For years, I’ve been looking for the optimal solution that would allow me to quickly and easily read and write on the go. Unless I have no choice, I do absolutely everything either on my iPhone or my iPad, including writing. Until now, every word of this website was written on an iPhone 6s or a 1st generation iPad Mini. I bought that iPad Mini in 2012, and I’ve gotten my money’s worth from it, but it is now 5 years old- eons in terms of the lifespan of small electronics. It was wonderful for reading, watching video, and connecting with my stereo via Bluetooth to play music, but it wasn’t great for writing, and while I recognize and appreciate the utility of touchscreens, they often drive me nuts. I didn’t want a laptop, they don’t fit into my daily lifestyle when I’m on my own time, but my solution needed to meet the following criteria:
* Integrated into Apple’s technological ecosystem. The ability to quickly and easily pick up writing on one device where I left off with another is paramount, as I use my technological devices pretty intensively, and usually have to switch between devices as I chew through their batteries. I also wanted the ability to view and manage my calendar, my E-Mail, use iMessages, and have access to my music and videos.
* Keyboard. Pecking out reviews and essays on an iPhone 6s touchscreen is really time-consuming, especially when linking URLs and pictures. I needed a physical keyboard, and I really really wanted something I could fold together to close, so I could quickly toss the combined unit into my bag and roll out.
Enter the iPad Mini 4 and the Brydge 7.9 Backlit Aluminum Bluetooth keyboard, both in Space Gray. I have been using them since Tuesday 11-7, about a week and a half, and this is their review.
This review is something of a departure from my usual reviews for a few different reasons. I’m reviewing both products together because, of course, I’m using them together. This review focuses pretty tightly on writing functionality, and I’ve included some contextual detail of my current writing approach- the types of writing I do, some of the techniques I use, and the tools I use. (I suspect I’m going to laugh and laugh when looking back at this section in the future.) I haven’t included a lot of technological detail because, well, 5 years of technological advances in the iPad Mini line means that the Mini 4 is a NASCAR car and my 1st gen Mini, though still beloved after 5 years of faithful service, is now a Hot Wheels car in comparison. I mostly don’t discuss iOS 11, both because I imagine most are familiar with it, and because I’m still pretty salty about the battery issues and other defects Apple caused when implementing iOS 11.
I’m very happy with the combination of the Mini 4 and the Brydge 7.9, and I think I’ve finally found my optimal setup.
Dimensions
The iPad Mini 4 stands 8 inches tall, and 5.3 inches wide. Even after 5 years, I remain blown away at how ridiculously thin and light the iPad Mini is. The Mini 4 is less than a quarter of an inch thick- 0.24 inches, to be precise. It weighs less than 10.5 ounces. That’s ridiculous! What wonderful times we live in. At 11 ounces, the Brydge keyboard roughly doubles the weight, and the combined package is roughly double in thickness.
Keyboard Ports, Switches, and Connectors
The keyboard’s charging port is located on its left side. Its front portion has one switch to turn the keyboard on and off, and a button to pair with the Mini 4 via Bluetooth. Once you initially pair the keyboard with your Mini 4, you won’t need to do it again each time you turn the keyboard off and on again, nor will you need to visit your Bluetooth settings and manually select it each time. Once the keyboard has been turned on, it is ready for use in about 3 seconds. I adore the Brydge’s aluminum material as well as its color, it matches the color of my Mini 4 perfectly.
The Brydge connects to the Mini 4 via 2 well padded clamps. These clamps aren’t adjustable, and will only accept the Mini 4 if it is not wearing a case. I was nervous about the clamps causing scratching, but after 11 days of use, there are no scratches. That padding is a potential failure point; I do wonder how well it will adhere to the clamps after inserting and removing the iPad thousands of times. The hinges will open all the way to 180 degrees, I love that. Each front corner has additional padding to protect the iPad’s surface when closed, and the each corner on the bottom of the keyboard has a pad for further protection. Closing the Mini 4 ‘lid’ turns off its display, a nice touch. When the Mini 4 is inserted into the Brydge’s clamps and is opened, if the Apple logo wasn’t laying on its side, someone looking at it from the back would probably think it was an itty bitty MacBook they hadn’t heard about yet. It never fails to make me smile. The form factor is exactly what I hoped for. I never get to say that. It feels like a premium experience, one that feels so right that Apple not designing and releasing this keyboard themselves feels like a huge miss to me.
The combined unit feels like it was made just for me, like a custom piece ripped from the earth whole and buzzing and alive and cut to my specifications by someone who loves me instead of a thing I bought on Amazon that everyone else can buy too.
Keys Keys Keys
One of my favorite parts of the keyboard is its top row of keys. With laptops and desktops, I rarely use that row of keys, but Brydge uses iOS-specific keys here, a wise move. This row allows you to return to the Mini 4’s Home screen, lock it, toggle between 3 different levels of keyboard backlighting or none at all, raise or lower the screen’s brightness, bring up an onscreen keyboard, search, return to a previous audio track, advance to a new audio track, play or pause an audio track, or raise or lower an audio track’s volume. I constantly raise and lower volume this way now, and I love having those buttons there to use so quickly and easily. I’ve never owned an actual Apple laptop, so I can’t compare these keys to those, but I love how these feel. They feel nice and tactile and solid, not at all flimsy or unsteady. The aluminum frame means that when you’re typing, the keyboard doesn’t bow or do anything but stand up to anything you’ll do with it.
