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iPad as a laptop replacement
- Thread starter Omar Comin' Yo
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Depends.
During lectures, I typically typed my notes in the Notes app. The cool thing is that I am able to use my iPhone to scan text and copy from the slides, sync them over to my iPad via continuity and paste them directly into the notes app.
In the first week, when one of the professors gave a huge overview about the course we were taking (which took 3 days), I mapped everything into one giant document in the freeform app, though it's a very massive document that's noticeably taxing my 2018 iPad Pro (could be a ram limitation). I quite like this app because it has nicer options for annotating compared to the notes app.
For my readings, I store all my notes in OneDrive, and read them using the pdf viewer, where I can underline and highlight key words as necessary. I then use the mindnode app to create mind maps to better made sense of what I am reading.
It was during this time that stage manager showed its worth. I could have files, notes and mindnode all open at the same time.
The caveat is that my notes are scattered amongst multiple apps, but right now, I don't really know if any one app that does everything well, and it's nicer and neater than if I just tried to write everything down in a notebook. But at least they are there for if I ever need to go back to review them.
I wanted to provide a quick update following my previous post in this thread. After the announcement of the M3 MacBook Air, I managed to secure a fantastic deal on a brand new M2 MacBook Air 15.3. I've had the opportunity to thoroughly test it out, and I've made the decision to keep it.
In light of this, I've also decided to sell my iPad Pro 12.9 (2020) and move away from trying to make it a full laptop replacement. While I remain optimistic about the continuous improvements to iPadOS by Apple, I'm skeptical about the willingness of developers like Microsoft or Google to enhance their apps to meet my needs fully. Moreover, I've found that my graphic design requirements are adequately met by connecting a graphics tablet to the MacBook, eliminating the necessity for the iPad.
As someone who has been an avid iPad user since the iPad 2 era, it feels somewhat strange to let go of my efforts to make it a complete laptop substitute, and go without an iPad entirely now. Nevertheless, I firmly believe that this MacBook Air fulfils all my requirements in terms of screen size, weight, and capabilities, making it the device I've been waiting for all along.
In light of this, I've also decided to sell my iPad Pro 12.9 (2020) and move away from trying to make it a full laptop replacement. While I remain optimistic about the continuous improvements to iPadOS by Apple, I'm skeptical about the willingness of developers like Microsoft or Google to enhance their apps to meet my needs fully. Moreover, I've found that my graphic design requirements are adequately met by connecting a graphics tablet to the MacBook, eliminating the necessity for the iPad.
As someone who has been an avid iPad user since the iPad 2 era, it feels somewhat strange to let go of my efforts to make it a complete laptop substitute, and go without an iPad entirely now. Nevertheless, I firmly believe that this MacBook Air fulfils all my requirements in terms of screen size, weight, and capabilities, making it the device I've been waiting for all along.
Good to read you have found a good solution and a great deal!
(But I keep writing with my pencil, while browsing via 5G and reading documents, papers and magazines in portrait.
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This thread actually reminded me I have a MacBook Pro honestly lol. I used it last Monday just for a job interview because of the landscape camera, and I wanted it make sure it looked like I was looking directly at the camera.
Other than that, I use my iPad 90% of the time. In my personal case, I think the experience is better with most things than using a laptop. But that's just my personal opinion based on my circumstances.
Other than that, I use my iPad 90% of the time. In my personal case, I think the experience is better with most things than using a laptop. But that's just my personal opinion based on my circumstances.
At the end of the day, what truly matters is your satisfaction and how well a device meets your needs. After 230 pages of discussion, everyone has their own subjective perspective on whether the iPad can serve as a laptop replacement. However, it boils down to your individual requirements, wants, and happiness. Don’t let anyone diminish your enjoyment or satisfaction with your chosen device.
When I bought the iPad Pro back in 2020, a 15.3-inch MacBook Air didn’t even exist. Through my own subjective experience, I’ve found it to be the more preferable device for my specific use case. Nevertheless, that certainly doesn’t negate someone choosing the iPad Pro as their primary device.
Do you really think an iPad can replace a laptop? That is, replace the MacBook? To do so, it has to run macOS.
Windows (or Linux) runs on any touch screen laptop or tablet with a detachable keyboard. Because they run the same OS - macOS and iPadOS are not the same.
Windows (or Linux) runs on any touch screen laptop or tablet with a detachable keyboard. Because they run the same OS - macOS and iPadOS are not the same.
Isn't that exactly the point and basis of this entire 230 page discussion?!?
The basic conclusion? Your answer depends on YOU and YOUR use cases.
Yes! Absolutely! Been there, done that!
Give that man a medal! Most profound statement I’ve seen today.
