The 2020 iPad Pro hardware is a small update from 2018. It added a LiDAR scanner, wide-angle camera, Wi-Fi 6, more RAM, and a few other minor changes. The most interesting changes are found in software, and the new Magic Keyboard. Those changes have turned the iPad into the ultimate modular computer.
In iPadOS 13.4, Apple added a new cursor, and support for external mice and trackpads. This isn’t the cursor you’re used to, though. It’s not the half-baked accessibility feature they shipped in iOS 13.0, either. This is a full-fledged adaptive cursor that’s deeply built into the system. If you squint, it transforms the iPad into something resembling a laptop.
Magic keyboard :
The new Magic Keyboard is Apple's latest and greatest companion product for iPad Pro. It is an advanced, metal enforced, folding stand that includes a keyboard and trackpad. It is extremely sturdy, and because of this it is heavier. You cannot use the iPad as a tablet when it is connected to the Magic Keyboard as its folding mechanism does not allow flapping around. The backlit keys have a conventional scissor mechanism, providing 1MM of key travel. The typing experience is superb, very much like an high-end laptop.
The Magic Keyboard is the next step in shifting the definition of what a computer is. This device goes further than the company’s previous iPad keyboard case to include a trackpad, and has a clever way of holding the iPad firmly in the air, allowing it to tilt to different angles (though the tilting is limited), as well as a USB-C passthrough to charge the iPad.
The main pro is the ease of attaching and removing the Magic Keyboard means that, so far at least, I’m keeping it in the case by default, and then just removing it when I want to use it as a tablet.
Cons :
First – and I find it hard to believe this is true – there’s no Escape key! I’m so used to using that to exit from full-screen video viewing, it seems such a fundamental element on a keyboard, and yet it’s true: it really is missing.
Second, the lack of function keys. I hadn’t been sure how much I would miss them. I don’t often play music on my iPad, so wasn’t bothered about the lack of music controls. I find the on-screen brightness control of the iPad faster to use than keys, so didn’t mind the lack of those. I almost never adjust keyboard backlighting, so no problem there. But there was one immediate and obvious weakness when watching video: no volume controls.
The Magic Keyboard isn’t cheap: $299 or $349, for the 11” and 12.9” model. And if you want the full kit – iPad, Apple Pencil, and Magic Keyboard – that will cost a minimum of $1,227 or $1,477, and that’s with the wi-fi only iPad Pro and the base amount of storage, 128 GB. If you want a cellular iPad and more storage, you could pay well north of $2,000.
But it’s hard to express how much this feels like a totally new computing device. It’s nothing more than a combination of three existing devices: a keyboard, trackpad, and iPad, but something about the way it works, together with iPadOS 13’s new features such as multi-tasking and trackpad support, brings the best of both worlds: the flexibility of a laptop together with the simplicity of iOS. Naturally, there will always be people who can’t do everything they want on an iPad, and I certainly cannot, but this new combination is making me rethink much of what I do on a laptop. In recent years I’ve been lamenting the complexity and inflexibility of macOS, and have been looking for more reasons to work on my iPad. I think this new Magic Keyboard has confirmed that the iPad is going in new directions that the Mac can’t follow.
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