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When I did my first travel blog back in 2011 (https://thirtydaysinthailand.wordpress.com) I shot all the pictures using a Canon G11 camera and did all the blogging using an iPad with an Apple Bluetooth keyboard. I did not like that system at all… the iPad handled the pictures decently enough and whatever app I was using for blogging at the time worked well enough but it was a major pain having a separate keyboard – even one as relatively compact as Apple’s. I couldn’t use it to type on my lap or on seat back tables or at the beach or in bars… As long as I had a desk or reasonably spacious table to work at, all was well… The rest of the time, I ended up just using the iPad’s on-screen keyboard and the Apple keyboard took up valuable space in my back pack…
The next couple of blogs were done on an iPad again but this time with one of Logitech’s keyboards that functioned as a protective case for the iPad. This one was built like a tank (I don’t think we’ve managed to scratch or dent it in the years we’ve had it) but made the iPad pretty heavy and bulky… But it worked pretty well for typing on your lap or on small tables in crowded bars… but then I upgraded my camera to a Nikon D7100 and found dealing with media and images a pain in the butt given the inability to connect external drives and the limited storage capacity so switched to carrying an 11″ MacBook Air laptop… This allowed me to connect an external hard drive and to back up the RAW images I shoot and to have movies on the hard drive, etc. but it was a bit heavy and pretty conspicuous… It worked really well for typing on my lap and on small tables but overall felt like a bit of overkill for what is, at the end of the day, a hobby blog for family and friends… and carrying an external hard drive and various adapters just got to be a bit much…
So I’ve stopped backing up RAW images and gone back to using an iPad… mainly because I recently purchased a 10.5″ iPad Pro for work (with the Apple Pencil I have been able to go almost entirely paperless in my classrooms as the tech now allows me to write freehand comments on student work) and decided to try making it my go-to system for travel and blogging (in part to justify its ridiculously high price). But after using it to blog our short trip to Africa in July (https://12nightsineastafrica.wordpress.com) I realized I was going to need a keyboard because I just can’t do that on-screen keyboard thing for any significant amount of writing…
First, I tried out the Logitech slim combo (https://www.logitech.com/en-ca/product/slimcombo). I think it came to about $190 after tax from my local BestBuy.
- It protects the iPad really well. There’s two parts – a case for the iPad that protects the back and overlaps the screen a little bit to form a bumper that is intended to protect the screen and the keyboard portion that attaches via the iPad’s magnetic smart connection. When it’s all closed up, the iPad is basically encased in hard plastic and seems like it would stand up pretty well to the rigours of travel.
- The keyboard is responsive and comfortable to type on (although the large wrist rest area seems like a waste of space) and the keyboard is backlit.
- When typing in landscape orientation or watching a movie, the iPad can be adjusted to whatever viewing angle works best for.
- The case portion of the system also allows for the iPad to be used in portrait orientation for FaceTiming.
CONS:
- It’s bulky and heavy. Way too bulky and heavy to use as a travel system. The iPad is a pretty solidly constructed piece of kit on its own and my camera backpack has a padded sleeve for it so all that extra plastic seems like wasted bulk and weight.
- To use the iPad without the keyboard (ie. reading on it or watching a movie in bed) you need to detach the keyboard entirely. At home this is not a big deal but when traveling, it’s another thing to keep track of and to try not to leave behind when you rush to catch your bus…
- The detachable keyboard makes it impossible to use it for typing on my lap and did not fare spectacularly well when used on small bar tables and I don’t think it would fare well on airline seat back tables which seem to be smaller and smaller… This was a deal breaker for me as it was a basically step back to the detachable Apple keyboard days.
Overall, it’s a solid product with some nice features (especially the backlighting) and if I wasn’t using it for travel, I would probably have loved it… As it was, I tried it out for a couple of weeks around town and then returned in to BestBuy.
Which left me with the Apple Smart Keyboard (https://www.apple.com/ca/shop/product/MPTL2LL/A/smart-keyboard-for-105%E2%80%91inch-ipad-pro-us-english) which set me back almost $250 after taxes…
PROS:
- It’s really ingeniously compact. If you’ve ever used Apple’s older iPad covers, this looks and feels exactly like one of those but with a keyboard… It should be bulkier and heavier than it is… Kudos to Apple’s designers for this one…
- It’s easy and convenient to use the iPad for reading or watching movies in bed as the cover just flips around to the back of the iPad and its felt-y like material provides a nice non-slip surface to hold onto.
- It connects securely to the magnetic smart connector and can be used for typing on my lap (it’s not perfect but it works pretty well) and it works really well on small tables (like seatback tables or crowded bar tables).
- The keyboard is responsive and pleasant to type on. It’s not a laptop or anything but it feels right typing on it… I wouldn’t say I enjoy typing on it (that seems like a weird thing to enjoy to me) but there’s nothing at all off about using it…
- It is pretty quiet to type on… this is a good thing when you travel with two sleep-deprived women who threaten death and dismemberment to anyone who disturbs their slumber…
- The keyboard is sealed up tight so nothing gets behind the keys. Given that most of my blog posts are composed while drinking beer or coffee and scarfing various bar snacks, this is actually a pretty desirable feature and bodes well for its longevity…
- The keyboard sits close enough to the screen that moving back and forth between the touch screen and the keyboard actually works… so well in fact, that after using the iPad for 10 days in Mexico, I’ve caught myself multiple times reaching up to my MacBook Pro’s screen…
- It’s fecking expensive. With the keyboard added to the already ridiculously steep price of the iPad Pro, this kit comes to about the price of my MacBook Air and would cause me serious distress if it were to be lost or stolen while traveling.
- It’s not backlit. C’mon Apple. I can’t believe they couldn’t come up with a way to backlight this thing… not a deal breaker but seems like a major omission… After using the keyboard for a few days I get to the point where I can type in the dark reasonably well but until that happens it’s frustrating using the keyboard in low light conditions (like airplanes or dark hotel rooms where your beloved travel companions would literally murder you if you turned on a light).
- It can only be used in one orientation (landscape) and at one viewing angle (unlike the Logitech which can be infinitely adjusted in landscape and can be used in portrait mode). It’s not a bad viewing angle for typing or for watching movies but there are times I’d like to be able to tip it back or forward a bit to respond to lighting changes or to give my neck/shoulders a break…
- I’ve never really loved the Apple iPad covers because that felt-y material they use seems to collect all kinds of crap and the material on the front of the cover always seems to look grungy and grimy. I’m being picky here, perhaps, but for $250 I shouldn’t be having to brush crumbs off it all the time…
Overall, the Apple Smart Keyboard lacks some of the features of the Logitech and doesn’t protect the iPad to the extent the Logitech does… But it’s a better keyboard for traveling and for using the iPad for purposes other than typing. In the end, it feels like the Logitech keyboard seems intended to turn the iPad into a laptop with a touch screen whereas the Apple keyboard seems intended to add a keyboard to an iPad without turning it into something it’s not…