Kira is a classic-feel mechanical keyboard ‘arted up’ with trippy RGB backlighting

If you consider the typing experience on modern notebooks an insult to your fingers, you might like the sound of Kira ($179 – or $259 for the metal-framed version) – and we mean that literally. Closer in nature to a typewriter than a MacBook keyboard, Kira’s chunky keys use a range of hot-swappable switch types, from the ‘sharp, heavy and clicky’ Novelkeys Box Pale Blue to the ‘light and airy tactile’ Hako Violet. But Kira marries its retro feel with a dash of modern – it’s open source and customisable, so you can turn any key into a multi-function macro. And there’s fully programmable RGB under-lighting, too. The keyboard’s creators argue this makes the Kira a “work of functional art”. Stuff mostly likes the idea of being bathed in multicoloured light, imagining we’re starring in a trashy sci-fi flick while smashing out a masterpiece.