Apple’s new Magic Keyboard is expensive but will change how you work on your iPad Pro

For years, I’ve wanted the iPad to serve as my primary computer. But, with no real mouse support and poor keyboard options, it was usually a secondary device.

That changes with the new Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro. It lets recent versions of Apple’s high-end tablet function much more like a traditional laptop, with a screen you can pull off.

Microsoft won the argument over form factors here. It’s been selling its Surface computers since 2012 with full keyboards, trackpads and detachable screens, and encouraging partners like Dell to do the same. Apple originally put its focus on touch, while keyboards were an afterthought — it didn’t even offer a keyboard add-on until the Smart Keyboard in 2017. Now, Apple seems to have come around to Microsoft’s idea that hybrid laptop-tablets are something that people want.

The trouble with Surface and other PC hybrids is that they run a full version of Windows, which simply doesn’t have the millions of apps optimized for touch that the iPad has. The iPad Pro has the opposite problem — many of its apps aren’t optimized for keyboard use, and the new keyboard doesn’t solve that. But at least it’s a pleasure to use.

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