The Apple iPad Pro, as powerful as it is, can’t quite match the usability and utility of the MacBook. But thanks to one new accessory — the new Magic Keyboard — Apple may upend that perception.
On Tuesday, Apple revealed the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro, which was available to order immediately after the company’s live stream and available in stores starting on May 15.
The new Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro costs $299 for the 11-inch model and $349 for the 13-inch model.
This new iPad Pro-only Magic Keyboard comes in white and black, which is what you’d expect, given the iPad Pro’s colors (silver and space black).
Helpfully, the new Apple Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro includes a new 14-key function row, just like, you guessed it, MacBook keyboards. On the new Magic Keyboard, you can now adjust brightness, play or pause media, or adjust volume. Nice.
Like the previous Magic Keyboard, the new edition for the iPad Pro features a “floating cantilever design” that adjusts the angle of your iPad as you type on the keyboard.
And this is maybe the most essential part for people who didn’t like the size or design of the previous Magic Keyboard: The new Magic Keyboard has a larger glass trackpad with haptic feedback and an aluminum palm rest. The increased size will give it more of a MacBook keyboard feel.
“The entire experience feels just like using a MacBook.”
John Ternus of Apple
“The entire experience feels just like using a MacBook,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering. “The incredible new Magic Keyboard makes the new [iPad Pro] more portable and versatile than ever.”
The iPad Pro Magic Keyboard is compatible with the iPad Pro 13- and 11-inch models (which both feature the M4 chip) that debuted on Tuesday. (It is not compatible with other new iPad models that were revealed.)
The original Magic Keyboard for iPad was announced in March 2020. While it was an innovative product that transformed Apple’s powerful tablets into a portable workstation, it could’ve been better in a few ways.
In Laptop Mag’s iPad Pro Magic Keyboard review, we noted that it had comfortable, backlit keys and a responsive touchpad. However, it was expensive and heavy and lacked an Esc key and shortcut keys. Observed Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman this week: The current-gen Magic Keyboard for iPad has a small trackpad and is “prone to bending and even tearing at the edges.”
What we know about Apple’s new Magic Keyboard
Ahead of Tuesday’s event, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman predicted that Apple’s new accessory will “have a larger trackpad to be more Mac-like.” Plenty of Reddit users have debated whether the trackpad (and keyboard itself) were too small to use comfortably for long periods. One user (@deathfire31) ultimately decided to return their Magic Keyboard after three days, citing the small, uncomfortable trackpad as one of their reasons.
For reference, the original Magic Keyboard’s touchpad measures 3.9 x 1.8 inches. While it might not be possible to match the size of a MacBook’s trackpad, we hope to see more height in the new Magic Keyboard’s trackpad dimensions.
Gurman also said that the “top case — the area around the keyboard itself — will be aluminum,” which will be a first for Apple’s Magic Keyboard. This design change will make the Magic Keyboard more aesthetically aligned with the rest of Apple’s products, as well as give it a “sturdier structure.”
With the “older, flimsier version,” many users reported peeling or tearing at the edges and corners. When Redditor @anndrrson shared a photo of their Magic Keyboard’s rough edges, another user (@MJC136) commented “Lol wait till it starts peeling. Welcome to the apple accessory experience.”
If Apple is truly attempting to push the iPad into a competitive space with MacBooks, I can’t see the company raising the price of its new Magic Keyboard — at least, not by much.
With an aluminum Magic Keyboard and a heavy focus on the new Apple Pencil, the company’s upcoming iPad Pros might be the closest we’ve ever been to a laptop-like tablet experience.
