The 2024 Magic Keyboard is the Max Verstappen of iPad Accessories.
🏎️
Apple listened 👂
The 2024 Magic Keyboard is better than every other keyboard on the market. And it’s not even close.
Here’s what’s changed:
Material
The inner material was swapped to aluminum. Bye bye weird rubber felt 👋
The old rubber texture was horrible—my Magic Keyboard started peeling in less than a year.
Now, with the switch to aluminum, this issue is not going to be a problem. And don’t worry, the aluminum won’t scratch your screen—there’s a rubber lip.
Weight
The new Magic Keyboard is also lighter. Thank god.
The old Magic Keyboard + iPad Pro combo was almost as heavy as the MacBook Pro. The new Magic Keyboard + iPad Pro is closer to the MacBook Air.
When you walk around for hours a day with an iPad Pro in your backpack, you’ll appreciate the weight loss.
Design
The design is more-or-less the same (cantilever 🔛🔝).
There’s a small change though.
Thanks to the lighter iPad and the lighter Magic Keyboard, the new design can go further back than before.
That’s a pretty good upgrade. Before, it was tough to use an iPad with a Magic Keyboard in a cramped space. Now, it still is, but it isn’t as bad.
Keys
Apple defo listened here.
Thanks to the lighter iPad, Apple was able to add a function row to this year’s Magic Keyboard.
For a lot of people, that’s huge.
The function row itself is nothing crazy. In fact, it’s almost exactly what like what I have on my MacBook: an escape key, brightness control, Stage Manager, Spotlight Search, Siri, DND, playback controls, volume controls, and a lock button.
Trackpad
The trackpad’s also a lot bigger.
That’s great news—the old trackpad was tiny. While I eventually got used to it, it became a pain once I got used to my 15” MacBook Air’s monstrosity of a trackpad.
The new trackpad also uses Haptic touch instead of physical clicking. This will make your experience smoother and quieter.
USB-C
The USB-C port on the side supports faster charging now.
Once again, Apple fixed another mistake we saw in the old Magic Keyboard. And this one wasn’t even that bad.
Areas of Improvement
Programmable Keys
If we could map keys to certain Shortcuts, that would be awesome. It would make the iPad even more of an automation beast 🐉.
Even Bigger Trackpad
No such thing as a trackpad that’s too big.
Better Compatibility
Hopefully they’ll expand compatibility to the iPad Airs. At the moment, it only works with the new M4 iPad Pros.
Price
When I saw the changes, I was worried.
But nope. Prices are exactly the same :)
Hope this post helps you make a decision on the new Magic Keyboard.
Thanks for reading!
Adi
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