The Brydge iPad Keyboard is one of many iPad related Kickstarter projects I backed this year. As some of you may have noted two recent ones were major disappointments: the Human Toolz Mobile Stand for iPad and the Facet iPad Stand. Brydge is touted as an effective and unique iPad keyboard that will give your iPad a MacBook Air like feel.

I’ve had my Brydge for a few weeks now and have recently had a chance to put it to some heavy use. I can tell you right off the bat that it is not a huge disappointment like the two products mentioned above. It hasn’t quite lived up to my, admittedly high, expectations for it though. Read on for some of the reasons why …

Notes

Brydge is a Bluetooth wireless keyboard for the iPad, made from ‘aerospace-grade aluminum that is machined and anodized to perfectly match the look and feel of an Apple iPad’. There’s also a black polycarbonate model available now. I got the standard aluminum model. Mine is a Brydge+ with the addition of a stereo speaker that’s placed at the top center of the keyboard.

It is compatible with the iPad 2 and iPad 3rd and 4th generations. My model came with friction clamps on its hinges that are made to fit the iPad 2, with additional friction clamps included to fit an iPad 3rd or 4th gen properly. I have the iPad 3 so I switched them out and it was a fairly easy process.

One of the Brydge’s big selling points is its hinges, described like so at the Brydge website:

Brydge’s patent-pending hinge holds the iPad secure and allows you to position your iPad at nearly any angle, even allowing you to close it up entirely for easy transportation. Once closed, both your iPad and Brydge go to sleep automatically.

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