Over the last few months, in preparation for Apple Vision Pro, I started a quest to find a good portable keyboard + trackpad setup for the headset. After testing out a wide range of those from the market, here are my findings. Hope it helps people looking for the same.
The impression is based on testing out the keyboard/trackpad with iPadOS, as it shares the similar infrastructure for external input support as visionOS.
After testing on real hardware, visionOS disabled support for any non-Apple trackpad... So feel free to ignore everything about non-Apple trackpad here.
For using Apple Vision Pro at home, you can pretty much use whatever keyboard you’d like with Apple’s Magic Trackpad since size and portability is not really a concern.
I’m highlighting Magic Trackpad here as it’s one of the few trackpads that the OS will recognize as a proper multi-touch trackpad and activate the full gesture support.
When it comes to using Apple Vision Pro as a virtual workspace on the go, the portability of the keyboard suddenly plays a much more important role in consideration.
For this section, depending on how much you prioritize trackpad in your setup, there are a few options I’d like to highlight.
Keyboard with a good trackpad
If you use the trackpad a lot, and are okay with a little extra weight, “Brydge 12.9 Pro+” running on the latest firmware is probably the best option I’ve discovered so far (This is different from "Brydge MAX+", which is the newer generation but with a less ideal top shell design for our use case). It's designed for iPad but you can use it standalone like the bottom half of a laptop.
Unlike a lot of other keyboards with trackpad all-in-one, Brydge actually implemented the correct HID descriptor for the device so the iPadOS and visionOS can correctly recognize it as a proper multi-touch trackpad and activates the full gesture support (and smooth scrolling). As someone who used Magic Trackpad a lot, having the native system gesture support just makes using it feel so much better.
Unfortunately after Brydge’s bankruptcy last year, the app used to update the firmware is no longer available. If you have the Brydge keyboard with older firmware, currently there is no way to update. Some units on Amazon have the latest firmware (I got mine that way) but there is no guarantee you’ll get that.
The other option I found is “Inateck iPad Pro 11 inch Case with Keyboard (KB04111)”. While the keys are a little smaller than what I'm used to, it’s one of the rare detachable keyboard case that reports the correct HID descriptor so the OS recognized it as a multi-touch trackpad. This might be a good option if you want something lightweight, but still want a good trackpad.
A lot of typing with occasional trackpad usage
After trying out a few portable keyboard + trackpad combo, I found the “Mokibo Fusion Keyboard” to be the ideal one if you type a lot but only need a trackpad occasionally (or doesn’t heavily depend on the multi-touch gestures). The lightweight and compact design makes it great for traveling, and the integrated trackpad is good enough for occasional text selection.
The main problem for this one is the trackpad’s firmware. They implemented the trackpad using the traditional trackpad HID descriptor so any multi-touch gestures (including two fingers scroll) felt broken on iPadOS and visionOS. I hope they can fix it in the future as it’s so close to the ideal form factor for a portable keyboard + trackpad combo.
Here is how it looks on top of Magic Keyboard.
If you don’t need a trackpad, “Rovinda Foldable Bluetooth Keyboard” is a pretty good option in the foldable category. Unlike most other foldable keyboards, this one keeps the correct key size around the hinge so it’s less likely to mistype because some key suddenly becomes wider/narrower.
One thing to call out is this one has a split space bar and that took me a bit to get use to.
Here is how it looks like being folded.
Others
There are a few other foldable keyboards with the trackpad on the market (that more or less from the same ODM). Unfortunately, they all suffered the same trackpad implementation issue as the Mokibo one so unless you don’t heavily depend on multi-touch gestures, I wouldn’t recommend them.
If you’re interested in exploring those, “Samsers Foldable Bluetooth Keyboard with Touchpad” is the one I’d recommend to try it out (there are a few with similar names, make sure you find the right one). It has the uniformed key size so I was able to type without looking down at the keyboard all the time. My main problem with that one besides the trackpad is that the Bluetooth indicator will keep flashing blue while it’s on, which can be quite distracting…
Here is how it looked folded comparing to the Rovinda one.
If you’re looking for other foldable keyboards, make sure you pay attention to the key near the hinge, as a lot of them will make the key with a different shape in that area to fit and I found that design is really bad for typing accuracy.
If you are one of the ODM for those keyboards (or is thinking about making a new keyboard accessory for Apple Vision Pro or iPad)… please fix the trackpad HID descriptor in your firmware and implement the proper multi-touch trackpad support instead of attempting to emulate gestures. You can find the documentation for the required trackpad HID descriptor for Apple devices in “Accessory Design Guidelines for Apple Devices” Chapter 15.