Read time: 6 min.

I’ve been spending a lot of time over at my parents’ house. Those are hours that could be spent blogging! Unfortunately, the charging brick for my MacBook went missing. At $40-60 a pop, they’re sort of out of reach for someone still looking for a job. Fortunately, I remembered my iPad. A quick Amazon search revealed several keyboard options for about half the price of the MacBook charger, and I’m going to review the one I got.

My iPad is old. A sixth-generation, it was released in 2019. It’s incompatible with the newest operating systems and only features a scant 32 gigabytes of storage. That was fine by me when I bought it for $329 seven years ago. I meant mostly for it to serve as a drawing tablet with the Apple Pencil, a second screen for my MacBook, and to read books on occasion. Now I’m blogging on it, something I’d never fathom using the onscreen keyboard for. 

We’ve all heard some bizarre Chinese brand names for sale on Amazon, I’m sure, but the one that markets this keyboard case is a new one for me- APHBZGE. Is that even pronounceable? At any rate, I paid $18.39 after a digital coupon savings of about a buck and a half, and it showed up on my doorstep the following afternoon. 

Once I pawed the box open, it was interesting to note that the inner packaging made no note of the APHBZGE brand. This seems like an oversight to me: with its years of equity, APHBZGE should be front and center! I’ll admit to some mild disappointment when I saw that the box simply read “Smart Keyboard Case.” 

The back of the packaging lists the product features: magnetic removable keyboard, “converts from to stand,” Stylish PU leather covering, and “Front&Rear-facing camera holes.” I was excited to take a look and get blogging, so I ripped ‘er open. 

The product looked to be of decent quality upon unboxing. I found a folio case similar to the official one Apple provides but with a slot for an Apple Pencil, a keyboard about the size of the iPad itself, and, after I shook it a few times, a small USB-C-to-A charging cable that I’ll probably never use. It would have been cool to be shipped Lightning-to-C so I could charge it from the iPad itself, but allowances must be made for something so inexpensive. 

The keyboard itself is ABS plastic and features your typical laptop layout minus the number pad. That’d have been a dealbreaker if this were my primary keyboard, but it isn’t. Function keys interfaced with the iPad unobtrusively; I was able to control brightness and manipulate Apple Music without any trouble. The rest -Home, Search, Cut, Copy, and Paste, all worked too, blessedly,since I’m not using a mouse and those functions are annoying to fat-finger. Bizarrely, the comma key is missing its comma.

I had to charge the keyboard for a few minutes to use it, but pairing with Bluetooth was a cinch. I opened up Notes and started to type. I don’t know if I could write on this keyboard all day, but it works well enough as a part-time stand-in. Typing this post, I felt some noticeable lag if I went full-bore at 130 words per minute, which was different from any Bluetooth keyboard I’ve used on my iMac or Mac Mini. I don’t know whether to attribute that to the age of my iPad, the quality of the keyboard, or some other factor. Also, the spacebar didn’t always trigger. That may just be a me problem until I get more comfortable using the trusty old APHBZGE! Fortunately, autocorrect fixed it most of the time. 

Aside from the keyboard, the case itself is fine. It’s not the same quality as the official Apple offering, but it does the job protecting the iPad from scratches, propping it up at a Laptoppy angle, and serving as a mechanical anchor to the keyboard. I’ve got no complaints aside from one little annoying spot on the driver’s side where it sort of bubbles out from the edge of the iPad. I don’t like it, but hey- less than twenty bucks out the door. 

Aside from hanging out over at my parents’ house, I’ve also been spending a fair amount of time at the hospital with the iPad. I like that this thing compiles keyboard, pencil, iPad, and case into a tidy package, but the result is something that doubles the thickness of the iPad itself and does so in sort of an inelegant manner when fully deployed. Bizarrely, I found myself pining for my brothers’ Microsoft Surface and its integrated kickstand! I just have to remember that this is an iPad, not a full laptop. 

It’ll remain to be seen how long the battery lasts. Fortunately for that, my IPad battery doesn’t last that long itself anymore. I started typing this at 94% on medium brightness, and now I’m down to 88%. Is that decent? I don’t know- my M1 MacBook Air gets like 18 hours of honest use per every full charge. 

Overall, I think I’m happy with this $20 keyboard case. I would never use it for a full day of high-octane research and blogging, but then again, I wouldn’t use an iPad for that, either. I did create this entire blog post -except the photos- using the iPad, the Jetpack app, and the keyboard case, though, which is something I’ve never done.

Oh well. As a piece of consumable tech a a negligible price point, this keyboard seems to do just about everything I could ask for. Despite its shady brand and provenance, I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to type on an old iPad. Now I better go charge the damn things!