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Believe it or not, I picked up an iPad 12.9-inch again… Yes, I know, I said in that article that selling it was final — but only fools never change their minds, right? A word of warning ⚠️ though: I still firmly believe that the iPad, even with a dedicated OS, cannot replace a Mac… But we’ll come back to that in future articles.
Having been a heavy Smart Keyboard user, I used it with both the small iPad and its bigger sibling, and I loved it 🥰. I must be one of the few people who did — it doesn’t have a great reputation. Personally I found the typing comfort very good; I never had any issues writing long articles on it, and I liked how light it was, letting you carry the keyboard ⌨️ along with the iPad without a second thought.
Today I swapped the Smart for the Magic — with these names we’ll all get confused eventually. I genuinely think Apple could have added a trackpad to the Smart keyboard, and I would have gone for that model instead of the Magic. But here we are.
Keys that don’t escape 🚴♀️
No ESC key — I don’t know what Apple was thinking, but it’s pretty clear the iPad isn’t aimed at developers, which is a shame when you think how much they must be worth to Apple.
That said, unless you’re in a terminal, you won’t need it very often.
Another detail you’ve probably read about elsewhere: the number keys are close to the screen, and depending on how you type, it can get in the way (in very rare cases, admittedly).
Overall ergonomics 🤳
The build quality is absolutely impeccable — as you’d expect at €400 for a keyboard. It’d better be!
Unlike the Smart Keyboard, this one gets the Apple logo on the back — how very useful 🍏.
No issues opening and closing the iPad — it’s firm, which is a good thing; the iPad is held snugly in place by powerful magnets 🧲.
Open the lid and Face ID has already recognized you. I can’t even imagine how much you’d miss that on the new iPad Air with Touch ID (you open the iPad, press Touch ID, just as annoying as on a Mac).
Grey is boring — but you can console yourself knowing the keyboard is backwards compatible with the 2018 model!
Ergonomics could have been improved with the addition of function keys for quick access to media controls, volume, or brightness 🔆… Short of making the screen bigger, I’m not sure how the engineers could have squeezed those keys in.
The real gap is on the iPad OS side — no way to set up custom keyboard shortcuts for functions inside apps. If I want to remap the keyboard shortcut for sending mail in Apple Mail, that’s just not possible… Yet it’s a feature that’s existed in macOS for ages.
It charges 🔋
I love the USB-C port on the keyboard — you end up with a port on each side, which is clever. Depending on where you are, you can plug the iPad into whichever port is closest and most convenient.
I love being able to pick up the tablet while leaving the keyboard plugged in — so as soon as I put it back down, it charges again. Almost as efficient as wireless charging 😁.
Nothing but praise for the backlit keys and the keyboard being powered by the iPad — a flawless combo.
A trackpad that clicks 😤
One small gripe about the trackpad: its narrow width doesn’t bother me, but the noise from the click absolutely does. The very first thing I did was enable tap-to-click — though I don’t love it because I get a lot of “false” clicks (in Notion it’s a nightmare).
Seriously, I can’t understand how you can make silent keys and such a noisy trackpad!
Priced by the gram ⚖️?
Ah yes, the thing that stings — the price. €400 for the thing! I managed to get it for €350 at Boulanger, but still — that’s the price of an iPad.
The weight — it weighs more than the iPad itself. Apparently you need that to stop it tipping off your lap. The weight of a MacBook 💻 Air, apparently — which is always useful given that I prefer an iPad 12-inch plus a MacBook Pro 13-inch over a single 16-inch, especially since I’m a huge fan of dual screen on the go thanks to SideCar.
It’s heavy, but as I said earlier ⬆️ being able to leave the keyboard plugged in when you just want to use the iPad as a tablet is a real plus. As a result, I find myself using the iPad solo on the couch 🛋 much more often than I did with the Smart Keyboard.
A seriously great writing machine ✍️ 😝
This keyboard turns the iPad into a luxury writing machine — I love it 👍. It’s genuinely immersive once you start typing, in a way the Mac just isn’t.
That said, I have a lot of gripes about iPad OS — especially since the latest version. Is it still actually a priority for Apple to give us a system worthy of macOS?
Ultimately, the iPad is more like a Chromebook — a luxury one, granted, though those already exist. I’ll never be as productive as on a Mac, but using this keyboard together with the trackpad gives the iPad a whole new dimension.
