The Good Keyboard Folio was the perfect iPad accent

The case for using an iPad as a computer has by no means been stronger. Apple has slowly pushed its pill to be extra like its laptops and desktop computer systems for years, however in 2026, they’re extra related than ever. Positive, the modifications have not come as rapidly as iPad diehards have needed, however the truth that current iPad Pros ship with OLED screens and the identical chips utilized in Apple’s laptops, run among the identical professional apps, and assist equipment that give them among the identical bodily options, goes a great distance in direction of closing the hole.

One drawback stays, although: The iPad is not a traditional laptop. It weirdly straddles a number of sorts of computing on objective, one thing Apple would not ignore, but additionally would not rejoice. After experimenting with it for per week, I feel the Good Keyboard Folio, at one level the default keyboard case for the pill, represents the correct of compromise between making the iPad extra like a correct laptop, with out getting in the way in which of what makes an iPad an excellent pill.

The Good Keyboard Folio is light-weight and tactile

Apple’s authentic keyboard case would not have a trackpad

The unique Good Keyboard was launched alongside the iPad Pro in 2015, Apple’s first foray into tablets designed for work. The corporate had bought keyboard equipment for the iPad previously, and the pill’s assist for Bluetooth signifies that any outdated wi-fi keyboard may work in a pinch, however the Good Keyboard was distinctive within the sense that it wasn’t actually designed to be taken off. The keyboard acted as a canopy for the display, attaching to the facet of the pill, and unfolded to disclose its keys and prop up the iPad Professional while you wanted to kind. For those who most popular contact or needed to attract with the Apple Pencil, one other iPad Professional addition, you simply folded the Good Keyboard across the again of the pill.

When Apple redesigned the iPad Pro in 2018, it additionally launched a brand new model of its keyboard accent referred to as the Good Keyboard Folio, one that may additionally go on to be suitable with a number of variations of the iPad Air, the pill I am testing the case with. The most important distinction with the Good Keyboard Folio is that its keyboard was in a position to fold flat, and as a “folio” it coated each the back and front of an iPad, fairly than simply the display. Whereas I’ve actually grown accustomed to utilizing a trackpad with my iPad because of the Magic Keyboard, the present alternative for the Good Keyboard Folio that Apple launched in 2020, switching again to the older accent has been eye-opening. Not essentially as a result of it presents a greater typing expertise — the keys on the Good Keyboard Folio are extra cramped, and really feel mushier — however as a result of the entire case is a extra pure match for the opposite methods I exploit my iPad.

My iPad Air is now not the first method I take notes, however the pill continues to be considered one of my favourite methods to browse the online, watch movies, and skim articles I’ve saved. All these issues might be performed whereas the pill is mounted on a Magic Keyboard, however they really feel quite a bit higher to do after I’m simply holding my iPad in my palms like a guide or a bit of paper. For as a lot as I like having a keyboard and trackpad that really feel ripped from a MacBook, continually attaching and detaching my iPad from the Magic Keyboard is annoying.

With the Good Keyboard Folio, I haven’t got that drawback. The keyboard a part of the case folds flat in opposition to the again of my iPad Air when it is not in use, letting me write and draw on my pill simply by flipping the Good Keyboard Folio round. Not for nothing, the case can also be lighter and thinner than the Magic Keyboard, which makes it even simpler to slide my iPad right into a backpack with the Good Keyboard Folio hooked up. Mixed, they make my iPad Air really feel much more like a pill than a clumsy laptop computer.

Apple is more and more making the iPad one other Mac

The corporate’s software program and {hardware} proceed to converge

For those who take a look at latest modifications Apple’s made to the iPad, selling the machine’s inherent tablet-ness is not the most important precedence. Largely, Apple appears to be following iPad customers’ lead in making an attempt to make the pill higher at getting work performed. The largest addition in final 12 months’s iPadOS 26 update wasn’t the brand new Liquid Glass design components, however a brand new multitasking system with many similarities to what Apple at present presents on macOS. Different modifications, like with the ability to add folders to the dock or run duties within the background, make the pill much more computer-like.

The truth that Apple makes use of key elements from its laptops in most of its iPad helps energy these extra superior software program options. The M5 chip got here to the iPad Professional similtaneously it did the MacBook Pro. The iPad Professional’s tandem OLED display, billed as an Extremely Retina XDR, presents the identical ProMotion excessive refresh fee and HDR options of the corporate’s costliest laptops and desktops, and in some methods, at a greater high quality than the mini LED shows Apple makes use of in its present MacBook Professionals. The iPad Professional particularly, however actually all the corporate’s tablets, are seemingly designed to be extra versatile and touch-friendly alternate options to Apple’s laptops. That is not essentially an excellent factor or a nasty factor, but it surely does look like the course Apple has dedicated to taking.

The iPad won’t ever be only one factor

Even a keyboard cannot drag a vibrant touchscreen down

The iPad is perhaps changing into one other Apple laptop computer, but it surely nonetheless has a touchscreen, and it is nonetheless very totally different from the remainder of the corporate’s gadgets. After a very long time utilizing my iPad Air with a Magic Keyboard, switching to the Good Keyboard Folio was an excellent reminder of all the opposite issues my iPad can do. Because it seems, I haven’t got to sacrifice them to get an excellent typing expertise. I do not know that it might make sense for Apple to start out making an adjunct just like the Good Keyboard Folio once more, however I really feel sure there’s room for equipment that add options to the corporate’s tablets with out turning them into one other laptop computer.