Until now, “the most important reason I couldn’t replace my laptop with an iPad was the keyboard,” Walt Mossberg writes for The Verge. “I disliked Apple’s keyboard, which has a flat-feeling simulated key travel and lacks backlighting and dedicated feature-control keys for the iPad.”
“So I upgraded, and waited for somebody to release a really nice 9.7-inch snap-on keyboard (as opposed to the many Bluetooth keyboards that require pairing and charging),” Mossberg writes. “Now somebody has, and this new snap-on keyboard is (in my view) not only better than Apple’s, but it completes the smaller iPad Pro as a great productivity device. In fact, I’m writing this entire column using it. It’s from Logitech and it’s called the Create 9.7.”
Mossberg writes, “Between the right-sized iPad Pro and the new Logitech Create, I think using an iPad instead of your laptop for productivity as well as consumption is finally a pleasure.”
Logitech Create Backlit Keyboard Case with Smart Connector for iPad Pro 9.7-Inch ($129.99 at Amazon)
Much more in the full review here.
MacDailyNews Take: Walt’s right, the Logitech Create keyboard for the 9.7-inch iPad Pro is a great device!
I also use and love the LOGI keyboard with my 12″ iPad Pro. No laptop use for over a year.
Me as well. I love it on my 12.9 iPad Pro. It hasn’t completely replaced my MacBook Pro yet, but it’s close. If it was powerful enough to do heavy 3D modeling in CAD, it would. But I use it 90+% of the time, and love the Logitech keyboard.
Ohhh. How i wish for the day that i can run a full blown 3d modeling/animation/ rendering program on ipad …. And have a native/coherent user manageable file system on ios.
Have been calling forvan IOS Pro for a looong time..
Hey Apple……let me have it at a premuim .. I Will be happy to pay for …….Let IOS be free… And charge for IOS PRO version …. I brlieve it will be a great success and also a good revinue source..
Why not?!
Sure hope your iPad doesn’t go into recovery mode. You need a laptop to reset it. Else you have to wipe it.
iPads have their place, but personally I see no reason to switch to something that can do nearly 100% of what I need, though 100% slower, if not worse. Something as straightforward as creating a blog post in WordPress, adding hyperlinks, YouTube videos, photos, etc. I know it’s doable on the iPad but do I want to spend 10+ minutes doing it instead of 5? Couple it with constantly reaching for the screen instead of using the keyboard and awesome trackpad where my fingers don’t have to move further than several inches?
I agree. I’d have to work an extra couple hours a day to get the same amount of work done and my customers would grow impatient waiting for me.
I use FileMaker Pro running 2 separate data bases all day long, email, Safari, Skitch, Pages, Excel. I frequently have to access multiple documents, find emails quickly when my clients call. I also use contact management software. I am often working with multiple windows open, cutting and pasting, dragging elements from one window into another.
If I were sitting at Starbucks writing an article on how my iPad replaced my iMac, that’s one thing. In the real word, many of us are doing 10 things at a time and need the efficiency of a computer that was designed for multitasking. Not one that just introduced split screen a year ago.
Many folks have 10 things open at one time, but really, they’re doing one maybe two things at a time.
Speak for yourself.
An example of how I may use multiple applications for one client interaction would be…
How long ago did I buy my last computer? What were the specs? What sort of upgrades can I do to it? How much will that cost? What’s it’s trade in value? Should I just buy a new one? What are the differences between the new one and mine? What’s the academic price? Best Buy is having a sale can you match it?
One interaction of this nature would involve using.
Safari
FileMaker (potentially POS database and Service database)
Mactracker
Preview, Pages (trade in Matrix)
Now if they are moving forward with a sale on a custom computer. I will build it on Apple’s site and take a screen shot with Skitch and typically print 3 copies, one for the client one for my purchasing agent and one for me to keep on file.
All this while you may have another person waiting for assistance.
Just writing this post on my iPad was a frustrating experience. It kept trying to force the word Mactracker into two words and turning it pink when I didn’t want any if the three auto suggestions. Finally after about 10 attempts I was able to keep it as one word. Yes I know you can turn autocorrect off.
