Greg Morris

Magic Keyboard Follow Up

It’s been more than 14 days since I received my Magic Keyboard. The time has flown by and I hadn’t even realised it had been this long until I checked back on my post history. Two weeks that seems like the blink of an eye, and the biggest compliment I can give this keyboard is I have not regretted it once.

I sat down to write a full review about a week ago after seeing a few start to pop up such as Matt Birchler’s post and really struggled to write it. You see, the best thing about a bit of technology that is exactly what you want, is that nothing stands out. There are no downsides, there are no emotions and very little to say bar “its great”.

My second problem with writing a full review is that I wrote so many words (1143) in my hands on and very few have changed. I’ve never written so many after so little time before, simply because all of the feels I had about the device came at once. After all, this is only a keyboard, what is there to write about?

In fact there are loads of things I can talk about, which I already have, but things boil down to only a few points you need to consider if deciding to buy this thing.

The Weight

It is surprisingly heavy. Using it does bump the weight of the overall device to around the same as a MacBook. In exchange it is perfectly balanced and feels like a proper keyboard (more on this in a moment). It sits on my lap on the couch or in bed and gives me a laptop when I need it.

Ease Of Use

The keyboard is ridiculously easy to remove when needed. Mine has spent its time unfolded on my desk when I am using my iPad as a tablet. The magnets are safe and secure, but easy to snap off when you need to, giving a much better experience than keyboard cases that clip all the way around the body. You wont want to keep it attached all the time, and you wont have to.

I moaned a little about a function row of keys, but haven’t needed them at all. There may not be a key to adjust the key brightness but I am happy to report there doesn’t need to be. I have never ventured into settings once in any light condition and trust the software to do its thing.

Typing

The most important thing is what it feels like. I have never not liked the Smart Folio or Smart Keyboard before it, but the Magic Keyboard is a different beast entirely. Gruber summed it up best when he described previous attempts iPad keyboards as covers you can type on. There was nothing wrong with these versions, I used them very happily for a long time. Whereas this is a proper, full sized keyboard with backlight and decent key travel. It is a delight to type on. I would be hard pushed to find fault with the typing experience, it even rivals the Mac Magic Keyboards which are my favourite for writing.

Wants For The Future

There are very few complaints from me, this simply doesn’t feel like a first generation device like it should. Many of my immediate concerns have gone, and even those pointed towards the outer material and GrimeGate are short lived and the pretty much the same as previous versions.

If i could be really picky, I’d love for the charging port to also be able to transfer data, but that’s a small want. All these words are to say that i am very happy with my purchase, the Magic Keyboard has meant I have ditched my MacBook and made me fall in love with the iPad again — well done Apple.

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