There are some devices whose pricing casts such a shadow that everything else well-nigh them gets, well, overshadowed. Mark Antony would perhaps have said:
The pricing that products have lives without them
Their good is oft interred with their motherboards…
That definitely seems to have been the specimen with Apple’s Magic Keyboard Verso for the iPad. Launched in late 2022 with the iPad (10th generation), the keyboard took a lot of flak for its price. At Rs 24,900, it was increasingly than half the price of the iPad it was supposed to work with and tropical to the iPad (9th generation), which was still in the market. And while it did have the ‘Magic’ tag, it was nothing like the Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro, which came with a premium design, tying itself to the when of the tablets and kept them suspended in the air whilom the keyboard, giving the whole set up an scrutinizingly desktop computer-like feel, justifying the ‘Magic’ in its name.
The Magic Keyboard Folio, on the other hand, was increasingly routine. It was unquestionably in two parts – one with a kickstand that tying to the when of the iPad and moreover covered it, and the other a keyboard that unfluctuating to the iPad using a three-pin connection. It was solid unbearable but seemed mainly made of plastic and did not have the premium feels of not just the Magic Keyboard for the iPad but plane the elegant Smart Keyboard Folio. What’s more, it was misogynist only in white, which made keeping it wipe a well-constructed and utter nightmare.
Yes, the keyboard had very good-sized keys and a trackpad, too, but the whole idea of putting two separate pieces together to create a single device seemed very un-Apple-like, and plane the kickstand seemed too stiff to use easily. It could only work with the iPad (10th generation), thanks to the connectors, so you could not use it with multiple devices, unlike the Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro, which worked with most new iPad Pros and the iPad Air. Paying tropical to the price of an iPad for something like this seemed a bad idea – plane the keys were not backlit.
Well, we have been using the Magic Keyboard Verso for scrutinizingly half a year now. And we can put our hands up and say it – we were wrong. The Magic Keyboard Verso is perhaps the weightier keyboard we have used with a tablet, plane though it works with just one tablet. We are plane going to go out on a limb and say that it is largest than the OG Magic Keyboard.
A quick refinement at the very outset – we are not saying that the Magic Keyboard Verso is not expensive. It is. We are moreover not saying that it is a super elegant design. No, that two-piece wattle still feels odd. And yes, we still wish it worked with other iPads, had backlit keys, and came in any shade but white (we unquestionably siphon a reticulum virtually to alimony cleaning not just it but the surfaces on which we place it).
But plane with all that, the Magic Keyboard Verso still works outstandingly. We have used our share of tablet keyboard covers from other brands, most notably Logitech, Xiaomi, and OnePlus, but none of them come plane close.
The reason for our liking the Magic Keyboard Verso is simple – it works outstandingly. The keys are large and have the right value of clickiness and travel, increasingly than the ones on the fabric Smart Keyboard Verso and comparable to the ones on the Super Magic Keyboard. It is a six-row keyboard, too (many tablet keyboards are five-row wires – OnePlus and Xiaomi, for instance), with a whole row of defended shortcuts on the top. Typing on the keyboard is a terrific experience, and without using a number of other keyboards, we learned to fathom those large keys and the row of shortcuts.
The trackpad unquestionably seems to work largest than the one on the Magic Keyboard, with just the right value of clicking at the sides. We were initially not too impressed by it but now use the trackpad extensively considering it lets us do so much without having to touch the tablet. Also, its location is perfect – we have never triggered it unwittingly (something that happens with viperous frequency on other tablet keyboards with trackpads). The weightier thing well-nigh the keyboard is that moving to it from a 13/14 inch notebook’s keyboard is scrutinizingly seamless – you do not end up missing keys or having to retread your typing.
Then there is that kickstand. We had been unsated by how rigid it was to move, but over time, we have learned to fathom this. It stuff rigid makes the Magic Keyboard Verso perhaps the only iPad keyboard imbricate that we can use to type while placing the iPad on our laps – the others are simply too unsteady. Also, once you get an idea of how to move that kickstand and the level of gravity needed, you suddenly realize that you can unquestionably type on the iPad from scrutinizingly any wile from 180 to 90 degrees – a rarity again. And that rigid kickstand unquestionably helps, as the iPad does not wobble when you type.
That two-piece diamond is unquestionably useful as you can simply alimony the when imbricate on and use the kickstand to view content on the iPad and alimony the keyboard yonder for a much largest viewing experience. There is no shower drain, unlike the Magic Keyboard. What’s more, the Magic Keyboard Verso is incredibly light as well, whereas the Magic Keyboard is unquestionably heavier than most iPads. So you can unquestionably nail it and siphon your iPad comfortably virtually without a massive wing to its weight.
All in all, the Magic Keyboard Verso brings the iPad closer to a notebook than any other keyboard does to any tablet, with perhaps the exception of the original Surface. At Rs 24,900, it is still very expensive, but without months of using it, we have to shoehorn that what seemed irrationally exorbitant at the time of its launch now seems less so. You are paying a premium for it, but you are getting a very premium wits for your money, in terms of performance if not in visitation (the Magic Keyboard Verso is not ugly, but it definitely does not requite off the sort of premium feels you expect from an Apple product).
It is not perfect, but the Magic Keyboard Verso is a unconfined example of Steve Jobs’s famous quote: “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Diamond is how it works.” If upkeep is not a constraint and you want to notebook-ify your iPad, get it. And see, plane the Pros and Airs get jealous at the ease with which you work. We know.
That price is crazy. Keeping it wipe is insane.
Fortunately, so is its performance.