iPad as a laptop replacement

[filu_]

As a desktop replacement for looks or practicality? That’s my question.

No, because:
- you will not format the flash drive,
- you may need a big screen anyway,
- applications are "slimmed", e.g. Brother application for my printer only supports basic functions,
- the Files application is terrible,
- if you have a collection of your music and photos on your desktop, what will you do with it? Will you transfer to iCloud? Will you buy an iPad with maximum memory?
- keyboards, cables, iPad adapters cost too,
- iPads bend after use

Yes, if:
- you want to render movies faster than on MBA or MBP - as long as you buy iPP.

And seriously - the iPad is great as a tablet. However, as I estimate, it cannot be a device for users because it does not offer many basic functionalities, a few of which I have listed above.

 

[Fred Zed]

No, because:
- you will not format the flash drive,
- you may need a big screen anyway,
- applications are "slimmed", e.g. Brother application for my printer only supports basic functions,
- the Files application is terrible,
- if you have a collection of your music and photos on your desktop, what will you do with it? Will you transfer to iCloud? Will you buy an iPad with maximum memory?
- keyboards, cables, iPad adapters cost too,
- iPads bend after use

Yes, if:
- you want to render movies faster than on MBA or MBP - as long as you buy iPP.

And seriously - the iPad is great as a tablet. However, as I estimate, it cannot be a device for users because it does not offer many basic functionalities, a few of which I have listed above.

Yep couldn’t agree more.

 

[ascender]

As a desktop replacement for looks or practicality? That’s my question.

I guess it depends what you do with your desktop. I know many people who have a big, powerful iMac but do no more than basic productivity, web surfing etc with it.

If all your required apps are available on iPadOS, then its certainly very possible to do it - I think the limited external display support may be a factor for some though.

 

[NastyMatt]

The OP did say laptop. I might say my iPad could replace my laptop (my portable device) but not my desktop.

Agreed - my iPad will not replace my desktop. I have a 34" UW monitor for starters, that pure real estate just makes things easier. In the same way my laptop (MBP) also could not replace my desktop.

 

[MiniApple]

It will replace my laptop and desktop once I can hook it up to an external monitor and have it full / custom or at least some common preset resolutions to fill out the screen instead of black bars on the sides.

 

[Sarbun96]

I just bought an 11" iPad Pro 512GB Space Grey to replace a MacBook Pro 2017 256GB. It's nice to finally have my storage of all my photo library local again with lots of breathing space for it to grow. As well as a capable Files manager with 2TB iCloud space. I can also play Minecraft on it like I did on the Mac, and I've gotten used to the controls. 120HZ is buttery smooth! The battery, display and build quality is amazing and I'm looking forward to iPad OS 14 tonight.

My wishlist for iPad OS is more reliable file transfers from HDDs, proper external monitor support and the ability to set file extensions to open in specified apps.

 

[JD2015]

It all depends on your workflow and picking what tool is right for the job. Don’t think there is any device out there which can meet all needs. For me it can meet most of my needs except for the following:-
1. Cannot connect a dedicated digital camera/webcam for video conferencing. I would love to see Apple move the camera on the Ipad to help with this. The current setup is clunky.
2. Only 1 USB C (data) ports. Has two which is great however when wanting to connect more USB C accessories it struggles.
3. Some of the software that I need to use is still watered down on IOS too much E.g. Microsoft Word.
4. Formatting of USB hard drives - cannot do this.
5. Reliance still at times on a Macbook. I wanted to update my Iphone to IOS 14 yesterday but had no access to a wifi point. The iphone wouldnt let me download the update even though got sufficient data allowance. Had to connect the iphone to my Macbook and then use it as a hotspot to get around it.

It really does though fully depends on your needs. My Ipad Pro 2018 smokes my Macbook Air 2018 in performance and speed so prefer picking this up at times. Also prefer editing of photos on IOS devices than on a Macbook. I love both Mac OS and IOS/Ipad OS. Furthermore, am very fortunate that I can afford to own an Ipad and a Macbook.

