Apple Magic Keyboard for 12.9-inch iPad Pro

Ordering the Magic Keyboard The Apple Magic Keyboard that I ordered through Amazon on July 15, 2020 arrived this evening about 5:15 p.m. I first ordered it through Apple with an arrival date of August 1, 2020, but then saw that it was $20 cheaper though Amazon with a three day shipment date. The shipment arrived through Amazon on July 18, 2020 as scheduled with no requirement that I be home to receive the product. With products that I have ordered through Apple there has generally been a requirement that someone be home to receive the product. Amazon doesn’t have that restriction, apparently assuming the risk of theft or loss through its delivery policy. I appreciate this feature of Amazon delivery, since I can’t always be home when it is convenient for the delivery person. Packaging The packaging was typical Apple and I have grown to expect no less. I’m like a kid when I open new Apple products and today was no different. The Amazon shipping carton contained the white box of the Apple packaging wrapped in a very thin folia within which was the product wrapped again in a translucent plastic sheet with a tab for removing it. There is a paper spacer between the keyboard and the magnet mounting surface with a special little compartment for the instructions, which I judiciously ignore. I do save all the packaging for a period of time just in case the product has to be returned for some reason. I opened the keyboard and placed my iPad Pro 2018 on the magnetic back and shifted the iPad to a position that I found comfortable. Many people have been impressed by how rigid the hinges work. I didn’t notice that at all, but did notice that the main large hinge snaps into one place and the secondary hinge then moves independently, but I was surprised by how little tilt the whole arrangement allows. Everyone, including Apple, mentions the maximum angle of 130 degrees, but I didn’t realize from reading how little that actually is. No big deal, because the “default” angle, and there is one, seems just about perfect. The weight is not a factor at all, though the set up is a little heavier than the Smart Keyboard set up. Realistically it takes two hands to carry the 12.9” iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard around while it is open, though if you wanted to prove a point you could probably do it with one hand. There is no problem closing the keyboard and carrying the iPad around closed, one hand or two. I compared holding my MacBook Pro 13” and the iPad Pro 12.9” with Magic Keyboard and the latter seemed slightly heavier. Granted this test was not scientific, but go figure. That’s the way it seemed to me. I’m not going to actually weigh each to get real data, for feel is more important than objective data in this regard. Typing on the Keyboard Once I started typing it took me a little while to get used to the action, and I’m still hitting a key wrong on occasion, but not often and not anymore than I do typing on either my 15” or 13” MacBook Pros or my Smart Keyboard for the iPad Pro. As has been noted in other reviews, the number keys are underneath the cantilevered iPad Pro and it takes a few minutes of typing to get used to that, but within minutes I had learned how to sneak my fingers into the cantilever gap and hit the numbers that I need to. I am a touch typist so the first thing that I did was turn the backlighting for the keys down as far as I could. I don’t look at them anyway, but it still leaves a very minimal amount of backlight on. From time to time would still hit my typing fingers on the bottom of the iPad Pro while trying to type numbers, but it really is nothing, and as I get used to this keyboard it won’t be a problem at all. Also, I notice that from time to time I don’t hit a key hard enough for it to register. It is not that one has to pound away on the keys, but if you have a very light touch you might have to get used to pressing a bit harder than one would on a well oiled MacBook Pro. Once again, this is just the newness of the feel of the keys. I also find that it helps a lot if I take a second to get the right posture at the keyboard with my fingers on the home keys, before I start hammering out sentences and paragraphs. The feel of the keys is definitely much nicer than Smart Cover Keyboard for the iPad Pro, but I wouldn’t say it is immeasurably better than the keyboard on a MacBook Pro. Unsurprisingly, the more I type on the Magic Keyboard the more I like the feel of the keys. Trackpad Let me just say right off that not having to use my clumsy fingers to move around most apps on the iPad screen itself is a game changer for me. The trackpad is good for this, but I broke down and also bought a Magic Mouse 2 to go with the new set up. I find myself using the mouse a lot more than the trackpad. It is simply more convenient, but I think that this is a matter of taste. I haven’t used a mouse with my MacBook Pros for years, relying solely on their trackpads. So I can use the trackpad with the Magic Keyboard. I just don’t. Note that when the Magic Mouse 2 is paired with another device (MacBook Pro) it will not work with the iPad Pro. In that case you have to use the trackpad on the keyboard to move around (or go back to your finger on the screen). Battery Life The iPad Pro did not lose much power when I left it off the charger over night. It had 100% when I went to sleep and 8 hours later it had 96%. That is about the same as when it has been attached to the Smart Keyboard. After 6 hours of steady use typing this review, answering emails, checking twitter and some news sites, and reading some pages on the web, the gauge is showing that I still have 68% battery left. Overall Impression So far I like the Magic Keyboard a lot. Perhaps even more than I thought I would. I’m glad that I bought it for two reasons. I like the cantilevered angle that the iPad sits at on the cover and raised position closer to eye height, and I like the feel of the keys. I can definitely type faster than I can on the Smart Cover. I’m glad I spent the money, but not everyone will find that the benefit to cost is worth it. I spend so much time in front of my iPad Pro that any improvement to the experience is well worth it. Does It Make the iPad Pro a Notebook? Not by a long shot, but not because of the hardware. If all one does is type reports and format them oneself, or surf the web, or watch movies then it is fine as a sole machine. However, I work with many different companies and they all have their own styles that they insist be used in documents. With Microsoft Word one can just take any report that uses the style and import it into any documents that have been properly set up using the the “Styles” feature of Word. My impression is that most people do not use the Styles feature in Microsoft Word, though I may be wrong about this. I’ve never taken a poll, but on different projects that I’ve worked on people don’t use the feature. I use it all the time, but the mobile Word App does not incorporate a “global” Styles feature. Also, there are accounting and tax programs for a notebook that don’t exist for tablets, or don’t have full functions for tablets. When I use a program or app I tend to learn how to use most of the features. I do not use a computer as a typewriter as many do. I employ most of the nifty innovations that word processing has introduced over the last thirty years, and they just aren’t there for a tablet. On one assignment overseas I brought only my iPad Pro 12.9 (2018) and did all my writing, research copying and pasting, and document management with the tablet. The split screen was a tremendous asset for legal analysis, having the law on one side and my report writing on the other. But ultimately I had to do all of the formatting on my MacBook Pro.