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iPad as a laptop replacement
- Thread starter Omar Comin' Yo
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I've tried it, and I can tell you that it's much more convenient to use a laptop than an iPad.
For me, the opposite is true. The M1 iPad Air is much, much faster than a Windows PC similarly priced. I do my architectural research, maintain my websites, maintain a handful of personal spreadsheets (bank register, some health tracking spreadsheets, etc.), organize and store both personal and professional photography, compose articles, the list goes on. What you say is definitely true - for you and many others. But there are a lot of people, including myself, that have replaced our desktops and/or laptop computers with iPads.
I used to write large, complicated Excel workbooks for Greyhound Lines Food Service, to track each unit’s P&L (profitability). The workbooks would have 10 or 11 pages (spreadsheets) to keep track of labor cost, food cost percentages, and all other controllable and uncontrollable cost areas, including income. The workbook would generate an accurate P&L statement for each unit. My current M1 iPad definitely could not have done that - no way, no how - but those were different times. But now, when my computer work is much simpler, the iPad is a perfect PC. I think the answer to the question (iPad as a PC replacement) depends completely on its users purpose.
That maybe your subjective experience, but I can tell you, I am one of the iPad users that replaced their laptop, and now with iPadOS 16.2 and Stage Manager, it's getting desktop love also. You can read the full story here.
My M1 iPad Pro 11 replaced my MBP in Nov. 2021 for use in my real estate and property management business and totally streamlined my workflow, reduced steps I had to take, and made work a lot more fun. It is so much easier, convenient, and more intuitive to use the iPad for the work I do. In fact, I would go so far as to say, in my opinion the laptop is limiting and cumbersome compared to the iPad Pro for the type of work I do. I work with contracts, forms, docs, pdf's, take a huge amount of notes, sketch house dimensions, take pictures, communicate(messages and email), and do a bunch of scanning. Working with documents, pdf's, contracts, and forms is so much easier for me. Editing, marking up, and then sending to clients is all done within the app, and reduces the amount of steps it takes to communicate. The iPad also reduced the amount of hardware devices I needed, and condensed them all into one really portable device that actually makes my work more easy and convenient. I am 62 and have used Macs and PC's for going on 40 years now, and for some reason using an iPad and iPadOS is just something I get. I have really enjoyed using my iPad as my main device this past year, and it makes me feel good at my age, that I was able to pick the iPad up, and just run with it. Pretty cool to have something you love using for both mobile and desktop.
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I picked up an iPad (Air 5) on sale on Black Friday, not opening it until Christmas.
I am excited about it for a lot of reasons, but for one I really want to start editing photos on it vs. my old iMac.
Unfortunately, the app that I really like and use almost 100% of the time is Luminar AI- it doesn't have an iPad app and looks like it never will. So, this means I'll have to start using something different (looking at Pixelmator Photo, which seems very similar, minus a few of the additional creative tricks that Luminar AI has). I will just have to move images over to my iMac for anything additional that I want to do that is available in Luminar that I can't do in Pixelmator or whatever other app I choose for the iPad.
Otherwise, I have gone over what I do on my iMac, and honestly the iPad will cover the rest 100%.... I suppose the 1TB of storage that I have on the iMac will be the other benefit that device has over the iPad.
But that's OK I suppose, as the iMac isn't going anywhere, I'll be keeping it for the rest of its life- and I'll likely move images to it after working with them on the iPad for storage.
I am excited about it for a lot of reasons, but for one I really want to start editing photos on it vs. my old iMac.
Unfortunately, the app that I really like and use almost 100% of the time is Luminar AI- it doesn't have an iPad app and looks like it never will. So, this means I'll have to start using something different (looking at Pixelmator Photo, which seems very similar, minus a few of the additional creative tricks that Luminar AI has). I will just have to move images over to my iMac for anything additional that I want to do that is available in Luminar that I can't do in Pixelmator or whatever other app I choose for the iPad.
Otherwise, I have gone over what I do on my iMac, and honestly the iPad will cover the rest 100%.... I suppose the 1TB of storage that I have on the iMac will be the other benefit that device has over the iPad.
But that's OK I suppose, as the iMac isn't going anywhere, I'll be keeping it for the rest of its life- and I'll likely move images to it after working with them on the iPad for storage.
Using OneDrive or another cloud-based service takes care of providing quick and convenient access to files when computing with an iPad.
