For the past nine months I’ve owned a smaller version of this keyboard – Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover for iPad Mini. That one is, by far, my favorite tablet keyboard/cover combo. It’s simple, lightweight, and very innovative in terms of its design. It also allows me to simply and quickly detach my iPad Mini and use it as a tablet – which is for the most part my preferred way of using it anyways. It also provides a lot of protection for the iPad in the cover mode, and the keyboard action is my favorite of all the tablet keyboards that I tested. That’s why I was so excited about this bigger version of this cover for iPad Air. It seemed like an ideal accessory for my iPad, and held the promise of perhaps completely abandoning my Macbook Air.

On the surface the two models, aside from the size, seem almost identical. However, when it comes to execution there are many significant differences, and all of them are for the worse. This larger cover does not close properly when shut, and the small groove on the top of the keyboard does not support the iPad securely when propped up. The keyboard itself is pretty good though – not quite as comfortable to use as a proper full-scale keyboard, but definitely good enough for most on-the-go work tasks. (Composing e-mails and shorter documents for instance.) It is also very light, much lighter than most of its competitors. Unfortunately because the cover leaves the iPad fairly loose and vulnerable I don’t feel comfortable carrying my iPad around a lot in it, which will result in me not using this keyboard/case all that much. Which is such a shame – I really like Logitech’s products and hope that they fix these issues in the next upgrade of this keyboard.