Which keyboard do you recommend for the latest iPad Air (3rd Generation)?

Hardware
5

I have the Apple keyboard for the 12.9" and I think it is fine. It’s not backlit and it doesn’t have media keys. Oh, and it’s overpriced.

But it’s fine.

I actually like it more than the Brydge keyboard that everyone raves about, which is cheaper, it backlit, and does have media keys.

Why?

Why I like the Apple Keyboard

  1. The Apple keyboard never needs to be charged. It uses the Smart Connector, so as long as your iPad has power, so does the keyboard.

  2. The Apple keyboard is very easy to take on and off. I don’t do that all that often, but it’s really nice when I want to.

  3. The Apple keyboard is small and light. When closed, it’s barely more than a cover for the iPad (no drop protection, but it covers the front and back when putting it in a bag, for example, or when carrying it by hand.

Why I dislike the Brydge Keyboard

  1. It needs to be charged a lot. If I don’t charge it at night, it’s probably going to die the next day.

  2. It is fairly easy to separate the top from the bottom, but putting it back together is a pain, and there are these little slots that you have to fit the corners of the iPad into. The slots are covered in rubber, but the rubber slips out of place, so you have to re-position it (and seems likely to rip easily if you aren’t careful).

  3. The Brydge is heavy. As in, very heavy. The iPad with Apple Keyboard feels like you’re carrying an iPad. The iPad with the Brydge keyboard feels like you’re carrying a mid-2000s laptop.

  4. The back panel “protector” that Brydge added is useless. It never stays on properly, so I finally gave up using it. The leaves the “hinges” on full display, which is ugly, and the back of the iPad exposed.

  5. When I had issues with the keyboard shortly after I got it and asked for a replacement, they wanted me to jump through all these hoops to prove there was a problem. Then the caveats started. “Oh, well the backlight doesn’t always work if the battery is low” was one. “The three levels of the backlighting isn’t working? Oh, check to make sure the keyboard has at least 20% of its power, otherwise that feature might not work.”

If you are iPad-only and use the iPad mostly in one place and don’t need to carry it around a lot and don’t want to separate the iPad from the keyboard often, it’s great.

For me, it was an expensive lesson than I prefer the Apple Keyboard’s trade-offs over the Brydge keyboard’s trade-offs.

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