I could never work out what was so magic about Apple’s Keyboard, nor the mouse to a lesser extent. It didn’t do anything out of the ordinary, didn’t wow me with features and certainly didn’t do any magic, bar make your bank balance smaller. At least the Smart Keyboard was reasonably smart. Not in a literal sense, it didn’t actually learn anything but it looked kind of cool and folded smartly into a neat(ish) package.

The Smart Keyboard for the iPad has gotten quite a lot of stick over the years it has been on the market. It has been trounced for not being back lit, not being wide enough and being a bit ugly. Yet I have a love for it, despite its un-smartness, and it is by far my most used keyboard for the last few years.

Mainly because it so dam straight forward to use. Once attached to the iPad you don’t have to worry about pairing it, charging it, or any other weirdness that always happens with third party keyboards. No settings to delve into, no keys that work on some devices and not others, and you don’t have to deal with micro USB ever again!

With all this said there are some options I would like to see, some dedicated iOS buttons such as media controls, or dam it even a function row. What I don’t want is for Apple to start making the smartkeyboard backlit and ruin its greatest feature – portability.

The new 11” version has already changed into a folio case, with two questionable viewing angels. Whilst it is great to finally cover the back of my iPad it does add more bulk. The Smart keyboard as it stands should always remain the best option for something light and easy to use, but that’s not to stop Apple making other versions. It gets a lot of stick but I enjoy using it daily – a little ode to the not so Smart Keyboard.