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
An iPad Pro with the Apple Magic Keyboard works great. For everyday personal or business use, it does great. There are very few things that it cannot do for regular, everyday use.
Someone travelling with this combination can remove the keyboard to watch a movie or take in a video presentation while lying in bed. That's a solid advantage, IMHO.
However, an M1 iPad Pro with the keyboard is bigger than the M1 MacBook Air.
And an M1 iPad Pro with keyboard costs a hell of a lot more than just buying the M1 MacBook Air.
I own both, and I have not travelled with the iPad in quite a while now. My first choice is always the MacBook Air.
The iPad Pro usually stays at home and without the keyboard. I'll use it for media consumption if I got to bed early or have a problem sleeping.
But...I'll also use the iPhone 13 Pro Max for the same thing. The screen is great on this.
So at the moment, in my home, it's the iPad Pro that's the odd one out these days. After reading through this thread a bit, I might use it some because you have revived the interest.
Someone travelling with this combination can remove the keyboard to watch a movie or take in a video presentation while lying in bed. That's a solid advantage, IMHO.
However, an M1 iPad Pro with the keyboard is bigger than the M1 MacBook Air.
And an M1 iPad Pro with keyboard costs a hell of a lot more than just buying the M1 MacBook Air.
I own both, and I have not travelled with the iPad in quite a while now. My first choice is always the MacBook Air.
The iPad Pro usually stays at home and without the keyboard. I'll use it for media consumption if I got to bed early or have a problem sleeping.
But...I'll also use the iPhone 13 Pro Max for the same thing. The screen is great on this.
So at the moment, in my home, it's the iPad Pro that's the odd one out these days. After reading through this thread a bit, I might use it some because you have revived the interest.
I also have both but admit that the display on the IPP is significantly better than the Air. When I use the Air, it’s all I notice. Because of this, I used the ipp 99 percent of the time. Does the difference in display quality bother you?An iPad Pro with the Apple Magic Keyboard works great. For everyday personal or business use, it does great. There are very few things that it cannot do for regular, everyday use.
Someone travelling with this combination can remove the keyboard to watch a movie or take in a video presentation while lying in bed. That's a solid advantage, IMHO.
However, an M1 iPad Pro with the keyboard is bigger than the M1 MacBook Air.
And an M1 iPad Pro with keyboard costs a hell of a lot more than just buying the M1 MacBook Air.
I own both, and I have not travelled with the iPad in quite a while now. My first choice is always the MacBook Air.
The iPad Pro usually stays at home and without the keyboard. I'll use it for media consumption if I got to bed early or have a problem sleeping.
But...I'll also use the iPhone 13 Pro Max for the same thing. The screen is great on this.
So at the moment, in my home, it's the iPad Pro that's the odd one out these days. After reading through this thread a bit, I might use it some because you have revived the interest.
I would not say that the MacBook Air bothers me, but I know what you are talking about and agree.
Whether that display is worth close to twice the money is something to think about.
It's just occurred to me that I was asking whether the iPad Pro w/keyboard is too much money compared to the MacBook Air, and I own both of them.
I prefer to use tablets as tablets. I have a Logitech K780 (with built-in dock) + mouse setup at my work desk (easy switch between desktop and iPad). Aside from that, I prefer to use the iPad without hardware keyboard attached so to me, the Magic Keyboard is entirely optional.
Lol, I haven't traveled in quite a while period.
For me, it depends on the travel. One week or shorter domestic or tour package vacation? 10-11" iPad only. Work related travel or 2+ weeks leisurely overseas vacation? Laptop + 10-11" iPad.
I was doing some ebook management on Calibre yesterday and I was just reminded why I don't like using laptops in bed. My legs felt so stiff after having the MacBook sitting on my lap for just a couple of hours. Meanwhile, I can toss and turn and the iPad's orientation can follow suit.
As for the iPhone, my eyes have gotten old and I now find phone screens too small. Heck, I find the iPad mini too small for comfort more often than not. *sigh* And here I used to read on the 3.5" OG iPhone with Stanza app.
