- Hey everybody, my name is Jerry,
and this is the iPad Magic Keyboard, and I love this thing.
I've had it for about six weeks,
and I just cannot get enough of it.
I use it all the time,
for just about everything I can possibly think of.
It has completely replaced my laptop,
but this wasn't always the case.
In fact, I almost returned this thing.
(upbeat music)
So when the iPad Magic Keyboard was announced,
it just blew people's mind.
Everyone on the internet, anybody who followed Apple,
just had to know, how did the hinge work?
How did it hold the iPad,
how did it float above the keyboard?
And when it went on pre-sale, I immediately ordered it.
And when I received it,
I had mixed feelings pretty much right away.
One of the first things that you notice
when you take it out of the box is, just how heavy it is.
Like, this thing is heavier than the iPad Pro itself.
I have the 12.9 inch version, and with the iPad
and the case together, they weigh more than a MacBook Pro.
And then thee second thing that you're gonna notice is that,
when you open it, it doesn't open smoothly,
like a MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro,
or any other Apple laptop that there has been.
It's got some resistance to it.
And when you open it to about that angle,
or exactly at that angle, you hit a hard stop.
Which is a little jarring.
And then you have the second hinge
that brings it back a little bit further.
Now, it is true that, the floating hinge,
feels pretty magical.
When you put the iPad on there,
and it's just held on by magnets, like, that's pretty cool!
Nothing else is like that, oop.
(projector running)
And when I first got it,
I didn't think that there was enough range
of motion in the angles, for adjustability,
to get the perfect angle for me sitting at a desk,
or on the couch or whatever.
The next thing that I realized is
that the track pad just felt small.
The track pad is roughly the same size as the Surface Pro,
or what I have on my work Dell laptop.
But, it just feels cramped,
like the vertical space is a bit smaller
than those other track pads.
Although the width is about the same.
And just doing three finger gestures, up and down,
or left and right, I'm always hitting the edges
on all sides, really.
Now you might remember from my video about the top five,
best and worst things about this Magic Keyboard,
that when I type, because of the way I type,
and because of the way that the screen floats
over the keyboard, my fingers would stretch out,
and hit the bottom of the display.
Which was very distracting, and kind of took me out
of whatever groove I might have been in
when I was typing whatever I was typing.
Like so many others,
I found that the iPad weight distribution was a bit off.
And because of the way that the iPad leans back,
and because the iPad itself is so heavy,
it really just kinda doesn't have that good weight balance
like a laptop has, where all of the weight would sit
in the base, instead of in the screen.
So it sits nice and tight on the desk,
or on your lap or wherever you put it.
However, with the iPad Pro, and the iPad Magic Keyboard,
half of the weight it sitting on the top.
So, if you're not perfectly flat on a desk, or a lap,
then you have issues with this thing tipping over.
And that really concerned me.
And you can see in one of my previous videos,
where I'm sitting on the couch, and I stop typing
and I look up, and the thing falls forward,
and could have been a bid disaster.
Another thing that I don't necessarily really love
about this case is, the rubberized texture to it,
or whatever the material is.
It was the same thing that was
on the Smart Folio Keyboard case, however it's not great.
This thing picks up grease and dust like nobody's business.
And after a while, those stains just stay.
You can try cleaning them with water,
or rubbing alcohol, or whatever else.
And for a while they will come out,
but eventually the stains just stay.
Like, really bad.
And the last thing that I didn't like
about this was the price.
At $349, I mean that's an insane amount
of money for a keyboard, and a track pad.
When I already have the Smart Folio Keyboard,
and I can just get a Magic Mouse, and be done with it.
I could save a lot of money
if I didn't keep this keyboard case.
So, I was going to return it.
I had it all boxed up, and ready to go.
So, just to prove to myself that I didn't need this thing.
I put this right back into my Smart Folio Keyboard,
and I went back to trying
to use it the way I had always used it
for the last year-and-a-half.
So I took it to the couch, and I sat down,
and I started typing, and that was all fine.
And then, I needed to scroll on a website,
or on a text document, or something,
and I went to reach for the track pad,
and realized, oh it's not there.
So, not a big deal, whatever.
I'll just go ahead and reach up and scroll with my finger.
Not a problem at all.
Not worth $350 for that.
Well after a while, the sun started to go down,
and the room I was in started to get a little bit dimmer,
and suddenly, I couldn't see the keys anymore.
Because these keys are not backlit,
like they are on the Magic Keyboard.
And then the next day, I go outside and try and use my iPad,
in the patio, with the sun up,
and it's bright, and there's lots of glare.
And although there's a couple of angles here
to adjust on the Smart Folio case,
it's just not nearly as much as with the Magic Keyboard.
Which I had thought was not enough, previously.
So at this point I figured, well I still have time
to return it, maybe I'll go give it just another shot
and see if I really want to return it,
or maybe I have a second opinion about it, whatever.
So I went and unboxed the iPad Magic Keyboard,
and got it out and started using it again.
And now, I can't live without it.
I'm not sure what it is.
There's a lot of things that you might not like about this,
but, there's some things
that just cumulatively override the negatives for me.
Maybe it's the USB-C port on the side,
that allows me to charge and plug something else in.
Maybe it's the adjustable angles
that allow me to use it outside, and reduce glare.
Or the backlit keys.
Maybe it is the integrated track pad.
Or just the cool floating design.
But, I use this all the time now.
As much as I possibly can, for personal stuff,
and business stuff.
I sit on the couch and I watch YouTube videos as,
you know, watching something else on the TV.
I write my scripts out.
I try and figure out my work plan.
I work on my YouTube workflow.
I work on budgeting, and expenses, and household stuff,
and basic web surfing, and buying stuff on Amazon.
I use this for all of my work stuff too,
as much as possible.
I use it to take notes in meetings, using OneNote,
or join Microsoft Teams meetings, or even Zoom meetings
with family, or friends.
I use Citrix to log into my work stuff remotely,
and manage servers.
I do my video editing on this, using LumaFusion,
and it's incredibly fast.
It's way faster than my 8-Core desktop using Premiere Pro.
This thing renders faster than real time.
This thing is incredibly versatile.
And I just love it for just about everything.
And at this point, I'm not sure that I'm going
to own a personal laptop again.
And when I want to sit back and relax
and just use this thing as a tablet,
I mean, it just comes right off.
There is nothing you have to do, no cords,
no cables, just remove it and you're done.
When you're ready to go back to work,
or have a keyboard to send an email, or to do whatever,
just push it back on, and you're done.
So six weeks later, I love this thing,
I cannot recommend it more.
If you have an iPad Pro, you should absolutely get one
of these iPad Magic Keyboards.
I know it's expensive.
I know it has its faults.
But, overall, this thing has completely changed the way
that I use my iPad, and the way that I think
about computers in general.
I use this in every situation possible.
Sitting on my lap, sitting on a desk,
bright light, no light, doesn't matter.
This increases the versatility of the iPad tenfold for me.
And I'm glad I didn't return it.
Hey thanks for watching.
If you found this video helpful, hit the thumbs up button.
If you already returned your iPad Magic Keyboard,
or you disagree with some of my points,
let me know in the comments.
You can follow me on Twitter @JerrySchulze,
and hit subscribe for video updates.
On a separate note, I keep changing my lighting,
my studio, my set, everything about it.
Let me know what you like, what you don't like,
and what I can improve upon.
I'm always looking for feedback,
and any tips would be greatly appreciated.
So, thanks, and I'll see you next time.