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iPad as a laptop replacement
- Thread starter Omar Comin' Yo
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Reminder for you... iPad is marketed leeaaagues different now compared to then.
The difficult to understand and frustrating part is that iPad allegedly has so and so much power, but then why limit it so much and still try to compare it to a pc and charge more than a pc.
I would really like to like iPads, but wow what a waste of potential and money it is these days. 10 years mac buyer here and Apple has completely lost me. I will not buy into more of their laptop or iPad setup, as there is no excuse and no reason for not providing a true 2-1 these days. Its not 2010 but iPad seems the same to me as back then.
This comment seems disingenuous to me. I will almost certainly never be able to do my work on an iPad but iOS in 2018 is significantly more powerful and flexible than it was eight years ago. Denying that fact just makes you sound untethered from reality. I've used every generation of iPad since they launched, and every version of iOS has added features and capabilities to the platform. Definitely more people today can realistically replace their laptop with an iPad than could in 2010. I still think it's a small percentage of the marketplace but it is a growing number.
And if you're getting the new Pro, you're spending as much (if not more) money on a "just about" experience as you could on a high-end Windows laptop that'll just... do it all without breaking a sweat.
Yes, I know, Windows is grim etc etc. I give Apple plenty of money for personal use, but at work all I use is Windows and I've got an XPS 13, it really isn't that bad.
Nope. Not one feature has been added that improves my text workflow and multi tasking is implemented very badly as well as text selection and editing. In terms of raw power iPad has been improved, but I genuienly think that each work feature added is so badly implemented that nothing has been improved.
I know everything about each little added feature on iPads, as I have owned most of them. We currently have a 10.5 inch pro and a 2017 iPad for our son. My better half is drawing on the Pro and I bought it for consumption sadly, as I cannot stand to work with text on it.
But not gonna sit and wait for small improvements as decent products are out there running proper os. Hello surface.
Mostly I also prefer a true browser and dislike mobile websites
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…same here – still waiting for an update for iOS with more impact concerning iPadPro as a real working-machine, like texting-workflow (at least a few docoments beneath), better multi-tasking, file-system and this would be the adventage of a Tablet:
-> a central, integrating, implemendet orga-tool like a CMS that canalizes/focuses all that for workflow too schizophrenic spread apps (like notes with drawing, importing conected mails, Dokuments, Excels). Apple – you did it that way with the Newton/Einstein. Make it different, new ways and – good. That`s the way to disprupt the good old pc…
I know this ad, I‘ve seen it plenty of times. And still I say the same: The iPad isn‘t meant to replace a laptop. But for those who are in the market for a new computer, an iPad could be already enough. This is what these ads want to advertise - that it is powerful enough, even more powerful than your next laptop and it can be more versatile. But nothing cries out loud „REPLACE YOUR EXISTING WORKFLOWS WITH AN IPAD“. So, in my point of view, these ads are a great example of what iPad is doing better than phones and laptops. But there still is no point in replacing existing, perfectly functional notebooks.
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While I cannot use an iPad as a laptop replacement for a lot of reasons that's not one of them. iOS has different RAM management than Windows or Mac. It seems that iOS can handle Photoshop with 4 GB (we will see one the app is available if that's the case). Windows/Mac can't.
I would say that when we talk about heavy processes those are the ones I am thinking about:
1. Photos processing. Based on what I have seen it seems that the iPad can handle it.
2. Videos editing. Based on what I have seen the iPad can handle this too.
3. Designs creation and rendering (I am talking about apps of the likes of Blender and Maya). Not sure if such apps exist for iPad so I don't know if iPad can handle it.
4. Intensive 3D gaming. It seems that the iPad can handle it.
5. Compiling code, running server etc - there are no apps for this on iPad so I can't say if it can handle it or not
Honestly for me it's not about the RAM being low. It's more about how iOS works with RAM. That is valid for Android to some extent too though. On a computer I know that I can leave a program open for days (I don't shut down my computer every day) and nothing will happen. iOS however will refresh it and I might use some changes I have done. That for me is a problem, but I am not sure that it happens because the device has 4 GB RAM. I feel like this is the iOS concept in general.