I’ve had my 2021 12.9” iPad Pro + Magic Keyboard + Apple Pencil for almost 4 weeks now. It was far exceeded my expectations when it comes to being both a tablet and a laptop for me. I haven’t used my 2018 MacBook Pro for anything since I’ve gotten the new iPad setup.
As a laptop, with all the incremental improvements that iPadOS has brought over the years (Safari defaulting to desktop browser, Safari extensions, improved multitasking) plus the Magic Keyboard plus the M1 chip plus USB-C, I really find no negative differences between my MBP and this iPad. Another thing that has happened over the past few years that has made it easier to go iPad-only is the phasing out of Adobe Flash Player on the web. I still had some use cases that relied on that, and it’s nice that’s no longer a concern.
In fact, my general usage has been much improved over my MBP. The websites and tasks I do on a daily basis used to make my MBP hot, noisy, and drain the battery quickly. I always had battery anxiety literally just to do 2-3 hours of work without a charger with light usage apps like Safari, Notes, Reminders, Calendar, and Numbers. With my iPad Pro, it never even gets warm, no fans, no battery drain. In fact, battery is loads better than I was expecting. I can use it for 3 days without charging. I’ve gotten to 50% battery with 5-7 hours of screen-on time.
As a tablet, it’s been an adjustment coming from the 10.5“ iPad Pro. It is more cumbersome to use as a tablet, but I’ve gotten used to it and generally don’t find any annoyances with it. I love the modularity of being able to use it as just a tablet, as a drawing/writing/stylus tablet, or snapping it onto my MK and having an instant laptop.
I love how much better iPadOS works with iOS. There’s a lot more continuity and consistency between the devices compared to when you throw MacOS into the mix. I do casual video editing for fun, and it’s pretty incredible to shoot 4K HDR on my iPhone, have it instantly upload to iCloud Photos or use AirDrop to get it to my iPad even quicker, and then immediately begin to edit and render the 4K HDR video on an HDR screen. Video editing is smooth, quick, effortless even. The iPad doesn’t get hot, the battery lasts forever, it’s great. Even when it comes to hardware, iPads are still ahead of Mac and have been for years. The new MBPs still don’t have FaceID or center stage, and the rear cameras + LiDAR on the iPad can also be very useful tools if your workflow benefits from them. Apple hasn’t even updated Safari to take advantage of ProMotion on the $2000+ MBPs yet.
I’m keeping my MBP around for random items that might come up that I’ll need it for. I’ve been studying for some exams that require a desktop OS (Windows or macOS) to do online test proctoring, so I already know I’ll need it for that. But overall, I never expected the switch to going iPad-only to be so easy after there were still so many hurdles only a couple years ago. I can understand there are a lot of use cases out there that are more technical, niche, and require certain tools/software/workflow, but I think for the very large majority of the population (who does web browsing, email, note-taking, video editing, photo editing, drawing, casual gaming, reading, documents, etc.), the iPad Pro can now do everything you need.
I’m beyond happy with my purchase and am very excited that I’ve consolidated my devices and workflows. That’s one less device I have to upgrade every 4-5 years. My dream of having a modular iPad that can also be my laptop has finally come true.
As a laptop, with all the incremental improvements that iPadOS has brought over the years (Safari defaulting to desktop browser, Safari extensions, improved multitasking) plus the Magic Keyboard plus the M1 chip plus USB-C, I really find no negative differences between my MBP and this iPad. Another thing that has happened over the past few years that has made it easier to go iPad-only is the phasing out of Adobe Flash Player on the web. I still had some use cases that relied on that, and it’s nice that’s no longer a concern.
In fact, my general usage has been much improved over my MBP. The websites and tasks I do on a daily basis used to make my MBP hot, noisy, and drain the battery quickly. I always had battery anxiety literally just to do 2-3 hours of work without a charger with light usage apps like Safari, Notes, Reminders, Calendar, and Numbers. With my iPad Pro, it never even gets warm, no fans, no battery drain. In fact, battery is loads better than I was expecting. I can use it for 3 days without charging. I’ve gotten to 50% battery with 5-7 hours of screen-on time.
As a tablet, it’s been an adjustment coming from the 10.5“ iPad Pro. It is more cumbersome to use as a tablet, but I’ve gotten used to it and generally don’t find any annoyances with it. I love the modularity of being able to use it as just a tablet, as a drawing/writing/stylus tablet, or snapping it onto my MK and having an instant laptop.
