iPad Pro + Magic Keyboard + iPadOS 14 :: In Love Again
by Volker Weber
I have been late to the Magic Keyboard game, but holy moly! This makes more of a difference than I expected. I have been using the Surface Pro X for a few months almost exclusively. Its hardware felt much like the iPad Pro does, with a kickstand and the keyboard cover attached. Major advantages are software support for real desktop apps and a minor advantage is that the front facing camera is in the perfect spot for landscape use.
With the Magic Keyboard, the iPad Pro gets much closer to the Mac. The trackpad lets you keep your hands on the keyboard, much more than a mouse in my previous tests suggested. Two finger scrolls in web pages is the one thing I missed most. Two finger pinch was second. Three finger swipes to change programs as well.
Now I am off to unlearn the Windows shortcuts for @, copy, insert etc. I have worked on iPad as my main machine before and now I shall try again. I jumped right into iOS 14 beta 2. We test so you don't have to. :-)
Comments
Same here. I love the Magic Keyboard that much, that my MacBook Pro (Butterfly) feels like a toy. BTW: I have to return the MBP for “keyboard services” to Apple first time after 14 month of use... Shitty piece of Keyboard...
Is the keyboard really worth the money? I have been debating with myself the last few weeks and just can’t get over the fact, that it costs 400 euros.
... 🙁
I have no answer to that question. If you work minimum wage, definitely not. If you make more than 100 € an hour, probably yes.
Volker, have they solved the issue with the poor quality of the outside material? My second Smart Keyboard Folio looks after some moths as ugly as the first one which apple exchanged („Kulanz“....). I describe it always as „Orangenhaut-Effekt“.
Not sure about that. It is very similar but appears to be harder. I will need a few months to find out.
Used it by 2 and a half months. Keyboard very good, but the cover is full of stains and marks, even I am very careful with it.
Not worth 429 EUR I'm afraid.
That is what I suspected. As I have learned in the past, you must never use anything but water to clean these iPad covers. Will see how far I get with that.
Forgot to mention, that there is a bug in iPadOS 13.x and 14 with keyboard light: It doesn’t turn off if you close the lid. I couldn’t trace down the reason, but for me it happens after I worked a while with the iPad. If I do a reboot it works as intended.
Seems I will open a bug report for iPadOS 14...
BTW: I would consider the keyboard as very pricy, but for me worth every cent. I could probably speed up my typing speed and accuracy by about 100% compared to the Smart Keyboard, not to mention the improved experience my the trackpad.
