If you’re looking to buy the best iPad, chances are you’ve also considered pairing it with the Magic Keyboard. This iPad Pro accessory, pictured above, holds the tablet up high and gives you an amazing keyboard and trackpad – letting you turn the tablet into an office laptop.
However, the Magic Keyboard is not perfect, and Apple knows it clearly, since the firm filed patents (opens in new tab) for a substantial upgrade.
This latest patent is crucial, as it unveils two really practical optimizations. The new Magic Keyboard could adopt them and we could even meet it, during the introduction of the long-awaited iPad Pro (2022).
The first of these improvements concerns the Apple Pencil. Usually you have to store it on top of the tablet, balancing it on a magnetic strip laid out from the frame of the tablet – so it’s easy to drop it, especially if you’re storing your iPad in a backpack.
The new Magic Keyboard patent exposes a hinge (between the keyboard and the raised part that connects to the iPad). This is intended to be hollow, allowing an Apple Pencil to slip inside, meaning you could hide it away and ensure it’s held securely.
The other improvement presented in the patent relates to the suspension angles of the tablet. On current Magic Keyboards, you can position the tablet at surprisingly limited angles… to better view the screen.
The new Magic Keyboard seems to be able to offer a much wider field of vision: a visual shows the iPad facing much higher; we therefore hope that this solution will be commercialized.
Also, a final sketch shows that you can use the new Magic Keyboard as a stand to move the iPad even higher – although doing so means you can’t access the keyboard itself.
The perfect Magic Keyboard does not exist
The Magic Keyboard has limited hanging angles, that’s a fact. It also has an overly sensitive trackpad that you can easily bump into with your wrist – and pressing the keys isn’t exactly satisfying either.
However, its predecessor (still on sale), the Keyboard Folio, isn’t perfect either. It turns out to be more fragile, and can therefore easily be damaged in your bag. Especially since it only supports two different angles.
Both keyboards have their strengths and weaknesses, and we’d love to see Apple combine the best parts of both to create a great accessory for your iPad. Here, the company mainly brings a few more fixes to the Magic Keyboard – but these additions are still useful.
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