability 8.9, Ease of use 8.0, Design 7.4.PerformanceDas Keyboard 4 Professional — Performance 8.2 out of 108.2ValueDas Keyboard 4 Professional — Value 6.4 out of 106.4DurabilityDas Keyboard 4 Professional — Durability 8.9 out of 108.9Ease of useDas Keyboard 4 Professional — Ease of use 8.0 out of 108.0DesignDas Keyboard 4 Professional — Design 7.4 out of 107.4Editorial score out of 10 — higher is better
  • Performance — How well it does the core job
  • Value — What the same money buys elsewhere
  • Durability — Failure and fade reports past the one-year mark
  • Ease of use — Setup, daily operation, cleaning, maintenance
  • Design — Build quality and how it sits in a room

Specs

Layout
Full size, 104 keys
Switches
Cherry MX Brown or Blue, soldered
Top panel
Anodized aluminum
Extras
Volume knob, 2-port USB 3.0 hub, magnetic footbar

As published by the manufacturer. We didn't measure these ourselves.

Is it for you

Buy it if

  • A locked-down work machine where you cannot install anything
  • You want genuine Cherry switches and nothing added on top
  • A volume knob and a media row you can hit without looking

Skip it if

  • You expect to remap keys — this board does not do it at all
  • You want backlighting; this model has none
  • Glossy plastic that holds every fingerprint will bother you

Nothing installs. The volume knob and the media row are standard input devices as far as the computer is concerned, so they work on a machine where you have no administrator rights, on a locked corporate laptop, and on whatever operating system you move to in six years. Every other full-size board in this group asks you to run a driver suite to get its extra keys working. This one asks for a port.

The same decision takes things away, and it is worth being clear about how much. There is no onboard memory, no remapping, no macros, no per-key anything. What is printed on a keycap is what that key does, permanently. Remap in the operating system if you need to, but understand that the keyboard contributes nothing to the arrangement and never will.

The footbar is a detachable magnetic bar rather than the flip-out feet that snap off every other keyboard eventually, and that is the real improvement. It also carries ruler markings, which reviewers describe as close to unreadable because they are raised plastic in the same color as everything around them. Treat the ruler as a joke that ships in the box and the footbar as a genuinely better hinge design.

The finish is the recurring complaint. A glossy panel wraps the aluminum top, and reviewer consensus is consistent about what that means on a desk: fingerprints, dust, and a surface that photographs better than it lives. A microfiber cloth becomes part of the setup.

The two USB ports on the right edge inherit whatever the host port gives them, so a hub on a keyboard is convenient for a dongle or a drive and is not a reason to buy the board. Check what the port on your machine actually supplies before planning around it.

Switches are soldered, which is the one durability limit worth weighing here. A chattering key means desoldering, on a chassis that will otherwise outlast the computer it was bought for. Also read the model name carefully at the point of sale — the lit models in this line are separate products with their own software, and their listings sit right next to this one.

Last updated . The scoring method is on how we rank.