The price is $30 cheaper than the launch price of the Magic Keyboard in 2020. Accounting for inflation the new version costs $97 *less* than the old version did at launch. The iPad Pro has gotten much more expensive, the accessories have not.
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Apple Announces Redesigned Magic Keyboard for New iPad Pro Starting at $299
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The price is $30 cheaper than the launch price of the Magic Keyboard in 2020. Accounting for inflation the new version costs $97 *less* than the old version did at launch. The iPad Pro has gotten much more expensive, the accessories have not.
Agreed! The prices are more than reasonable for what you get. In fact, due to inflation I had expected a higher price for the iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard. I’m paraphrasing, but “Apple doesn’t do cheap”.
Regarding the Pencil Pro, the charging/pairing changed to accommodate the landscape camera so which do you think is better?
1. Pencil Pro backwards compatibility but with a portrait camera
2. No backwards compatibility but with a landscape camera.
So much for cleaning up the accessory mess. Makes sense that the new keyboard is thinner and lighter since the new Pro is thinner and lighter because OLED and wouldn’t fit both the Pro and the Air, but we now have a unique keyboard for each tier. Pencil’s only slightly better unless you still consider the Mini with the pencil 2. At least the first pencil can finally be put to rest.
I think they keys on magic keyboard for smaller ipad Pro are smaller than the keys on the regular magic keyboard now going with the Air.
Ill have to check it out in store…
I find the key size on the smaller magic keyboard to be perfect… as good as MacBook. So if theyare much smaller… the typing experience for some could be negatively impacted for the sake of a function row and larger trackpad.
Ill have to check it out in store…
I find the key size on the smaller magic keyboard to be perfect… as good as MacBook. So if theyare much smaller… the typing experience for some could be negatively impacted for the sake of a function row and larger trackpad.
The iPad lineup was a mess for years and still kind of is. They don’t care about customer confusion anymore. The money is still rolling in. The iPad Pro is 20 percent lighter now than the iPad Air for example. So iPad Air naming is stupid. The only thing they did that helped was dumping the obnoxious old entry level iPad.
Or you want that OLED screen and a more versatile tablet. That’s my main reason for wanting this over an air
Im hoping oled arrives on ipad mini. I dont care for it on my Air which i use around more lightly lit environments… but on my ipad mini i often watch movies in less light… and thats where oled will shine… just like on my iphone.
I wouldn't buy a bigger tablet just for oled… my arms would ache holding it up. If you dont need the Pros other features the value proposition plummets.
I hear ya! I felt the same about iPhone accessories. You used to get 2 years of backwards compatibility with new cases and now every year Apple slightly changes the camera layout (and will again this year) so no new cases will work and visa versa. But they claim to care about ”waste” and the environment. Mmmmmkay.
It’s always about money and always will be.
I’m still wary though, the keys themselves don’t have any “F1, F2, etc” labels… so might be strictly OS function keys and not any Fn keys that are useful in programming IDEs
Yeah, fair enough. It’s not really good value considering once you bump it up to 1tb for the 16 gigs of memory and add a keyboard case it’s as expensive as a MacBook Pro! Absolutely mad.
Problem is though who knows how long until OLED trickles down to the rest of the lineup?
Yes they are backlit?
I want to know about the viewing angle - is it shallower in range given the larger trackpad and added function row?
Yes, they boxed themselves into a corner with the Apple Pencil 2. From now they will push the Pencil USB-C and Pencil Pro. The 1 and 2 are primarily for legacy devices (though the 1 still works with the 10th gen base model).
The new MK is the same price 299/349 as the one which launched in 2020 so why are people who know of the old MK feigning shock?
Regardless, since there is no backwards compatibility to worry about, Apple should have upgraded the Smart Connector so the keyboard had a full Thunderbolt port. Would have def added some extra value.
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Good point, there's a high possibility that F1-F12 can be limited (or at least CMD+F1-F12).
and a mute button! it should be easier to silence the commercials now.
iPhones are a different case (no pun intended). In order to get the better cameras in each year, that camera bump gets bigger and bigger and bigger. Hard to accommodate a case that can deal with ever increasing camera bump sizes.
Then there’s the iPad Magic Keyboard. The first one has supported multiple generations of Pros and Airs (three generations of Air plus four generations of Pros), having come out just in time to handle a square camera bump, but it was fully compatible with older iPads that just had a camera and no square bump. You can extend case compatibility only so far before it just doesn’t seem reasonable. The just announed iPads have completely different dimensions in all aspects and significantly different weight. Would it be practical to have the new keyboard work with older, heavier iPads, especially since they said they made the keyboard a lot lighter? The angle on the new keyboard is more vertical to provide more space for a larger trackpad and function row because the iPad is further set back and doesn’t hang as much over the keyboard. Combined with a lighter weight and the different angle, I suspect any older iPad would simply topple over backwards even if it did attach properly.
Apple does a better job than Samsung. I also have two generations of their Tab S8/S9 Ultra tablets. They only have two generations of 14” tablets. They have different cases because their stylus and camera section changed to their new design style. Their keyboard didn’t even last past a single generation and their cases cost as much as Apple’s. The old keyboard could be used with the newer tablet, but you had to pop the protective cover for the stylus off of the caase for it to fit, defeating the purpose of the cover. I ended up having to buy a new case.
Bottom line, it’s pretty obvious Apple has often bent over backwards to make their cases as compatible as they could going back to older generations. The old Magic Keyboard is a fine example of that accommodating not only the newest iPad Air but other Airs plus all Pros going back to 2018. Change enough things and the case must change, too. To just say they changed it for greed is a bit short sighted. I would bet the new case will be usable for multiple generations of iPad Pros to come, and maybe the Air if it ever gets an OLED screen permitting a significant weight reduction.
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Which was a wild rip off back then also
Because the pricing started at "massive rip off" and, adjusted for inflation, it's now "a normal rip off"...does not make any of it "good"