Stickers seem to blend into the cover of the case very well, much more so than on a laptop with metallic sheen.įront for portrait mode, back for typing: How I tricked out my iPad Pro Smart Folio keyboard. That was solved with the judicious placement of stickers ($7 for a pack of space and sci-fi stickers on Amazon), which in turn makes the Folio feel less corporate and more fun. Indeed, I often found myself struggling to remember which side the keyboard was on. And unlike previous versions of Apple's Smart Keyboard case, the keyboard sits flush with the screen instead of producing an annoying bump. The Folio itself turns out to be incredibly slim and light at a mere 10 ounces, it adds little more weight than my old Smart Cover alone. There is literally no situation it doesn't work well and securely as Hamlet put it, I could be "bound in a nutshell and consider myself a king of infinite space" with this setup. I also feel comfortable typing on my chest on the couch when the cat has decided that I'm not going to move him off my legs just yet. It’s all so securely locked, in fact, that I even feel comfortable typing on my knees while squished into a tiny seat on various forms of Bay Area public transit, the ultimate test of any iPad keyboard setup. These ridges are magnetic too, and lock into place with a really solid, satisfying BMW door-like “thunk.” (That’s why it’s hard to accidentally slip the cover off the ridge is where you have to lift it to shed the whole thing.) (One I think of as the “lying on the couch” angle, which is closer to 90 degrees the other works fine for every other circumstance). Same goes for the ridges at the top of the keyboard that provide you with two viewing angles. The Smart Keyboard Folio clicks into place on the back of the iPad Pro, where magnets connect and charge it automatically (meaning there’s never any need to fumble around with Bluetooth or a charging cable this is one keyboard that is always on and always ready.) The whole cover comes off instantly if you lift the iPad from the end opposite magnets - no more fumbling with leather, no plastic cover to squeeze awkwardly over the volume and power buttons - but if you don’t, it is securely locked into place. It’s the iPad Pro-as-Surface Pro dream, a tiny laptop that significantly lightens my working load. I only use my new MacBook Pro when I absolutely must, for example when I need to enter this text into Mashable’s secure content management system. No one was more surprised than me when I fell for the Smart Keyboard Folio (opens in a new tab), and fell hard - to the point where my iPad Pro is now my main writing device away from my desk. On a whim I decided to buy the Smart Keyboard Folio, figuring I’d probably return it in a day or so, just like all those prior Folios. I’d planned on a new Smart Cover too, but none of the colors appealed. I bought the 11-inch iPad Pro, rejecting the larger 12.6-inch version (still too much bulk for me, even with a slimmer bezel), and one of the new magnetically charging Pencils (definitely superior to the Pencil 1.0). Then fate forced my hand: my iPad Pro was stolen alongside my late, lamented Rose Gold MacBook. I was loath to get rid of that, and to trade TouchID for FaceID, so I decided against an upgrade. Hitting the wrong key was just a matter of time.Īt the time, my setup consisted of a 2017 10.5 inch iPad Pro with a Smart Cover and a $10 transparent gel case that held the always-easy-to-lose Apple Pencil. Secondly, their keys never quite felt right, mostly through no fault of their own: squeezing a full keyboard into the 10-inch space afforded by most tablets is one of the greatest design challenges of our time. Firstly they were unnecessarily bulky, requiring you to either tuck the whole iPad inside a leather compartment, or squeeze it into a plastic sleeve, or, in the case of the Brydge, put your precious tablet inside folding metal clamps. I’d tested dozens of third-party iPad keyboard cases since 2010. I had no need to protect the back of my iPad (c'mon, Apple, it’s pretty durable) so I dismissed the option out of hand. But Apple’s version seemed more like a full-on keyboard case, which often name themselves Folios. I’d long been jealous of Microsoft Surface users, who used keyboard covers to turn their tablets into tiny ultraportable laptops. And yes, I was forever hunting for the best not-on-screen keyboard solution for my iPads. Sure, I’d been a huge iPad fan, and a sucker for the latest model, ever since nabbing the first model the day it launched in 2010. Little did I know it would become my constant companion, one of the most loved and most essential Apple products I’d ever bought. When Apple unveiled its Smart Keyboard Folio (opens in a new tab) alongside its latest and priciest iPad Pro models in late 2018, the peripheral barely registered on my radar. Essentials Week spotlights unexpected items that make our daily lives just a little bit better.
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