I love how much better iPadOS works with iOS. There’s a lot more continuity and consistency between the devices compared to when you throw MacOS into the mix. I do casual video editing for fun, and it’s pretty incredible to shoot 4K HDR on my iPhone, have it instantly upload to iCloud Photos or use AirDrop to get it to my iPad even quicker, and then immediately begin to edit and render the 4K HDR video on an HDR screen. Video editing is smooth, quick, effortless even. The iPad doesn’t get hot, the battery lasts forever, it’s great. Even when it comes to hardware, iPads are still ahead of Mac and have been for years. The new MBPs still don’t have FaceID or center stage, and the rear cameras + LiDAR on the iPad can also be very useful tools if your workflow benefits from them. Apple hasn’t even updated Safari to take advantage of ProMotion on the $2000+ MBPs yet.
I’m keeping my MBP around for random items that might come up that I’ll need it for. I’ve been studying for some exams that require a desktop OS (Windows or macOS) to do online test proctoring, so I already know I’ll need it for that. But overall, I never expected the switch to going iPad-only to be so easy after there were still so many hurdles only a couple years ago. I can understand there are a lot of use cases out there that are more technical, niche, and require certain tools/software/workflow, but I think for the very large majority of the population (who does web browsing, email, note-taking, video editing, photo editing, drawing, casual gaming, reading, documents, etc.), the iPad Pro can now do everything you need.
I’m beyond happy with my purchase and am very excited that I’ve consolidated my devices and workflows. That’s one less device I have to upgrade every 4-5 years. My dream of having a modular iPad that can also be my laptop has finally come true.
Last edited:
I couldn’t have said this better. It’s everything that I have experienced as well. I believe that ipad os is more than sufficient for 75-80 percent of users, and it will only continue to get better. Outside of a couple of specific things, it’s excellent for everyday use.I’ve had my 2021 12.9” iPad Pro + Magic Keyboard + Apple Pencil for almost 4 weeks now. It was far exceeded my expectations when it comes to being both a tablet and a laptop for me. I haven’t used my 2018 MacBook Pro for anything since I’ve gotten the new iPad setup.
As a laptop, with all the incremental improvements that iPadOS has brought over the years (Safari defaulting to desktop browser, Safari extensions, improved multitasking) plus the Magic Keyboard plus the M1 chip plus USB-C, I really find no negative differences between my MBP and this iPad. Another thing that has happened over the past few years that has made it easier to go iPad-only is the phasing out of Adobe Flash Player on the web. I still had some use cases that relied on that, and it’s nice that’s no longer a concern.
In fact, my general usage has been much improved over my MBP. The websites and tasks I do on a daily basis used to make my MBP hot, noisy, and drain the battery quickly. I always had battery anxiety literally just to do 2-3 hours of work without a charger with light usage apps like Safari, Notes, Reminders, Calendar, and Numbers. With my iPad Pro, it never even gets warm, no fans, no battery drain. In fact, battery is loads better than I was expecting. I can use it for 3 days without charging. I’ve gotten to 50% battery with 5-7 hours of screen-on time.
As a tablet, it’s been an adjustment coming from the 10.5“ iPad Pro. It is more cumbersome to use as a tablet, but I’ve gotten used to it and generally don’t find any annoyances with it. I love the modularity of being able to use it as just a tablet, as a drawing/writing/stylus tablet, or snapping it onto my MK and having an instant laptop.
I love how much better iPadOS works with iOS. There’s a lot more continuity and consistency between the devices compared to when you throw MacOS into the mix. I do casual video editing for fun, and it’s pretty incredible to shoot 4K HDR on my iPhone, have it instantly upload to iCloud Photos or use AirDrop to get it to my iPad even quicker, and then immediately begin to edit and render the 4K HDR video on an HDR screen. Video editing is smooth, quick, effortless even. The iPad doesn’t get hot, the battery lasts forever, it’s great. Even when it comes to hardware, iPads are still ahead of Mac and have been for years. The new MBPs still don’t have FaceID or center stage, and the rear cameras + LiDAR on the iPad can also be very useful tools if your workflow benefits from them. Apple hasn’t even updated Safari to take advantage of ProMotion on the $2000+ MBPs yet.
