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So, is the Magic Keyboard worth it? Lets find out. Apple has this way of telling us what we want and they know what is best for us. Allow me to explain, a masterstroke they pulled off in 2016;

Now I am not saying that each and every one of us did this but a vast majority of us accepted the new future that they created. They have mastered the art of selling us an idea that could be a problem for the consumer but they also provide the solution (for an extra cost) off course. 

But, Hey! credit were credit is due, they do make highly engineered & premium feel products hence the mass appeal and why people will happily pay the “Apple Tax” for it. Not every product of theirs is a hit though but when you make so many different types of products, most of them stick their landing.

Coming back to our star of the show the Apple Magic Keyboard, specifically for the iPad  Air (4^th gen) & iPad Pro 11-inch (1^st gen) the complete compatibility list is below; 

Obviously the price of the keyboard depends on the size of the iPad  that you have. The complete price list is below;

iPad  Pro 12.9-inch	Ipad Pro 11-inch / ipad Air
$349	$299

Source: Apple Shop

Our version is the $299 USD 11-inch model. Now don’t get me wrong that’s a lot of money for a keyboard, thankfully it is a keyboard and trackpad but still that is a whole lot of money.

Here what you get for your money;

• The build quality of the magic keyboard is premium.
• The outside and inside feel of the keyboard is fantastic.
• The keyboard is backlit and it’s quite bright if you need to do some typing in the night. 
• The backlit does fade off when the keyboard is not in use. 
• The track pad is very good and yes, it works with gestures as well.
• The key travel is short and precise.
• When you get typing at full speed, surprisingly it is quite as well which gives you a good typing experience.
• The hinge and the tilt mechanism is nice and firm. The overall setup with the iPad and keyboard feels sturdy and it doesn’t feel like it will fall apart or the tilt angle will loosen up (only time will tell) but so far its held up great. 

Now the down side to this keyboard is that the size of the physical keys and the overall size is determined by the the size of your iPad / iPad Pro that you own. This keyboard is mostly used by my wife and she does a considerable amount of typing on it as well. She does have smaller hands and doesn’t find the keyboard cramped and is able to use it for long typing sessions. But for me, sadly that’s not the case, I don’t have giant hands by any means but I am very much used to typing on a full sized keyboard. In fact most of this review is written using the Apple Magic Keyboard but unlike my wife I can’t sustain long typing sessions as my hands tend to feel cramped and my movement restricted. 

Now with the more powerful iPadOS and the support for external keyboard + mouse, the proposition of this product became a whole lot less appealing because for a relatively cheap option of a USB dongle with a Bluetooth adapter attached you can type using a full size keyboard and a proper mouse.

It all comes down to what you’re intended use for the iPad and keyboard attachment is. If you want a simple, easy to setup keyboard with a good trackpad that can be chucked into your backpack with relative ease then this keyboard will tick all the boxes for you. But if you don’t intend to carry your iPad everywhere with you and you do have a desk place then you probably don’t need to spend 299$ for this keyboard.

For my personal use and thw way I use my iPad, I would give it a 3 out of 5. Cause it doesn’t offer much protection to the device in case you accidentally drop it, it is a little heavy once you have the iPad + keyboard combo on and more over how small it is for my hand size I wouldn’t use it on a daily basis.

On the other hand seeing my wife use it on the daily basis and how fast and comfortably she can type on it at full speed and how confident it is for her to type while relaxing on the bed or sofa and how it was worth the investment for her use case. She would rate this 4.5 out 5. Half a point off for the overall protection it would provide in case of a drop.

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