So my mother-in-law came to visit and brought me a pristine iPad Air A1474 that she got at deep discount through her work. Not something I would have bought, but since it’s free, I’m trying to use it. I’ve determined that not having a physical keyboard is driving me nuts. Probably because I’m a dinosaur and type on the onscreen keyboard slower than my 7 year old.

I don’t trust a lot of the review sites since I feel there is financial incentive for them to pick the “best”.

So do any of you have personal experience with a keyboard case that you would recommend?

I use my iPad Pro, a lot. I do not use an external keyboard, only the glass keyboard. I type a fair amount on the glass keyboard.

Tips:

Try using voice dictation. Not for everyone, but the microphone icon is right there in the glass keyboard.

Two fingertips on the glass keyboard turns it into a trackpad, you can quickly move the cursor around in a block of test. Text selection and relocation also possible.

The iPad user interface is multi-touch. Many people never realize all the things that can be done using gestures and more than one finger on the screen.

Always update to the most current iOS version and app updates. Apple is continually refining and improving various aspects of the software. As are third party apps

I also hate typing on a virtual keyboard for anything longer than a paragraph (and even that is tedious). I've felt this about every phone and tablet I've ever used, so this isn't a platform issue.

In my experience, the answer to almost any electronic accessory is "Logitech." Others may (an probably will) disagree and that's fine, but between Logitech and Anker, I'd be hard-pressed to name an accessory in my daily use that's made by another manufacturer. And the devices I've recommended to customers have served them well (as far as I've heard).

Maybe something like this?

Yeah, I'd been looking around and Logitech seems to end up toward the top of every roundup. That's probably what I'll go with.

So I bought that one, but I gotta admit that although the keyboard feels great, I find myself hating the fact that I can only open it about 40 degrees before the magnetic spline comes loose. It always seems to be just flopping around and coming apart.