It definitely does not fit with my idea of using a device for work with files and editing them though.
A lot of people don’t seem to understand how RAM works.
Simply put, you can have 128GB of RAM in a device. If you only use 4GB, the other 124GB is useless at that point.
Besides that, its all about optimization. As some people stated already, you can’t compare the different operating systems with one another. Having 4GB of RAM on a Windows machine, isn’t the same as 4GB on iOS. Windows dynamically takes up about 3GB (in the case of 4GB) to function as a sort of cache, to pre-load certain things.
iOS is much more ‘efficient’ when it comes to RAM reservation/usage.
Simply put, you can have 128GB of RAM in a device. If you only use 4GB, the other 124GB is useless at that point.
Besides that, its all about optimization. As some people stated already, you can’t compare the different operating systems with one another. Having 4GB of RAM on a Windows machine, isn’t the same as 4GB on iOS. Windows dynamically takes up about 3GB (in the case of 4GB) to function as a sort of cache, to pre-load certain things.
iOS is much more ‘efficient’ when it comes to RAM reservation/usage.
Exactly! It's all matter of usage! Another misconception that I see quite often is that people attribute RAM only to pro users. Not the case if you use Chrome. Nowadays even for pure browsing on Windows machine you need RAM. Like less than 8 GB RAM is not a good idea. I cannot talk about MacOS as I don't own Mac so I am not sure if this is general Chrome problem or it's Chrome in a combination with Windows.
That is true too!
Here we have different because I don't find it efficient
. It seems efficient but it does to the expense of something else - it loads stuff quite often (Safari tabs being reloaded often, apps being reloaded completely often). This leads to losing unsaved changes quite often. That for me is not efficient solution. Quite often I have opened some book in iBooks and have reached a certain page. I open the book later on and iBooks reloads itself and I have no idea where I was. I could leave my Windows laptop with open app for weeks and it will remember where I was. Does this take more RAM? Sure. Do I mind? No because this way I can really use it for books reading. In the other case I have to remember and that is not something I can do. Not to mention how many times I have lost changes because of apps reloading in iPad. Now I make sure to manually close the file the moment I leave the app to make sure that things are saved. That for me is not efficient. For my case Windows' RAM management makes much more sense. It is overkill for media consumption device though. So really there is no perfect solution that cover both cases.
Exactly! It's all matter of usage! Another misconception that I see quite often is that people attribute RAM only to pro users. Not the case if you use Chrome. Nowadays even for pure browsing on Windows machine you need RAM. Like less than 8 GB RAM is not a good idea. I cannot talk about MacOS as I don't own Mac so I am not sure if this is general Chrome problem or it's Chrome in a combination with Windows.
That is true too!
Here we have different because I don't find it efficient
For my case Windows' RAM management makes much more sense. It is overkill for media consumption device though. So really there is no perfect solution that cover both cases.
Well, perhaps ‘efficient’ isn’t exactly the correct phrase.
What I’m trying to explain is: Look at Android, the other big fish in the portable OS world. Android applications use a lot of java processing at the background, while iOS does not. I wont go into all the details why, but because of this, iOS only needs about half of the RAM than Android does. Windows doesn’t work entirely the same but its comparable to the way Android works. That’s why i called iOS ‘efficient’.
Often i see/hear comments like: “Oh look, this new Google Pixel Slate has 8GB of RAM, while the iPad Pro has only 4GB!”.
It doesn’t work that way, you can’t compare the two like that. It’s basically apples (no pun intended) and oranges. Yes they’re both tablet-hybrid systems, but they are still very different under the hood.
