Apple's iPad Pro Smart Keyboard Folio Review: The Best, But Too Many Compromises By AppleInsider

The iPad wasn't the only thing that got a major redesign this year, as did Apple signature, smart keyboard, which is now the smart Keyboard folio we've been testing out for the last week or so, and we're ready to report our results welcome everyone. It is Andrew here from Apple Insider, and we have both the smaller 11 inches in the larger 12 point.9 inch version that balls iPad Pro smart keyboard folio, and we're gonna, compare it to the last generation model as well in this review. As for the basics, the smart Keyboard folio is a magnetically attached keyboard and, in this case kind of a case for your iPad Pro, it protects the back as well as the front when not in use and use a proprietary fabric material for the actual keys to per find that tactile feedback. This is the third generation smart keyboard and there are a lot of changes when it comes to the last model. It's kind of been completely re-engineered other than the keys themselves. First starters you have the actual keyboard, along with two different grooves, for changing the angle of your iPad along the back.

You can see the camera cutout and the smart connector there on the right hand, side. The back is also covered in microfiber, so that's nice and gentle against the back of your iPad. Instead of connecting to the edge of your iPad, the new version uses magnets all along the back. It's still just as easy to attach simply open up this Marquis portfolio make sure the camera is located in the right spot when you're lining it up, since there really is no top or bottom to the iPad and set it on there. Magnets will automatically pull it into place, and you're good to go.

It is fairly sturdy. We shook it around a decent bit, and it's not gonna fall off, but this is not. You know some super secure case. You drop it hard enough. It's definitely going to come loose.

This is going to protect your iPad in a lot of scenarios, anything falling on anything hitting the bag in your bag. Great, but dropping out of your hands from 4 feet in the air, maybe not so much. The new version offers back protection which personally I, don't love. Here's my iPad! That's a year old I, don't have a single scratch on the back of this thing and I take it with me everywhere. It goes with me all the time always in my bag and only thing I have on it is the smart Keyboard, which only covers the front.

So the front is fine in the back is fine. It's not like this is the glass iPhone where you have to worry about cracking that glass on the back of it, it's still aluminum, so it still holds up fairly well. For that reason, I don't like that. The new smart keyboard folio covers the back, comparing them side by side. I did like that.

You actually could kinda peek at your iPad. You the option just opening up a little or all the way where's the new one. Furthermore, you have to open it completely. If you wanted to glance at notifications or check out the time, it's definitely a difference and the new one feels a little more unwieldy because it's so large moving that whole thing about just to glance at any information that may be on your screen. It's also a little more involved to remove the smart folio rather than the old smart keyboard that one simply connects to the side.

So, while your iPads lying down, you can just go ahead and pull it off, then you win. You actually have to lift the iPad up and kind of open it a little to be able to remove it. So it's a little more in-depth to remove it's still extremely easy takes a matter of moments, but when you're running out the door rip your keyboard off and want to grab your iPad, it can slow you down. Just a little. Apple simplified the user experience with the latest model, making it even easier to get in a typing mode.

It can be a little unwieldy when you're trying to put the old one into the correct way kind of origami like getting the back to be the correct shape. The new one is as simple as opening it up and letting it back just a little, so it falls into the groove. Both are held in place, magnetically. What's really nice about the new one as well? Is it has an adjustable display so on the other one you're, pretty much stuck how you are when you're typing the new one, you can go more vertical or a little more at an angle. Another thing that I really enjoy about the new one is the added sturdiness, the old one, because the bottom had that bend in it.

It was a little awkward in a variety of situations when you're picking it up by the keyboard. If you have it on your lap, and you're trying to type or on some sort of narrow surface like the edge of a couch, this kind of thing can happen. It bends, and it's almost unusable in those situations. Where's the new one that a whole front is one solid piece. You can pick it up from that corner.

Even on this larger twelve point, nine inches, and it's still easy to hold onto if you ever wanted to sit on the couch and type same Mills. It's a lot easier to do with a newer one than the older one. One thing that I really miss about the old smart keyboard was the more vertical mode that took up less space here you can see, and many people didn't even know that this was possible with the smart Keyboard, but it folds up extremely nice right on the back of the iPad gives you a nice vertical display perfect for watching movies, using a teleprompter, many other situations, the new one. You can put it more vertical, but you have the giant keyboard in the front. Still it takes up so much more space.