I’m keeping my MBP around for random items that might come up that I’ll need it for. I’ve been studying for some exams that require a desktop OS (Windows or macOS) to do online test proctoring, so I already know I’ll need it for that. But overall, I never expected the switch to going iPad-only to be so easy after there were still so many hurdles only a couple years ago. I can understand there are a lot of use cases out there that are more technical, niche, and require certain tools/software/workflow, but I think for the very large majority of the population (who does web browsing, email, note-taking, video editing, photo editing, drawing, casual gaming, reading, documents, etc.), the iPad Pro can now do everything you need.
I’m beyond happy with my purchase and am very excited that I’ve consolidated my devices and workflows. That’s one less device I have to upgrade every 4-5 years. My dream of having a modular iPad that can also be my laptop has finally come true.
For those that are laptop super users, it really can't replace a laptop.
I tried with the iPad Air 4 with magic keyboard.
I agree for most people (low to average users) it will suffice for everyday use.
But if you're a multitasker on a laptop things get extremely difficult to switch/transition. Switching apps stops the other (music, YouTube). If you're using dedicated apps instead of on web browsers its really hard. Brave browser is full desktop with adblockers pre-installed. But it would stop (YouTube) when I switched to a different app or went to Home Screen.
My 2-cents.
I tried with the iPad Air 4 with magic keyboard.
I agree for most people (low to average users) it will suffice for everyday use.
But if you're a multitasker on a laptop things get extremely difficult to switch/transition. Switching apps stops the other (music, YouTube). If you're using dedicated apps instead of on web browsers its really hard. Brave browser is full desktop with adblockers pre-installed. But it would stop (YouTube) when I switched to a different app or went to Home Screen.
My 2-cents.
YouTube makes that choice, not iOS.
If you're paying for YouTube Premium, it continues playing while you have another application in the focus.
If you're paying for YouTube Premium, it continues playing while you have another application in the focus.
I think his point is that this doesn't happen on a laptop (or desktop). You can leave a YouTube video playing, or put it into picture in picture mode, in a full desktop web browser and do something else without it stopping, irrespective of whether you pay for YouTube Premium or not.
Similarly, I can use Sky Go (pay-TV provider in the UK) on a laptop and output to a big-screen TV via HDMI. This is great in a hotel room or on holiday. But the iPad version of the app will not allow this – external outputs are blocked.
Whether that's the fault of the app developer or not, it doesn't change the fact that the iPadOS experience is severely limited compared to the regular laptop experience.
Exactly. Some don't realize these things if they aren't power users/multitaskers.
I also noticed in the "mail" app you can't print directly from it. (or at least I could figure out how).
Last edited:
We chewed on an iPad Pro idea for a bit, then ended up buying new iPads and a Mac mini for now. They need to get the whole widescreen thing figured out. Works nice as a second screen though. iPad does the job on the road, but not at home yet…its coming though. I think we just bought the last PC for us.
What's "the whole widescreen thing" that needs to get figured out? Monitor support? Agree on that.
It's more of a band-aid, but if you use AdGuard on Safari, you can get a decent adblock feature for youtube. And I do think there's shortcuts to force PiP mode which would allow you to keep music/audio playing after you go to the homescreen. Plus, whenever I use bluetooth headphones, if I put my iPhone/iPad to sleep/go to another app, then hit the play/pause then I can keep the video playing.
It doesn't solve your problems on a fundamental level, I'll acknowledge that with no issue, but it can be worked around.
brave browser allows YouTube PiP on Home Screen and above/hover over other apps (not all) and Adblock already built in but it doesn't keep playing if you lock the iPad IIRC. FYI - I don't own the iPad anymore.
Last edited:
Fair enough. Once I knew that browsers were just modified Safari, I just stuck with Safari, especially after all of the audio oddities when you lock/go to a different app.
youtube video/playlist in Safari played as PiP continues on lock screen... playing continues although when moving PiP-window offscreen while copying several files to different locations (connected SSD, NAS, from SD card) in the background while browsing the directory tree opening e.g. PDF documents in preview - all in FE Explorer (Pro) - selecting and copying e.g. text passages from said PDFs to a Pages document in preview and then switching to Carnets plotting some data… background copying, music/video playing continous.
