Logitech Combo Touch Review

Logitech’s collaboration piece with Apple for anything that isn’t a full screen iPad Pro. It’s a weighty, soft, versatile keyboard case that features a trackpad meant to work seamlessly with the most recent iPadOS update. 

There’s finally enough here to seriously ask the now decade old question of whether the iPad can replace your laptop, and while the iPad Pro may be better suited to answering that with it’s usb-c ports, I don’t think it’s a question we should be asking.

Let’s start with the build. I wasn’t expecting much out of this. Keyboard cases have always been clunky, with keys offering poor travel, or being too small. The lack of trackpad or mouse support made the iPad a fully touch-based device that emphasized using the pointers you were born with. So why complicate that with a physical keyboard or trackpad? 

The Apple Pencil quickly shut that argument down as it offered precise capabilities that fingers couldn’t “touch.” Signatures, markups, and digital art made the “point” that the pencil is here to stay. 

So does this Logitech Combo Touch for my iPad Air make its “case”? That was the last one, I swear. 

To answer the question, I think it does exactly what it set out to do, in that it lets me type long form pieces like this review, and it lets me keep my fingers off the screen so that I don’t obstruct my view when I work. It feels like a thicker Microsoft Surface, but one that runs iPadOS.  However, because of iPadOS and its recent adoption of trackpad and mouse support, apps have some catching up to do. Also, and I don’t know how much more succinct I can be when I say this, but I’m not entirely ready for this “future.” 

A lot of what determines whether this setup is a laptop replacement still lies in the software. Logitech has made a great piece of hardware that shuts down any doubt on the iPad’s ultra-portability and on-the-go productivity capabilities, but some of iPadOS still has a long way to go. A lot of improvements have been made in the last few years to Apple’s built-in apps. They are still some desktop capabilities and options that are lacking for certain apps, but for someone on the go, Apple’s built-in apps are as good as they’re going to get. 

Everything from Mail to Pages and Numbers, Notes, and Reminders, is more than enough to get users by when they’re mobile. And Apple bringing desktop capabilities to their Safari Web Browser only strengthens their case for considering an iPad. Seriously, G-Suite runs better on Safari then it does on individual Google apps like Docs. 

Pair those improvements with some user interface improvements like split-view that lets you view two or even three of the same apps at once, as well as a capable Files app for file transfers and use of internal storage on iPhone and iPad, and you’ve got a handy, ultra-portable device that’s more than enough to get users by. 

But the keyword here is “enough.” A lot of users don’t use Apple’s built-in apps and there are still major improvements needed on 3rd party ones. Microsoft apps still lack some basic functionality to be completely useful on the go and Adobe products, like Lightroom and Photoshop, are nowhere near as capable as their desktop counterparts.

There are excellent alternatives like Affinity Photo and LumaFusion, for photo and video editing, respectively. But there are learning curves that users need to adjust to on iPadOS. As for how these apps function with this Logitech product, your mileage will vary. As I said, built-in apps function somewhat as you’d expect if you’ve used macOS, but there are certain touchpad gestures that I’m just not familiar with yet. 

That’s the other big keyword; familiarity. When I think of a trackpad, there are gestures and other instinctual things that come to mind from using macOS. If I want Notification Center on my Mac, I swipe from the right with two fingers. For Notification Center on iPad, I have to swipe up with one finger until it drops down and swipe down to pull it back up. For slide-over view, with just my hands on the ipad, I swipe from the right to bring it out. But with the trackpad, I have to slide the cursor all the way to the right until it decides to pop out and do the same gesture to put it away. And don’t even get me started on swiping through apps in slide-over view. With my finger, it’s so effortless and similar to how you’d swipe through apps on your iPhone. With the trackpad, it requires two fingers and can only be swiped one way.

It’s all a little confusing. 

That’s not say Apple hasn’t tried marrying iPadOS and macOS’s gestures. I can still swipe from app to app, as I would on macOS. It only takes two fingers now, but swiping up still gets me to exposé view, but the caveat is I have to hold on that swipe. Part of the problem isn’t just the software. It’s me. I still prefer a mouse over a trackpad, but I’ve also spent the better part of my time becoming familiar with macOS’s gestures. 

In a way, it’s resistance to new things. I have to unlearn what I’ve learned. With someone younger, someone just getting into creativity and productivity, in an increasingly wireless world, or a dedicated user like Christopher Lawley, who’s able to make his iPad his main driver using Apple Shortcuts, I get the appeal of using an iPad over a traditional desktop machine. Though it may not be entirely for me right now, it does get me excited for things to come. 

So, back to that question, is the iPad (with a great keyboard and trackpad attachment) a laptop replacement? No. It’s an iPad that is able to do more than before. When Steve Jobs introduced it back in 2010, he called it a device that sits between a phone and a computer. That hasn’t changed. 

I think products like this Logitech Combo Touch will only help to bring users like me closer to accepting the ultra-portability and possibilities of the iPad as its own category. The iPad has always felt like the iPhone for home use. It did exactly what your iPhone could do, but on a bigger screen, but then iPadOS came along. 

The Combo Touch feels like a transition product. Yes, having a keyboard with function keys and a trackpad are helpful when it comes to certain tasks, but I still love using my iPad by itself. By using Apple’s smart connector technology, having the ability to just pull my iPad off the keyboard is like logitech accepting that you don’t need their product to be productive. It’s just there if you need it.