For me the big tradeoff is the lack of proper monitor support. A majority of the tasks I do could be performed on my iPad Pro but at least 90% of my time is spent at a desk where I use my 4K monitor off of my laptop. So my iPads end up just being used for leisure consumption. If I could use my iPad with the monitor, I'd be happy so as I'd have one device I could use at the desk and then detach and walk away with - what I can do with my Surface Pro 7.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPad as a laptop replacement
- Thread starter Omar Comin' Yo
- WikiPost WikiPost
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
- Status
For me the big tradeoff is the lack of proper monitor support. A majority of the tasks I do could be performed on my iPad Pro but at least 90% of my time is spent at a desk where I use my 4K monitor off of my laptop. So my iPads end up just being used for leisure consumption. If I could use my iPad with the monitor, I'd be happy so as I'd have one device I could use at the desk and then detach and walk away with - what I can do with my Surface Pro 7.
For me personally it is the inferior typing experience and RAM management. I use my laptop to skype with friends and we type a lot. iPadOS is not done for lots of typing and especially navigating with the arrow keys. It is slower. And the text editing is a bit PITA.
RAM management is well mobile style - no swap so apps and tabs reloading happen more often on an iPad. I have had cases where I have worked on something for 20-30 minutes and it got lost because of reloading and RAM issues. It did not happen often, 2-3 times but it is enough for me to not rely on the iPad as a my go to device.
Lack of external monitor support is an issue too.
Another one is the lack of support of multiple audio sources. It is natural to me to listen to music and browse. Whenever some video add starts playing, the music stops. That does not happen on a laptop.
It is the small things honestly but they are important enough for me.
Yep. Monitor soup port is the elephant in the room - that’s for sure. I don’t need it, but I would like it. A lot of the apps I use have support for it so it’s ok. Would love good monitor support on ipados though - proper resolution and not a mirror.
I type long form stories on my iPad, it’s ok if you ask me. Aside the key repeat being slower as you mentioned - it’s annoying but not something that outweighs the general benefits of an iPad. As you mention, the iPad isn’t (obviously) designed for typing - it’s something I fully expect to improve as time goes on.
I have never lost any work in the manner you describe - all my apps at least save everything immediately and never reload. If they did reload the work would still be there. The most is Safari tabs reloading which is annoying but again, it’s not a game changer.
I use my HomePod with my music app, and when I browse to a video the sound for that comes out of the iPad without interrupting the music - but yes your experience sounds annoying!
i admit - things have to improve, but it’s nothing that I feel I’m trading off particularly. Not when I think of the benefits the iPad brings over a mac or other traditional system.
Yeah, it is not like horrendous but honestly at home when I have both the laptop and the iPad I kind of choose the laptop when it comes to typing. I am way faster and more efficient on a laptop than on an iPad and I kind of dig and enjoy that.
For me it happens in Safari. Like sometimes I would type things in input forms on Safari, I stop for 1 minute to check something else and whatever I had written is gone. Now I just type whatever I want in the Notes app and I submit it when I am ready. It is annoying though and I just do not trust iOS/iPadOs when it comes to RAM.
Yep, I do not own homepod
. I use my Sony headphones or earbuds and for both this is the experience and it is not one I enjoy.For me it is a bit different. I did not buy the iPad because I needed tablet. I do not like tablets and frankly I do not need them that much. I bought the iPad because of the Pencil support and it still shines there and this is my go to use case. When I travel I do carry only the iPad with me and I use it for typing and all that stuff but at home - the laptop just wins for me.
Well it’s as you stated- you prefer a traditional platform. That’s fine, but that doesn’t make it a superior platform for everyone. (Edit- I’m not saying you suggested as such, but many do assume as such).
Yeah, there are so many personal preferences and differing needs involved, there will be no superior platform for everyone. Device X may be able to do everything I need but I just might not lot like using it. The benefit of having multiple options.
I have written more posts in this thread than what is probably healthy, just scroll back through it.
That’s why I’m asking you. I have yet to see you demonstrating why your opinion is ‘best for all’ as you seem to insinuate with each post.
Quite the opposite, time and time again I’ve written “if your apps/workflows/interfaces/whatever work on iPadOS that’s great and I’m happy for you, but that is not the case for me for reason X, Y and Z”, typically followed by someone trying to explain why I’m wrong while utterly failing to address the issues I have described.
