The iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard combo hails a new era for the iPad. Thanks to the built-in trackpad on the accessory, it’s takes the tablet range closer to a Mac than it has ever been.
However, we’re not just talking about functionality here, we’re talking about girth. Because it appears a 12.9-inch iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard weighs more than Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Air.
While Apple hasn’t provided an official weight for the Magic Keyboard accessory, a MacRumors reader took it upon themselves to place it upon the scales, which it tips at 710 grams.
That’s heavier than the iPad Pro itself, which is 641 grams according to Apple’s own measurements. Together the pair amounts to 1,351g. That’s more than the 13-inch MacBook Air, which is 1,290g and is dangerously close to the 13-inch MacBook Pro, which weighs 1,371g.
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Given one of the major selling points over the MacBook range is the iPad Pro’s portability, adding the Magic Keyboard negates those portability gains significantly. In early reviews of the Magic Keyboard, many have pointed out quite how surprisingly heavy the accessory is. Whether this turns out to be a big deal, beyond an interesting tidbit, remains to be seen.
The Magic Keyboard’s trackpad brings some of the functionality we’ve come to enjoy on MacBook notebooks beyond cursor pointing and clicking.
For example, the pointer will change shape depending on what it is currently hovering over. For example, if you hover over the trash icon in the Mail app for example, it will be shaded by a rectangle.
Naturally, it’ll be great for selecting and manoeuvring text, and manipulating cells in Excel, for example. It’ll also be possible to pinch-to-zoom using the trackpad, while some navigation gestures are also supported.
For example, you can return to the home screen by swiping up with three fingers, you can slide between open apps by swiping horizontally with three fingers, and you can also summon Slide Over apps by moving the pointer to the right hand side of the display.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.