Yeah, thanks- I am trying to figure out what the best course of action will be on that.
I work in IT and so I know my way around this stuff, but oddly I have been averse to using much cloud storage up to this point. I plug my DSLR into my iMac after a photography outing, and I browse through the images via "preview" to find the few that I want to move forward with editing.
I then copy those images over to a folder on the iMac and do my editing. Once I am finished, I save them specifically in a folder that is dated/labeled appropriately...
I keep both the final edited images as well as the original RAW images from those pictures in that folder, and then save backups of them on an external SSD for redundancy.
Where cloud storage comes in is that I also upload most if not all of the final edited images to Amazon Photos (since I have unlimited storage of images as a part of my Amazon Prime membership), and I keep them there mostly for browsing as my final product gallery, and for sharing via social media.
However for full-on cloud storage of larger numbers of files, or even documents- I have never really looked into OneDrive or something similar, partly due to being cheap and figuring I was just as well off to save the files locally on my iMac and back them up on my external drive.
However with the iPad, it does seem I'll have to change my process- especially since I just bought the base 64GB model.
EDIT:
I see that along with the unlimited photo storage, I also have 5GB of other file storage available with Amazon as a part of my Prime membership- I guess that is where I can start until I determine how much more space I might need and what service to use.
Thanks for the discussion!
How about a USB-C SSD for use with your iPad? That's my preferred offline store for my iPads as I travel a lot to places with poor or no Internet access so I never rely on the cloud.
Yeah, fortunately the new one I just bought is USB-C (500GB SSD, small enough to fit in my pocket). It seems that is going to get some use once I start using the iPad.
I know a lot of the discussion here is around whether or not to use an iPad Pro or maybe a late model Air as a laptop replacement.... but depending on the use case, are there any out there who are using a "regular" iPad as a laptop replacement- such as a 9th or even 10th gen?
I mentioned above buying an Air 5th gen, but I also just picked up a 10th gen iPad because it was on sale at Costco for $389 (and I got another $20 or so off with reward points)- and having not opened either yet, I will be returning one of them once a decision is made.
My usage would not be very heavy- documents, online banking, maybe a couple of light spreadsheets on Google Drive, social media, web browsing, and photo editing using Affinity Photo or Pixelmator. Not heavy batch editing, but just one photo at a time editing....
The A14 processor I know is very close to the M1 for single core, which is what I think all of my above examples would really be using- but the 4GB RAM is a bit of an unknown for me, how much it would really matter when using one app at a time like this, or even if I had two open side by side on occasion when working with a basic spreadsheet and a document or a web browser, as an example.
Do any of you out there truly use a non-Pro iPad as essentially a laptop replacement, or is that thought mostly reserved for those that have a Pro?
I mentioned above buying an Air 5th gen, but I also just picked up a 10th gen iPad because it was on sale at Costco for $389 (and I got another $20 or so off with reward points)- and having not opened either yet, I will be returning one of them once a decision is made.
My usage would not be very heavy- documents, online banking, maybe a couple of light spreadsheets on Google Drive, social media, web browsing, and photo editing using Affinity Photo or Pixelmator. Not heavy batch editing, but just one photo at a time editing....
The A14 processor I know is very close to the M1 for single core, which is what I think all of my above examples would really be using- but the 4GB RAM is a bit of an unknown for me, how much it would really matter when using one app at a time like this, or even if I had two open side by side on occasion when working with a basic spreadsheet and a document or a web browser, as an example.
Do any of you out there truly use a non-Pro iPad as essentially a laptop replacement, or is that thought mostly reserved for those that have a Pro?
I cannot speak for those who use regular iPad as laptop replacement, but my approach has always been its dictated on the user. It's not a situation where its universal, if the iPad works for you as a laptop replacement... no one should tell you otherwise.
You really shouldn't worry about the RAM... unless you are a heavy Safari tab user. You can easily get by interacting with apps in SplitView/SlideOver scenarios.
I'd say go with the regular iPad 10th gen, get you a keyboard and go for it... we are here to answer any questions.
Thanks! Yeah as you can see I'm all over the place as I debate this with both models being on sale at this time.
But I appreciate the comments, and the reassurance that 4GB RAM should be no problem in my use-case.
I appreciate it!