Thank you for letting me know that the last two years of having fun running my real estate business with my M1 iPad Pro 11, have really been a fruitless waste of my time.
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You are one of a kind. I've read your posts on this matter. You have a nice setup, at least your attached images show. But, iPadOS is not macOS, so an iPad can't run/act as a laptop/desktop computer. A laptop/MacBook is a condensed desktop computer, even if you can carry it around. An iPad is not. Apple has many OSs, but they are not equal to each other. Each OS runs on a given Apple device, but won't run on the other Apple device.Thank you for letting me know that the last two years of having fun running my real estate business with my M1 iPad Pro 11, have really been a fruitless waste of my time.
Again with Mac OS is not iPad OS? Thinking we’re in a Mac forum and we all know this very well the differences between the two.
As for me being one of a kind,
I know not everyone can do this or even wants to. I know some that use their iPads in harmony with their mbp’s. And then there are many that just use their iPads for consumption. Every one of these is ok and acceptable usage of an iPad.
To make blanket statements according to “your experience”, and think your opinion is a fit for everyone is arrogant. You do you, and let the rest of us do us. Speaking in absolutes only works when relating your own experience, and tends to rile the natives. One guy in another thread even went as far a say that, "The amount of people who come here and use Apple's marketing and/or their own lofty ideas of what a tablet should be as their "excuse" for buying a tablet to do laptop work is quite literally insane". Stuff like this is unacceptable.
I am glad I didn’t listen to the people like you and him that told me I was wasting my time and it couldn’t be done without a lot of trade offs. Well, my work flow is less, and work itself is just more fun with an iPad, again..."for me". Thinking I’ll keep doing what I’m doing and keep sharing “my experience”.
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Well, it is a tablet that can look like a desktop computer with an external monitor connected to it though a hub, but it won't ever be a desktop computer. It just can't run a desktop computer OS, which is in this case, macOS.
Windows and Linux can run on tablets with an attached keyboard or not, with the same OS that would run on a standard boxed desktop computer or on a laptop. Apple's macOS can't run on a tablet.
It is not an opinion. It is experience. I have run Windows 11 and lot of Linux distros on tablets. The same desktop OS.
I have/had some German Tablets/2 in 1 with detached keyboards from Medion and Trekstor, on both Linux and Windows. I still have a Samsung Galaxy S5e that ran full Ubuntu (and some other Linuxes) on it those days until the end of Android 9. It has an option called DeX. The tab, by itself acts like a computer. All you have to connect an external monitor to have a desktop computer. You can have two screens, one on the tablet, one on the monitor, or the tablet can act as the touch keyboard. DeX means desktop experience. Now, all Galaxy tabs do that. Apple iPad can only run iPadOS, not the (same) macOS.
I'm keeping that Samsung Galaxy S5e with me, because it was the first tab to come with DeX. It runs a full desktop. Linux and Windows runs desktop OSs in the so-called Windows tablets.
Well, when I set mine on top of my desk, hook it to an external monitor, BT keyboard, and BT trackpad...it's a...here it comes...desktop computer running "full iPad OS", and I use it as such. When I put it in the Logitech Combo Touch and set it on my lap, it's my....here it comes again...laptop mobile computer running "full iPad OS", and I use it as such. Doesn't make either any less valid, just a different OS on the lap or desk.
It's definitely an experience that pertains to only you. Not everyone needs or wants Mac OS, Windows, or Linux on their laptop or desktop. Doesn't make the iPad any less of what you want it to be, or use it for....as long as it works for you. I use it as a desktop and laptop device when I want to. Now, it doesn't replace my Mac Mini, but it definitely replaced my 2019 16" i9 MBP, and I've never looked back. To me, and the work I do, the iPad cuts my workflow, is more flexible, intuitive, and useful than a laptop could ever be.
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When you put it that way, the Galaxy Tab S5e would do the same stuff with newest Android on it, external monitor and all. Word, Excel online, or Google sheets, take high quality photos, play music from 4 speakers, send everything to cloud. And, most importantly weigh less, just 380grams. 👌
Must take it from the drawer to play with it this weekend. 😊
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I decided to replace my MBP with an MBA and had a few days in between returning the former and receiving the latter, so I’ve been using my M2 IPP 11” hooked up to my external monitor with Apple keyboard and trackpad connected. In a pinch this did work for productivity using Asana, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Safari, TickTick, and OneDrive apps. I was even able to stream music from Roon while working.
However this was far from an ideal setup. There were many small annoyances, like in Asana when I wanted to tag another user the system populates a drop down menu with suggestions. On a Mac I can press the down arrow key to highlight each suggestion and press enter when I’m on the one I want. On iPad pressing the down arrow key didn’t register on this dropdown menu so I was forced to use the mouse to select it. That’s just one example and there were many small things like that. They all added up to a more frustrating experience for me than macOS. And while stage manager has come a long way, it’s still not as intuitive as I would like.