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Nah, my problem mostly
. When I hear efficient, I really do expect it to be efficient in every sense of the word .This is true. Android devices require more RAM than iOS devices but here we come to the same thing. My Android phone with 4 GB RAM can open up to 30 tabs in Chrome and rarely reloads them. My iPad with 2 GB RAM will reload each of those 30 tabs every 4 minutes. Guess which thing I find more annoying. Answer - the iOS way. I open up to 30 tabs quite often. And the fact is that my Android phone handles my use case far better than the iPad. It's true that the Android devie require more RAM in general. However I care about the end result. And the end result is that my apps are rarely reloaded. If I leave an app and come back to it in 30 minutes, it is not reloaded. If I leave an app and come back to it in 4 days, it could be reloaded (depends on how much apps I have open in my phone). My apps get reloaded on my iPad even in 30 minutes. I find this quite annoying. And like I said it has side effects with negative impact for me. Btw my old Android phone had 2 GB RAM and it sill did not reload apps like crazy like the iPad. I think that this is a general concept difference between Android and iOS and how the two OS use and work with RAM.
Agree on this completely. People should compare the full package. In other words the comparison should not be 4GB RAM vs 8 GB RAM. It should be about 4GB RAM iOS device vs 8 GB RAM Android device. When it comes to comparison, we have to compare on the user experience - select a use case and see how it is handled in 4GB RAM iOS device and in 8 GB Android device.
Hey! Thanks! I will check it out!
ETA: I do have to mention that my experience when it comes to Android is mostly related to Sony as I have used exclusively Sony phones for the last 4 years. And Sony tend to optimize the Android OS when it comes to RAM, CPU and battery usage. So my experience might not be universal.
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Well I just purchased a mac mini....
On Black Friday, I bought a Chromebook. I have external drives I would like to access and be able to upload/ download on my ipad Pro, a flash site for business. I did see all the signs that the Chrome browser would work. But today, I actually went to upload the files - and I get a message from the site, saying that Flash Player on Linux misbehaves - so it will probably freeze when uploading.... Ugh... I think there is at least another reason, I needed something for...
SO I will be returning the Chromebook this next week. I did get a fantastic deal on it, but found out that you were supposed to shut it down every night - it acts a bit wonky too....
I will be zipping my files on the mac mini - maybe even email etc.... I did have a calendar and post it notes on the Chromebook - so I may set that up as well on the mac mini....
I am also looking at getting the Luma Display - to connect the iPad to the mac mini and pretty much having Mac OS on the iPad. It looks like it works pretty good! I definitely have gotten used to having a touch device!
On Black Friday, I bought a Chromebook. I have external drives I would like to access and be able to upload/ download on my ipad Pro, a flash site for business. I did see all the signs that the Chrome browser would work. But today, I actually went to upload the files - and I get a message from the site, saying that Flash Player on Linux misbehaves - so it will probably freeze when uploading.... Ugh... I think there is at least another reason, I needed something for...
SO I will be returning the Chromebook this next week. I did get a fantastic deal on it, but found out that you were supposed to shut it down every night - it acts a bit wonky too....
I will be zipping my files on the mac mini - maybe even email etc.... I did have a calendar and post it notes on the Chromebook - so I may set that up as well on the mac mini....
I am also looking at getting the Luma Display - to connect the iPad to the mac mini and pretty much having Mac OS on the iPad. It looks like it works pretty good! I definitely have gotten used to having a touch device!
Well I just purchased a mac mini....
On Black Friday, I bought a Chromebook. I have external drives I would like to access and be able to upload/ download on my ipad Pro, a flash site for business. I did see all the signs that the Chrome browser would work. But today, I actually went to upload the files - and I get a message from the site, saying that Flash Player on Linux misbehaves - so it will probably freeze when uploading.... Ugh... I think there is at least another reason, I needed something for...
SO I will be returning the Chromebook this next week. I did get a fantastic deal on it, but found out that you were supposed to shut it down every night - it acts a bit wonky too....
I will be zipping my files on the mac mini - maybe even email etc.... I did have a calendar and post it notes on the Chromebook - so I may set that up as well on the mac mini....
