iPad Pro Why doesn’t the Magic Keyboard have a solid state trackpad?

[Retskrad]

The Magic Keyboars for the iPad Air/Pro is a great keyboard and the trackpad is just as accurate as the MacBooks. However, what brings it down significantly is the fact that it’s not solid state like the Macs. You need to apply twice as much pressure down to get a click compared to the Mac. Sure, you can enable tap to click in Settings but the vibration you get from the Taptic Engine on the Macs is a big reason why it’s superior to other laptops. Apple has disabled tap to click on both Mac and iPadOS for a reason: they want you to press down and get that vibration.

The M1 MacBook Air is extremely thin around the trackpad area and somehow, someway, Apple managed to put a solid state trackpad in there. Why couldn’t they do the same for the Magic Keyboard for the iPad?

 

[madat42]

Is it because there’s no room for a taptic/haptic engine in the keyboard cover? I do hate the deep physical clicks so I’ve enabled tap-to-click. But this doesn’t work for click and drag actions so I’ve resorted to just using the touchscreen to keep things quiet. Maybe Apple wants us to do it this way. 😆

 

[darngooddesign]

Is it because there’s no room for a taptic/haptic engine in the keyboard cover? I do hate the deep physical clicks so I’ve enabled tap-to-click. But this doesn’t work for click and drag actions so I’ve resorted to just using the touchscreen to keep things quiet. Maybe Apple wants us to do it this way. 😆

You can turn on tap to drag in accessibility > pointer controls.

 

[madat42]

You can turn on tap to drag in accessibility > pointer controls.

omg I love the internet! Thanks!

 

[VaruLV]

Because Apple are still obsessed with thinness, hence no room for haptic engines, additional ports and battery in MKB's base.

 

[floral]

Because Apple are still obsessed with thinness, hence no room for haptic engines, additional ports and battery in MKB's base.

To be fair, in this case thinness is a fair compromise. We have seen a few situations where thinness was prioritized over way more important things... but not everybody needs a Taptic Engine. Still, they should offer a thicker keyboard with that.

 

[VaruLV]

To be fair, in this case thinness is a fair compromise. We have seen a few situations where thinness was prioritized over way more important things... but not everybody needs a Taptic Engine. Still, they should offer a thicker keyboard with that.

They made it think and I get why, however, in order to prevent iPad tipping over, they had to also make that keyboard artificially heavy on purpose.
Two models of magic keyboards would be nice, however, I dread thinking about how much would one with ports and battery cost.

 

[Retskrad]

Tim Cook is primarily an iPad user and I am honestly shocked that he green-lit the atrocious trackpad on the Magic Keyboard. It’s not Apple- level quality at all. It belongs with mid-tier Windows laptops.

 

[darngooddesign]

Because Apple are still obsessed with thinness, hence no room for haptic engines, additional ports and battery in MKB's base.

Do you really want Apple to double the thickness and weight of the MK’s base? My 13” iPad combo is already heavy enough. What good are additional ports when the Smart Connector doesn’t support data?

 

[gpat]

The right choice would be to just make a detachable iPad/Macbook device. You all know it.