Keyboard Size and Ergonomics
Ultimately, how you feel about this keyboard is going to boil down to 2 factors:
* How big your hands are
* The type of writing you’re doing
I have small-ish hands, so this keyboard size works pretty well for me. If you have larger sized hands, this keyboard probably isn’t for you. Brydge does make keyboards for larger iPads, and after using this one, I feel confident in saying it would be a wonderful choice if you have a larger iPad. I also feel confident saying that if having a physical keyboard is that important to you, you should probably consider a laptop instead. Given that larger iPads are more expensive than the Mini 4, and given that the Brydge keyboard for larger iPads is more expensive as well, depending on the model and what functionality you want, spending a little more on an actual laptop would get you far more functionality, though it may not be functionally you want or would use. The upcoming Black Friday deals make that math pretty interesting.
Text input aside, another consideration to factor into that decision is whether your tasks are best accomplished while primarily using a mouse, or primarily using a touchscreen. I’m usually lukewarm on touchscreens, but laptop trackpads annoy me. Especially given the compact form factor, it’s nice to have the option to simply touch the screen and accomplish your task that way. I feel this combination gives you the best of both worlds.
One of the few criticisms I have of the Mini 4 and Brydge keyboard is the situation with the bottom of the screen. For the combined unit to close in as slim of a package as possible, when the ‘lid’ is open, the bottom of the Mini 4’s screen must be at an angle in relation to the keyboard that often makes the very bottom of the screen inaccessible. That creates problems when using Facebook and YouTube. When you’re done watching a full screen YouTube video, or want to check your Facebook notifications, those icons are at the bottom of the screen, and are often inaccessible. You usually have to lift one corner of the iPad up a little to reach them, and that’s a small thing, but I have to wonder how much more that’ll wear the clamp padding over time.
I probably don’t think the combination of the iPad Mini 4 and the Brydge keyboard would meet the needs of most professional writers.
The Mini 4’s battery life probably isn’t long enough for an extended writing session if you’re using anything else simultaneously, more on that in a sec. The bigger issue to me, however, is ergonomics. From edge to edge, this keyboard is only 8 inches wide. That requires tradeoffs. Those tradeoffs make this keyboard idiosyncratic enough that I doubt it would work as a daily driver for professionals, and I feel like most pros probably need more space than this keyboard provides. I use Ctrl C and Ctrl V to copy and paste all the time, but I haven’t been able to figure out how to get those to work on this keyboard yet, and that disappoints me a bit because I do feel that’s core functionality. The Caps Lock key, both Shift keys, and the Return key are all smaller than normal. Ctrl and Fn are combined into one key, as are Option/Alt, and sometimes it takes me a bit of doing to figure out what key combo to use to produce a certain symbol.
Software
I’m on somewhat shaky ground here, because I’m still learning what works for me, developing my process/organizational structure, and learning what tools are available. I’m a bit embarrassed to say so, but right now, I’m using Apple’s Notes functionality for writing. (This will change in the future, down those pitchforks.) Right now, my writing consists primarily of essays, reviews (hi!), and stand-up material. I prefer to use the absolute least amount of formatting I can get away with (I’m that person who types in Notepad when on Windows machines unless I have no choice; I despise Microsoft Word,) and that works for me right now because my writing is relatively informal.
Not so for professionals. If you need page counts, word counts, much formatting at all, granular and secure saving of drafts, pretty much anything worthy of a manuscript, this won’t work for you. That said, Scrivener is a well known and highly regarded program that I’ve seen writers heap praise on for years and years, and their iPad app appears to include much, if not all, of that functionality. I haven’t used it yet, but I believe that’s the tool I’ll be using next.
Battery
Brydge states the keyboard’s battery lasts for 3 months. Given that I’ve had the keyboard for fewer than 2 weeks, and that I’ve charged it several times, I can’t confirm that, but I can confirm that I haven’t yet depleted its battery.
The Mini 4 is a different story. Ms. Pac-Man could take a lesson. I run it to depletion or nearly so every day, though to be fair, I’m usually using numerous apps simultaneously, I’m almost always streaming, I switch between apps a lot, I always use full brightness, and I’d estimate that it takes at least 8 hours of consistent moderate use to deplete the battery. While writing or researching, I’m connected to my stereo via Bluetooth, and I almost always have music, YouTube, a podcast, or news playing in the background. I often don’t need to watch, listening is enough, and if I’m making dinner or something, I’ll turn the Mini 4’s screen off and put it on the charger. If using it to stream audio while charging from a wall outlet, the Mini 4 will charge, but slower. If streaming audio while charging from an external battery, its battery level will essentially be maintained, but it won’t really charge until you stop streaming as well. I haven’t timed how long it takes to charge to 100% from full depletion when not actively in use, but I’d estimate at least 3 hours.
Like so many others, I’m really disappointed with the battery life issues Apple introduced with iOS 11. Software updates are supposed to be positive changes, not negative ones. There are ways that you can mitigate it somewhat- not using full screen brightness, not constantly streaming like I do, having apps like E-Mail and Podcasts either fetch new ones rather than push, or push less frequently, and aggressively locking down functionality like Location Services and Notifications, but managing your open apps is key, just as it is with iPhones. Always be closing (your open background apps,) because those apps absolutely do drain your battery, particularly ones like YouTube and Facebook.
Summary
The combination of the iPad Mini 4 and the Brydge 7.9 Backlit Aluminum Bluetooth Keyboard make for the best pseudo-laptop I’ve ever had. At a weight of less than 1.5 lbs and a thickness of less than half an inch, the unit easily slips into a bag or decent-sized pocket, allowing users iMessage, Facetime, gaming, E-Mail, YouTube, and myriad other functionality while on the go in a svelte, handsome form factor. Users with large hands and professional writers may be better served by larger iPads or even laptops, and the increased battery depletion iOS 11 brings is a drag, but depending on the intended use, I think it is a fine choice for the vast majority of consumers. I’m gleeful every time I use it.
I rate it a solid A+, especially if you can catch any Black Friday or other holiday sales or discounts. I’m so happy with mine.