This just illustrates my point again. This is fine as a default setting, but by not having a switch in settings to change it, or the option to answer “yes” to “you are about to download 400MB over cellular which may be expensive, are you sure you want to do that”, iPadOS is artificially restrictive making it impossible to use for many types of “real work”.
Tell me again how being forced to use “legacy” network technology for some tasks is “the future”? (Especially when a “legacy” Mac will handle it over 5G without complaint.)
Last edited:
Yeah, it depends on your needs and preferences. To be honest in general I can't handle the gestures and primary touch input for long time. First of all there are way too many gestures and some of them are rather similar to each other so you can potentially trigger the wrong one. I can't remember all of them. Second of all I can have slight wrist pain and in generally joints pain (due to atmospheric pressure). When I am in such condition the last thing I would enjoy is having to work with touch UI - it really is taxing on me. Touch is OK or for me small periods of time but when it comes to hours of work (which is usually how I use my laptop) I gravitate towards bigger screen and keyboard navigation. And this is where I go towards the desktop platforms.
The iPad does have its place for me though. I have just accepted that for now I need both an iPad and laptop and have an idea when to use what device.
btw my personal main issue with ipad is - still a bit wonky keyboard experience, even thou, its WAYYY better than in iPadOS14. like wayyy better. Its pretty good now, but still not on par as on a mac (also its buggy sometimes!!, and focud control doesnt work as expected sometimes)
other than that, I guess a bigger - better big screen suppor would be good, and .. lets see, other than that.. hmmm
I guess just bette apps - more ‘professional’ or just better polished ( like for instance Koder is amazing, but VSCode is still better). Also some Mac only apps as well.
hmm.. what else…
mostly bigger screen. But I guess it already supports that, and I havent tried it yet, so maybe I will be happy with it (or at least not too disapointed)
For 99% of things iPad is amazing.
Oh another thing - zipping unziping, and changing filenames of files should be possible to do from files app.
Also, an option to choose default app for filetype, or choose which app to use to open a file form files app. Thats important.
other than that, I guess a bigger - better big screen suppor would be good, and .. lets see, other than that.. hmmm
I guess just bette apps - more ‘professional’ or just better polished ( like for instance Koder is amazing, but VSCode is still better). Also some Mac only apps as well.
hmm.. what else…
mostly bigger screen. But I guess it already supports that, and I havent tried it yet, so maybe I will be happy with it (or at least not too disapointed)
For 99% of things iPad is amazing.
Oh another thing - zipping unziping, and changing filenames of files should be possible to do from files app.
Also, an option to choose default app for filetype, or choose which app to use to open a file form files app. Thats important.
Aside the default app per file type, all of these things are possible to do in Files
This is a very interesting thread. It seems that the “iPad is a toy“ crowd will pretty much stay on that path, while those that do accomplish real work on the iPad will also hold their ground. Ever since the first gen 12.9 came out, I wanted desperately to use it as my only computer. At that point, it was just not possible for me. No keyboard/mouse support, app limitations, no usable file system, etc. For me, it was a futuristic idea that needed time to develop. For me, it has finally arrived. The 12.9 with the MKB has completely replaced my MacBook. I will admit that I do not do anything dependent on Microsoft or specific PC/Mac software, so that helps. That aside, I much prefer to navigate iPad OS vs Mac OS. I have been hanging onto my M1 MacBook Air thinking that I will run into something that the iPad cannot accomplish. I have yet to find something. I pulled out the MacBook earlier just for fun and I found it much more cumbersome to use. From app switching, to no pro motion display, and lower screen resolution, it just seems archaic vs the IPP. For some, the ipad will never be enough to replace their computer. But for 75-80 percent of users, the iPad and iPad OS is absolutely good enough to replace their need for a traditional computer.
I’d agree in general but there are times… I’ve tried now with multiple browser tools to download certain pdf documents from the Canadian government and that stuff won’t even load if I’m not on my Mac. I’m sure similar barriers are in place from other governments and slow acting groups pretending it’s 1998 or something. Very annoying.
same in germany… governmental websites up since half a year throw a warning messages that “Mobile Browsers are currently not supported”… aaaaand then there are older once which inform you that the service “is fully supported on Microsoft Explorer only”… not to mention the once which provide a list of supported browsers which includes Netscape ????
