lol - I did the same, forgetting to add in 10.35% sales tax, not seeing until I filled a sample shopping bag. Ouch.
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iPad as a laptop replacement
- Thread starter Omar Comin' Yo
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lol - I did the same, forgetting to add in 10.35% sales tax, not seeing until I filled a sample shopping bag. Ouch.
Apple makes it rough when you total it all up (max spec 13" iPad Pro, Apple Pencil Pro, Magic Keyboard, AppleCare+, & taxes) it comes in at a cool US$3,500...!
One could buy a good bit of laptop for that, but lose the touchscreen & stylus abilities...
One could buy a good bit of laptop for that, but lose the touchscreen & stylus abilities...
Yup. Which is why to be honest it think iPadOS is finally going to get some more functionality this time around with 18.
I'd be more than willing to pay up to that amount if it means I can switch from having a 13-14" notebook AND an iPad to do the thing I do. The iPad at this point is so close already for me.
But do you need to "max spec" it? You can take any product and weep at the expensive options — put the optional extras in a car, look at a 70" OLED TV, spec out a MacBook Pro 16", etc. There's a very sizeable difference in price between max spec and the other options.
For example, the difference in price between 256gb and 2TB is £1,000! Even if someone was going for the extra storage just because they wanted the full 10 cores, there's a £400 difference between 1TB and 2TB.
Between cloud storage and iPP now letting videos be edited directly from an external drive, I struggle to see why any but a niche userbase would require 2TB of storage on an iPad.
Personally, I've opted for the 256gb 11". My previous iPad had 64gb, so this is plenty. My photos are set to be optimised for storage on the iPad which is why I use so little. I've also gone for the Logitech combo keyboard instead of Apple's — it's a better overall product for me, with a nice cost saving as a bonus.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that in my mind, anyone spending $3.5k on a max spec iPad is doing it because they need to, like they don’t have a laptop. In which case the cost of a laptop is moot.
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I ordered an M4 iPad Pro, and I decided I’m finally going to go all in with iPad as my main computer. I’ve been wanting to try this for a long time, so we’ll see how it goes!
iPad cellular is a major advantage over Macs, still to this day
iPad cellular is a major advantage over Macs, still to this day - 9to5Mac
Cellular connectivity on the iPad is a major advantage over the Mac, which still doesn't offer a cellular configuration.
9to5mac.com
I would REALLY like to do this, but iPadOS is just so limiting. I'm sure it will improve in the next release but I'm expecting incremental improvements in usability and it needs more than that. Not long until we find out...
While 2TB would be nice in extreme circumstances for my uses, going with the 1TB option to get the extra core and memory are very tempting - and very much up charged for.
My biggest use for an iPad, outside of the normal/basic stuff, is photo editing. I much prefer doing that on a touchscreen, which is why I’m optimistic about this!!
Upcharged indeed, which is why I wasn't tempted. The link posted elsewhere on the forum showed a very small difference with the extra core, and considering how most response to these iPPs is how overpowered they are, I can't see much appeal to paying £600 extra for it (for context on that £600, that's 60% of the 256gb price added on top, which is ludicrous to me).
What sort of editing do you do? Can't say I've ever done anything with it, but I keep seeing people say they do photo editing
I mean, I wouldn't go for a 2TB model anyway, I would go for the 1TB, which would still let me have the extra core and the 16GB of RAM...
the M1 died/got damaged? Apple Care. Or it did t last because it did t meet your needs??? Sorry to hear about your troubles. My M1 is still working. I do wish the battery life was better, even though it is charging to 100%.
Yeah, my spouse opted for a 15“ MacBook Air for just that reason. Still portable, be the larger screen works better for her!
For a home office, I’d suggest getting a second monitor for the iPad Air or Pro. Both support Stage Manager. And a 4K monitor is just fine for an iPad (no need to get 5K).
Stage Manager is somewhat pointless on a Mac. But it’s pretty useful on an iPad, IMO. It’s better than any other multitasking system they have introduced on iPadOS. I found even the much-maligned original version of Stage Manager to be useful on my M1 iPad Air.
My main point is that $350 will buy a decent 4K monitor. iPad Airs/Pros can make good use of one now that they have added Stage Manager. I use an 11“ M1 Air as my main device at work these days. I’ll be updating to an 11” M4 Pro soon.
Funnily enough, after using just my iPad and MK for about 2 weeks, I tried using a Macbook Air M2 yesterday and I kind of hated the keyboard (which I used to love) xD
That is a really low bar. Stage Manager is just bad.
Stage Manager is brilliant and I will fight anyone who says otherwise 🥊
Never said I was going to max-spec it.
What I'm getting at is that I have a MacBook Pro 14 (to get the nice screen and speakers mostly) AND an iPad Air at the moment to cover sketching things, etc. Right now I am buying both every 3-4 years, so the budget for a device that is the price of the MacBook or thereabouts in tablet form is already there and would save me money if it was the same price as a MacBook or less and does all the things.
If apple was to offer a device that can replace both - i.e., a high powered iPad with good screen and keyboard/mouse support with the ability to run macOS apps (not necessarily macOS itself), I'm sold.
I quoted both of you as the two comments were linked. My comment was mainly to the observation that “you can buy a good laptop for the price of a max spec iPad Pro” - because I think very few people need that configuration in an iPad so the price comparison is tricky.
Otherwise yes I agree with you. Years ago when the tablet market was emerging, I generally was more impressed with Microsoft’s approach over Apple’s - not the products themselves, but the approach that a tablet is a portable computer whereas Apple was doing it as a larger phone. They’ve obviously evolved over the years, but it’s taken a while.
With MacOS also starting to look more like iOS, my guess is the two platforms will continue to get closer and closer.