AUGUST 2019 MACWORLD 57Pencil on the left side of the display.
Whenever I want to use the iPad as a
notebook or an artist’s sketchpad rather
than a “laptop,” it’s ready to go in seconds.
I even tried shaking the empty case with
the Pencil inside, and Apple’s stylus
refused to budge until I finally slapped the
case against my desk.
That’s a big improvement on many
other iPad keyboard cases, especially the
Nomad Book (go.macworld.com/nmdb)
that Zagg released last year. With that
case, Zagg awkwardly stuck the Apple
Pencil in a rubber sleeve on the outside of
the case where a gentle bump could send
the $99 device careening into oblivion.
And the sleeve made the case take up a
bit more precious room in my bag.
This is so much better. The built-in
groove neatly protects and conceals the
Apple Pencil when it’s in its laptop mode.
It’s one of the best solutions I’ve seen for
including the Apple Pencil in a case.THE KEYS TO A GOOD CASE
The overall case might not look especially
remarkable, but I essentially love the
keyboard. The key travel makes it so
comfortable and satisfying to type on that I
sometimes find myself wanting to use it
with my Mac instead of my Magic
Keyboard—and that’s totally possible as
Zagg allows you to pair it with up to two
devices. (One, naturally, will be the iPad
itself.) Zagg also
packed it with
specialized
buttons for
everything from
volume control
and screen lock
to the App
Switcher. It’s
even backlit—for
the keys, not the
letter and
numerals—and
you can change
the backlighting
color to white,
blue, teal, green,The Apple Pencil slot does add some extra width to the case, so it’s worth
keeping that in mind.