I recently finished graduate school, which anyone that goes to this knows its a ton of research and writing papers. For my needs, I had to have a computer. I needed to have several research articles open and be able to switch back and forth from them on a bigger screen and type at the same time. This could probably be done on the larger iPad Pro, but I dont have that and just have an air 2. That being said, for my day to day uses, an iPad can replace what I use a computer for, for the most part. Right now the storage limitation is my only hold out. I have lots of music, pictures, and videos on my Mac, and currently use an external drive to move files around. I could use cloud storage, but the iPad doesn't let me download files like a Mac does. If this came to be, then I could replace my computer with cloud storage.
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 wouldn't be to sure. Sitting in front of an iPad for 6 and having to raise your hand every-time you want to switch app, drag and drop, insert an image, scroll, select sounds rather tiring.
Similarly at my work I don't see a single person who have asked IT for an iPad to be their main device instead of a laptop or desktop.
Each to their own in regards as to which they use. I use both an iPad and MacBook together for different things. When I need to use platforms built upon pointers and a mouse clearly the MacBook is what I choose. When I need to do some more complex stuff which you can do on ios but is a more lengthy process then I choose a MacBook. I however, primarily will use an iPad most of the time especially as enjoy the experience and is generally cheaper overall. IOS handles split screen far superior to Mac OS and other things. Find I can do lots of productivity apps such as Scrivener, IThoughts, PDF expert, OmniGraffl, outlining and so forth. All of them are as equally good as their desktop equivalents. Overall, you use whatever tool is best for your needs to get work done.
https://paulstamatiou.com/made-on-an-ipad-pro/
A very well-thought out article on how one lady uses her iPad Pro for writing and managing photos. Love that she is getting rid of her MacBook Pro because the iPad Pro is working that well for her.
A very well-thought out article on how one lady uses her iPad Pro for writing and managing photos. Love that she is getting rid of her MacBook Pro because the iPad Pro is working that well for her.
Um...
Am I missing something? She says that she does a lot of writing with it, and then says "The keyboard disconnects a few times a day and doesn't feel all that great, but it's fine" - Uh, anyone normal who does a lot of typing all day every day would have thrown the iPad in the bin within hours if that was the case.
Then she goes on about how "I bought the iPad for photography" but then can't use it as the iPad is unable to edit photos in RAW... can't even zoom 100% in them, the iPad only uses the "smart" previews.... again, making it totally unusable for anyone doing actual photo editing, hence why she has a $6000 PC dedicated to lightroom
Then she goes into web developing and committing changes to code... which she does... after fiddling around with AWS and a whole lot of things that not everyone has
...
So... yes, her iPad has replaced her laptop... because she has a $6000 development PC to do all of the real work on anyway.
Great article.
I should turn around and write how my G4 Titanium has replaced my MBP. I'll just convert all of my video projects to FCP classic and export to YouTube via uploading to Google Drive then finalizing using my iPhone and the YouTube app, no need to do it all on my MBP at all
Am I missing something? She says that she does a lot of writing with it, and then says "The keyboard disconnects a few times a day and doesn't feel all that great, but it's fine" - Uh, anyone normal who does a lot of typing all day every day would have thrown the iPad in the bin within hours if that was the case.
Then she goes on about how "I bought the iPad for photography" but then can't use it as the iPad is unable to edit photos in RAW... can't even zoom 100% in them, the iPad only uses the "smart" previews.... again, making it totally unusable for anyone doing actual photo editing, hence why she has a $6000 PC dedicated to lightroom
Then she goes into web developing and committing changes to code... which she does... after fiddling around with AWS and a whole lot of things that not everyone has
...
So... yes, her iPad has replaced her laptop... because she has a $6000 development PC to do all of the real work on anyway.
Great article.
I should turn around and write how my G4 Titanium has replaced my MBP. I'll just convert all of my video projects to FCP classic and export to YouTube via uploading to Google Drive then finalizing using my iPhone and the YouTube app, no need to do it all on my MBP at all
I think she is a he, at least the name used is Paul.
It’s an interesting read and there are a couple of follow-ups on the photography side after the headline. The first was that he seemed to be using the direct camera connection to load images at first but that when he switched to the dedicated SD Card reader, import speed was much increased making it much more useable. Then there was the culling process which he likes, and I agree it’s a good way to work.
