Yesterday I bought my palms on the most recent iPad 7 keyboard case providing: the Logitech Combo Contact Keyboard Case with Trackpad. This $149.95 case incorporates a built-in trackpad to benefit from the brand new cursor management in iPadOS 13.4.
In case you personal a 7th-generation iPad (review), this is without doubt one of the most helpful equipment you should purchase exterior of the Apple Pencil. Logitech additionally sells a model of its new keyboard case for the iPad Air 3. Make sure you subscribe to 9to5mac on YouTube, and watch our full hands-on overview inside for the main points.
Specs
- In-built multi-touch trackpad
- Backlit keys
- Full row of iPadOS shortcut keys
- In-built multi-angle kick stand with 50-degree tilt
- 4 utilization modes optimized for typing, viewing, studying, and sketching
- Apple Pencil (1st-gen) / Logitech Crayon holder
- Good Connector for energy and connectivity
- Protecting case covers entrance, rear, and sides of iPad
- Additionally accessible for iPad Air 3
- $149.95 price
Unboxing and setup
Contained in the field you’ll discover the 2 components that make up the keyboard case: a protecting cowl, and the keyboard portion that attaches magnetically to the underside of the iPad.
Video overview: Logitech Combo Contact Keyboard Case
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Putting in the Logitech Keyboard Case on the iPad 7 is so simple as lining up the pill correctly with the rear protecting cowl, and urgent down in order that the perimeters that wrap across the iPad lock it into place.
From there, it’s only a matter of attaching the keyboard to the Good Connector portion of the iPad. What you’ll find yourself with is a keyboard case that utterly encloses and protects the iPad inside.
Multi-angle kickstand
Logitech features a multi-angle kickstand inbuilt to the rear protecting cowl. The kickstand, which incorporates resistance, could be adjusted as much as a most of 50-degrees to assist obtain optimum viewing angles.
The kickstand works nice for table-top operation, and in addition can do a reasonably respectable job of permitting you to lap kind. The low viewing angles wanted for a snug typing place could lead to a less-than-optimal lap typing expertise, however with some changes to my sitting place I used to be in a position to pull it off pretty properly.
Clearly you’re not going to have pretty much as good of a lap typing expertise as you’d with a standard laptop computer like the MacBook Air, however by finessing the adjustable stand one could make it work.
Good connector assist is nice
Among the finest options of the Combo Contact is its inclusion of contacts so as to benefit from one of many iPad 7’s new Good Connector performance. Good Connector assist on the iPad 7 permits customers to immediately energy and pair peripherals like Apple’s Good Keyboard, and Logitech’s Combo Contact Keyboard Case.
The presence of the Good Connector signifies that you’ll by no means have to fret about flaky Bluetooth pairing or batteries contained in the keyboard operating out of juice. The keyboard is powered immediately by the iPad 7 itself, which significantly simplifies the method of utilizing an exterior keyboard.
Versatility
Logitech designed the Combo Contact Keyboard Case in a method that permits customers to benefit from 4 totally different utilization modes. There’s the usual mode for typing, one for viewing, a studying mode, and a sketching mode. That is one other method of claiming that the keyboard circumstances folds and adjusts in several methods to assist facilitate the present process at hand.
One other good characteristic is the built-in Apple Pencil/Logitech Crayon holder. I can’t inform you what number of instances I’ve misplaced my Apple Pencil through the years, so I respect having the ability to retailer it immediately within the keyboard case.
Safety comes at a value
Logitech’s Combo Contact not solely protects the entrance and sides of your iPad, but it surely protects the rear as properly. The truth is, the whole iPad is absolutely protected, nook to nook, when the case is closed.
After all, such safety comes at the price of a slim and trim package deal. The iPad 7 is a reasonably skinny gadget by itself, however when including the Logitech Combo Contact, it transforms into a comparatively hefty package deal that’s a lot thicker than the identical iPad when mated with Apple’s Good Keyboard.
The case additionally provides a big quantity of weight to the package deal, weighing in at greater than the iPad itself at 1.43 kilos. Coupled with the 1.07 pound iPad 7, it’s a complete weight of two.5 kilos. To place that weight into perspective, the 2020 MacBook Air weighs 2.8 kilos.
For people who love the thought off having a Good Connector-power keyboard and trackpad, however can’t get previous the majority, it’s doable to make use of simply the keyboard portion of the package deal with out the rear protecting case.
The draw back of such a selection is that you simply’ll want to make use of one thing to prop up the iPad because you lose the adjustable kickstand. Within the instance within the video, I used the Slope from WipLabs, which is an all-around glorious iPad stand.
I feel I may get away with utilizing the Logitech Combo Contact Keyboard sans case when simply utilizing it round the home, however I’d most likely need each the safety and the adjustable kickstand offered by the rear cowl when out and about.