 

[bobjonesco]

I’m giving this another go after it didn’t work out 2 years ago. I now have a 2020 Pro 11” with MKB VS 10.5 back then, and I think this is one of the main things that I felt was missing before.

iPadOS 14 feels very promising. Except for a few websites, I can do what I would normally do on my 2020 MBP but everything looks buttery smooth.

While I‘m only for work a lot (online marketing and sales) I am not a power user and most apps that re available cover pretty much all of my needs. Some quirks with the printer not working properly, and not having an extended screen available without stupid black bars on the side - but I can live with that.

Loving the power and portability that this iPad brings and I’m crushing hard on the MKB - so good.

 

[Zazoh]

The answer to this is, of course it is, of course it isn’t. I didn’t read all the pages, but scrolled ahead to July 2020. I got caught up. Then I went to pick out some new frames for my eyeglasses.

I was greeted by someone with base iPad, in hand who did 100% of my visit on the device. Registered me, got my insurance plan from my wife’s account, verified prescription with my doctors office, took my payment and sent an email receipt to me.

All real work, all in real time, using 4 or 5 applications. All of us to some degree are consumers of data and creators of data. Where we do that, how we do that is as different as our daily food choices. The span on the continuum is shrinking in the middle. For some, this means one device will suffice. For me, I’m glad I can sit at a desk with a large monitor, comfortable chair and full size keyboard. But I’m also glad I can slouch on the couch device in hand and type out this response. Then throw it in my backpack and take it with me.

Apple / Google and others, allow us to bridge work across devices. The number of devices one can do this on is totally different for each of us.

 

[ericwn]

I just bought an 11" iPad Pro 512GB Space Grey to replace a MacBook Pro 2017 256GB. It's nice to finally have my storage of all my photo library local again with lots of breathing space for it to grow. As well as a capable Files manager with 2TB iCloud space. I can also play Minecraft on it like I did on the Mac, and I've gotten used to the controls. 120HZ is buttery smooth! The battery, display and build quality is amazing and I'm looking forward to iPad OS 14 tonight.

My wishlist for iPad OS is more reliable file transfers from HDDs, proper external monitor support and the ability to set file extensions to open in specified apps.

What capable file manager do you use then if you’re still waiting for more reliable file transfers?

 

[sparksd]

What capable file manager do you use then if you’re still waiting for more reliable file transfers?

For me, FileBrowser has solved the issues with working with exFAT-formatted attached storage.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/file-corruption-on-copy-to-external-storage.2235171/

 

[Sarbun96]

What capable file manager do you use then if you’re still waiting for more reliable file transfers?

I’m still using Files because it does work most of the time, and well and is seamless etc. The sort of experience I love from Apple. I hope they fix the USB-C issue soon though... but it has been nearly two years and no improvement sadly.

Still, even with the limitations of the iPad, I don’t find it being worth going back to my MBP. Especially since working from home - going from one laptop to another when 5pm hits... much rather move into the living room, sit back and read a magazine rather than sit at a desk any longer I guess.

 

[secretk]

Still, even with the limitations of the iPad, I don’t find it being worth going back to my MBP. Especially since working from home - going from one laptop to another when 5pm hits... much rather move into the living room, sit back and read a magazine rather than sit at a desk any longer I guess.

You know initially when we started working from home I was the same. I found it cumbersome to switch from one laptop to the other so I was trying to use only the iPad. Problem is I cannot. There are things that I can do only on my personal laptop. Mostly my movies are there. As I have 1 TB storage there I can store far more movies than on my iPad. I don't have the best Internet deal - basically just 100 GB at good speed per month. With streaming and video calls all day at work I use up this for like 15 days. Once that is over, the iPad honestly becomes useless (my iPad is WIFI but even with cellular it would not work as I eat up data).

Overall for now what I am trying to do is to not use my laptop in my bed and rely only on the iPad but to be honest even this is rather basic. I wear glasses (big description) and if I decide to go to bed I leave my glasses on my desk and use the iPad for podcasts and just rely on the good speakers. And in terms of switching - I actually do not need to. Both of my laptops are on my desks and I put movies on my personal laptop while I am working (and not in a video call). Once the work day is over I just close the work laptop and remain with just the personal one.