I’m not too sure on the subject of raw files not being used - there’s a lot of ignorance about how this stuff works in LR and I’d not be surprised if he’s wrong there. As an aside, I’ve seen professional writers get stuff totally wrong about LR, for example saying you can’t edit an image in LR Mobile until after it’s uploaded which is manifestly wrong, I do it all the time and it would be an asinine limitation.
He’s totally correct that being forced through Photos is stupid and I wish Apple would remove that limitation - I never edit in Photos, only import direct to LR then delete the originals in Photos straight away to avoid them being backed up as well as the “copies” in LR being synched to the Adobe cloud. But I think he’s about wrong copying files and the delay. I may be wrong myself but copying files on APFS is simply an update to the usage count of the file and associated apps, not a bit-copy of the file. That only happens when the copy is changed at which time a separate version is created. In this case, assuming I’m correct, what takes time is generation of the smart preview.
Aside from that, an interesting read from someone who has tried to push an iPad Pro and IOS 11 as far as he can and he’s achieved a lot.
It’s an interesting read and there are a couple of follow-ups on the photography side after the headline. The first was that he seemed to be using the direct camera connection to load images at first but that when he switched to the dedicated SD Card reader, import speed was much increased making it much more useable. Then there was the culling process which he likes, and I agree it’s a good way to work.
I’m not too sure on the subject of raw files not being used - there’s a lot of ignorance about how this stuff works in LR and I’d not be surprised if he’s wrong there. As an aside, I’ve seen professional writers get stuff totally wrong about LR, for example saying you can’t edit an image in LR Mobile until after it’s uploaded which is manifestly wrong, I do it all the time and it would be an asinine limitation.
He’s totally correct that being forced through Photos is stupid and I wish Apple would remove that limitation - I never edit in Photos, only import direct to LR then delete the originals in Photos straight away to avoid them being backed up as well as the “copies” in LR being synched to the Adobe cloud. But I think he’s about wrong copying files and the delay. I may be wrong myself but copying files on APFS is simply an update to the usage count of the file and associated apps, not a bit-copy of the file. That only happens when the copy is changed at which time a separate version is created. In this case, assuming I’m correct, what takes time is generation of the smart preview.
Aside from that, an interesting read from someone who has tried to push an iPad Pro and IOS 11 as far as he can and he’s achieved a lot.
https://www.macstories.net/stories/one-year-of-ipad-pro/
Superb article on how to utilise an Ipad Pro as a laptop replacement. Was writen before ios 11 so be nice if it saw an update/refresh.
Superb article on how to utilise an Ipad Pro as a laptop replacement. Was writen before ios 11 so be nice if it saw an update/refresh.
Last edited:
I just read this article last night when I saw it on reddit! I think she is a he, but I did enjoy the article.
Um...
Am I missing something? She says that she does a lot of writing with it, and then says "The keyboard disconnects a few times a day and doesn't feel all that great, but it's fine" - Uh, anyone normal who does a lot of typing all day every day would have thrown the iPad in the bin within hours if that was the case.
Then she goes on about how "I bought the iPad for photography" but then can't use it as the iPad is unable to edit photos in RAW... can't even zoom 100% in them, the iPad only uses the "smart" previews.... again, making it totallyunusable for anyone doing actual photo editing, hence why she has a $6000 PC dedicated to lightroom
Then she goes into web developing and committing changes to code... which she does... after fiddling around with AWS and a whole lot of things that not everyone has
...
So... yes, her iPad has replaced her laptop... because she has a $6000 development PC to do all of the real work on anyway.
Great article.
I should turn around and write how my G4 Titanium has replaced my MBP. I'll just convert all of my video projects to FCP classic and export to YouTube via uploading to Google Drive then finalizing using my iPhone and the YouTube app, no need to do it all on my MBP at all
I think the point is that instead of having a laptop and an iPad, he can choose to have one mobile device instead. Laptop is a mobile device since you can take it with you. And it wasn't "I bought the iPad for photography", it was curiosity about how it would work for editing photos and more during a long flight (I wish I had that kind of money to be that curious!). It's his use case. Other people might have similar set ups so the article is extra useful for them. No one is saying that this is the perfect machine overall, but it can be the right set up for someone with a similar set up or is considering that set-up. Within that, there's are useful "good to know" tips for the average user, but all this is, is one person explaining their use case. It's a laptop replacement for this person, but that doesn't mean they don't need a secondary machine. Considering he built a $6000 PC, that means the MacBook wasn't cutting it either for his needs so if the iPad can do what he wants it to do, then getting rid of the MacBook is just fine so there's only one device around and not two.