Then there were bigger issues. I had one meeting through Google Meet and for some reason the windows showing each participant would go grey or freeze randomly, forcing me to turn off their image feed and turn it back on again. It’s possible this was more of a Google Meet issue than an iPad issue (I don’t know why anyone willingly uses Google Meet), but I don’t recall ever having that particular issue on macOS.
So I have a bit more favorable view of the iPad as a sole computing device than I did before. It can be done, but it wasn’t a particularly superlative experience. Now if my workflow consisted less of standard office work and more with things like multimedia, I could easily see the iPad being the better choice. For me and the work I do, the iPad had too many compromises that slowed down my experience and made me less productive. I’m glad to have it as a backup for my laptop and I could see myself preferring the iPad in situations where I need to work but space is constrained, like on an airplane.
However this was far from an ideal setup. There were many small annoyances, like in Asana when I wanted to tag another user the system populates a drop down menu with suggestions. On a Mac I can press the down arrow key to highlight each suggestion and press enter when I’m on the one I want. On iPad pressing the down arrow key didn’t register on this dropdown menu so I was forced to use the mouse to select it. That’s just one example and there were many small things like that. They all added up to a more frustrating experience for me than macOS. And while stage manager has come a long way, it’s still not as intuitive as I would like.
Then there were bigger issues. I had one meeting through Google Meet and for some reason the windows showing each participant would go grey or freeze randomly, forcing me to turn off their image feed and turn it back on again. It’s possible this was more of a Google Meet issue than an iPad issue (I don’t know why anyone willingly uses Google Meet), but I don’t recall ever having that particular issue on macOS.
So I have a bit more favorable view of the iPad as a sole computing device than I did before. It can be done, but it wasn’t a particularly superlative experience. Now if my workflow consisted less of standard office work and more with things like multimedia, I could easily see the iPad being the better choice. For me and the work I do, the iPad had too many compromises that slowed down my experience and made me less productive. I’m glad to have it as a backup for my laptop and I could see myself preferring the iPad in situations where I need to work but space is constrained, like on an airplane.
Your Tab S5e support is over. No more updates, and it came out in 2019. My 2021 M1 iPad Pro 11 has another 3 or 4 or more years of OS upgrades and support. I am good with that. And, as you said, the iPad does the same thing anyway, and I have 8gb ram and 256mb storage. Also, the 2018 QUALCOMM snapdragon 670 can't hold a candle to the 2021 M1. Does it even have any battery left? Only has a 7040 mAh battery to begin with. At 3 years old, my iPad still has great battery life. Gonna trade it in on a new 12.9" M3 OLED as soon as they hit. And guess what? Even if I wait a bit, the M1 will update to iPad OS 18 as soon as it's released, and then 19 next year, and 20 the year after that. It's been a great device this past two years.
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I still have half a dozen Android tablets laying around. I gave the S9 Ultra a try to check out the larger display but returned it - found I no longer cared for Android nor did I like the high reflectivity of the Ultra's screen. I didn't find the OLED to be a big sell over my M1 12.9.
Just checked, the last update was in 1st March 2024. I'm keeping it because, it was the first Samsung tablet (or any tablet for that matter) that came with DeX - Desktop Experience. It even has an icon/button to change from the normal tablet experience to DeX. You can have the DeX on the external monitor while having the Android tablet experience on the Tab. By the way, there's no Android for phones, and Android for Tablets. It is the same OS. Apple doesn't have that yet.
You buy the first out of the barn processor device (M1) at your own risk, acting as an experiment for the manufacturer. If at all, I'd buy a M chip device, it'd be at least with M2 produced recently, and it will be a MacBook or a Mac mini.
100% atm, hardly used. Used sometimes to listen to music and read books. Now, will play with it in DeX again. In the very beginning, I used it for work for sometime. Now that with your arguments on how tablets can work as desktops, I'd try that again. But, I'm a laptop user. I could be a desktop user, as my usual laptops act as desktops on a desk most of the time.
After buying and trying out several Bluetooth keyboards in the past month, I finally settled with the stand alone Magic Bluetooth keyboard for on the go and MX Keys S in bed. Kinda wished I just got this at the get go, would have saved me a lot of time from trying so many other keyboards. The Magic Keyboard not being backlit was a big bummer but the trade off is much longer battery life and can go a month in between charges. It will be used in the day time anyways in daylight so its not an issue. Amazes me that this keyboard weighs less than the Combo Touch keyboard.