 

[bobjonesco]

I’m giving this another go after it didn’t work out 2 years ago. I now have a 2020 Pro 11” with MKB VS 10.5 back then, and I think this is one of the main things that I felt was missing before.

iPadOS 14 feels very promising. Except for a few websites, I can do what I would normally do on my 2020 MBP but everything looks buttery smooth.

While I‘m only for work a lot (online marketing and sales) I am not a power user and most apps that re available cover pretty much all of my needs. Some quirks with the printer not working properly, and not having an extended screen available without stupid black bars on the side - but I can live with that.

Loving the power and portability that this iPad brings and I’m crushing hard on the MKB - so good.

Well I gave it a good two weeks and ended up bringing it back and dusting off my 2020 MBP (kidding, its too new to get any dust). While I'm not a power user by any means, I noticed that certain things were just too annoying to do, such as copy pasting and moving things across in Numbers, or saving and sharing specific pages or files with other people.

Stuff that I can do with my eyes closed on MacOS.

The iPad Pro with iPadOS 14 itself is very polished and feels great to use, but you will run into roadblocks and detours if you've been a MacOS users for a few years.

 

[Isamilis]

My work use windows laptop. At home, after work, I used my iPad just to read news and light reading some books. I open my MacBook about 1-2 times a week for working on serious stuff. To be frank, I use iPad more and more frequent now. Especially for reading books, articles and walkthrough feed in Facebook or Twitter.

 

[Zazoh]

I don't have the best Internet deal - basically just 100 GB at good speed per month. With streaming and video calls all day at work I use up this for like 15 days.

For years in the US, folks have been trying to get Broadband Access declared as a necessity. Schools, workplaces, homes, we are way passed the need for all to have this utility. one of the reasons I moved from a rural area was to have unlimited broadband. I was previously on Satellite with a 35 Gb Cap. My family and I use that in a day now.

 

[sparksd]

For years in the US, folks have been trying to get Broadband Access declared as a necessity. Schools, workplaces, homes, we are way passed the need for all to have this utility. one of the reasons I moved from a rural area was to have unlimited broadband. I was previously on Satellite with a 35 Gb Cap. My family and I use that in a day now.

When I travel around the US, I get to a lot of areas with poor or no Internet access, the primary reason I don't depend on cloud services. Same with wireless. It's sad how widespread this is.

 

[secretk]

For years in the US, folks have been trying to get Broadband Access declared as a necessity. Schools, workplaces, homes, we are way passed the need for all to have this utility. one of the reasons I moved from a rural area was to have unlimited broadband. I was previously on Satellite with a 35 Gb Cap. My family and I use that in a day now.

Yep in my case I rent a place and I do not want to put holes in the wall for Internet setup. I have setup in the wall for some providers but those provide even worse service than what I have. I use mobile 4G modem that I can move with me wherever I go.

 

[Sarbun96]

You know initially when we started working from home I was the same. I found it cumbersome to switch from one laptop to the other so I was trying to use only the iPad. Problem is I cannot. There are things that I can do only on my personal laptop. Mostly my movies are there. As I have 1 TB storage there I can store far more movies than on my iPad. I don't have the best Internet deal - basically just 100 GB at good speed per month. With streaming and video calls all day at work I use up this for like 15 days. Once that is over, the iPad honestly becomes useless (my iPad is WIFI but even with cellular it would not work as I eat up data).

Overall for now what I am trying to do is to not use my laptop in my bed and rely only on the iPad but to be honest even this is rather basic. I wear glasses (big description) and if I decide to go to bed I leave my glasses on my desk and use the iPad for podcasts and just rely on the good speakers. And in terms of switching - I actually do not need to. Both of my laptops are on my desks and I put movies on my personal laptop while I am working (and not in a video call). Once the work day is over I just close the work laptop and remain with just the personal one.

ah, see I’ve got the 512GB iPad Pro 2020, 200mbps Fibre internet and was the same with the whole switching laptops at 5pm but it’s better for me in my case to be In any position other than sitting at a desk for more than 8 hours of the day

 

[lmitch6]

I think that depending on the use case, one could use an iPad as their sole machine. I only use my personal 13” MacBook Pro for heavy photo editing. And that’s only because I haven’t taken the time to adopt an iPad only workflow as some photographers have. Outside of that my use case is pretty minimal, media consumption and the occasional Numbers or Pages document.

