This thread was always going to be ripe for reactions from the subject heading. The OP first creates a hackle-raising thread title. Then he proceeds to tell people how they are currently using their device, informs them that their feedback on the Magic Keyboard is invalid and that they shouldn’t own an iPad Pro if they don’t like the MK, instructs them which of the devices they should have bought instead, and then to support his manifiesto de generalización he makes false, unchecked statements about iPad model sizes and weights. In true fact, the iPad 7, 11” iPad Pro, and iPad Air 3 are all within less than 30g of each other, and I just listed them in order of heaviest to lightest. The 11” Pro is also the thinnest and has the smallest volume of the 3. It is more ”tablet form factor” than ever before, and by general media and review consensus better at being a tablet than any iPad that came before it?
Also, what about Luma Fusion & Luma FX, Affinity Photo, Procreate, etc? These are not tablet first use cases? That’s hardly doodling around and you can see obvious performance drops using the 7 and Air 3 in workflows with these apps. On the desktop productivity side, what about Desktop Google Business Suite and Office 365 via Safari? Trying to use the 7 with these web apps was painful, whereas on the Pro it is buttery smooth. I mean, seriously, lets have a for real exchange of use cases, frustrations, hallelujah moments, information exchange and knowledge sharing instead of sweeping generalizations, loose “fact conforming” to support pov’s or agendas, finger pointing, “you’re using it wrong,” and, ”you’re not the target market,” self-proclaimed internet expert pundit statements.
I feel the Magic Keyboard is not a good buy either, big caveat being of course, for my own personal use case, because it is too cumbersome to have as an always on case, unlike the the Smart Keyboard Folio. I feel this is a legitimate gripe, as it greatly impacts the way I experience the iPad. I agree with a lot of the criticisms and frustrations, even though it is a beautiful accessory product, and I can see how and why lots of people will love it and it is perfect for them. It would serve me better as a desktop setup replacement, but since I already have a more capable external keyboard and trackpad desktop solution, and a more portable keyboard case in the form of the SKF, its a non-starter - for me. I guess I should just not make any comments because I am not the target market for the MK (because I am of the opinion it should be capable of folding back all the way and be less cumbersome)??
I can play the same game. How about this? I postulate that the people complaining that the iPP costs more than their laptop or doesn’t replace their laptop are more than likely not looking for it to be tablet first at all, so why would a cheaper one that is less capable of fulfilling that use case be a better option? They would just have more to complain about. They want a magical device that can be a laptop replacement
and a great tablet, and they want it in Apple’s ecosystem, and they want it done better than Microsoft’s Surface products do it. They want to be on iPadOS/iOS because it is simple and a joy to use. They don‘t want a companion device. The whole reason they are making these comments is because they think having a companion device to their laptop and phone is redundant and useless, not worth the money, etc.
Guy walks up to a bar and says, “Hey bartender, my iPad Pro with the new Magic Keyboard is heavier and more expensive than my MacBook, and now harder to use as just a tablet, and it still can’t fully replace my laptop like I hoped it would! What should I do?”
Bartender replies, “Hmmm...why not get a cheaper one that’s bigger, slower, and has a smaller, dimmer, and less accurate and fluid display? It won’t solve any of the problems you listed, but it will save you some cash!”
Guy lets out a relieved sigh, “Wow, thanks bartender! You’re a genius!”
Now I agree and think the 7 and Air 3 are good devices and probably enough for lots of people that actually use the iPad as a companion device to a laptop or desktop. For example, my little not-so-unique iPad history goes a little bit like this:
Before I went iPad only professionally as well as personally, I had an iPad as a primary personal computing device, but also as a companion device to my company Macs as well. It was great! Then, I started to use the iPad for more and more professional tasks, and because I enjoyed the form factor and UX so much, I started to seek out ways to use it even more, replace traditional desktop OS workflows, etc. and in the end only had heavy spreadsheeting, dash-board creation, and light development environment work left still on the Mac. I still used the iPad for “tablet first” things constantly for my personal computing needs, but now I was able to use it for virtually everything else for “professional“ computing as well. Then came iPadOS, with desktop browsing and mouse support. I left macOS behind completely. Now in particular the 13.4 update with iPad cursor support has made things practically seamless. Still many small niggles and necessary work arounds at times, but it has always been fun to explore the potential and possibilities.
I mean, I’ve been there. I actually bought and returned the 11” iPad Pro when it first came out in 2018, before iPadOS was released. I still had a mini 4 and a 10.5” iPad Pro, and it didn’t offer enough for me at the time of release to make it worthwhile. I made posts about that decision then. At the time I was in a position where we had a traditional MS IT infrastructure, so just trying to use macOS was being an unsupported outlying case. But iPadOS changed that enough so that when I was head hunted a year later and asked what hardware I preferred, I said iPad Pro without batting an eye. (They batted their eyes at that...several times...but went along with it without needing too much reassurance) Then the 13.4 release like I said, jumped that up another big notch. Hoping iPadOS 14 will blur the lines even further.
Tablet first - I don’t even know what that means anymore. I almost always use my device touch first, except when in spreadsheets, databases or similar where I need repeated precise cursor placement, and I am almost always holding my device in “tablet mode” when not using it at my desk in the office. So I don’t get how any of what the OP originally wrote made any sense.
Tldr; The point is, anyone can postulate a premise for these things. But at least state that you have a theory, or an idea, a thought, an opinion, a suggestion, or something to that effect.
