Group-buy Period: 19th September to 20th October
Estimated Shipping: Q3 2026
Each Altair and Altair-X will come with the following
After half a decade of development and over two years of use as a daily driver, Altair and Altair-X represent ai03’s current benchmark in keyboard design for productivity and comfort. Going beyond just internals or mounting methods, the Altair family blends a fully-split ergonomic key layout with high-end keyboard visuals and internals to take typing comfort to the next level.
When designing the Altair family of keyboards, ai03 used three pillars to act as design beacons. These three pillars can be seen throughout the keyboard design and philosophy.
While visually unique, Altair closely matches a typical keyboard in general key positions.
Care has been taken to make sure that anyone can learn the layout quickly, while also being able to jump between Altair and other keyboard layouts when necessary.
Altair’s key placement matches natural finger movement ranges closely, minimizing both finger and hand-movement during use.
This in return minimizes typing effort and strain, while also contributing to higher possible typing accuracy and speeds.
Altair’s layer switching keys are conveniently placed right next to the spacebars, allowing for convenient layer switching with minimal finger movement.
Taking full advantage of Altair’s split design, an extra column has been added to the inner side. This allows the use of more macros, dedicated brackets for programming efficiency, or even a duplicate set of alphas.
Carefully drawn curves wrap around the keys, integrating the ergonomic key layout into part of the visuals. A unique mix of soft organic curves and bold straight edges create a dynamic aesthetic, allowing Altair to stand out visually.
A bottom emblem weight adds the final visual touch, while also serving as an acoustic damper and a crucial mass to anchor the compact board to the desk.
Altair features a unique PCB gasket mounting system. Small gasket columns hold the PCB from below around the rim, allowing for even vibration and impact absorption with no rigid spots close to mounting points.
Special screws act as columns that keep the internals secured and aligned within the single-part case, making the gasket mount possible without the need for multiple case parts.
Each half of an Altair has its own MCU and USB-C ports, making it effectively two keyboards. Each half can be placed close together, far apart, and anywhere in between. Simply connect them with a USB-C cable and you're good to go. You can even use just one half as a stand alone keyboard/macropad.
Altair take custom to the next level. Custom case. Custom PCBs. Custom Daughterboards. Each piece working together in perfect coordination to make the unique layout possible without compromising form or function.
The PCB edge bends to perfectly match the case, and the daughterboard precisely angles its USB connectors to match the rear curvature while minimizing interior cutouts.
Altair cuts no corners with high-end tuning and optimization. Its 7° incline and a front ledge that drops down as low as 16.7mm at its tip allows the keyboard to remain comfortable to use even without the assistance of a wristrest.