The Lowfree Flow84 is the mechanical keyboard Apple would make today

The Lowfree Flow84 is the latest episode in my on-again, off-again love affair with mechanical keyboards. I describe it as the mechanical keyboard Apple would make for a mix of good and bad reasons, but we’ll get to that!

It’s one of a relatively new breed of low-profile mechanical keyboards, something that would have seemed a contradiction in terms just a few years earlier …

What’s a mechanical keyboard anyway?

Given that Apple-style chiclet keyboards now dominate the market, and many Mac users won’t be old enough to recall anything prior to those, it’s perhaps worth beginning at the beginning.

MacBook keyboards, and the various Apple Magic Keyboards, are constructed with ultra-slim keys sitting on top of a two-part scissor mechanism. It’s this which provides the springiness, and which pushes each key back up after use.

This mechanism is quiet in use, and most importantly for Apple purposes requires very little height. This means they can be used in ultra-slim MacBooks. (We’ll gloss over the time the company went too far with this …)

But scissor keyboards also have significant downsides, of which the biggest one is the lack of feel. They are simply not very satisfying to use from a tactile or auditory perspective. Which is where mechanical keyboards come in.

These use more robust switches beneath each key, with far longer travel. Depending on the type of switch used, they may sound clicky, clacky, or thocky – the three terms most commonly used to describe the auditory variations.

Mechanical keyboard fans prefer the larger physical movement, as well as the absolute tactile and audible feedback that a keypress has registered. The combination of the two tends to result in greater accuracy, as well as – somewhat counter-intuitively – faster typing speeds.

Finally, most mechanical keyboards offer almost infinite customization options. You can buy a wide variety of different switches, each with their distinctive sound and feel, as well as a huge range of keycaps that allow you to choose the shape, color, finish, typeface, and more.

The emergence of low-profile mechanical keyboards

For a very long time, you paid your money and took your choice:

• The low profile and compact layout but poor feel of a scissor keyboard
• The great feel but large physical size and height of a mechanical keyboard

The width and depth of a mechanical keyboard can be reduced with various reduced-key options. A full-sized keyboard has every key: function keys, numeric keypad, navigation keys like PgUp and PgDn, the works. They have over 100 keys, and are known as 100% keyboards.

Over time, various other options have emerged – dropping the numeric keypad and function keys (using key-combos to access them) and so on. This results in mechanical keyboards as small as 40% of a full-size one while still retaining standard-sized keycaps.

But the issue which was only solved in the past few years was reducing the height of a mechanical keyboard without reducing the range of movement or feel. A number of companies figured out how to do this, and so the low-profile keyboard was born.

The Lowfree Flow84

The Lowfree I’m reviewing is the Flow84, the name deriving from the 84 keys. In size terms, it’s a 75% keyboard, with function and navigation keys, but no numeric keypad. (There’s a Flow100 version available with a keypad.)

Look

This is the first reason I say it’s the mechanical keyboard Apple would make today: it’s an absolutely beautiful, minimalist design. It’s available in either black or white, and if you look at the white version alongside Apple’s Magic Keyboard, I think the resemblance is clear.

It’s a slight off-white, though not as creamy as it looks in this light.

The low profile design is obvious when viewed from the side. The copper-look branding plate is something you might love or hate; personally I’d prefer not to have it, but it’s pretty inoffensive. Same with the matching legs, on which more shortly.

The keys offer backlighting, though I don’t personally ever use it with a desktop keyboard. Switching between the three supported Bluetooth connections and the backlight strength is controlled via key combinations.

That low-profile design is made possible in part by very shallow keycaps:

While this does mean you don’t have the flexibility of purchasing any keycap set if you fancy a different look, Lofree does offer a lot of different options, priced at $50 per set. This is a little pricier than is typical for standard sets, but not much.

Customization

Normally, I’d move from Look to Feel – but there are a couple of problems here.

One of the, uh, key benefits of a mechanical keyboard is the mix-and-match nature of them. Want a different look? Switch out the keycaps. Want a different feel? Choose a different switch.

