- Even after playing
around with it for a while, it's still just weird, you know? It just looks kinda wrong. But there's no denying it. The argument about whether this thing is a computer, or not, is over. With the Magic Keyboard and trackpad, Apple's iPad Pro is, for
better or for worse, a laptop. Leaving only one question behind. Is it a good laptop? Still weird though. Displate has over 800,000
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code LTT at the link below. (upbeat music) At first glance, you'd
be forgiven for thinking that the Magic Keyboard case is an incremental upgrade
over its predecessor, the iPad Smart Keyboard Folio. It's got the same polyurethane
exterior and color palette, and it attaches to the iPad
Pro with super strong magnets, but the two keyboards are in
entirely different categories. For one, look at the range
of motion on this puppy. It is leagues beyond
the two static positions of the Keyboard Folio,
improving ergonomics, in almost any situation. Our one complaint here is
that it would have been nice for it to be able to go
a bit further and back, but I understand that that's hard because the iPad Pro is pretty
heavy for a laptop display. Which is why, as Riley
pointed out on ShortCircuit, the Magic Keyboard actually weighs slightly more than the iPad Pro, to prevent the whole assembly from being comically
unable to stand upright. Another big improvement is
the built-in USB-C port. Now, it doesn't carry data, but it's kind of magical to
be able to charge the iPad Pro through the keyboard's Smart Connector, without having a cord
dangle from the tablets own USB-C port. Of course, even the most Magic Keyboard still has to be a good keyboard and, good news, 'cause it is. It uses the same scissor based switches that Apple has now returned
to the MacBook line, after replacing them with the universally loathed Butterfly switches. And while the keycaps are a bit wobblier than their laptop counterparts, and it would have been
nice for them to include a row of function keys for things like volume and brightness adjustment, this Magic Keyboard
gives an undeniably more laptop-like experience than
the Keyboard Folio did. And if you really do want an escape key, you can just modify another
key to serve as one. Although, the go-home trackpad
gesture, mostly does the job. As for the typing experience, there is a distinct tactile
bump, with a soft bottom, and typing at speed
makes you feel like you really are being productive with an iPad. I thought that renders me, a PC enthusiast and laptop die-hard, deeply uncomfortable. Thankfully, I can feel
a lot more comfortable if I just touch this nice
soft shirt from lttstore.com Aw. Surprisingly, though, an equal
if not greater contributor to this productive
feeling is the trackpad. Yes, iPads can have trackpads now, and this one is actually kind of great. I mean, don't get me wrong, it is tiny. But if Microsoft can get away with using the same tiny trackpad on
every Surface Pro ever. I think I can accept that
there simply wasn't enough room to make this one any bigger
without other compromises. It's got a smooth glass top layer, just like MacBook trackpads, and does not use a diving board mechanism, so it's actually clickable
everywhere on its surface. And because it's so small,
yet feels so smooth, we actually ended up
leaving trackpad inertia on in the settings. I know, it's a sin, but seriously, guys, it's kind of neat because
it lets you fling the cursor from one end of the monitor to the other, with just a tiny finger movement. I just call it an iPad Pro monitor? What is happening right now? Okay, now we've already
talked about the way that regular mouse
support works in iPad OS, but the trackpad has a number
of multi-finger gestures that completely change the game for using the iPad on a desk. Obviously, two-finger scrolling is here, along with two-finger tap to right-click, although that doesn't work
on everything in iPad OS. In fact, nothing works
on everything in iPad OS, it's not very cohesive. But you can also use
two-finger swipe in browsers to go forward and back,
and two-finger swipe down from the home screen to
bring up Spotlight search. The big navigation gestures involve three-finger swipes though. Swipe left or right to
switch apps, up to go home, and swipe up and hold to
enter the multitasking menu, from which you can two-finger
swipe on any app to close it. I gotta say being able to
zoom around the iPad's UI without lifting your arm up or moving around so much
to touch the screen, not only makes navigation
feel much less tedious, actually feels kind of cool. But the story here isn't all
rainbows and lollipops either. Making the Magic Keyboard, more like a laptop conversion mod and less like a tablet folio
means you cannot flip it all the way around and use the iPad Pro like a tablet with the
case still attached, and the stiff supportive
engine super strong magnets mean that it's impossible
to open with one hand. And actually, annoyingly
difficult to open, even with two hands. Here's one. Something we found infuriating
in the age of laptops whose lids can be lifted
effortlessly with a single finger. Then there's iPad iOS. Now it's come a long way. I mean, using multiple
windows in the same app while replying to messages with Slide Over and dragging and dropping files
to an external hard drive, while plugged into an external monitor is something iPad users
could only dream about a couple of short years ago, but the fact remains that
as an operating system, it is still miles behind the versatility that one can find it,
Windows, Mac OS, and Linux, and that continues to make
Apple's moves with the iPad Pro, and by extension the Magic
Keyboard, so confusing to me. In our last video about the
iPad Pro, we said that Apple had dropped the ball by
turning it into a laptop because it seemed like they had
envisioned this grand future where the iPad Pro existed as a different kind of
professional computing device, one that you use with
touch and a pencil input, instead of with a mouse and keyboard. And then they pulled
this big, "Hey, gotcha!" and released a $350 attachment that seems to completely
negate that vision. I just have no idea how to interpret it. Like, what is this thing? And then making my life as a
reviewer even more complicated, This 12.9 inch iPad Pro
starts at $1,000 U.S. with just 128 gigs of onboard storage. That means that altogether
this setup is $1,400 U.S. For a machine that in the
mind of any sane laptop user is a clear downgrade from a
MacBook or Windows Ultrabook. But then there's this funny thing, that doesn't seem to be
how iPad users see it. We keep making these videos about the iPad where we express confusion and incredulity at Apple's huge missteps with
their flagship pro tablet, and then iPad Pro users keep telling us about how each of these
updates, iPad iOS in 2019, and the Magic Keyboard this year, have made them love
their iPads, even more. They talk about alternative workflows, where they type on their
iPad at their desk, then pop it on the keyboard
and use it on the couch. They extol the virtues of apps
that PC enthusiasts like me have never even heard of
that let them mix audio and edit images and 4K videos
and write code on their iPads. I mean, sure, the shortcomings
that we find so frustrating, mean that they actually cannot
do the exact same things, the exact same way that we do
them on a traditional laptop, but they just don't care. It seems like that,
different way of using this separate pro category device
is still alive and well, but rather than an either-or
it's more of a both-and. Use the iPad Pro as a
touch and pencil device. Use it as a keyboard and trackpad device. It works pretty well either way, mostly. As I alluded to before,
iPad OS has a long way to go before the kind of uninterrupted, magically smooth UI experience
that you get in Apple's apps extends to the whole ecosystem. But, even with that in
mind, after this review I think I'll be looking
at the iPad Pro's future with less confusion and
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