I’ve gotten into ” Deep Work” lately - essentially minimizing distractions so one can focus more fully on tasks. I took my Thunderbolt Display off my desk and only use either my work 13” MacBook Pro or my 11” iPad Pro, without videos, Slack, or other windows in view. For my work I don’t need big screens. Everyone’s mileage will vary though, so that’s why we have choices 😄

 

[macdogpro]

I think that depending on the use case, one could use an iPad as their sole machine. I only use my personal 13” MacBook Pro for heavy photo editing. And that’s only because I haven’t taken the time to adopt an iPad only workflow as some photographers have. Outside of that my use came is pretty minimal, media consumption and the occasional Numbers or Pages document.

I’ve gotten into ” Deep Work” lately - essentially minimizing distractions so one can focus more fully on tasks. I took my Thunderbolt Display off my desk and only use either my work 13” MacBook Pro or my 11” iPad Pro, without videos, Slack, or other windows in view. For my work I don’t need big screens. Everyone’s mileage will vary though, so that’s why we have choices ?

This is so true for me.

Used to love to multitask with as many external screen as I can with my old MBP.
Now with only iPad Pro, I tried to limit myself using only it screen and split screen instead of multi windows on Mac.
More focus on my current task and get it done.

I completely moved to iPad only for photo and video editing.
Quite steep learning curve too moving from MS Office to iWork on iPadOS, but it’s pretty much settled for me now.

 

[lmitch6]

This is so true for me.

Used to love to multitask with as many external screen as I can with my old MBP.
Now with only iPad Pro, I tried to limit myself using only it screen and split screen instead of multi windows on Mac.
More focus on my current task and get it done.

I completely moved to iPad only for photo and video editing.
Quite steep learning curve too moving from MS Office to iWork on iPadOS, but it’s pretty much settled for me now.

That‘s awesome. I really need to spend some time looking at moving my photography workflows to the iPad. My MacBook Pro is a 2013 model. It’s been great, but is starting to show its age lately with newer photo editing applications and large image files. I just upgraded my 2017 10.5” iPad Pro to the 2020 11”, and can totally see this being my only machine.

 

[secretk]

This is so true for me.

Used to love to multitask with as many external screen as I can with my old MBP.
Now with only iPad Pro, I tried to limit myself using only it screen and split screen instead of multi windows on Mac.
More focus on my current task and get it done.

I completely moved to iPad only for photo and video editing.
Quite steep learning curve too moving from MS Office to iWork on iPadOS, but it’s pretty much settled for me now.

This is interesting. For me it was vice versa. In the beginning during this whole working from home phase I did not hook up my external monitor to my company laptop. So I would rely only on the 14 inch screen. Soon I realized that this just does not work for me. I need to be able to have a video call while still checking something else on the second monitor. So I rearranged my setup and hooked up my external monitor and now it is definitely better for me. Plus the screen is just too small for my needs.

Now granted my type of work is such that I have like 6-7 video calls a day. I try to write meeting minutes for all of those calls and in a lot of them someone is sharing a screen showing a presentation. I need to be able to see both the presentation and to have the place where I write down my notes. So my dynamics does expect really two monitors or at least for me works best with two monitors.

I also quite often get asked during calls on technical details that I need to dig into and check during the call itself. Here again having second monitor helps. I do use my iPad but to be honest I use it for other stuff - like sketching out quickly ideas and technical diagrams that I need to share with co-workers. Or reading and highlighting. Lately I have been also using to create these sort of video memories from trips I take. However I do not see myself being able to live only with iPad - neither for work dynamics, nor for personal usage.

