iPad as a laptop replacement

[Ludatyk]

That is a really nice display! I am an ASD user but even though I love the thing I have to acknowledge that it’s not the best bang for the (two thousand) bucks.

Yeah, I'm enjoying it (bought on a sweet discount). Don't really care for the Smart features… updated to the latest OneUI firmware and since I have a Galaxy phone there’s better integration with it.

And I been following deals on the ASD… but never got to the point where it was enticing enough to pull the trigger, fully aware it’s the better product. Supposedly there’s a new ASD around the corner… but didn’t feel like waiting, had a chance to get a good deal on the ViewFinity S9 and I’m satisfied with it.

 

[Kal Madda]

Yeah, I'm enjoying it (bought on a sweet discount). Don't really care for the Smart features… updated to the latest OneUI firmware and since I have a Galaxy phone there’s better integration with it.

And I been following deals on the ASD… but never got to the point where it was enticing enough to pull the trigger, fully aware it’s the better product. Supposedly there’s a new ASD around the corner… but didn’t feel like waiting, had a chance to get a good deal on the ViewFinity S9 and I’m satisfied with it.

Yeah, that display looks nice! 👍🏻. The Black Friday sale I went for this year was on an internal SSD upgrade for my ASUS Ally handheld. It currently has 500GB of storage, but I already used most of that (many modern games use a LOT of storage), and so I decided to kill two birds with one stone. So I’m upgrading the internal SSD on the ASUS to a 2TB drive, and going to use the current 500GB internal drive with an enclosure as a portable SSD I can use for my project files and such in addition to my thumb drive! 👍🏻. So soon, I’ll have an ultra-portable 500GB SSD. The enclosure I got looks like it should be pretty durable, and should be nice and compact. 👍🏻

This is the enclosure I got if you’re interested, it’s for 2230 form-factor SSDs. 👍🏻. https://www.amazon.com/QWIIZLAB-Enclosure-Supports-Aluminum-Orange/dp/B0CJF88CKB

 

[Meedoss]

Anyone using their iPad Pro with the Studio Display successfully?

 

[Kal Madda]

Anyone using their iPad Pro with the Studio Display successfully?

I don’t have the Studio Display, but I’ve seen people using their iPad with it fine. Stage Manager was introduced with Federighi plugging his iPad into a Studio Display, and the iPad Pro page shows an iPad Pro plugged into a Studio Display, so I would imagine it should work well. 👍🏻

 

[Meedoss]

I don’t have the Studio Display, but I’ve seen people using their iPad with it fine. Stage Manager was introduced with Federighi plugging his iPad into a Studio Display, and the iPad Pro page shows an iPad Pro plugged into a Studio Display, so I would imagine it should work well. 👍🏻

Ok, you don't have one and apple promote everything working together.
Would prefer to hear from someone on here that has one together.
Thanks anyway.

 

[Meedoss]

No clamshell mode seems one difference v a macbook.

 

[Ludatyk]

Yeah, that display looks nice! 👍🏻. The Black Friday sale I went for this year was on an internal SSD upgrade for my ASUS Ally handheld. It currently has 500GB of storage, but I already used most of that (many modern games use a LOT of storage), and so I decided to kill two birds with one stone. So I’m upgrading the internal SSD on the ASUS to a 2TB drive, and going to use the current 500GB internal drive with an enclosure as a portable SSD I can use for my project files and such in addition to my thumb drive! 👍🏻. So soon, I’ll have an ultra-portable 500GB SSD. The enclosure I got looks like it should be pretty durable, and should be nice and compact. 👍🏻

This is the enclosure I got if you’re interested, it’s for 2230 form-factor SSDs. 👍🏻. https://www.amazon.com/QWIIZLAB-Enclosure-Supports-Aluminum-Orange/dp/B0CJF88CKB

Nice and compact, indeed! And I always had my eye on a Dockcase enclosure, just never felt the need to pull the trigger on one.

I have a T7 rugged SSD… it’s a TB, and I wouldn’t mind going the 2 TB route because I keep quite a bit of movies/tv shows when I travel. My projects tend to stay on the cloud (Google Drive or One Drive).

 

[Kal Madda]

No clamshell mode seems one difference v a macbook.

