The Good Keyboard Folio was the very best 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. Certain, the adjustments have not come as shortly 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 a number of the similar professional apps, and help equipment that give them a number of the similar bodily options, goes a great distance in the direction of closing the hole.

One drawback stays, although: The iPad is not a standard laptop. It weirdly straddles a number of varieties of computing on function, one thing Apple would not ignore, but in addition would not have a good time. After experimenting with it for per week, I believe the Good Keyboard Folio, at one level the default keyboard case for the pill, represents the proper of compromise between making the iPad extra like a correct laptop, with out getting in the best way of what makes an iPad a great pill.

The Good Keyboard Folio is light-weight and tactile

Apple’s unique 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The corporate had bought keyboard equipment for the iPad previously, and the pill’s help for Bluetooth implies that any outdated wi-fi keyboard might work in a pinch, however the Good Keyboard was distinctive within the sense that it wasn’t actually designed to be taken off.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 aspect of the pill, and unfolded to disclose its keys and prop up the iPad Professional once you wanted to kind. Should you 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 known as the Good Keyboard Folio, one that might additionally go on to be appropriate 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, reasonably than simply the display. Whereas I’ve actually grown accustomed to utilizing a trackpad with my iPad due to 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 affords 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 remains to be considered one of my favourite methods to browse the online, watch movies, and browse articles I’ve saved. All these issues might be achieved whereas the pill is mounted on a Magic Keyboard, however they really feel loads higher to do after I’m simply holding my iPad in my fingers like a ebook or a bit of paper. For as a lot as I like having a keyboard and trackpad that really feel ripped from a MacBook, continuously 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 towards 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 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 an ungainly laptop computer.

Apple is more and more making the iPad one other Mac

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

Should you take a look at latest adjustments Apple’s made to the iPad, selling the gadget’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 achieved. The largest addition in final yr’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 affords on macOS. Different adjustments, like having 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 concurrently it did the MacBook Pro. The iPad Professional’s tandem OLED display, billed as an Extremely Retina XDR, affords the identical ProMotion excessive refresh price and HDR options of the corporate’s most costly 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 Execs. 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 a great factor or a nasty factor, however it does seem to be the route Apple has dedicated to taking.

The iPad won’t ever be only one factor

Even a keyboard cannot drag a vivid touchscreen down

The iPad may be turning into one other Apple laptop computer, however it nonetheless has a touchscreen, and it is nonetheless very completely different from the remainder of the corporate’s units. After a very long time utilizing my iPad Air with a Magic Keyboard, switching to the Good Keyboard Folio was a great reminder of all the opposite issues my iPad can do. Because it seems, I haven’t got to sacrifice them to get a great typing expertise. I do not know that it might make sense for Apple to begin 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.