Yes since my iPad is a daily driver, I used it in a way computer-like tablet with bluetooth keyboard easy to use I spreadsheet bookkeeping gaming.. I sold my MacBook Pro no more need to use it, now I focus all my works on my iPad and my iMac.
Well I just got a 128gb LTE 2018 iPad and Zagg Rugged Book keyboard case. Am still setting things up the way I want, but will see how much I can use it as a repacement for my 2013 MacBook Air i7/8gb/512gb. Should be interesting!
Is ASK for 10.5 makes it really a laptop replacement?
Is it really durable? I hear people complaining about the connectivity issues. Is it more of a software problem or is ASK really crappy?
I’m planning on getting the ASK to make the most out of the iPad and use my MBA even less.. but I guess maybe it’s better to buy extra squaretrade on the keyboard as it becomes faulty at the end of a year...
What are your opinions on that?
Is it really durable? I hear people complaining about the connectivity issues. Is it more of a software problem or is ASK really crappy?
I’m planning on getting the ASK to make the most out of the iPad and use my MBA even less.. but I guess maybe it’s better to buy extra squaretrade on the keyboard as it becomes faulty at the end of a year...
What are your opinions on that?
I can't speak to whether it’s a laptop replacement for you personally or about how you can purchase one.
I do find that the reliability has improved dramatically since I first got mine. Originally, I’d see failure to connect something like 40% of the time. Turning the iPad off and on again would fix it but it was a bit annoying. But something in the recent updates seems to have fixed that and I see very few failures, in fact I can’t recall when was the last time it happened. So perhaps they sneaked something into 11.4...
So no, I don’t think it’s crappy and in my case it has pretty much replaced my laptop. I went on holiday a while back - got back three weeks ago - and have only just today found where I stashed my MBP.
I do find that the reliability has improved dramatically since I first got mine. Originally, I’d see failure to connect something like 40% of the time. Turning the iPad off and on again would fix it but it was a bit annoying. But something in the recent updates seems to have fixed that and I see very few failures, in fact I can’t recall when was the last time it happened. So perhaps they sneaked something into 11.4...
So no, I don’t think it’s crappy and in my case it has pretty much replaced my laptop. I went on holiday a while back - got back three weeks ago - and have only just today found where I stashed my MBP.
I forget if it is 11.3 or 11.4, but, yeah, something happened to fix it. I haven't had the problem in recent memory. It definitely started with 11.0, though.
The ASK is best keyboard I have found for the iPad that still keeps what is good about the iPad. Other keyboards just seem to make it more of a clamshell which I don't like. However, I have noticed that the keys tend to rub off after a while. I needed to have my ASK replaced under the warranty extension period due to some flakiness, and the keys on that one had started to rub off. I have not noticed the issue with the replacement keyboard after about a year.
That’s been my experience as well. The keyboard works fine now for me. It was bad enough at first that I bought a second one but it had the same issue. Now they are both fine
I bought my IPP G2 last year and spent a month trying to use it as a laptop replacement. Didn't work for me.
Still use it for general consumption type stuff.
Present day has brought forth another "strike" against this option. It is an IPP 12.9 G2 256GB with LTE. I use the Apple Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil.
Since I bought it I have:
Still use it for general consumption type stuff.
Present day has brought forth another "strike" against this option. It is an IPP 12.9 G2 256GB with LTE. I use the Apple Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil.
Since I bought it I have:
- Replaced the keyboard 4x due to quality issues - failed keys (2) and warped keyboard (2)
- Replaced the Pencil 1x due to a quality issue - stopped working (1)
- Replaced the IPP 1x due to a quality issue - upper 2/3 of screen was touch failing (1)
After my first full week, here are my initial observations. I like the Zagg case, it certainly makes for a much more rugged solution than my MacBook Air. I can just carry it around loose in the car without putting it into a padded bag. Also like the way I can reverse the screen for watching videos, or quickly pop the iPad off the keyboard. It seems very heavy, but I think that's needed to counterbalance the weight of the iPad when it's tilted back. Keys have a decent amount of travel but are kind of "bouncy", and the overall feel is a bit weird with fast touch typing because it's basically a hollow plastic box.
