{"id":28760,"date":"2020-04-21T15:55:37","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T19:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=28760"},"modified":"2020-08-27T15:13:24","modified_gmt":"2020-08-27T19:13:24","slug":"magic-keyboard-for-ipad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/21\/magic-keyboard-for-ipad\/","title":{"rendered":"Magic Keyboard for iPad"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Gruber<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

What I was hoping for was something approximating the feel and experience of a MacBook — a little more top heavy, a little stiffer at the hinge to accommodate that extra top-heaviness — but basically I wanted an iPad-as-laptop that feels like a MacBook Air.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t feel like that at all.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Once I let go of my preconceptions, I fell in love. This took all of 15 minutes. I went from that “I don’t like the way this thing feels at all<\/em>” first impression to “I can’t wait to start raving about how great this thing is<\/em>” in 15 minutes. The iPad Magic Keyboard is to iPad-as-laptop accessories what AirPods were to earbuds: a game changer.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

At their widest viewing angles, the Magic Keyboard feels noticeably more open than the Smart Keyboard, and the MacBook Air feels noticeably more open than the Magic Keyboard.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

The MacBook Air trackpad is about 120 × 80 mm. The 12.9-inch Magic Keyboard trackpad is just 100 × 50 mm — by area it’s just a hair over half the size. (The 16-inch MacBook Pro keyboard is the size of a small studio apartment in comparison — 160 × 100 mm — as tall as the iPad Magic Keyboard trackpad is wide and over 3x the size by area.)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

The MacBook Pro’s trackpad is way too big.<\/p>\n\n

Federico Viticci<\/a>:<\/p>\n

This is Apple’s answer to users who have been asking for years for a “pro Smart Keyboard” to turn the iPad into a quasi-laptop device, and it doesn’t try to replicate all the features from the Smart Keyboard Folio or regular Smart Folio. I would have liked to see the option to fold the Magic Keyboard in the back of the iPad; I’m just not sure how that could be physically possible given Apple’s design direction for the Magic Keyboard (more on this later).<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Here’s where the Magic Keyboard’s design differs from traditional laptops though: when lifting the iPad’s display, you’ll feel a first snap when the bottom hinge (the cylinder-shaped one that comes with a built-in USB-C port) has reached its open position; keep pushing on the iPad’s display, and the iPad will detach from the second<\/em> hinge, which is located in the Magic Keyboard’s back cover and lets you adjust the iPad’s viewing angle. It’s the horizontal line that separates the two halves of the Magic Keyboard’s cover.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

The Magic Keyboard turns an iPad Pro into a laptop, but it does so in a way that isn’t definitive – the transformation can always be reversed by the simple act of pulling the “computing core” away from it. This is also where the Magic Keyboard differs from competing accessories[…]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Tim Nahumck<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Looking at all of those use cases together, it really is apparent to me that using my iPad Pro with the Smart Keyboard Folio is my<\/em> best opportunity to meet all things. I can augment the experience when docked, or I can carry around the Magic Mouse 2 when I need to be mobile. It’s not always going to be the ideal experience, but it does what I need to get the job done. Also, I already have the components I need, and don’t need to spend an additional $300 on something that would be a limited use case for me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

See also: Nick Heer<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n