Apple Magic Keyboard with trackpad review: great typing experience and excellent trackpad, but it's heavy and thick, expensive, and has no function row
and not even the very good Magic Keyboard can change that.” Put that in your pipe and smoke it https://www.theverge.com/... Dieter Bohn / @backlon : Here's my review of the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro. It's expensive, heavy, and thick — but the keyboard trackpad are excellent. It really does turn the iPad into a laptop. Except wait, the iPad is good precisely because it's NOT a laptop, hmmm. https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/... @helvetiica : Wow, Apple's Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro is surprisingly very sturdy. Let's take a moment to appreciate the engineering of the hinge mechanism. https://twitter.com/...
The VergeDieter Bohn
Context & Ripple Effects
This review lands a month after Apple unveiled the 11" and 12.9" iPad Pro models with lidar and trackpad support, and it is the first serious verdict on whether that hardware makes the iPad a laptop replacement. Dieter Bohn's answer is split: the typing and trackpad are excellent enough to "turn the iPad into a laptop," but the accessory itself is heavy, thick, expensive, and lacks a function row.
The cost-of-accessories critique has history here — The Verge made the same point about the Smart Keyboard and Pencil in its iPad Pro 10.5-inch review in 2017. What changed by 2024 is that Apple answered the complaints directly, debuting a redesigned Magic Keyboard for the M4 iPad Pro with a larger trackpad and, notably, the function row this review flagged as missing.
First-order effects
Buyers of the new iPad Pro now face a roughly laptop-price total: the tablet starts at $799/$999 before adding an accessory that reviewers call excellent but heavy and expensive, making the keyboard the deciding purchase rather than an add-on.
Bohn's verdict hands Apple a clear fix-list — no function row, excess thickness and weight — while validating the hinge engineering and trackpad as best-in-class for the platform.
Second-order effects
Apple's own 2024 response confirms the feedback loop: the M4-generation Magic Keyboard adds the function row and a larger, higher-end trackpad, effectively shipping the revision this review demanded four years later.
Each keyboard generation raises the effective price of a fully equipped iPad Pro, pushing the product line further into MacBook territory on cost even as reviewers keep noting the iPad's value lies in not being a laptop.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, the iPad Pro converges on laptop form factor one accessory generation at a time — heavier, thicker, more keyboard-like — which puts pressure on Apple to differentiate iPadOS from macOS or accept the two lines cannibalizing each other.
Accessory pricing becomes a structural part of Apple's iPad margins: the recurring review framing of 'great hardware, expensive essentials' suggests attach-rate accessories are where the line's profitability increasingly lives.
The trend: iPad Pro accessories are iterating toward full laptop parity — each Magic Keyboard generation fixing the last review's complaints at a higher price, steadily erasing the design distance between iPad and MacBook.
Pinch zoom is near impossible on the Magic Keyboard as-is. It seems to ignore half the gesture so that, by the time it recognizes a pinch, your fingers are nearly at the edge of the trackpad area. Not sure if hardware limitation or software
Magic Keyboard passthrough port basically charges the iPad at full speed, so no worries about slower charging compared to integrated connector. https://twitter.com/...
I think @backlon has the review to read on iPad Pro Magic Keyboard. I'm still very excited but now think it maybe could have done a few things better. https://www.theverge.com/...
Which would you choose?- Magic Keyboard review- “The Surface lets you tilt the screen to virtually any angle. When closed with the keyboard attached, the Surface is thinner. The Surface with its keyboard is lighter than the iPad” BTW-$400+ cheaper https://www.theverge.com/...
As someone who only attaches an iPad keyboard for writing and then pretty quickly detaches it, this product sounds like it makes sense. If you're someone who likes keeping the Smart Keyboard Folio connected all the time, though, this sounds like a bad fit. https://twitter.com/...
Dieter's review confirms most of my suspicions as far as using the Magic Keyboard more like a doc. Even more curious now to try and see if I end up using my iPad Pro less rather than more https://twitter.com/...
Apple has created an iPad Pro keyboard that turns it into a laptop. It even makes it as heavy as a laptop, and the combo is heavier than a MacBook Air. I'll be waiting on a bigger iPad Pro design before dropping $349 (!!) on this keyboard https://www.theverge.com/... https://twit…
The Magic Keyboard is pretty damn good. It's absolutely not all things for all users, but for people that type on it a ton and use it in a variety of situations for that purpose, it's great. https://techcrunch.com/...
“For all its faults, the Microsoft Surface feels like it was designed from the start to have a detachable keyboard. The iPad does not — and not even the very good Magic Keyboard can change that.” Put that in your pipe and smoke it https://www.theverge.com/...
Here's my review of the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro. It's expensive, heavy, and thick — but the keyboard trackpad are excellent. It really does turn the iPad into a laptop. Except wait, the iPad is good precisely because it's NOT a laptop, hmmm. https://www.theverge.com/... https…
Wow, Apple's Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro is surprisingly very sturdy. Let's take a moment to appreciate the engineering of the hinge mechanism. https://twitter.com/...