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Brydge Debuts New Air MAX+ Keyboard With Trackpad for iPad Air and iPad Pro

subjonas said:
How does it fit both the 10.9” iPad Air and 11” iPad Pro? Are they exactly the same size or is it not a tight fit?

Also how is that thing standing up? Is the hinge that strong? Is the base that heavy? Unless it has a kickstand, that’s the thing with all tablet keyboard cases—they have to make the whole thing so heavy to keep it standing up.
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They have the same body, the Air just has very very very slightly larger bezels.
 
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whether you like it or not but it seems more and more likely that Apple will have to complete the full circle and bring laptops and iPads to a single solution. It will be skewed towards one or the other platform but it will one or the other. It just makes so little sense to run the two highly related technologies and OSes in parallel.

Disclosure: I might be wrong... what do I know...
 
This looks rock solid. I was always on the fence on the Magic Trackpad since u can’t put the iPad in a case and I didn’t like how Logitech’s keyboard case doesn’t allow you to easily detach the iPad from the keyboard. I might actually go with this
 
deebinem said:
That base is pretty chunky (hence my earlier comment) since its weight would need to offset the iPad. My Brydge for the 10.5 weighed as much as the tablet itself to keep it from toppling backwards.
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Yeah that’s the disadvantage of tablet hinged keyboards, it has to be about the weight of the iPad or more because of sheer physics. The pic confused me though because even though the base looks chunky, the iPad and top case looks even heavier than the base.
 
subjonas said:
Yes! I have a brydge keyboard and the time it takes to wake up and connect to my iPad (12.9” 2nd gen) each time is excruciating! It’s probably like 3 seconds but it feels like 15. What makes it a million times worse is that the keyboard goes to sleep after only about 10 minutes! So some days depending on how I’m using my iPad, I honestly feel like I’m waiting more than typing. And like you said, I go months on end without having to recharge so I have no idea why they set it to go to sleep so darn quickly. They should at least make it customizable for goodness sakes. Sorry, this thing makes me angry. Especially because it’s otherwise a great keyboard. Iwas the only keyboard I could find with a 180 hinge (though I would have much preferred 360).

But I agree, if they indeed solved the wake/connection delay, and assuming the battery life remains similar, that would make it pretty much irrelevant whether it connects via bluetooth or smart connector.

Hopefully the trackpad works well though.
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And what makes it worse is that the connection speed and sleep delay were far superior on my older Brydge for my Air2. When I queried it with them they replied “bluetooth”. Like you say, they could have customised that option.
 
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subjonas said:
Yeah that’s the disadvantage of tablet hinged keyboards, it has to be about the weight of the iPad or more because of sheer physics. The pic confused me though because even though the base looks chunky, the iPad and top case looks even heavier than the base.
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Absolutely! The base didn't scare me too much but that case! :oops:

Reminded me of an old BlackBerry Playbook... 😱
 
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Brydge Air MAX+?

I wonder if Nike will have a problem with them using the "Air Max" trademark
 
People: MAKE THE IPAD THINNER LIGHTER ITS TOO THICK TOO HEAVE!!!

Also people: LET'S BUY A KEYBOARD THAT WEIGHTS MORE THAN THE IPAD!!

good lord what's wrong with you lot...
 
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When you can regularly find the 11" Magic Keyboard for $199, I can't imagine why anyone would choose this monstrosity.
 
iwill424 said:
People: MAKE THE IPAD THINNER LIGHTER ITS TOO THICK TOO HEAVE!!!

Also people: LET'S BUY A KEYBOARD THAT WEIGHTS MORE THAN THE IPAD!!

good lord what's wrong with you lot...
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Nothing.... nothing at all. I use a desktop version of a Magic Keyboard that weighs 0.51 pounds, in addition to a Smart Folio to prop it up to a proper angle when I choose to bang out a long client email.

And I am certainly not "heaving" my iPad since I really don't want to shell out for a new screen.
 
deebinem said:
Nothing.... nothing at all. I use a desktop version of a Magic Keyboard that weighs 0.51 pounds, in addition to a Smart Folio to prop it up to a proper angle when I choose to bang out a long client email.

And I am certainly not "heaving" my iPad since I really don't want to shell out for a new screen.
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I am the similar I have a separate super light keyboard and case, its perfect haha
 
mrat93 said:
Let me chime in real quick before this gets busy…

Brydge and some reviews make it seem like the trackpad experience is nearly equivalent to the Magic Keyboard. This is not true. Scrolling is choppy and janky even with the new firmware, and Brydge has said nothing to say they’ve improved it on these new models other than making the trackpad bigger. Early hands-ons demonstrate this as well. this is especially noticeable on iPad Pro with its 120hz refresh rate.

I’ve been a brydge user for a while. I love the function keys and viewing angles. But I think for my 2021 iPad Pro, i’m gonna stick with the Magic Keyboard.
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Brydge actually recently released their latest firmware for the trackpad that totally revamped the trackpad experience w/ multi-touch gestures and everything. Their trackpad keyboards actually provide a very similar experience to that of the Smart Keyboard now. Lots of reviews online saying that the it's a night a day difference with the new firmware, and Brydge offers larger trackpads than that of the Smart Keyboard!
 
iwill424 said:
People: MAKE THE IPAD THINNER LIGHTER ITS TOO THICK TOO HEAVE!!!

Also people: LET'S BUY A KEYBOARD THAT WEIGHTS MORE THAN THE IPAD!!

good lord what's wrong with you lot...
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Probably one group of people that like light products saying one thing and an almost entirely different group that doesn’t mind weight as long as it’s a cool (to them) addition saying a different thing. There’s nothing wrong, different strokes for different folks.

Actually, I guess if you think the folks that like light products ARE also the folks that also don’t mind heavy products, that may be wrong.
 
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drumcat said:
At what point do you kill off the MacBook Air and allow MacOS on this?
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When macOS gets reconfigured for touch which, according to Steve Jobs, is what we got already.

But then again, why do that?

The MacBook Air is a great, portable, iMac replacement.

The iPad is the BEST tablet, and meant to be used COMPLETELY differently, with different OSes tailored for their respective form factors.

Why do so many want Apple to make the computing equivalent of an El Camino??
 
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Skierman23 said:
Brydge actually recently released their latest firmware for the trackpad that totally revamped the trackpad experience w/ multi-touch gestures and everything. Their trackpad keyboards actually provide a very similar experience to that of the Smart Keyboard now. Lots of reviews online saying that the it's a night a day difference with the new firmware, and Brydge offers larger trackpads than that of the Smart Keyboard!
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This is exactly what I was trying to clarify. The new firmware is much better, but far from the same trackpad experience on the Magic Keyboard.
 
Aeronauts said:
All these keyboards indicate to me there is demand for a touchscreen MacBook.
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Given the cost of a magic keyboard I don't see the use case for an iPad Pro except for people who draw on it, or really really prefer to edit video on an 11" screen. Most people would be much better off buying a MBA and a basic iPad or mini. Touchscreens are long overdue on MacBooks. Maybe now that the M1's can run iOS apps and the Touch Bar is going the way of the AAUI connector on PowerBooks, we'll finally get a touchscreen upgrade option.
 
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The reason Macs and iPads need to stay separate is that a hybrid would neither be as good a Mac as a Mac, nor as good an iPad as an iPad.

Power hasn’t been a differentiator for a while, and Apple is fast closing the gap in capability. The difference is and will remain to be interface. Touchpad support for iPad or no, one is designed around a pointer, (let’s be honest, the touchpad circle on iPad isn’t a real pointer; ) the other around multitouch. Just because they have a lot in common doesn’t mean they should have everything in common.
 
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