Heck, I can even transcode a video to MP4 in the background with MP4+ Pro, PiP continous… it would be great, if one could assign a particular output device to a particular sound source/app (so music place on the multiple room-sound system, while sound when editing video in e.g. Movie goes over the internal speakers), but playing video/music from youtube in Safari while doing something else - including locking the screen - works.
nota bene: 11” iPP 2020, iPadOS 15.1,
Heck, I can even transcode a video to MP4 in the background with MP4+ Pro, PiP continous… it would be great, if one could assign a particular output device to a particular sound source/app (so music place on the multiple room-sound system, while sound when editing video in e.g. Movie goes over the internal speakers), but playing video/music from youtube in Safari while doing something else - including locking the screen - works.
nota bene: 11” iPP 2020, iPadOS 15.1,
Settings->General->Picture in Picture->Start PiP Automatically enabled.We've got M1 iPad Pro. It's tremendous, but still PadOS limitation can't fully replace Mac Laptops.
For instance:
1. Final Cut Pro is missing. iMovie is very limited. Shooting video on iPhone at 24fps, always exported in iMovie at 30fps, why?
2. iWork is very limited:
2.1 Numbers is missing option to copy/paste special to preserve format style. You have to apply format style for each cell separately. This is unreal.
2.2 There is still no option to copy data from Excel to Numbers and vice versa, why?
3. Keynote is missing option to copy/paste special from Numbers or Pages to preserve format style. You have to apply format style for each cell separately. This is insane.
4. No option in iWork to print to pdf. Yes, there is option to export to pdf, but export and print to pdf are totally two different approaches.
5. Missing Preview application like on MacOS with full functionality.
...and so on
Yes, M1 iPad Pro is really powerful, but:
1. Battery holds only 10 hours where Mac M1 Laptops holds at least 18 hours.
2. PadOS is a major stumble block to get all the beauty from latest iPads and fully replace Mac Laptops.
For instance:
1. Final Cut Pro is missing. iMovie is very limited. Shooting video on iPhone at 24fps, always exported in iMovie at 30fps, why?
2. iWork is very limited:
2.1 Numbers is missing option to copy/paste special to preserve format style. You have to apply format style for each cell separately. This is unreal.
2.2 There is still no option to copy data from Excel to Numbers and vice versa, why?
3. Keynote is missing option to copy/paste special from Numbers or Pages to preserve format style. You have to apply format style for each cell separately. This is insane.
4. No option in iWork to print to pdf. Yes, there is option to export to pdf, but export and print to pdf are totally two different approaches.
5. Missing Preview application like on MacOS with full functionality.
...and so on
Yes, M1 iPad Pro is really powerful, but:
1. Battery holds only 10 hours where Mac M1 Laptops holds at least 18 hours.
2. PadOS is a major stumble block to get all the beauty from latest iPads and fully replace Mac Laptops.
Last edited:
Actually Brave browser works fine with YouTube making the video pip when doing something else/going into Home Screen
I've finally making the move to the iPad M1 full time. Even questioning whether I should get the M1 Max 16".
I have to say though, it works with using it with a Raspberry PI 4 dongle.
My use case is full stack web development. I previously lugged a 12" Macbook and a Thinkpad as my personal gear because I can't be using personal side stuff on my work issued 16" Macbook and I dont want to carry my second 15" Macbook as it would be heavy. So I relied on the 12 macbook. But I am a state where I've moved my entire workflow over to Docker / Kubernetes. That is where the Raspberry PI comes in. There are tutorial's on how to set one up as a dongle - the iPad using a single cable that powers it and has all the bridge networking. It is basically like running a VM.
So I use my iPad Pro & RPI (Raspberry PI) to fire up docker containers to work on certain projects. The excercise was inevitable as we are moving over to M1 Macs (ARM) and want to make sure our apps work with ARM images vs x86. Having done this, I can fire up things like MongoDB, NodeJS, MySQL/MariaDB and even old PHP apps. I can have a full web app running airgapped. ipad ->RasberryPI with no internet connection.
