Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
The Slim Book is light and has cracking backlighting , but its drawbacks are the loud keyboard and the hinge that hold the two one-half together .
TheZagg Slim Book iPad Air Case with Backlit Keyboardis not only one of the longest - named products I ’ve ever encountered , but also a competent Bluetooth keyboard . It offers backlit keys for late night type sessions . Shortcut keys let you chop-chop get at normally used commands on iOS , such as spot hunt , Siri , medium controls , and flying - lock .
Even though I grew fond of the Slim Book during my examination , it had some shortcoming .
Is there an echo in here?
There ’s no other way of life to say this : The key vocalize hollow . I ’m not sure if it ’s due to the material that sit behind the headstone , or the material the headstone themselves are made out of , but the sound as you forge aside on the keyboard elicit the feeling of using a cheap keyboard .
That ’s not a average statement , entirely , as I ’ve yet to find a single key that shows sign of wear and displume during my time with the Slim Book . With each keypress , the cay has little maneuver and pop right back into place the instant the key stroke is fill in .
The size of it and spacing of the keys are par for the trend when it come in to a tablet keyboard . There ’s nothing that construct the layout standout , nor is there something to find fault it .
It’s a case, too
Bluetooth keyboards that double as character are often ugly , bulky , and serve very trivial purpose outside of protection . The pillowcase included when you buy a Slim Book is a hard plastic shell that wraps around the exterior of your iPad . It may not be the prettiest case , but it ’s far from bulky and has aim .
The case doubles as a hop on mechanism for the keyboard , which I ’ll plunk into more particular about in a moment . But a side outcome of this approach path is that you ’re not limited in the direction the iPad is facing when you localize it into the hinge .
Meaning , you’re able to plow the iPad around so its screenland is face up aside from the keys , turning it into an off-the-cuff stand to take in a movie . Or you could essentially come together the keyboard with the screen door face out and hold your iPad like you normally would ( admittedly much thicker than before ) and take or browse the web . Since the keyboard detach from the rest of the case , you could also leave alone the keyboard behind and still have a protective case for your iPad .
I ’m not normally a rooter of instance , but after using this character and keyboard combo I learned to apprise the versatility the case bring with it . It not only protect your iPad , but it add functionality .
The verdict hinges on, well, the hinge
It ’s easy to look past the sound the paint make , but one thing I have a knockout time overlooking is the flexible joint . As I observe in the beginning the case include with the Slim Book double up as a method to link the keyboard to your iPad .
Two slots on the side of the case act as the female end of a connector , with the male counterparts protruding from within the hinge . When you press the causa into the channel , attraction avail line up the two part , and a click sound can be see as the iPad is put in lieu .
My fear boils to the Earth’s surface as you attempt to align the flexible joint ’s view angle by force the iPad away from your body . rather of providing a little bit of resistor when you ’ve give the maximum viewing slant for the hinge , the half of the case containing my iPad would pop out of the hinge and fall onto my desk .
bad , I could n’t faithfully tell when this was going to happen , since the amount of pressure needed to pink the iPad out varied . Sometimes the iPad would pop out with little to no insistency . Other times it took a more of an effort on my part to make it happen . irrespective of how much pressure I put on the iPad , coming out of the flexible joint is n’t the ideal outcome .
Bottom line
The Slim Book offers more than most keyboard - case jazz band do . I really wish the innovative approach Zagg took with bringing added functionality via the case . The flexible joint ’s main outcome is its lack of see angles combined with little feedback before it spits out your iPad like a child tasting Brassica oleracea italica for the first time .