Here is Jason Snell’s initial thoughts on it
And here is the pre-order page
I had one of the previous ones and it is by far my favorite iPad keyboard
Looking forward to more “hands-on” reviews, as well. I’m really REALLY considering dumping my MacBook Pro for a new iPad Pro, this could be the new keyboard to go with it.
Definitely. From my experience on their previous models this is the way to go.
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I was on their website about 10 minutes early, I created an account, logged in, and made sure everything was all set to go.
I went back to the homepage about 5 minutes ahead of launch and it was already live. I double-checked to make sure I wasn’t ordering the “old” keyboard, then made sure I was getting the one for the 12.9" Space Grey, and … ooh! Apple Pay! Smart!
I was fully checked out 2 minutes before the official start time, so I’m pretty hopeful I’ll be getting one “on launch day” or whatever it turns out to be.
At which point I’ll happily ditch the Apple Smart Keyboard Folio… which is… “fine” but… totally not worth the price they’re asking and missing everything except the most basic features. It doesn’t even have an ESC key, but does have a keyboard-switcher key – does anyone use that on purpose? I haven’t switched keyboards intentionally since… ever?
Well, ok, that’s not entirely true, I do use the occasional emoji… but I really dislike the placement of that button, and I miss the ESC key… and backlighting… and media keys… and … anything that would make this seem like it wasn’t part of the “Amazon Basics” brand.
For the love of G*d, never remind me how much I spent on this thing.
It’s fine.
But that’s as much praise as it deserves.
I watched the Instagram live thing they did with iMore showing the keyboard and ordered immediately after. You’re right, I basically did all I could to ignore the price tag! It’s totally worth it though.
I actually do use the keyboard switcher quite a bit for the Copied keyboard.
I was looking at this keyboard too, but like you, I need the ESC key… I didn’t order yet cause it looks like the Brydge Keyboard doesn’t have it either?
From the iMore website
The thing with most iOS keyboards is they offer a home button instead of the escape button, because the home is escaping whatever app you’re currently in. I’m ok with a home button rather than an escape button, as I only really need the escape key when I’m using Prompt.
I ordered it, the price wasn’t so bad (look at the price of the folio offered by Apple), but the shipping here in Europe was rather eye opening! Crossing my fingers I get it April 15th 
Amen to that. The Smart Folio for iPad pro not even “fine” in my opinion. I’ll be happy to ditch it.
BTW, the “first 1,000” must be exceeded already – they charged me shipping for my 11" iPad Pro keyboard. Also with Apple Pay you don’t need to create an account – the buyer and shipping info is automatically transferred to the seller from Apple.
Yes to this! Hopefully I can sell my Folio and recoup some of the costs.
But you can get “home” with CMD+H so there is literally no need for a dedicated home button.
UGH. I can’t believe it doesn’t have an actual ESC key. That’s what I get for assuming.
Oh well, it will still be better than Apple’s keyboard.
Very true, but I didn’t know they offered Apple Pay until the sales page was live, at which point I had already created the account. Oh well, no harm done.
(Also, for some reason, whenever I order something via Apple Pay, it always says my shipping address is invalid, and then I tap on it, and they have my correct shipping address. No idea how to fix that, but it’s super annoying.)
I didn’t see anything about them giving free shipping to the first 1,000.
What I did see is that they require $150 for free shipping, and the 11" keyboard is $149.99.
Which is absurdly stupid. Basically they charged you a penny less to make the price seem lower (does that actually fool anyone?) and so that they could charge you shipping.
OTOH they seem to have charged me tax twice for some reason.
Hmmm. When I looked at the page last night it had a free shipping message. Maybe it was an A/B test. Anyway, I agree that if the price had been $0.01 more I wouldn’t have been charged freight. Cheesy.
They did say on the Instagram Live stream that the first 1000 got free shipping. I was able to order at about 2:45 EST and received the free shipping
Apparently this has been known by some but unknown to others (including me, until recently):
CMD + . (Period) will act as the “Escape” button in iOS.
This is adapted from macOS where Command+. has meant “Stop” or “Cancel” so I guess it makes sense, but I wish the keyboard shortcut overlay in iOS showed “CMD + .” instead of “ESC” when “ESC” isn’t on most iOS keyboards, including Apple’s!
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Rosemary, how are you liking the Brydge? Is the keyboard similar to the old MacBookPro keyboards or like the new MacBookPro keyboards? My wife has the 2017 10.5 iPad Pro but hates the clickly Apple smartkeyboard. But she loves the old MacBookPro keyboard. Thanks.
The Brydge has been delayed, it should be with me in the middle of May, I’m crossing my fingers that I love it when it gets here!
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Both Jason Snell and Federico Viticci have received their Brydge keyboards, and like them. They have talked about them on Upgrade and Connected podcasts (see below), respectively, but I don’t think either of them have written a full review yet.
Both have been very positive about them overall so far.
Unfortunately, they failed to deliver on time, even for people who ordered as soon as orders were available, and deliveries now expected to be about a month behind (May 20th vs April 15).
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With the recent reports from Federico Viticci and Steve Troughton-Smith that mouse/trackpad support to iOS is coming I think a lot of people will be buying new form-factor keyboards with trackpads soon enough - perhaps by the end of the year.
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Yeah, I’m holding off for that reason. I’m actually very happy with Apple’s Smart Keyboard Folio but if trackpad support is announced I’d definitely consider another option that included that. One thing I’m really curious about the new Brydge design is whether or not people have issues activating the dock with a swipe up. I found that an issue with the previous version when paired to the previous 12.9” and find it hard to believe I was the only one.
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