To be clear, Lofree offers many keycap options, so that’s fine. But things are more limited when it comes to switches. The keyboard uses Kailh switches. Now, I personally think these are excellent, but some may prefer Cherry, and that’s not an option.

I’m generally a clicky switch guy, which would normally mean I’d opt for the Kailh Wizard set. But I can’t: for some inexplicable reason, the white keyboard comes with Ghost switches, the black keyboard comes with Phantom switches, and that’s it. No ability to specify the ones you want, as you’d get from any other mechanical keyboard company. You can order an additional set of your preferred switches, but that’s an extra $59.

This is the second reason I say this is the keyboard Apple would make: it’s exactly that ‘you can have any spec you like as long as it’s the one Apple chooses’ attitude.

Exactly the same is true of the firmware. Most mechanical keyboards support software remapping. Want the page up and down keys above Home and End? No problem: swap the keymaps and remap their functions in software. But not with this keyboard: there’s zero remapping capability. Again, reminiscent of the ‘Apple knows best’ approach.

So, my white keyboard arrived with Ghost switches.

Oh, and there’s one last piece of missing customization: those legs. Most mechanical keyboards offer three positions: legs down, low position, high position. The Flow84 has fixed legs in what I would describe as a low position. It works well at this angle, but again, no choice.

Feel

The keyboard feels like it offers excellent build quality. It’s an all-aluminum housing, which feels solid and suitably weighty. The standard of fit and finish is well up to Apple standards.

When it comes to typing, the Ghost switches are linear ones, not clicky. I was expecting to want to swap them out. However … I haven’t yet.

Lofree says these switches make for the smoothest typing experience, and I have to say that I completely get it. The feel is absolutely beautiful.

I may yet swap them, but there’s no denying that they have enough positive feel and auditory feedback for reliable typing while making less noise and just feeling so … silky. Two weeks later, I’m still using them, and feeling less and less call to change them.

Solving half of my on-off love affair

I mentioned my on-off love affair with mechanical keyboards. On the plus side, I massively prefer the feel when typing, and I do find that both my typing speed and accuracy are better when using one. On the downside, they are traditionally hulking great beasts, so less than portable while travelling.

However, at 12.5 inches by 5 inches by one inch, and weighing 1.3 pounds, the Flow84 isn’t such an unreasonable proposition when it comes to either adding it to your travel kit or even slipping it into a backpack. It also takes up very little extra room on my desk over the Magic Keyboard as you can see from the comparison above.

The battery life is lower at 40 hours, but I’m in the habit of weekly charging, which works just fine with this.

But the other reason I’ve got back-and-forth between mechanical and chiclet keyboards multiple times is because of the challenge of switching between the two: mechanical on my desk, chiclet when mobile or for leisure use in the living room. Constant adjusting can get tiring, but I must say that I think this one may stick. It’s just so lovely to use

Pricing & conclusions

The Lofree Flow84 costs $159, though the company is currently offering it at $139. As ever, it’s worth comparing prices on Amazon. However, be very careful when doing so, as there’s also a Flow Lite version, which is half-aluminum, half-plastic.

There are cheaper options out there, like the NePhy Air75, in the $120-135 range depending on original versus V2. But when it comes to the most Apple-like low-profile mechanical keyboard, the Lofree Flow84 is it.

Yes, I’d like to see switch choices when ordering. Yes, I’d like to see software remapping and layering. But if you want a mechanical keyboard which looks right at home in your all-Apple setup, and offers a beautiful typing experience, you’ll likely consider the modest extra investment and the Apple-like constraints worthwhile.

Highlighted accessories

• Lofree Flow84 keyboard on Amazon
• Anker 511 Nano Pro ultra-compact iPhone charger
• Spigen MagFit case for iPhone 16e – adds MagSafe support
• Apple MagSafe Charger with 25w power for iPhone 16 models
• Apple 30W charger for above
• Anker 240W braided USB-C to USB-C cable

Main photo: 9to5Mac collage of images from Lowfree and by Codioful on Unsplash