The Smart Keyboard Folio was the best iPad accessory

The case for using an iPad as a computer has never been stronger. Apple has slowly pushed its tablet to be more like its laptops and desktop computers for years, but in 2026, they are more similar than ever. Sure, the changes haven’t come as quickly as iPad diehards have wanted, but the fact that current iPad Pros ship with OLED screens and the same chips used in Apple’s laptops, run some of the same professional apps, and support accessories that give them some of the same physical features, goes a long way towards closing the gap.

One problem remains, though: The iPad isn’t a normal computer. It weirdly straddles multiple types of computing on purpose, something Apple doesn’t ignore, but also doesn’t celebrate. After experimenting with it for a week, I think the Smart Keyboard Folio, at one point the default keyboard case for the tablet, represents the right kind of compromise between making the iPad more like a proper computer, without getting in the way of what makes an iPad a good tablet.

The Smart Keyboard Folio is lightweight and tactile

Apple’s original keyboard case doesn’t have a trackpad

The original Smart Keyboard was introduced alongside the iPad Pro in 2015, Apple’s first foray into tablets designed for work. The company had sold keyboard accessories for the iPad in the past, and the tablet’s support for Bluetooth means that any old wireless keyboard could work in a pinch, but the Smart Keyboard was unique in the sense that it wasn’t really designed to be taken off. The keyboard acted as a cover for the screen, attaching to the side of the tablet, and unfolded to reveal its keys and prop up the iPad Pro when you needed to type. If you preferred touch or wanted to draw with the Apple Pencil, another iPad Pro addition, you just folded the Smart Keyboard around the back of the tablet.

When Apple redesigned the iPad Pro in 2018, it also introduced a new version of its keyboard accessory called the Smart Keyboard Folio, one that would also go on to be compatible with multiple versions of the iPad Air, the tablet I’m testing the case with. The major difference with the Smart Keyboard Folio is that its keyboard was able to fold flat, and as a “folio” it covered both the front and back of an iPad, rather than just the screen. While I’ve really grown accustomed to using a trackpad with my iPad thanks to the Magic Keyboard, the current replacement for the Smart Keyboard Folio that Apple introduced in 2020, switching back to the older accessory has been eye-opening. Not necessarily because it offers a better typing experience — the keys on the Smart Keyboard Folio are more cramped, and feel mushier — but because the whole case is a more natural fit for the other ways I use my iPad.

My iPad Air is no longer the primary way I take notes, but the tablet is still one of my favorite ways to browse the web, watch videos, and read articles I’ve saved. All those things can be done while the tablet is mounted on a Magic Keyboard, but they feel a lot better to do when I’m just holding my iPad in my hands like a book or a piece of paper. For as much as I like having a keyboard and trackpad that feel ripped from a MacBook, constantly attaching and detaching my iPad from the Magic Keyboard is annoying.

With the Smart Keyboard Folio, I don’t have that problem. The keyboard part of the case folds flat against the back of my iPad Air when it’s not in use, letting me write and draw on my tablet just by flipping the Smart Keyboard Folio around. Not for nothing, the case is also lighter and thinner than the Magic Keyboard, which makes it even easier to slip my iPad into a backpack with the Smart Keyboard Folio attached. Combined, they make my iPad Air feel a lot more like a tablet than an awkward laptop.

Apple is increasingly making the iPad another Mac

The company’s software and hardware continue to converge

If you look at recent changes Apple’s made to the iPad, promoting the device’s inherent tablet-ness isn’t the biggest priority. Largely, Apple seems to be following iPad users’ lead in trying to make the tablet better at getting work done. The biggest addition in last year’s iPadOS 26 update wasn’t the new Liquid Glass design elements, but a new multitasking system with many similarities to what Apple currently offers on macOS. Other changes, like being able to add folders to the dock or run tasks in the background, make the tablet even more computer-like.

The fact that Apple uses key components from its laptops in most of its iPad helps power those more advanced software features. The M5 chip came to the iPad Pro at the same time as it did the MacBook Pro. The iPad Pro’s tandem OLED screen, billed as an Ultra Retina XDR, offers the same ProMotion high refresh rate and HDR features of the company’s most expensive laptops and desktops, and in some ways, at a better quality than the mini LED displays Apple uses in its current MacBook Pros. The iPad Pro in particular, but really all the company’s tablets, are seemingly designed to be more flexible and touch-friendly alternatives to Apple’s laptops. That’s not necessarily a good thing or a bad thing, but it does seem like the direction Apple has committed to taking.

The iPad will never be just one thing

Even a keyboard can’t drag a bright touchscreen down

The iPad might be becoming another Apple laptop, but it still has a touchscreen, and it’s still very different from the rest of the company’s devices. After a long time using my iPad Air with a Magic Keyboard, switching to the Smart Keyboard Folio was a good reminder of all the other things my iPad can do. As it turns out, I don’t have to sacrifice them to get a good typing experience. I don’t know that it would make sense for Apple to start making an accessory like the Smart Keyboard Folio again, but I feel certain there’s room for accessories that add features to the company’s tablets without turning them into another laptop.