I use Working Tree (GIT) and ShellFish SSH. By the same dev. So I can SSH into raspberrypi.local , it mounts the SSH connection inside Files. I can write a docker-compose file and copy over and run it on the PI. And if I dont have the Raspberry PI around, I can just SSH into an AWS ec2 instance, do a git pull and have a temporary working environment. So using GIT and containers, I am not tied to a single machine. I can probably do this with a chromebook. It is a liberating thing to work on the iPad. Commit code, push to git. Go to my desktop and pull down changes. If I need to fire something up, just git pull. docker-compose up -d. and go to raspberrypi.local in the browser.
USB-C, I am getting a lot of mileage out of this. I have projects and every on usb sticks. There are apps that allow me to sync my files and again, docker compose up and I am working.
Did I have to change a workflow? A little bit. Every developer should be using version control. And containerized workflows are the da-bomb. I now even imaged my raspberryPI setup as .img that I can quickly provision another PI if I need. It takes 15 seconds to boot up.
And another added bonus. Using the iPad is very discreet. No one even knows I am using it as a personal dev machine. It is another thing to pull out another laptop at your 9-5 job.
I have to say though, it works with using it with a Raspberry PI 4 dongle.
My use case is full stack web development. I previously lugged a 12" Macbook and a Thinkpad as my personal gear because I can't be using personal side stuff on my work issued 16" Macbook and I dont want to carry my second 15" Macbook as it would be heavy. So I relied on the 12 macbook. But I am a state where I've moved my entire workflow over to Docker / Kubernetes. That is where the Raspberry PI comes in. There are tutorial's on how to set one up as a dongle - the iPad using a single cable that powers it and has all the bridge networking. It is basically like running a VM.
So I use my iPad Pro & RPI (Raspberry PI) to fire up docker containers to work on certain projects. The excercise was inevitable as we are moving over to M1 Macs (ARM) and want to make sure our apps work with ARM images vs x86. Having done this, I can fire up things like MongoDB, NodeJS, MySQL/MariaDB and even old PHP apps. I can have a full web app running airgapped. ipad ->RasberryPI with no internet connection.
I use Working Tree (GIT) and ShellFish SSH. By the same dev. So I can SSH into raspberrypi.local , it mounts the SSH connection inside Files. I can write a docker-compose file and copy over and run it on the PI. And if I dont have the Raspberry PI around, I can just SSH into an AWS ec2 instance, do a git pull and have a temporary working environment. So using GIT and containers, I am not tied to a single machine. I can probably do this with a chromebook. It is a liberating thing to work on the iPad. Commit code, push to git. Go to my desktop and pull down changes. If I need to fire something up, just git pull. docker-compose up -d. and go to raspberrypi.local in the browser.
USB-C, I am getting a lot of mileage out of this. I have projects and every on usb sticks. There are apps that allow me to sync my files and again, docker compose up and I am working.
Did I have to change a workflow? A little bit. Every developer should be using version control. And containerized workflows are the da-bomb. I now even imaged my raspberryPI setup as .img that I can quickly provision another PI if I need. It takes 15 seconds to boot up.
And another added bonus. Using the iPad is very discreet. No one even knows I am using it as a personal dev machine. It is another thing to pull out another laptop at your 9-5 job.
I basically use the same tech as my kids that are in college: 2020 iPhone SE + 2020 MBA. My needs pretty much fall into traditional home and office applications, so I have yet to run into something I can't handle with this simple combo.
I bought an iPad last year with the idea of using it as a laptop replacement. By the time I bought the keyboard case and pencil, it cost about the same as an MBA. But, all I succeeded in doing was turn a good tablet into a mediocre laptop, which didn't make much sense to me. Now, the iPad pretty much sits in the cupboard and only gets out for vacations.
Everyone's use case is different, so YMMV.
I bought an iPad last year with the idea of using it as a laptop replacement. By the time I bought the keyboard case and pencil, it cost about the same as an MBA. But, all I succeeded in doing was turn a good tablet into a mediocre laptop, which didn't make much sense to me. Now, the iPad pretty much sits in the cupboard and only gets out for vacations.
Everyone's use case is different, so YMMV.