I wanted to cut and paste a paragraph and every time I try to select just that paragraph it would randomly select a different potion of text. It jumped to a blank space below or above the paragraph. Again after 5 or 6 attempts I retyped the paragraph.
Good example of how using Apple’s trackpad is much more precise than a finger on a touchscreen.
I started with the Logitech keyboard on my 12,9 iPad Pro. And it sure is a really good keyboard, steady, backlight and all the extra F-keys. But it is metallic, heavy and somewhat difficult to put on and take off. It added weight to my mobile life, felt like I was carrying my MacBook Air. So now I am typing on Apples Smart Keybord that now is available with swedish keyboard. The keys are not backlit and there is no F-keys. But it is a full size keybord with good response and quite good to use. It is light weight and also a smart cover with magnetic snap. And steady enough to have in the lap. For the moment it is a winner in comnbination with Apple Pencil. (I wish It had a smart holder for the pen, though)
If you don’t mind the extra weight, the Logitec might be a better choice if you write alot.
I assume Apple keeps shortening key-depression distance because they want to train us toward an entirely flat keyboard that vibrates when a key is depressed. They know the shift will be jarring, so they’re flattening keyboards little by little.
This explains how Logitech can make a better keyboard than Apple. Logitech is making a great keyboard for what we’re comfortable with. Apple is making a great keyboard that pushes you into new territory to develop new habits.
Ya know?
User of laptops and desktops are spolied or lazy or both when it comes to the issue of a physical keyboard or the iPad’s software keyboard.
From day one when the first iPad came out, I decided to learned and use the software keyboard and I do not have ANY issues with using it whatsoever and with the new trackpad functionality, I type better than ever and am able to navigate bodies of text better than ever.
I gave the iPad’s software keyboard its time and due, as I wanted to keep my iPads as mobile, portable and as light as possible and NOT carry bulky peripherals or have my iPads in heavier than necessary bulky cases with built-in keyboards.
Everyone stuck in old habits, have never really given the iPad’s software keybaord a REAL, legitimate try.
I have never seen any reviews of the iPad’s software keyboard functionality where the reviewer hasn’t used it for longer than a week…maybe two and proclaimed that the iPad’s software keyboard is completely useless.
You can get typing pretty quick on the iOS software keyboard if you spend weeks,,nonths and years, as I have, using it!
It is even nicer and speedier to use on the larger iPad Pro now that the keyboard area is nearly the same length and width of a standard size keyboard.
Anybody else strictly users of the iPad’s software keyboard out there besides me?
I’m sure eventually that’s all we’ll have are soft keyboards, so better get used to them.
We loved the Logitech keyboard for my iPad 2, but after three months, about thirty pages of text and a fairly complicated spreadsheet during travel, we returned home and bought an 11 inch Air and have hardly touched the iPad since. The up/down motion to the screen was a pain in the ass. And, of course, the small size of the keyboard, as much as we liked it, was also a hindrance.
There is much to be said for a trackpad at keyboard level, the handy flip up stability of the laptop, and a full sized keyboard.
Odds are Walt’s back to his laptop when the real work begins.
I got Logitech keyboard/cover for my iPad Air 2. Be aware that it can scrach your iPad screen like it did with mine. The keyboard is made from hard plastic and If a tiny piece of sand or similar material gets there between a screen and a keyboard (and it will) it is going to eat your screen. I guess Apple knew this when they designed their soft iPad keyboard.
No way I can do on an iPad what I can on my MB Air. I am uploading /downloading files. I am cutting and pasting between multiple windows, emailing docs while I’m doing other things in safari and in pages.
I also use team viewer allot for support for our customers. I have a iMac core i7 3ghz in the other room for video editing and doing my heavy lifting. Then my my air I use for other stuff and when I’m watching tv and needing to do work so I don’t have to be in my office. I can even log into my iMac via screen sharing if need be.
iPads are great I have seen them used professionally in the medical field although our doctors here use a crappy looking laptop with some kind of tough casing on it. But back home they used iPads for all kinds of stuff. Although they did use a stylus.