Brydge has been making iPad keyboards for practically a decade now, and whereas the iPad itself has modified rather a lot over that point, the corporate has largely adopted the identical method: design a keyboard that makes the iPad appear to be a MacBook Pro. The key design component has been the corporate’s trademark rubberized hinges, which the iPad slots into to type the opposite half of a laptop-style gadget.

Now, Brydge is attempting one thing barely new. The 12.9 Max Plus, which begins delivery this week, is a keyboard case for the iPad Pro that does away with the hinge clamps and as a substitute makes use of magnets for a sleeker and extra handy expertise. The product additionally leans onerous into Apple’s current addition of cursor assist to iPadOS, with an enormous trackpad that’s comparable in measurement to what you’d discover on a MacBook Pro.

At $249.99, it is a premium product geared toward heavy iPad Pro customers, and it’s solely obtainable for the most important iPad measurement. Apple’s personal Magic Keyboard is clearly formidable competitors. But Brydge is ready to undercut Apple by $100, and in some necessary methods, I choose the Max Plus to the Magic Keyboard.

The most blatant distinction between the Max Plus and different Brydge keyboards is the magnetic plate through which you relaxation the iPad. This affords safety for the again of the iPad with out having to connect the snap-on magnetic cowl that Brydge included on prior fashions, and extra importantly, it’s far much less fiddly to connect and detach the iPad than it was to squeeze it into the old-style hinge clamps.

The tradeoff, after all, is that you just’re including just a few millimeters of thickness behind the iPad, particularly if (like me) you by no means bothered with the magnetic protecting again covers provided with earlier Brydge keyboards. With 17mm of thickness and an additional 970g of weight, the ensuing 12.9-inch “laptop” you get with the Max Plus is sort of a bit thicker and heavier than a 13-inch MacBook Pro. The heft does assist stabilize the mixture, nevertheless, and it helps a wider vary of viewing angles than the Magic Keyboard whereas feeling rather more premium. As a tall individual, the Magic Keyboard doesn’t at all times tilt again far sufficient to be snug for me, however I don’t have an issue with this Brydge. It’s additionally simpler to make use of in your lap than a kickstand-based answer, as present in lots of Logitech’s iPad keyboards.

While the magnet mechanism is handy, the Max Plus sadly doesn’t use Apple’s Smart Connector for energy and connectivity. This continues to be a Bluetooth gadget that it’s important to cost over USB-C, although the battery ought to final weeks or months on a cost relying in your utilization (particularly how a lot you utilize the backlight). The Smart Connector would have been preferable, nevertheless it’s solely ever appeared on Apple’s personal merchandise and Logitech gadgets which have been designed with Apple’s cooperation; it hasn’t proven up in any Brydge merchandise or different gadgets from equally smaller firms.

Brydge has not less than improved the Bluetooth expertise in a single notable means in comparison with most of its older merchandise. The Max Plus has a function referred to as Instant-On that makes use of Bluetooth 5.0 to remain in a low-power state for as much as 4 hours, which means that should you step away from the iPad and are available again it’ll immediately wake with a button press without having for reconnection. That goes some technique to making the mixture really feel extra like a coherent product, as a result of in apply you aren’t more likely to end up working into laggy reconnection points throughout a typical work day.

The keyboard itself is nice. It feels a contact extra responsive than earlier Brydge merchandise, however you’re not getting mechanical-level tactility right here, after all — it’s simply an above-average laptop computer keyboard. What actually units it aside when in comparison with Apple’s Magic Keyboard is the additional perform row, which could be very helpful in iPadOS for issues like brightness and quantity management.

The trackpad is a key promoting level for the Max Plus. It can’t fairly match the Magic Keyboard on pure responsiveness, which is not any shock given Apple’s low-level system entry, nevertheless it does job nonetheless, and Brydge has been making steady enhancements to the firmware. It’s an enormous trackpad by any commonplace, which makes utilizing it for issues like picture searching and textual content modifying much more pleasurable. Even although it has a diving board-style mechanism that doesn’t allow you to click on in every single place (notably within the higher left and proper corners), there’s greater than sufficient house and I had no downside utilizing it similar to I might a MacBook Pro’s.

The Brydge Max Plus isn’t for everybody, however then neither are iPad keyboards usually. Even although Apple got here out with choice final 12 months, it’s very costly and never with out its quirks. What you get with the Max Plus is a inexpensive — however nonetheless fairly expensive — choice that, extra so than any Brydge keyboard up to now, offers the iPad a laptop computer’s type issue and performance. It’s not as slick or as ingenious because the Magic Keyboard, nevertheless it’s extra helpful for my workflow.

Brydge is de facto competing with itself right here as a lot as Apple. Its earlier highest finish mannequin, the 12.9 Pro Plus, simply bought a major worth minimize to $169.99 and affords basically the identical performance, simply with a smaller trackpad and the previous hinge design. I choose the Max Plus, however the Pro Plus is an effective choice if you wish to avoid wasting weight and money.

There are nonetheless clear limitations to iPadOS, however cursor assist actually remodeled the expertise of engaged on an iPad, and no accent embodies that higher than the Brydge Max Plus. It’s not excellent, however proper now it’s what I’d select to get work finished on the go.