This with my iPad Pro 11 in its combo touch case, it’s ultimate for portability. Even have a Logitech Anywhere MX2 mouse that’s in my ipad pouch. This Magic Keyboard feels no different than the keyboards on the current M3 MacBook Air.
Thank god I no longer have to use the atrocious keyboard on the combo touch. It’s amazing what adding an extra 3” of width onto a keyboard does for typing feel and comfort. Logitech should have a SKU for the Combo Touch, case only. People like me only want the case portion mainly for the kickstand feature. And I’ve looked at a ton of current ipad cases out there and no one offers one with a built in kickstand like the Combo Touch does. Combo Touch is by far the sleekest kickstand case for the ipad.
And the best part of it all is the Combo Touch and the Apple Magic Bluetooth keyboard, still costed me quite a bit less than the IPad Magic Keyboard lol. And I like not having to attach and reattach the keyboard all the time and wearing out the magnets and risk ripping the material over time.
This with my iPad Pro 11 in its combo touch case, it’s ultimate for portability. Even have a Logitech Anywhere MX2 mouse that’s in my ipad pouch. This Magic Keyboard feels no different than the keyboards on the current M3 MacBook Air.
Thank god I no longer have to use the atrocious keyboard on the combo touch. It’s amazing what adding an extra 3” of width onto a keyboard does for typing feel and comfort. Logitech should have a SKU for the Combo Touch, case only. People like me only want the case portion mainly for the kickstand feature. And I’ve looked at a ton of current ipad cases out there and no one offers one with a built in kickstand like the Combo Touch does. Combo Touch is by far the sleekest kickstand case for the ipad.
And the best part of it all is the Combo Touch and the Apple Magic Bluetooth keyboard, still costed me quite a bit less than the IPad Magic Keyboard lol. And I like not having to attach and reattach the keyboard all the time and wearing out the magnets and risk ripping the material over time.
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Yeah, I love my LCT case also, and yes....I too have searched for just the case part with a flip cover for screen protection attached, and they are hard to find. There are many cases with full protection and a flip screen cover that are similar to the just the case part of the LCT on Amazon, but you are right, nothing exactly like the LCT. You can take a look and see if you find anything you like. There is like 20 pages of them in my Amazon search.
This is what I ended up getting to use when I don't need a keyboard. Simple, cheap, business professional look, functional, and protects the iPad well. Also has held up well over the two years I've been using it. I actually bought two to have one as a backup replacement if it didn't age well. Haven't opened the new one yet.
I got the black one....
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Yeah well, Google is way behind on that then. iPhone and iPad OS were the same (iOS) from the beginning, and then in Sept. 2019 Apple started making the stand alone iPad OS for iPads optimized for bigger screens and app features and functionality.
And by golly, the M1 and its variants are still competing with QUALCOMM's Snapdragon chips.
Why is the Apple M1 chip so much faster than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1?
Answer (1 of 3): Because M1 is a chip that consumes 10W, and has a higher peak consumption. It is also designed for a laptop chassis, and has a 4+4 Core Layout. Meanwhile, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 consumes around 3 Watts with boost upto 10W, and even that was outrageously high for a phone. The Sna...
Now you're just reaching. A 5 year old lithium ion battery can't possibly still have 100% capacity. You may still be able to charge to 100%, but that is not the indicator of the battery's health or capacity.
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Just for fun, I booted up my Windows (mobile platform) Medion touch screen 2 in 1. It is also manufactured in 2019. It is running on Intel Pentium N5000. It shouldn't officially run Windows 11, but does so anyway. It got updated a few hours ago to the latest. Strange enough, it too has 100% battery health. There had been months, when this 2 in 1 was used daily 8-10 hours. Here's the battery report, today at 19:54
Medion is German Technology. It had been running for more than 4 hours on battery and has another 5 hours to go. Mind you, it is running full Windows 11, which is a heavy OS, and MS Edge atm. I'll be running full Ubuntu and a few other Linuxes through a USB stick, then install one or two of them and multi-boot. Well, your iPad cannot do that, neither can any M chip Macs.
I am also looking at Dell Windows tablets, to buy one and put some Linuxes in it, and multi-boot. That's US technology. Then, there's Chinese technology, Lenovo and Huawei. I'll keep the MacBook too. Best keep an oopen mind!
The iPad can run Windows and Mac OS. It has been able to do this for ages.
Not sure why there is still 230 pages.
He's not wrong. Maybe a little rough around the edges, but definitely not wrong.
What makes you assume I'd want to run Linux on my iPad? I've never wanted to run Linux on any device I've had, be it PC or Mac. Mac OS, iPad OS, and Windows have always filled all my needs.