Could you type on a keyboard that has no lettering whatsoever? That’s the challenge of the Nullboard, a keyboard for the iPad Pro which is set to launch in the next couple of weeks.
The keyboard has been designed by a small team in the U.K. who aim to deliver not only a “cool-looking keyboard”, but to help improve users’ touch-typing skills. The keyboard removes the safety net of looking down at your keyboard to work out what keys you’re pressing. Every single key on the board – including the shortcut function keys – is entirely blank, meaning every key must be committed to memory.
“I don’t need to look at the keyboard while I type,” said the keyboard’s designer, Hank Liu. “It might appeal to someone like myself who likes to have a cool keyboard but also can be more affordable at the same time.” The keyboard will be around a third of the price of Apple’s Magic Keyboard when it launches on Kickstarter in early August.
Liu claims that even those who aren’t already touch typists will improve their typing skills with the Nullboard. “You’ve been typing on your keyboard for 20 years or more. You don’t really need to look at your keyboard when you type,” he said. “You’re training yourself to rely on your muscle memory to type.”
However, the company is also releasing a second version of the keyboard with full lettering as a fallback option. “When I spoke to friends and family who were iPad users, some of them weren’t as comfortable as me with a blank keyboard, so they prefer to have the letter option,” he said. “So now we have two options.”
The company sent me late prototypes of both versions of the keyboard to test. As someone who’s not quite a touch typist, I was skeptical that I’d be able to type comfortably without the safety net of being able to look at the keys occasionally. I was wrong. I spent two hours typing a feature with the keyboards yesterday and my typing speed was no slower with the blank keyboard than it was with the lettered version. Liu’s right, muscle memory is strong, even if you don’t have perfect touch-typing skills.
The keyboard case turns the iPad Pro into a pseudo laptop. It doesn’t fold into different configurations like Apple’s Magic Keyboard, which makes it awkward to use when you want to use the iPad as a tablet. It’s not easy to unclip the case from the tablet, either. The maximum 135-degree angle of the screen to keyboard is also restrictive – I’d prefer the option to push it back further.
The keyboard itself is well built. The keys have more travel than any iPad Pro keyboard I’ve tested, almost too much travel. My only real gripe about the keyboard design is the half-height enter key.
There’s also a small 8.4 x 4.9cm trackpad on the keyboard, making use of the new iPadOS support for mice/trackpads. It’s responsive, although scrolling performance was stuttery. Liu said the trackpad was still being worked on and that it will support the full range of Apple gestures when the final version is launched, so hopefully the experience will be smoother come launch.
When folded flat, the hard, plastic casing turns the iPad Pro into a well-armored mini-laptop, reminiscent of the netbook designs that were popular at the start of the 2010s. It does make the overall package weighty in the hand, though, weighing 750g with the 11in iPad Pro inside.
As previously mentioned, the Nullboard will be aggressively priced when it launches on Kickstarter in early August.
The 11in versions (either blank or lettered) will start from £109 ($£138), whereas the 12.9 versions will be priced from £125 ($159). That’s a fraction of the cost of the Magic Keyboard with trackpad, which starts from £299/$299.
Visit the Null Project website for more details of the keyboard and Kickstarter launch.
I have been a technology writer and editor for more than 20 years. I was assistant editor of The Sunday Times’ technology section, editor of PC Pro magazine and have
I have been a technology writer and editor for more than 20 years. I was assistant editor of The Sunday Times’ technology section, editor of PC Pro magazine and have written for more than a dozen different publications and websites over the years. I’ve also appeared as a tech pundit on television and radio, including BBC Newsnight, the Chris Evans Show and ITN News at Ten.
Hit me up if you’ve got a tech story that needs breaking at [email protected].