Made from premium, sustainable materials, Altar II is a strikingly slim, fully mechanical keyboard with class-leading typing feel, a magnetically detachable M-Dial™, haptic feedback and a native macOS app.
London, United Kingdom — Electronic Materials Office® today introduced Altar II, the world’s thinnest production mechanical keyboard.1 At just 4.75 millimetres, Altar II fits fully mechanical switches, haptic feedback, a built-in speaker, the magnetically detachable M-Dial™, red LED backlighting, and up to 30 days of battery life2 into a CNC-machined aluminium monobody. Altar II features a compact footprint, Bluetooth and USB-C connectivity, and a native macOS companion app.
Building on the sold-out, Red Dot Award–winning Altar I, Altar II is the company’s second keyboard and its most ambitious product to date.
Reservations for Altar II open today at electronicmaterialsoffice.com. Altar II launches on Kickstarter on 10 November 2026, with delivery expected in early summer 2027.3
“Keyboards come in two varieties: thick, ugly, and tactile, or slim, pretty, and mushy-feeling,” said Andrew Emerson, founder and CEO of Electronic Materials Office. “We’ve spent a frankly ridiculous amount of time and effort making a slim, beautiful mechanical keyboard that feels incredible.”
A Mechanical Miracle
Altar II accomplishes a remarkable engineering feat: a fully mechanical typing experience in a chassis under five millimetres. The switches deliver a precise, tactile keystroke with 1.8 millimetres of travel, while the dual-layer Inertial Damper — a damping membrane between the logic board and monobody, paired with an oversize elastomer footpad — suspends the entire typing platform for acoustic and vibration isolation.
The result is an enclosure thinner than an Apple Magic Keyboard. The lower profile also reduces wrist extension compared with conventional mechanical keyboards, eliminating the need for a palm rest.
“Fitting the battery, speaker, haptic motor and detachable dial into such a slim enclosure required us to rethink the entire internal architecture,” said Emerson. “There was also no room whatsoever on the underside of the logic board, so the top side is densely packed with components.”
New to Altar II
Altar II introduces a suite of features that expand how users interact with their computers:
- M-Dial™ is a magnetically detachable, clickable rotary dial for volume and media playback. Real-time haptic feedback simulates tactile detents as it turns. One click for play/pause, two for skip, three for previous, press and hold for Siri. Two variants ship in the box — standard issue and low profile. More shapes and sizes will be available separately, and the published drawings and 3D files let anyone print their own.4
- Harmonic Synthesiser™ delivers crisp, expressive haptic feedback via a precision linear resonant actuator, providing tactile confirmation for modifier keys, system notifications, and keyboard state changes like changing connections.
- A built-in speaker provides refined audio cues — wake sounds, charging chimes, and connection confirmations.
- NiteLite™ backlighting uses a long-wavelength red LED system to preserve night vision, reduce eye strain, and help maintain healthy sleep patterns. The integrated ambient light sensor adjusts brightness automatically, helping conserve battery life.
- EMO’s unique ESPtype™ key shape system — pioneered on Altar I — uses distinct profiles across different keyboard regions to make touch typing more efficient, and the compact layout delivers a complete function row and full-size arrow keys in an efficient and desk-friendly footprint.
- Fast charging provides up to two days of use from a two-minute charge using a standard USB-C port.2
Made for Mac
Altar II is designed from the ground up as the definitive Mac keyboard. Command, Option, Control, and Function sit exactly where Mac users expect them.
EMO Sanctuary, a fully native macOS companion app written in Swift, lets users customise key mappings, haptics, backlight and audio levels, and create app-specific shortcuts.5 The app is delightfully designed and polished to the level that Mac users have come to expect.
Sustainability
Altar II is engineered for longevity and built from materials chosen with the planet in mind. Keycaps are made from REGEN™ polymer — plastic made from at least 50 percent recycled content. The chassis is machined from a solid block of recyclable aluminium.6
Packaging is fully plastic-free, with a paper carton and wrap, and a clamshell tray made from 100 percent biodegradable sugarcane pulp.
Pricing and Availability
- Customers can reserve Altar II starting today at electronicmaterialsoffice.com. Reservations cost $17 and entitle holders to purchase Altar II for $249 when it launches on Kickstarter. This price is exclusive to reservation holders. Reservations close when the Kickstarter campaign begins.
- Altar II launches on Kickstarter on 10 November 2026. Early-bird pricing of $279 is available for the first 48 hours; the campaign price thereafter is $299. The retail price for Altar II will be $349.
- Delivery of Kickstarter rewards is expected in early summer 2027.3
About Electronic Materials Office®
Electronic Materials Office® is a future-oriented consumer hardware company based in London, United Kingdom. It manufactures and sells thoughtfully designed, long-lasting electronic objects.
Founded in 2022, EMO’s debut product — the Altar I keyboard — sold out its initial production run, won a Red Dot Design Award, and was featured in Forbes, Hypebeast, Eurogamer and Wallpaper*. EMO’s vision is to create the office of the future for design-conscious professionals.
- Based on production mechanical keyboards as of August 2026.
- Battery-life and fast-charging estimates are based on typical use, including 30 minutes of backlight use per day. Actual battery life and charging performance vary with use, settings, power source and environment.
- Altar II is in active development. Specifications, materials, and delivery timelines may change.
- Standard-issue and low-profile M-Dial™ variants ship in the box. Additional designs will be available separately.
- EMO Sanctuary requires macOS 26 Tahoe or later. Altar II works as a standard Bluetooth and USB-C keyboard on macOS, Windows, and Linux without the companion app.
- Sustainability claims relate to materials and packaging available at launch. Recycled-content percentages refer to the relevant component as supplied.
- $1 reservation fee is fully refundable.
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