That's my thought process. Navigating around iPadOS is a more pleasing experience compared to macOS, don't get me wrong... I like macOS. I like the modern design that Apple has given it, but I find I'm more intrigued with the iPad future compared to the Mac.
Even when Apple announced the new MacBook Pros yesterday... I wasn't really interested in it. Perhaps, I don't do anything taxing to desire that much power. But I don't find myself longing to use a laptop these days.
I meant to say changing filetypes. the extension. like if I have .txt. I want it to be .php and so on.
Also I meant to say RAR-ing, not zipping, zipping works. But raring doesnt.
Also default app per filetype, but also just Open In dialogue, since I want my .php file to sometimes open in Koder and other times in Pretext. Or have my jpeg open in Affinity Photo, or in Procreate or in Lightroom….
this is pretty basic computing stuff, that for some reason isnt there. And when I way basic I also mean - easy to implement. Much easier to implement than whatever system apple has for tracking gestures…
There are also people (like me but others for sure) who do not treat the iPad as a toy but experience some limitations (for them) to use the iPad as their main device.
Interesting. I think here also depends on our usage. For example I must admit that I do not feel the difference when it comes to Pro motion. Not saying it is not there, I am saying that most probably I do not use my iPad Pro in a way where the pro motion shines and brings benefits to me.
Interesting what do you find cumbersome about app switching? I actually find this cumbersome on the iPad (RAM management for one, for the other the gestures are way more complex than clicking with the mouse on the taskbar).
iPad screen indeed is with higher resolution but smaller. For my eyes (have glasses issues) working for hours on a small screen is no advisable. This is why I need better external monitor support.
So it seems that depending on our usage we get benefits from one or the other device and hit issues with one or the other device.
I tend to agree with this with some small comments. For example my mother's usage I think is doable on a tablet (so iPad). However she does not know English and iOS does not support our language. I actually think that the argument for the 70-80 % of people is valid for English speaking countries. Not so much for the rest of the world where iPadOs is not translatable to their mother language.
I agree with you 80%
The intro you wrote was me too. And I too think that time has come. I actually use iPad as a desktop, with a keyboard and a mouse, and it works great. Obviously I use it as an Ipad too. xD
BUT. when I say it works great, I mean, it mostly works great. Keyboard is verry buggy for some reason. oftentimes I will just not have keyboard focus on the element I need it to focus (cant input text). Mouse scrolling was really bad, but now its fixed in iPadOS15…
Files app is still not good enought (check out my post about it)… but thats not really a lot. I wouldnt way its THERE YET, but it is pretty good. What I mean to say is - theres still things to improve, and quite a few important ones, but also - it is my main computer. From where I am sitting now I have my MacBook Pro half a meter away, and my 27” iMac three meters away, but I am typing this on my iPad.
Also my iPhone and Apple watch are 20 cm from my hands, but yeah. I guess iPad wins *(Also… I have way too much apple devices it seems. xD)
that works in e.g.FileBrowser Pro or Go.
unrar works in FileBrowser too.
Well, that even works in Apple’s Files - it’s not called “Open In”, but the Share-sheet provides exactly that functionality. Use “More” and then select one of the apps registered. Affinity Photo, Designer, Pixelmator, Pixelmator Photo, Vectornator, Koder, Git, etc. support this…don’t use Procreate or Lightroom (but my guess is Procreate is there too.. ?)
Well, I don’t really. I mean it’s ‘like’ macOS as an app used in conjunction with jump desktop, sidecar and my Mac mini
It has been an interesting thread. My only problem with the discourse is the concept of "real work". It's something I've came across often in my many discussions all over the Internet about this.
Like, the foundation of the idea of "the iPad is a toy" is that the iPad is incapable of "real work". When most people say this I understand it to be something like video editing or programming, although I have seen valid complaints that have been addressed as iPadOS continues to mature. I'm not much of a fan of saying the iPad can't do "real work" because I feel like that's gatekeeping a little bit. For example, I think writing can be a lot of work. I think having documents of a power tool and reading it can be work.
True, I think certain things might be better on a Mac, like writing several paragraphs. But I disagree so much with the idea that the iPad is a "toy". As I said before, I think it's important to acknowledge that the iPad's form factor allows it to do different (but equally valid) work. Just like it's fair to say that some people may never truly "click" with an iPad.