The new Magic Keyboard from Apple costs a lot – and offers a lot. We tried it and compared it with cheaper alternatives.
–
The Magic Keyboard (right) lets the iPad hover over the keyboard. With the Smart Keyboard Folio (left) there are only two fixed screen angles.
Photo: Rafael Zeier
Almost 400 francs for a keyboard? Now Apple has completely lost its mind. Or not?
The official Apple keyboards for the iPad have always been expensive and became a little more expensive with each new model. In the past, anyone who wanted to save was well advised with Logitech keyboards.
–There are currently three different iPad keyboards from Apple alone: the Magic Keyboard (320/380 francs), the Smart Keyboard Folio (200/220 francs) and the Smart Keyboard (180 francs).
Photo: Apple
The latest iPad keyboard is called Magic Keyboard, costs 320 or 380 francs depending on the size and fits all versions of the iPad Pro without home button, which have been available since 2018. In my Test from 2018 I was rather unhappy with the then Apple iPad keyboard. It only had two screen angles, made the slim iPad a tank, and the material wasn’t particularly high-quality and looked worn out quickly.
The Magic Keyboard is now Apple’s second attempt at an all-round great iPad keyboard. To make everyone happy, Apple put everything in it that goes. Flexible screen angles, illuminated buttons, an additional USB-C connection and even a trackpad for mouse operation, as you know it from laptops.
All of this comes at a price – not just financially, but also in terms of weight. The iPad weighs more in the case than some laptops. My first impression was correspondingly ambivalent.
Amazingly, everyday weight is a much smaller problem than you would expect. This is mainly due to an innovation: Since you can now undock and dock the iPad with a little practice and one hand, you use the iPad more often as a tablet and not always just as a laptop.
If you need the trackpad or the keyboard, you dock the iPad in seconds, and if you just want to read something on the sofa, you just take the iPad with you and leave the case on the table.
Microsoft’s surface tablet is still the leader when it comes to tilt angles. Apple now offers flexible angles, but they are still very limited. You cannot tilt the screen particularly far back.
–The mouse and touchpad are particularly useful for small and complex apps.
Photo: Rafael Zeier
The keyboard feels like the good old and the latest Apple keyboards. Even typing for hours is very convenient. When it gets dark, the buttons light up. If you want to watch a film, the lighting will of course automatically go out again.
It was occasionally to be read in test reports that when you tap the number keys, you hit the edges of the screen with your fingers. That never happened to me in a week on the smaller or the larger iPad Pro.
If you use the iPad a lot on the go, you will ask yourself: How well can you type on your thighs, on a small plane or plane table? In the absence of air travel or commuter trips to Zurich, I tried this as best I could at home.
Since the Magic Keyboard has palm rests on the left and right of the trackpad, you can stabilize the iPad better when typing. Another tip: Since the iPad in the Magic Keyboard has all the weight at the back, you can place it even on the narrowest tables – yes edges – and still type comfortably and safely. Even if most of the keyboard hovers over the abyss.
The colleague Schüssler already knows that trackpads and mouse operation on the iPad work well demonstrated in this video. It’s no different with the Magic Keyboard. Thanks to the integrated trackpad, you always have it with you and don’t need to take any additional accessories with you.
The additional USB-C port has also proven particularly useful in everyday life. Now you can power the iPad without blocking the USB-C port on the device itself. So you can now charge the iPad Pro at the same time and, for example, transfer data from a hard drive or camera. But be careful: the new connection on the keyboard cannot transfer any data. Deliver only electricity.
With the new Magic Keyboard, choosing the right keyboard for the iPad is no easier. Personally, I always recommend using either Logitech’s cheap keyboards or Apple’s keyboards. However, there are of course other providers and sometimes even significantly cheaper offers.
Privately, I have now bought the Magic Keyboard for my 2018 11-inch iPad Pro. This makes the iPad feel like a completely new device. It can now do significantly more than two years ago. That’s why I turned a blind eye to the price.
All in all, it is fascinating to see how the iPad is increasingly becoming a modular multifunction device. It has always been a good tablet and is becoming an ever better laptop replacement. But now with the Magic Keyboard it even becomes a small mini desktop.
Too bad, Apple is currently the only manufacturer that uses the special keyboard connector on the iPad Pro. Other manufacturers use Bluetooth instead. If Apple succeeds in motivating other manufacturers, an entire ecosystem of keyboard covers, stands and charging docks could arise around the iPad.
Conclusion: Against all first impressions, the new keyboard for the iPad Pro has proven itself in the first week. Thanks to it, the iPad Pro becomes both a better laptop replacement and a better tablet. After all, what is the benefit of such a thin and light tablet if it is constantly in a bulky case?
–
