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
I don't have a laptop, just an iMac. Well, until yesterday when I took delivery of a 12.9" iPad Pro and a Magic Keyboard. Feels like the best of both worlds but early days.
For work I'm on Win10 with HP EliteBook 840 G5 that takes most of my computing hours.
Personal I'm strickly on iOS iPhone 12 mini soon to be 13 mini and iPadOS 11" M1 iPad Pro.
For emails, signatures to PDFs, browsing picture editing is pretty fine. Learning drawing from a real basic beginnings (I'm not creative minded/skilled). I do suggest checking out ALL videos from Christopher Lawley on youtube, very helpful for iPadOS only tips/apps/reviews habits and work around.
IF you're used to Windows/Linux/macOS and have for decades the iPad as a main device has limitations that will creep-up and 'may' affect your day to day needs. BUT if what you choose to do now vs down the road works, then go for it.
I would like to add, that most of those “limitations” are actually just habits formed. iPad is way more comfortable and capable to use, than most of the critics propose it is. I often like to ask - so, if you think iPad is not capable enought, what is it you find impossible to do with it. And often, if not always - people just repeat the old saying ‘well it just is’, but rarely offer real answers - as to - why ? Now, so far, whenever I asked this question, the best, and most conclusive answer is this - iPad is not a suitable device if your work involves multiple different windows of content at the same time. Most use cases, actually dont require this, so for a vast majority of cases, iPadOS seems to be perfectly capable. Yet, for those, like @rui no onna that really need to open more than one, or more than two documents and look at them simultaneously (so on the same screen at the same time, at once, next to each other) iPad is not, and probbably will never be a suitable device. Not for that type of work anyway.
Althou, its a big question, if laptop is suitable for that type of work as well.
You can use a dock for the laptop for connecting multiple monitors and peripherals and it will function the same way as a desktop.
Standalone, the laptop is not ideal but it's usable enough on 15" (although I admit I've been eyeing the LG gram 17 series).
Honestly, I've never heard someone say "well is just is" when confronted with that question. Most of them provide real answers.
From my experience, the real issues are as thus:
No command line interface (terminal) - Without this, web development becomes nearly impossible with many modern frameworks. Also makes IT work harder because nothing can be automated via scripts on iPads.
Cannot run VMs (for some of the work I do this is highly necessary)
No local file manager/finder
Restricted apps - for instance if I wanted to check ajax response as a web developer I'd use chrome tools, iPad has Chrome, but no dev tools (aside from viewing JS console logs @ chrome://inspect)
External Monitor support - still can't get the 16:9/16:10 aspect ratio on iPad's that are connected to an external monitor. You're forced to use 4:3 which wastes valuable screen real-estate.
Limited port selection
Multitasking has always been more challenging (for me) on iPads, always less productive mostly due to the inherit restrictions iPad's propose.
If your iPad works for you, right on. It certainly doesn't work for everyone.
Although I agree with a lot of what you said, I do not believe it is quite yet a majority that can get by the iPadOS limitations, but probably a large minority. There are many people in the professional world that need software that just doesn't exist for the iPad. Also the lack of external monitor support and multiple windows is just a no go for many. Programs running and doing their jobs in the background is missing also. My wife is an electronic engineer that uses Windows software for testing and running simulations that just don't exist for the iPad. There are many reasons that the iPad won't work for many different professions unfortunately. The good news is that many of these people can use the iPad as a secondary or companion device, and hopefully not too far in the future be able to use it more for a primary device. I am just happy the use case for my real estate businesses allows me to use my iPP as my primary computer. It is my favorite Apple device and I just have a lot of fun using it for both my business and personal life. I am one of the lucky ones.
Last edited:
I have added numbers so I can address some of the issues.
1. I do web developement myself, and in my case what I do is I use iSH (alpine linux VM) for commandline access, or I SSH into a staging / development server. I also like the closedness of iPadOS (harder to mess it up), but thats just a preference.
2. I can using UTM, but since iPad is ARM based it runs Windows for ARM for instance.. *(It certainly cant run Docker which is something you might want to do anyway). What you can do as a workaround here, is use JumpDesktop to RemoteDesktop into a VM that you have set up somewhere else. (this is offcourse if you value portability of the iPad, if not, laptop works better for this)
3. Why do people still claim this, as its demonstrably false? And has been for a couple years now. Why do you claim that?
4. Do any of theese apps help? ‘HTTP Request Analysis’ , ’Web Inspect’ , ‘HTTP Bot’ , ‘HTTPTraffic’?
5. This is not quite true. 16:9 , 16:10 is actually supported by the system , but unsupported by most apps. There are however apps that work as you would expect with that ratio. So it seems to be up to App developers to implement this properly (Apple Apps included) and not a system limitation.