Yeah, that’s pretty much the only difference at this point as far as I’m aware. I have a 4K LG monitor I connect my iPad to when I want more screen space at my desk, and it works great. It creates a second extended workspace just like a Mac docked with it, just with iPadOS, and not with clamshell mode as you noted. Though you can set the iPad’s display to not go to sleep when you close the case, and then you get more or less clamshell mode, just the iPad’s display is technically still on. Not a perfect solution, but I’ve seen people do that.

Personally, to me I like having the iPad’s display on as well, as it gives me a surface I can use for drawing and other pencil work. I know it bothers some, but I’m personally fine with it. I do think though that they should add a “clamshell mode” sort of setting for it to make it more convenient and simple for those who don’t. 🙂👍🏻

 

[Ludatyk]

Yeah, that’s pretty much the only difference at this point as far as I’m aware. I have a 4K LG monitor I connect my iPad to when I want more screen space at my desk, and it works great. It creates a second extended workspace just like a Mac docked with it, just with iPadOS, and not with clamshell mode as you noted. Though you can set the iPad’s display to not go to sleep when you close the case, and then you get more or less clamshell mode, just the iPad’s display is technically still on. Not a perfect solution, but I’ve seen people do that.

Also could just use a complete black photo to help with battery life too.

Personally, to me I like having the iPad’s display on as well, as it gives me a surface I can use for drawing and other pencil work. I know it bothers some, but I’m personally fine with it. I do think though that they should add a “clamshell mode” sort of setting for it to make it more convenient and simple for those who don’t. 🙂👍🏻

Yeah, that’s why I don’t understand the need to have the iPad in clamshell mode… because we can actually interact with the screen compared to any traditional laptop. It makes sense for a laptop to be in clamshell mode.. since there’s no touch screen support (for the MacBook).

 

[Kal Madda]

Nice and compact, indeed! And I always had my eye on a Dockcase enclosure, just never felt the need to pull the trigger on one.

I have a T7 rugged SSD… it’s a TB, and I wouldn’t mind going the 2 TB route because I keep quite a bit of movies/tv shows when I travel. My projects tend to stay on the cloud (Google Drive or One Drive).

Yeah, it hasn’t shipped yet, so I’m eagerly waiting to see what it will be like! 👍🏻. I’ll be sure to report back once I’ve had a chance to test it out. 👍🏻

I’ve always heard good things about the T7 SSDs. I’ve never used one, but I have used an internal SATA SSD from Samsung, and never had any problems with it. I actually just recently stuck it in an aluminum external enclosure for my desk. Samsung makes some good storage. I thought about going with a Samsung drive for my ASUS, but ended up going with the WD Black SN700M, as it was basically the universally recommended option for my handheld. But I’m hoping that 2TB will be more future-proof. And it was on sale for basically the normal price of the 1TB option, so I figured it was a good deal.

I’ll have to remember to take some pics of the drive swap. It will be fun, it’s been a while since I’ve done a project like that. 👍🏻

 

[Meedoss]

Also could just use a complete black photo to help with battery life too.

Won't the iPad be charging when plugged in to a ASD?

 

[Kal Madda]

Also could just use a complete black photo to help with battery life too.


Yeah, that’s why I don’t understand the need to have the iPad in clamshell mode… because we can actually interact with the screen compared to any traditional laptop. It makes sense for a laptop to be in clamshell mode.. since there’s no touch screen support (for the MacBook).

Yeah, that’s actually a great idea. And especially for the OLED models, that will switch off those pixels, essentially switching off the display. And users could even create a Siri Shortcut to open a black image to fill the screen. 👍🏻

But yeah, I think that’s why Apple probably hasn’t prioritized a clamshell mode for the iPad when docked at a monitor, since the iPad’s native display adds extra utility. 👍🏻

 

[Kal Madda]

Won't the iPad be charging when plugged in to a ASD?

Yes, it will, at least that’s what I’ve heard. 👍🏻

 

[Ludatyk]

Won't the iPad be charging when plugged in to a ASD?

I was just referring to external monitor support in general.. since @Kal Madda brought up their 4k monitor. I get charging out of my ViewFinity S9, but some monitors are not able to charge the iPad.

 

[Kal Madda]

I was just referring to external monitor support in general.. since @Kal Madda brought up their 4k monitor. I get charging out of my ViewFinity S9, but some monitors are not able to charge the iPad.