You don't have any room in front of it to do anything else. Whether you're taking notes on paper have a smaller desk that you need that real estate on or you just have this on a ledge where you're trying to use it as a teleprompter I need that space and instead on the new one I have to deal with the giant keyboard in the way. This is just my experience after using the smart Keyboard for roughly two years, every single day using the new one just a week or so has been a huge annoyance. Another annoying factor of the new one is the way they deal with the keyboard. When it's closed on the old model you just had microfiber on the back.

It felt good to hold. When you had it sitting on a surface, it would protect the surface. It was on and her iPad and the iPad wouldn't really move around the new one. When you close it, and you want just the screen, the keyboards around the back, the keyboard is literally around the back, the other one. The keeper is completely hidden, and instead, here you're kind of touching the keys on the back of the keyboard while you're using it.

The keyboard also makes it really movable. So if it's on a solid surface it just slides around I, often take my iPad with the screen open like this set it on top of my MacBook and carry it around the office or something now it just slides around the top of my computer, whereas the old one would just stick in place. It's just another, frustrating annoyance that you get when you use this product for a significant amount of time. Something else' take into consideration. Is the weight aspect, especially because you're forced to have that back coverage and all of those magnets? It makes the iPad as a whole way more than the old iPad and the smart Keyboard that's right, even though the new iPad is 25% less volume and weighs significantly less with the smart Keyboard folio attached, it weighs more than the old iPad Pro with smart Keyboard, not a ton, but you're.

Looking at 2.2 pounds for the old model, vs.2.5 for the new one. So has the new form factor adjust the keyboard. Luckily, not at all, it is still a full size keyboard, at least on the 12 point.9 inch model you can see here that they just kind of trimmed off the sides, keeping the keyboard the exact same size. The new one feels a little more tactile a little more spring back in the keys, but that could just because it's new compared to the old one which I've been using for over a year. This smaller 11 native keyboards is also the same size, because that iPad did not change its physical dimensions.

All that much keeping the keyboard pretty much the same. It's still a little of a cramp trading experience, though, when you compare it to an actual full-size keyboard, it's a good inch or so smaller, so you're a little cramped in that physical space, but there's not much. You can do because that's the way the size, the iPad make it bigger. You get the larger twelve point. Nine inch model that gives the twelve point nine inches a bit of an edge as far as experience goes, but you're not gonna, do much better on the 11 inch I'm very interested to see how this keyboard holds up over time compared to the old one you can see here after a year.

There's definitely some wearing the keys and some letters trying to come off. I wish that Apple possibly made a backlit version of this keyboard, but what's really nice is it requires no battery power and simply leeches off your iPad. So adding that backlight could draw a little more power than Apple would be comfortable with. It also may just not be possible in such a spelled design. I've done a lot of writing on the new smart keyboard, folio lots of typing scripts editorials reviews, and it's largely the same experience that I had before on the old smart keyboard.

The keys are soft, and they don't offer really any sort of clacking noise when you're actually typing on them, but the experience between them and apples and new butterfly keyboards, it's starting to get eerily similar. The biggest difference is just the physical material. The keys are made out of a fabric versus a plastic. Some people may hate these keyboards, but once you get used to it, I have no problem rating on this compared to my laptop I'm, pretty much as accurate and as fast on either machine. For me, the new smart keyboard folio is a mixed bag.

It's heavier forced to require the back protection, whereas I'd prefer an optional back cover that I could buy separately. If that was something, I was interested in, takes up more space within the vertical viewing mode and has the awkward keys on the back when the keyboard is wrapped around. But despite all of that, this is still the best keyboard that you're going to find right now to the new iPad pros. If you enjoyed this video like it and hit that subscribe, button also check out a price guide which makes it extremely easy to find the best deals and Apple products updated daily, be sure to follow us on social media, and we'll see you in the next video.

Source : AppleInsider