6. Not really?
(https://www.amazon.com/AWSHYC-Docking-Station-Multiport-Ethernet/dp/B09BFP4P48)
7. Multitasking is way faster on iPad than on a desktop for me. (and I am super fast on both). Are you sure you are familiar enough with how multitasking on iPad works? Do you have muscle memory for it, so that your fingers can be quick enough? There are tasks however that are faster on a desktop that involve multitasking, but on avereage, I’d say iPad‘s way of multitasking is faster / more convinient for me. (It might be up to preference as well)
8. For sure! It’s certainly not for - literally everyone - nor should it be. There are multiple diferent devices to fit everyoens need acordingly. I also hope my answers helped clear some of the confusion, and revealed some new information as to how iPad can be used to achieve various different purposes.
Last edited:
My son is a college student, and he uses a MBA ($850) plus a simple 21.5in 1080p monitor ($125) that he connects to when he is studying in his room off campus. He often writes papers and creates spreadsheets using multiple documents as reference. So, this setup works best for him. Of course, he can take the MBA anywhere if he needs to study in the Library or meet up with other students for projects. For notes, he typically just uses a good old fashion paper notebook. Although, he will sometimes take a picture of important notes so he has them on his phone and laptop....but, I think that's rare.
I have asked him about going to the iPad + Desktop combo. He has no desire. First of all, the iPad with MKB and pencil would cost more than the MBA. And then, he would need to get a desktop computer for multitasking and spreadsheet intensive assignments.....so, that would add to the expense.
I am sure there are college students that make the iPad + Desktop combo work. But, my son believes it would be an unnecessary complication for his needs.
I have asked him about going to the iPad + Desktop combo. He has no desire. First of all, the iPad with MKB and pencil would cost more than the MBA. And then, he would need to get a desktop computer for multitasking and spreadsheet intensive assignments.....so, that would add to the expense.
I am sure there are college students that make the iPad + Desktop combo work. But, my son believes it would be an unnecessary complication for his needs.
Last edited:
The local Files App on iPadOS has come a long way and is actually very usable. It may not be Finder or Windows Explorer but it works well. It is what I use for file management on my iPad Pro. There are some 3rd party apps like Tonido and FileBrowser that I also like, but the native Files App has come a long way and it is what I use most now.
A little video I just made on my iPad Pro
So number 3 was “3. No local file manager/finder”.
Files app is a local / cloud / remote file manager/finder.
No problem! We are here to share knowledge
EDIT: I see now that @bondr006 has already answered that, and even provided a very useful video!
Thank you! I am certainly no YouTuber but I love using my iPad Pro. It is so cool to be able to easily make a tutorial video on the iPad and send it to the internet in one smooth session. It is just fun to do stuff with it, whether work or play. I am serious when I say after 30 years of using Apple stuff, it is my all time favorite Apple device. I am excited at the possibilities of where this thing can go, though sometimes just a little impatient waiting for Apple to get it to where I want it. I had the first iPad 12 years ago and was excited then. I remember sitting glued to the computer watching the keynote when Steve introduced it. It has come a long way. Shoot, I remember the first iPhoneOS. There was no App store, and no third party apps. Just the native apps back then. Wow! Just mind blowing what it has turned in to. Now not only do I have the best tablet computer on the market, I have the best hand held pocket computer also. I like tech in general, but I love tech that just works and exists in an eco system that is unparalleled.
Last edited:
I don’t know, seems like you have to hate absolutely everything to be a tech YouTuber these days. 😂😂
As much as I would probably enjoy doing that, my life is just way too busy. I will be happy to make them once in awhile if the need arises. Thank you for your encouragement though!😊
@The Clark I made a follow up to the first one showing some more functionality in the iPad Files App. Posting both here for convenience. Thank you for looking!🙏
Last edited:
These are useful videos. Good job. I currently have a standard iPad and an M1 MacBook Air and would like to eventually get down to only one device.
Simplification, minimalism, and financial economy. While I can afford to purchase a laptop and iPad, I have no interest in giving more money to Apple than I need to.
I understand the first two reasons so long as an iPad meets all of your needs. Not sure I get the last one.
- Base MBA 256GB ($1,000) + iPad ($329) = $1,329
- iPad Pro 12.9 256GB ($1,200) + MKB ($350) = $1,550
I have no interest in purchasing an iPad Pro and the overpriced and poor material quality (according to some owners) MKB.
So a third party BT keyboard and standard iPad only? Or iPad Air? Having a <11” iPad as one’s only device is some serious minimalism, especially on a tech forum! Respect ✊
Gonna use pencil too?
Or do you have a desktop too? Still pretty good minimalism not going with Pro.
Understand. You will be working with less screen real estate but that might work for you. We all have different needs.
Yeah. I must say that I tried this kind of serious minimalism (Base iPad + Logitech K380 KB), and it was very frustrating for me. My needs are not particularly complex.... pretty typical (Mail, Safari, MS Office/iWork, FaceTime, Photos, etc). I went back to an MBA as my primary driver. It just seemed so much easier.
As for cost, I got my MBA for $900. I usually keep my laptops for about 6 years and recycle it, that's $150/yr or less than $3/week, which is less than the cost of a typical cup of coffee at Starbuck. That's a pretty good value for a very useful device.