Yeah, and also as a potentially helpful idea for those who have monitors that don’t support charging natively, using a hub in between the monitor and the iPad can help in that situation. That’s what I do for my monitor setup, since my monitor doesn’t have built in hub functionality. 👍🏻

 

[Ludatyk]

Yeah, and also as a potentially helpful idea for those who have monitors that don’t support charging natively, using a hub in between the monitor and the iPad can help in that situation. That’s what I do for my monitor setup, since my monitor doesn’t have built in hub functionality. 👍🏻

And with that being said, I'm kind of disappointed... not that it's a horrible thing. But I used the Belkin dock often when it comes to plugging my iPad to a monitor and now it's no longer needed.

My monitor has built-in hub functionality... and I seen multiple videos of this monitor, but never occurred to me that I could use the hub until it actually showed up. And it certainly works.. so, I'm not entirely sure what I plan to do with my dock going forward which normally when it comes to a situation like this I'd end up selling it.

Because the main reason why I bought the dock was for the monitor and now that I plan to sell my portable monitor, the dock most likely should be included as well.

 

[Kal Madda]

And with that being said, I'm kind of disappointed... not that it's a horrible thing. But I used the Belkin dock often when it comes to plugging my iPad to a monitor and now it's no longer needed.

My monitor has built-in hub functionality... and I seen multiple videos of this monitor, but never occurred to me that I could use the hub until it actually showed up. And it certainly works.. so, I'm not entirely sure what I plan to do with my dock going forward which normally when it comes to a situation like this I'd end up selling it.

Because the main reason why I bought the dock was for the monitor and now that I plan to sell my portable monitor, the dock most likely should be included as well.

The built-in hub functionality sounds like it would be nice for cable management. 👍🏻. Totally understand what you mean, the primary thing I use my hub for is connecting to displays. Though I do also occasionally use it for old USB-A accessories like older thumb-drives. But yeah, if the display’s built-in hub functionality is sufficient, then it probably makes sense to sell it. 👍🏻

 

[Ludatyk]

The built-in hub functionality sounds like it would be nice for cable management. 👍🏻. Totally understand what you mean, the primary thing I use my hub for is connecting to displays. Though I do also occasionally use it for old USB-A accessories like older thumb-drives. But yeah, if the display’s built-in hub functionality is sufficient, then it probably makes sense to sell it. 👍🏻

Yeah, but don’t really want to sell it… that’s the issue. Thinking I should have went with the ViewSonic OLED portable monitor instead of this one… tough decisions ahead, because the display’s built-in functionality didn’t cross my mind.

 

[Beefbowl]

Anyone using their iPad Pro with the Studio Display successfully?

Yeah. It works pretty seamlessly, charges the iPad and is a great hub (I have a 2.5gbe adapter plugged into one of the ports on the monitor and connect other devices as needed) but has all the issues of any other monitor on the iPad - not everything plays nicely with an external display.

Also I’ve noticed that game performance can be worse on the external display. I think some games may try to render at native resolution and that is a lot of pixels to push.

 

[Ludatyk]

Yeah. It works pretty seamlessly, charges the iPad and is a great hub (I have a 2.5gbe adapter plugged into one of the ports on the monitor and connect other devices as needed) but has all the issues of any other monitor on the iPad - not everything plays nicely with an external display.

Anything in particular you tried using that didn't play nicely?

 

[Beefbowl]

Anything in particular you tried using that didn't play nicely?

Mostly video apps. I haven’t tried some of these in a while but Amazon Prime, Crunchyroll, VLC, Netflix, HiDive all had problems. Like some would display on an external display but only pillarboxed, VLC would flat out fail to play video if you had a monitor connected, Crunchyroll would display video on a monitor but couldn’t show subtitles…

Edit: by pillarboxing here I mean that the video apps would put the video content inside a 4:3 window on the external monitor, and then letterbox it inside the pillarbox. So there would be large black borders on all sides. Whereas if you play something off AppleTV it is a full screen 16:9 image on the external monitor.

Also a lot of games would display on an external monitor but only in a windowed mode. iPadOS 26 puts them in a full screen with pillarboxing mode that is infinitely preferable.

