Here’s the deal. Keyboards are not the same. Like religion, politics, and word processors, keyboards are both a personal and fanatical choice, or our keyboard is just going with the flow. We use whatever is available.
Some people hate the Mac notebook’s keyboards, others love them, most don’t care one way or the other. The iPad’s onscreen keyboard is OK for hunt and peck but not for serious prose, so you need an external keyboard.
Apple to the rescue. This ambulance will cost you at least five times as much as a similar keyboard, but it is integrated into iPad Pro via the Smart Connector. That’s a plus and would be killer if the keyboard itself felt like a real keyboard.
Real keyboard?
Yes. A keyboard that clicks. You know; it makes sound, and feels to the fingers as if something happened. The new Mac notebooks barely qualify as traditional keyboards. They’re OK, they work (keep the dust away), they’re free. Not so free is the $150 Smart Keyboard for iPad Pro. For all that money you would think the keyboard would feel like a keyboard. It. Does. Not.
The iPad needs a better keyboard.
Why? We are Apple customers. We pay more for that privilege. Why don’t we get treated better or have better choices? Smart Keyboard might be integrated into iPad Pro and have better keyboard shortcuts, but the typing experience is less than what iMac users get with the Bluetooth Magic Keyboard and less that what Mac notebook users get with the built-in keyboard.
Why does Apple shortchange iPad and iPad Pro users with a sub-par keyboard user experience?
Roger Fingas tried five iPad-compatible keyboards and is a worthy read, though some are keyboards with cases. I have tried four of the five and settled on one.
Anker’s Ultra Compact Slim Profile because it works on iPhone, iPad, Windows, and Mac, and the battery lasts for months.
Here’s the problem. Apple does not make a keyboard for iPad or iPad Pro that feels like a keyboard. For $24 the Anker keyboard does and it works well, but it’s not an integrated accessory.
Simply put, Apple needs to make an iPad keyboard that looks and works like Logitech’s Slim Combo, but at an affordable price. Both Apple and Logitech are proud of their iPad keyboards and price them accordingly.
The rest of us just want a good keyboard we can type on; a keyboard that feels like a keyboard, and because this is about the iPad, come on, Apple– make it work with iPad.