iPad Air Act Of Lunacy (Potential iPad Air / Future iPad Pro Purchase)

[AlexanderUK]

Hey all, long time reader, first time poster. I'm here to pose a pickle of a purchase decision.

I'm currently running a MacBook Air Mid 2011 (13") and it's stood the test of time pretty well. I did plan to upgrade sooner but those horrible old keyboards scared me away from anything Apple churned out before they reverted back to the good old system we know and love. The reason for this is because I'm a web developer and writer so I need a stable keyboard to work. Then the rumor mills immediately went to away with Intel so I held off again and here we are, machines faster to the power of X.

My little MacBook as you can imagine is feeling the test of time. The keys are getting a bit unresponsive at times (due to wear) and the CPU screams at the slightest website that dares use HD video. But aside from that it's somehow still standing upright. My general use case is writing (for work), web dev (again for work), designing too (so graphical assets), and recreation (reading articles, watching streaming videos, listening to music).

One half of me wants to go for the new M1 Air because it's what I'm used too. A MacBook, just more powerful. Though I'll be needing to upgrade a load of apps I use regularly (paid) as I can't on the (High Sierra) MacBook I currently own which I need to factor into the cost.

The other half of me is being nuts and looking at the new iPad Air with that lovely detachable keyboard and pen and thinking maybe it could work? Certainly I can write on an iPad (and it would be very easy on the move) and design on an iPad (with the pen, easier than on a MacBook) easily enough, and cost wise I've worked out it'll come in £300 less than the Air overall. The only catch is web dev... certain things you can do on an iPad (there's IDE's like Textastic, FTP via Secure Shellfish, debug via Inspect Browser, terminal via Blink, etc... but browser testing I'd need a BrowserStack subscription, no NPM, and there's no real app to manage my collection of SVG icons).

So basically I'm stuck between do I pick the better machine for coders (Mac) or the better one for designers (iPad).

Ideas, thoughts?
Regards,
Alex

 

[eltoslightfoot]

There has never been a better time to get both. I am a writer and developer and I would get the lowest level MBA and the lowest level iPad. (This is my plan when my current tech fails...) Both are plenty fast and should do what you need just fine.

I have tried with an iPad Pro to do a lot of the same things you describe. It isn't easy. FTP and the other stuff that just works still has lots of work-arounds. WAY faster on my mac. And given the state of the M1 Air, this should be a no-brainer.

Same with the lowest of the iPads. Still screaming fast, and then you have a tablet to do all the tablet things.

Good luck!

 

[r6mile]

I have recently made a similar move, from a 2013 13" Macbook Air with 8GB of RAM - which was running great and even Big Sur, but I decided to pass on to my sister who needed a laptop - to an iPad Air 4. But I made the move because I realised that I didn't really need a laptop anymore - I have a separate work PC, a 2012 Mac Mini for any desktop needs including as home media server, etc. - and was only using the laptop for internet browsing, media consumption, etc.

I am very happy with my iPad, and does everything I need it to. The screen is insanely great (honestly, so much better than my MBA), and it is just so light and quiet. And the multi-tasking on iPadOS is a lot more capable than I anticipated. I can always VNC to my Mac Mini if need to 'use' it remotely, and it works surprisingly well.

However, my needs are clearly much more casual than yours, and I am not sure I would recommend the same move to you. For anything productive like what you describe, I would miss the flexibility of an actual desktop OS.

 

[rjbruce]

Development is still a no go on the iPad. As you pointed out you can sort of make it work but it is definitely frustrating and more of a review or make changes on the go, rather than ideal solution. That said I do really like the iPad as my semi-portable leisure device. I’ve had one for quite a while and there was a period of time where it had very little use. I’m not sure if quarantine or the evolution of iPadOS and the apps available have driven my increased usage. My experience breaks down like, most of the things I do on my iPhone I prefer to do on the iPad. Some of the things I do on my MacBook Pro are equal or better on my iPad, but there are still some activities, mostly development but also longer writings (my iPad keyboard isn’t full size) and spreadsheets that are easier on my Mac. I haven’t tried Excel on the iPad with a mouse, maybe that would help.