I am also looking at getting the Luma Display - to connect the iPad to the mac mini and pretty much having Mac OS on the iPad. It looks like it works pretty good! I definitely have gotten used to having a touch device!
Congrats! What kind of specs did you opt for your mini? I hope that you enjoy it and it serves its purpose well for you!
My iPad Pro has replaced my laptop.
It hasn’t replaced my iMac
My laptop didn’t replace my iMac.
If I want to be doing desktop type work, I want to work on a desktop.
Everything I want/need to do when not working on a desktop, I can do on my iPad Pro - and enjoy doing it. Just edited a video on Adobe Rush and a few photos in LR. Dead easy.
It hasn’t replaced my iMac
My laptop didn’t replace my iMac.
If I want to be doing desktop type work, I want to work on a desktop.
Everything I want/need to do when not working on a desktop, I can do on my iPad Pro - and enjoy doing it. Just edited a video on Adobe Rush and a few photos in LR. Dead easy.
You are aware the ipad is a tablet and apple does the best job optimizing ram on iOS
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Exactly what it boils down to. Great post.
There are a few reasons that the iPad Pro isn’t a “laptop replacement” for me, but to be honest, if there was just a way to use a trackpad or a mouse with it, it would be darn close! I have software I use that make it impossible for it to be a full replacement of my other computers, but most of the time, I use those on my desktop anyway, so I could almost get by without a laptop. BUT I REALLY WANT A TRACPAD OR MOUSE LOL.
Fraser Spiers who has been a huge advocate of the iPad and was one of the first schools in the world to start a 1:1 iPad programme has, as of recently, switched to Google / Chrome OS.
Interesting but not surprising article.
ChromeOS is getting better faster than iOS on iPad. Apple seems now to be on a two-year cadence for meaningful iPad-related software updates and, honestly, that’s just not fast enough. ChromeOS is moving very quickly. Probably, iOS is ahead for now but I hate waiting on an “iPad year” WWDC and then hoping that something will happen for the OS features I happen to care about. There are some parts of iOS that have lain fallow for years now - Mail, Calendar, Safari - that need some serious investment. Third party apps might fill some of the gaps but iOS doesn’t let them be full replacements for the system apps. Honestly, I'm bored waiting for progress on some of these platform basics that have been on iPad users' wish lists for literally half a decade or more now.
That’s where I pretty much stand, too often Apple is given a slap on the wrist and we continue to support their rubbish moves such as with the recent overpriced Pro’s with severely shoddy software.
Interesting but not surprising article.
ChromeOS is getting better faster than iOS on iPad. Apple seems now to be on a two-year cadence for meaningful iPad-related software updates and, honestly, that’s just not fast enough. ChromeOS is moving very quickly. Probably, iOS is ahead for now but I hate waiting on an “iPad year” WWDC and then hoping that something will happen for the OS features I happen to care about. There are some parts of iOS that have lain fallow for years now - Mail, Calendar, Safari - that need some serious investment. Third party apps might fill some of the gaps but iOS doesn’t let them be full replacements for the system apps. Honestly, I'm bored waiting for progress on some of these platform basics that have been on iPad users' wish lists for literally half a decade or more now.
That’s where I pretty much stand, too often Apple is given a slap on the wrist and we continue to support their rubbish moves such as with the recent overpriced Pro’s with severely shoddy software.
Sure, he does have a point. We all know the culprits of iOS, also the way Apple handles certain things is very annoying. However, going chromeOS on a tablet like the Pixel slate just isn’t an option to me. I’ve experienced a Pixel Slate recently and i did not enjoy using it at all. ChromeOS is a laptop OS, not suited for a tablet.
EDIT: Just noticed he’s using a Pixelbook. I guess ChromeOS works on a more of a conventional laptop type of machine. Still, i stand to my opinion that i find ChromeOS horrible when it comes to tablet/laptop hybrids.