 

[macdogpro]

This is interesting. For me it was vice versa. In the beginning during this whole working from home phase I did not hook up my external monitor to my company laptop. So I would rely only on the 14 inch screen. Soon I realized that this just does not work for me. I need to be able to have a video call while still checking something else on the second monitor. So I rearranged my setup and hooked up my external monitor and now it is definitely better for me. Plus the screen is just too small for my needs.

Now granted my type of work is such that I have like 6-7 video calls a day. I try to write meeting minutes for all of those calls and in a lot of them someone is sharing a screen showing a presentation. I need to be able to see both the presentation and to have the place where I write down my notes. So my dynamics does expect really two monitors or at least for me works best with two monitors.

I also quite often get asked during calls on technical details that I need to dig into and check during the call itself. Here again having second monitor helps. I do use my iPad but to be honest I use it for other stuff - like sketching out quickly ideas and technical diagrams that I need to share with co-workers. Or reading and highlighting. Lately I have been also using to create these sort of video memories from trips I take. However I do not see myself being able to live only with iPad - neither for work dynamics, nor for personal usage.

Yes as mentioned before, it really depends on the work case.
I can see how external monitors are a heavy benefits for your work, as do for mine, but I can tolerate for not having it for a more minimalist setup that actually boost my productivity.

I use extended monitor to open more reference windows and softwares, but this often to lead to distracting my priorities to opening other stuffs (my personal bad, lol).

But when I do need external monitor to open more reference I can hook up one with my iPad and use the ShiftScreen app to open full screen browser and put my reference there. Not perfect replacement, but better than nothing for now.

As for video calls, I don’t use it on daily basis, but when I do, I can get by it by using split screen to open my Notes app.

One last deciding factor is this is initially made by choice because we are lack of options.
Like @lmitch6 , my very old 2009 MBP also can not keep up with newer creative apps / software that I use currently to process new heavy files from modern cameras. My iPad Pro 2020 is the fastest computer I have, and I decided it‘s going to be my only computer for a while now (waiting for the ARM based iMac).
So it can be done because part of it, it must be done this way.

 

[secretk]

Yes as mentioned before, it really depends on the work case.
I can see how external monitors are a heavy benefits for your work, as do for mine, but I can tolerate for not having it for a more minimalist setup that actually boost my productivity.

I use extended monitor to open more reference windows and softwares, but this often to lead to distracting my priorities to opening other stuffs (my personal bad, lol).

Indeed, sometimes this could happen. Luckily I have sometimes tunnel vision when it comes to things like that. Like if I focus on something, I so do not care what happens around me.

But when I do need external monitor to open more reference I can hook up one with my iPad and use the ShiftScreen app to open full screen browser and put my reference there. Not perfect replacement, but better than nothing for now.

Yeah, it is an option and if you don't have to use it daily, I think that it is OK.

As for video calls, I don’t use it on daily basis, but when I do, I can get by it by using split screen to open my Notes app.

Is your iPad the 12.9 inch? I wear glasses and have high astigmatism and medium (on the verge of high) myopia. Split screen is not something that would work for me even on 12.9 inch screen. It is just way too small screen estate to see things properly and to feel comfortable.

One last deciding factor is this is initially made by choice because we are lack of options.
Like @lmitch6 , my very old 2009 MBP also can not keep up with newer creative apps / software that I use currently to process new heavy files from modern cameras. My iPad Pro 2020 is the fastest computer I have, and I decided it‘s going to be my only computer for a while now (waiting for the ARM based iMac).
So it can be done because part of it, it must be done this way.

Indeed this is a good point. I think that given your choice I would have chosen the iPad. At least just by comparison of the devices and what they can do.

That being said as the iPad is not enough for me (both hardware and software are lacking for me) I actually make sure to have a laptop. Is it faster than the 2018 iPP I have based on benchmarks? No but honestly it is not the speed I need. I don't do things that are that taxing on my iPad. It is the RAM management that is better on my laptop. I need to be able to run multiple processes in the background and iPads do not offer such options. Now granted I am also a team lead of Software Development team so on my company laptop I do work with databases and reading code and stuff like that so yeah the iPads would not handle that part as well either. And there I do need both speed and RAM.