Trackpad traits
The important thing characteristic that separates the Logitech Combo Contact Keyboard Case from different iPad 7 keyboard circumstances is its inclusion of a built-in trackpad with multi-touch gesture assist. Having such a characteristic inbuilt signifies that you don’t must depend on an exterior Bluetooth Magic Trackpad or Magic Mouse so as to use the superior new cursor performance in iPadOS 13.4.
The highest floor of the trackpad seems to be glass, identical to the trackpad you’ll discover in a MacBook, however the floor space is so much lower than what you’ll discover on a Mac. It could really feel a bit cramped once you’re used to utilizing a standalone or laptop computer Magic Trackpad.
One other massive distinction between this trackpad and one discovered on trendy Apple laptops has to do with click on enter. As a result of it employs a mechanical diving board design, clicking on the floor causes the trackpad to bodily transfer to ensure that the press actuation to register.
Associated video: utilizing cursor management in iPadOS 13.4
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Fashionable-day Apple laptop computer trackpads are strong state in nature, so the press is simulated and the trackpad itself doesn’t truly transfer when clicked. The massive benefit of strong state trackpads is that there aren’t any lifeless zones, which implies you may click on anyplace on the floor to register a click on.
With a mechanical trackpad, just like the one within the Logitech Combo Contact, you’ll discover lifeless zones close to the highest, as a result of the press mechanism is positioned close to the underside. In impact, it makes for much less usable space for clicking.
For that reason, I extremely suggest enabling the Faucet to Click on change present in Settings → Basic → Trackpad. This can can help you merely faucet on the floor to register clicks, which offers extra usable floor space for clicking.
Total I’m an enormous fan of getting a trackpad that’s all the time there and able to use. As I famous in our hands-on overview of the top trackpad features in iPadOS 13.4, having cursor assist on the iPad permits for extra exact management. Modifying textual content is less complicated, because you now not have to achieve up and contact the display screen, and navigating across the OS is straightforward because of the multi-touch trackpad gestures.
Throughout my hands-on time, I’ve seen a couple of bugs with the Logitech Combo Contact trackpad. This can hopefully be addressed by way of the LogitechControl companion app that helps facilitate straightforward firmware updates.
For instance, when scrolling lengthy pages in Safari, I discover “slippage” when utilizing two-finger scrolling. This causes the web page to abruptly cease transferring, with the cursor transferring as an alternative. And when utilizing the two-finger faucet secondary click on for right-clicking, sometimes the gesture will fail to register.
Each of those bugs are annoying, however neither of them occur incessantly sufficient to make me not need to use the trackpad. Once more, these are doubtless points that may be addressed by way of a firmware replace sooner or later.
Keyboard expertise
The Logitech Combo Contact options well-spaced keys that present sufficient tactile suggestions and key journey to have the ability to comfortably kind long-form content material.
The keys on the keyboard are additionally backlit, making it simpler to kind in dimly-lit environments. The keyboard backlight could be managed immediately from the operate row, which additionally options different iPadOS shortcuts keys, akin to the flexibility to go to the Residence display screen, modify quantity, invoke Highlight search, and so on. In whole there are 4 totally different backlight ranges from which to select from.
LogitechControl, the aforementioned companion app for facilitating firmware updates, consists of keyboard backlight management settings. By way of this companion app, you may change the backlighting period from 5 seconds as much as 60 seconds, and alter the velocity at which the lights fade away after inactivity.
9to5mac’s Take
Given that you simply’re getting a Good Connector-powered backlit keyboard and built-in trackpad with multi-touch gesture assist, including all of this performance to your iPad for simply $149.95 looks like fairly whole lot.
The largest draw back to the Logitech Combo Contact Keyboard Case is the majority, which is nice for shielding your iPad 7, however in any other case is a bit a lot. In case you’re adamant about staying skinny and lightweight, you may attempt to use the keyboard with out its case, however you lose kickstand performance within the course of.
That being mentioned, this keyboard has whetted my urge for food for Apple’s official Magic Keyboard resolution for the iPad Professional. That keyboard appears so as to add comparable performance with out a lot of the added bulk that we see right here, but it surely’s additionally double the worth, and requires a way more costly iPad Professional to make use of it.
In case you personal an iPad 7 and also you’re trying to take full benefit of trackpad assist in macOS, I feel the Logitech Combo Contact Keyboard Case is a strong selection. It’s a good way to show your iPad 7 into a tool that’s near a laptop computer in performance. It’s cumbersome when utilizing the rear cowl, but when you will get previous the majority, I feel most iPad 7 house owners will likely be fairly completely satisfied it.
What do you assume? Pontificate down beneath within the feedback along with your ideas and observations.
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