Then there are weird ones. Like the game Blue Archive works perfectly well on an external monitor unless there are patch notes. The game puts up an “ok” button that must be tapped to continue into the game. You cannot tap this by clicking it with a mouse or the Magic Keyboard trackpad. You need to move the game to the iPad display, touch the OK button with a finger, and then move the game back to the external display. After which every other control in the game works fine with a mouse.

 

[sparksd]

Mostly video apps. I haven’t tried some of these in a while but Amazon Prime, Crunchyroll, VLC, Netflix, HiDive all had problems. Like some would display on an external display but only pillarboxed, VLC would flat out fail to play video if you had a monitor connected, Crunchyroll would display video on a monitor but couldn’t show subtitles…

Edit: by pillarboxing here I mean that the video apps would put the video content inside a 4:3 window on the external monitor, and then letterbox it inside the pillarbox. So there would be large black borders on all sides. Whereas if you play something off AppleTV it is a full screen 16:9 image on the external monitor.

Also a lot of games would display on an external monitor but only in a windowed mode. iPadOS 26 puts them in a full screen with pillarboxing mode that is infinitely preferable.

Then there are weird ones. Like the game Blue Archive works perfectly well on an external monitor unless there are patch notes. The game puts up an “ok” button that must be tapped to continue into the game. You cannot tap this by clicking it with a mouse or the Magic Keyboard trackpad. You need to move the game to the iPad display, touch the OK button with a finger, and then move the game back to the external display. After which every other control in the game works fine with a mouse.

The case with apps like Prime is due to vendor app implementations. With Prime and Netflix on an external monitor, I use extended display and Safari in lieu of the apps and they appear as you would want. This is a vendor problem.

 

[Beefbowl]

The case with apps like Prime is due to vendor app implementations. With Prime and Netflix on an external monitor, I use extended display and Safari in lieu of the apps and they appear as you would want. This is a vendor problem.

That is what “not everything plays nicely with an external display” means to me. For whatever reason, the experience is subpar and I don’t care whose fault it is. Just that it’s not good.

Prime video in particular is annoying, because before iPadOS had external monitor support (back when an external display was just a mirror of the internal), playing a video on Prime would blank the built in screen and play in 16:9 full screen on the external. When stage manager came out and external display support became a thing, the quality of the experience degraded.

Likewise VLC, which does not have any vendor lock in, used to have good external monitor support, but it broke in 3.4.0 and was only partially fixed later.

I do need to go through my tests again as of iPadOS 26 because it did make a lot of things with games better. Maybe some of these video apps are better now too!

And as you mention, using Safari is a workaround for some of these. Case in point: the YouTube app technically works on an external monitor but the UI is horrible. It’s better in a web browser… but I don’t think it supports the same resolutions for playback in a browser and, while I haven’t tested recently, you used to only get HDR playback in the app.

 

[sparksd]

That is what “not everything plays nicely with an external display” means to me. For whatever reason, the experience is subpar and I don’t care whose fault it is. Just that it’s not good.

Prime video in particular is annoying, because before iPadOS had external monitor support (back when an external display was just a mirror of the internal), playing a video on Prime would blank the built in screen and play in 16:9 full screen on the external. When stage manager came out and external display support became a thing, the quality of the experience degraded.

Likewise VLC, which does not have any vendor lock in, used to have good external monitor support, but it broke in 3.4.0 and was only partially fixed later.

I do need to go through my tests again as of iPadOS 26 because it did make a lot of things with games better. Maybe some of these video apps are better now too!

And as you mention, using Safari is a workaround for some of these. Case in point: the YouTube app technically works on an external monitor but the UI is horrible. It’s better in a web browser… but I don’t think it supports the same resolutions for playback in a browser and, while I haven’t tested recently, you used to only get HDR playback in the app.

nPlayer has great external monitor support.

 

[Ludatyk]

nPlayer has great external monitor support.

It’s been awhile since I used nPlayer on my monitor… it was acting weird in the beginning and decided to find something else then stumbled upon OutPlayer. Which is the best to use for external monitor support…. I like nPlayer, has tons features but wish they do some UI change.

I don’t think nPlayer has made any UI change since it’s introduction… perhaps it has something to do with the fact it’s on both Google Play Store and App Store. And it would be tons of work updating both platforms.