It's no problem at all. You want to be well informed before committing to it, I completely understand.Thanks! Yeah as you can see I'm all over the place as I debate this with both models being on sale at this time.
But I appreciate the comments, and the reassurance that 4GB RAM should be no problem in my use-case.
I appreciate it!
Using an iPad as laptop replacement is something that has not been fully accepted, hence... why there's a huge thread discussing the subject.
Yeah, definitely. And for me I do still have a 5 year old iMac that I can use when I absolutely need a MacOS device, so I won't be trying to move to this truly being my only computing device.... I am just hoping to really move to it being my "laptop" that does almost everything that I would have done on a laptop or on my iMac- which it appears I'll be able to aside from one app I like to use for photo editing that is not available on the iPad (Luminar AI).... but there are a couple of other products out there that I will look at for the iPad, and it should be a good experience using a Pencil during photo editing.
But yes, this thread has been interesting, some great discussion. Thank you again!
I've been using Affinity Photo for about a year, and recently upgraded to Affinity Photo 2. It is an excellent photo editor for the iPad. Reminds me a lot of Photoshop which is what I use on my Mac Mini.
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Since I got the Magic Keyboard for my 2020 12.9", I barely touch my MBP. I don't do a whole lot with it though. Mostly just content browsing, email, and some light word processing. I actually find iPad OS easier and nicer to use for those purposes.
Thanks for sharing! Do you do most of your photo editing, then, on the iPad?
One thing I really like with Luminar AI is that I can use the AI improvement option to get my image 80% of the way there so to speak, and then just make tweaks from there- making it a quick and simple process for someone like me who is not well versed in all the minutia of making granular edits like someone would do in Photoshop or Lightroom.
Is Affinity Photo similar with the auto adjustments that work really well and you can just tweak from there? Or is it a much more manual process?
That is the thing I like about Affinity Photo. It has auto features, or you can do as much manual editing as you want. I do most of my photo editing on my iPad, some on my phone, and some on my Mac Mini. Affinity Photo is only $11.99, whereas Pixelmator is subscription based, or you can pay a one time of $55.00.
Ah great, glad to hear that it has the auto adjustment options as well.
I was looking at that, seeing the price is $12 right now- that is not bad at all for what looks like a really deep desktop-type of app for the iPad! I think I will seriously look into buying this one.
I like Pixelmator Photo from what I have been able to tell from the reviews and from testing it out on kiosk ipads at the store- but that $55 one-time fee is pretty high. I like the simplicity of Pixelmator and how seemingly advanced the machine learning auto adjustment options are, but I will look at giving Affinity Photo a serious look- that price difference is pretty stark.
Thanks!
Never really been an Affinity Photo user up until recently when they came out with version 2... relied more on other photo editing apps to get by. But I've always been an Affinity Designer user though, bought both v2 of Photo & Designer for the iPad.
I'm kind of disappointed in Pixelmator lack of dedication to the iPad platform, they released a new update for the Mac... but there's no word on a new iPad version. I like the way Affinity did their upgrade process... they updated Windows, Mac and iPad. Seems to me Affinity is going to be the defacto photo and designer choice for the iPad.
Nice- so I assume Affinity on the iPad is- for all intents and purposes- the same full-fledged app that exists on Mac?
I will have to buy before the $12 price goes up, or they jump on the unfortunate subscription bandwagon that so many others have gone to.
That is correct. It is not scaled down version… only differences between them is the UI since the iPad is a touch-first device.
Yeah, should definitely purchase it... highly recommend it. But they do seem hell bent on trying to avoid the subscription bandwagon, however.. the price will go up once the sale is over. I didn’t need a 30 day trial… I wanted to support Affinity given how they rolled out their release (including the iPad).
Yeah, great call!
I technically won't have my iPad out of the box until Christmas, but I assume if I buy it on my iPhone via the app store, that will lock in my purchase (no difference buying it from a phone or an iPad, I'll be buying the same version I assume?)
Sorry for all the questions!
I agree with you, for that price, I would rather just buy it and support the developers instead of nit-picking and doing a 30 day trial to determine if it's worthy of spending that small amount of money.Umm... it's an iPad only app, so I'm not sure you could purchase it from the iPhone (I could be wrong though).
But I highly doubt the sale goes out after Christmas... due to people gifting iPads, I think Affinity will have their sale all the way up until New Year's (don't quote me on that lol).