Had thought about getting the Brydge 9.7 keyboard which is supposed to be more like a real Apple keyboard, but there seem to be a lot of complaints on Amazon about failures and poor customer service. I don't really need another keyboard for now, so I'll just stick with the Zagg.
I signed up for the personal version of Office 360 (I really needed to update Office 2008 on my Mac anyway) and it seems to work very nicely on the iPad. I will definitely find a lot of uses for it. I got an app called FileExplorer Pro for $5. It's kind of awkward but it lets me wirelessly access files on my Mini and Time Capsule and is integrated into the iOS Files app.
Which brings me to the things I don't especially like. The Files app is certainly something that was needed but it's so limited and just feels like version 1.0 software. It's a lot more awkward than copying/moving files on a Mac. It also seems very slow, and there's no progress bar so when copying a big file (like a movie) you just have to wait and hope something is actually happening.
In general, my biggest complaint is that working with text (selecting/copying, positioning the cursor) is just painful. I sort of expected this after having an iPhone for almost 10 years, but hoped it would work better on a larger screen. Some software is better than others - I found it more manageable in MS Word for example. This website is actually one of the WORST places to use a hardware iOS keyboard. Pressing the arrow keys moves the cursor but it also scrolls the whole page up or down, and the text you're editing goes off screen. Does an Apple Pencil help with text editing? I have a fairly nice fine point stylus (a Jot Dash) and it works, but isn't that much of an improvement over my finger.
If Apple would just add mouse support it could easily solve this problem. Would also be nice for some other things, like websites with lots of small links that are hard to select. I was looking at some things on filemaker.com (an Apple subsidiary) yesterday and somehow tapped a tiny link that asked me to choose my country. In trying to "swipe" back to the previous page, I hit another tiny link for some Asian country. Now the whole site became unintelligible. This was really annoying - on the Mac I could have just deleted the filemaker cookies, but on the iPad the only option is deleting all cookes, which I didn't want to do. After a lot of trial and error I found my way back to the language selection screen, and used my Jot Dash stylus to select the tiny American English link.
Clearly, the iPad will not replace my Macs (I never expected it to). But I will find some good uses for it and will probably get used to most of the quirks.
IPP 12.9” Gen 2 and a NAS. Use the Smart KB cover and webservices to test VM environments. Takes a little adjusting to from a trackpad and to point at the screen instead.
Would be nice if 3D Touch was available, as trying to use the arrows on the physical KB skips lines while editing some text.
Found myself not using most of MacOS functionality, and used it once a month or less.
Would be nice if 3D Touch was available, as trying to use the arrows on the physical KB skips lines while editing some text.
Found myself not using most of MacOS functionality, and used it once a month or less.
Wow! I have replaced two for the touch failing issue.
It seems reliability on iPad and Macs is falling
Yet the Mini4 LTE I gifted has been great.
This IPP has been the worst to date of any Apple device I have owned. Disappointing to say the least.
Yikes, that is awful. It does suck because I have an original iPP 12.9” and my pencil and Logi Create have never had a problem. Using it now to type this. Sorry, my man. I hope your experience improves.
Answering my own question.... I picked up an Apple Pencil yesterday evening. Have only used it briefly, but it’s definitely a big improvement for editing text. It’s far from ideal, but it does make selection and cursor positioning much more precise. I just used it to trim down the quote above and was able to select the entire section that I wanted to delete. Without the pencil I probably could only have selected one paragraph at a time, and even that would have taken several tries.
https://thesweetsetup.com/losing-my-ipad/
Sad that his iPad was stolen, but always nice to read about how iPads are forming an integral part of people’s workflow.
Sad that his iPad was stolen, but always nice to read about how iPads are forming an integral part of people’s workflow.
With a Mac, you’re forced to mouse over everything, disconnected from your work as you click on things from afar — all this while sitting in exactly the right position as you’re chained to the desk.
That is exactly how I feel!
That is exactly how I feel!
For what it’s worth I’ve sold. My MacBook Pro as feel iPad Pro and iPhone is all I need now and yes I plan to upgrade to the new iPad Pro hopefully 11 inch iPad and will get a keyboard so I can still do general tasks I could do on my MacBook pro