If your budget only allows one, I’d go with the MacBook Air. I think the MacBook and iPad may converge at some point, at least in capabilities, but we’re not there yet.

 

[AutomaticApple]

Hey all, long time reader, first time poster. I'm here to pose a pickle of a purchase decision.

I'm currently running a MacBook Air Mid 2011 (13") and it's stood the test of time pretty well. I did plan to upgrade sooner but those horrible old keyboards scared me away from anything Apple churned out before they reverted back to the good old system we know and love. The reason for this is because I'm a web developer and writer so I need a stable keyboard to work. Then the rumor mills immediately went to away with Intel so I held off again and here we are, machines faster to the power of X.

My little MacBook as you can imagine is feeling the test of time. The keys are getting a bit unresponsive at times (due to wear) and the CPU screams at the slightest website that dares use HD video. But aside from that it's somehow still standing upright. My general use case is writing (for work), web dev (again for work), designing too (so graphical assets), and recreation (reading articles, watching streaming videos, listening to music).

One half of me wants to go for the new M1 Air because it's what I'm used too. A MacBook, just more powerful. Though I'll be needing to upgrade a load of apps I use regularly (paid) as I can't on the (High Sierra) MacBook I currently own which I need to factor into the cost.

The other half of me is being nuts and looking at the new iPad Air with that lovely detachable keyboard and pen and thinking maybe it could work? Certainly I can write on an iPad (and it would be very easy on the move) and design on an iPad (with the pen, easier than on a MacBook) easily enough, and cost wise I've worked out it'll come in £300 less than the Air overall. The only catch is web dev... certain things you can do on an iPad (there's IDE's like Textastic, FTP via Secure Shellfish, debug via Inspect Browser, terminal via Blink, etc... but browser testing I'd need a BrowserStack subscription, no NPM, and there's no real app to manage my collection of SVG icons).

So basically I'm stuck between do I pick the better machine for coders (Mac) or the better one for designers (iPad).

Ideas, thoughts?
Regards,
Alex

Cheapest Mac + cheapest iPad = absolute perfection!

 

[tops2]

Since the work at home, I've been seeing if I can also make the iPad into a laptop replacement for me. I also "dreamt" about the possibilities of using various apps to accomplish what I wished for.

And like others have concluded, the iPad cannot fully replace the laptop for what I do. For me, there was a period of high frustration for the differences between how iPadOS vs Windows/Linux works, and how I want things to work on the iPad the same way. Even some things like text selection, middle mouse click for Linux copy and paste, some Linux shortcut keys that doesn't work due to same shortcut keys on iPadOS, file transferring between iPad and remote machines..just adds up to a lot of frustration.

Granted, over the few months, I've greatly accepted the differences, experimented endlessly, and find work arounds. Despite the frustrations, I had (eventually) fun finding new ways to make my work more efficient that translates to even when I'm on my laptop. I enjoyed not having a hot laptop and loud fan going, and the long battery life.

But once the M1 MacBooks are out, it (in my opinion) erased the benefits of a iPad for work (unless I use my Apple Pencil clone a lot..which I never do outside the honeymoon period).

My recommendations is the M1 MacBook Air/Pro if you need it now. Or wait for the M2 or whatever's next refresh to iron out any gen 1 bugs. If you budget allows, the sure, the iPad Air + pencil is nice. Or even the entry level iPad and a knock off Apple Pencil on Aliexpress (I got mine for ~$17).

Note: I haven't picked up Blink Shell yet..but I've started playing around with mosh + tmux and its been neat..but now face tweaking copy and paste and other random things that doesn't work the same way as if I just use Jump Desktop (vnc or rdp into work/person raspberry pi). Jump Desktop works great for both vnc & rdp for me. I've been just using the free part of Terminus and its okay for ssh/mosh..and with tmux, the connection disconnects doesn't matter much anymore.

Note 2: General usage is basically sys admin things at work. Part of the work involves graphical tools engineers use (Jump Desktop). The other part of the work I can do via terminals and using command line things. I highly prefer purely terminal unless for tool that have GUI due to vpn speed vs lag.