iPad Pro Ipad or Macbook air as only device

[ZafferZebra]

I'm trying to decide what device to buy for university next year and was deciding between Macbook Air or Ipad Pro with a magic keyboard and apple pencil and both is not an option as it would cost too much. I will be studying medicine at uni so lots of note taking and diagrams will be required as well as good battery life. Would an Ipad be good enough for the required workload or would a Macbook air be better?

 

[brookter1]

The thing is that neither will do everything perfectly, so whichever you choose you will be compromising on something: it depends which features really matter to you. (Is hand drawing something you absolutely need, or just nice to have. Are you going to be writing long complicated academic documents using multiple citations? Etc etc).

Perhaps one approach is to look at a refurbished MacBook Air plus a lower tier iPad + Apple Pencil? A year old MBA will last for a long time, and the basic iPad and pencil copes perfectly well with note taking and drawing.

E.g. refurbished MBA from Apple today (£739) + basic iPad (£329) + Pencil (£89) = £1157, and the combination will meet all your needs. A new bottom model 11" iPad Pro with pencil and keyboard is £1157 but will have significant compromises in writing long academic documents.

Only you can really decide which avenue best meets your needs, but it's worth considering the above approach, I think.

HTH.

 

[cardfan]

Grab the mac from start. Get a cheap iPad later down line. If had to choose one a Mac wins every time. It’s no contest.

 

[Shirasaki]

Way more university works need to be done on a computer rather than on iPad. Do your research first and see course lists and evaluate. But if it’s too much or information is rather limited, pick MacBook over iPad every time. I used iPad for 3 years at this point and it is the best companion with my PC and my new MacBook Pro, but cannot replace either.

 

[ProfessionalFan]

It i could only have one, i would go with the Mac.

 

[Expos of 1969]

MacBook Air is the way forward for you at uni.

 

[WorldIRC]

+1, if I could only have one, I'd go with the Mac.

 

[Abazigal]

I would say the issue with an iPad is that while it probably is nicer for note-taking and revising your notes during lectures and seminars, there's that 20% of tasks that is either a pain, or flat out impossible to perform using an iPad alone. Even something as basic as working on multiple google docs at a time is impossible on an iPad.

Probably go with the entry level M1 MBA.

Alternatively, try something like the surface book 2.

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[ericwn]

While note taking and diagrams will be needed, the Mac might still be a good starting point and then get an iPad further down the line.

 

[sird28]

Depends on your needs, I find the iPad to be funniest device I own. The m1 with magic keyboard with pencil.

You could totally do MacBook Air and like 8th gen iPad for the price of M1 Pro with the keyboard and pencil, but your split all the time on what device to use and to me I’d rather just use one device via two.

If your producing music, or video a MacBook is gonna be the better device. But if it’s consuming and computing iPad is the device I’d love since it’s so fun to use. A MacBook is just a really good laptop. The iPad is a jack of all trades.

 

[akash.nu]

When it comes to productivity if you need anything more than basic browser and emails then the MacBook will probably be better suited with a lot more ease of use and flexibility.

Having said that I do see a lot of work can be done on an iPad just not multiple instances of the same application outside of a web based infrastructure.

 

[boak]

Get the MacBook Air with education price and sell the free AirPods. Use the money to subsidise a base iPad (probably wait for the new one) + Pencil.

 

[Euronimus Sanchez]

MacBook Air, your mobile can make the same as an iPad, an iPad can't make the same as an Macbook

 

[Ludatyk]

As much as I’m a iPad-primary user. It took me quite a long time to determine this was the right fit for me, but you have to research on what application you will need for your studies. I understand you mention note taking and diagrams will be the bulk of your use cases, but there might be some applications you didn’t consider.

I’m sure majority will tell you to get the MBA, that’s the safe choice. But you can get by with the iPad… you have to research to see if the applications you need are on the platform. Whether it be web based application or found on the App Store.

 

[cupcakes2000]

An iPad is quite a lot more flexible than a laptop, especially if you purchase the pencil and a keyboard and a mouse, but as has been pointed out, you must ensure that it will be possible to get all the applications you need. It requires a certain relearning of many traditional computing tasks as a different approach maybe necessary with the iPad compared to the Mac. Some very few things are just not possible to do on an iPad, but plenty of things that the iPad can do that a mac cannot.

 

[M5RahuL]

Since it can only be one of the two, MBA all the way!

 

[James_C]

Yep, fully agree with everyone else M1 MBA.

 

[Jaekae]

Ipad is the perfect companion to a mac, so its always mac first ipad after.
get macbook, use paper for handwritten notes in beginning (scan with phone into your note app on macbook)
Then start saving up for a ipad also and maby some part of university you manage get both

 

[Significant1]

Primary or only device. iPad could not be my only device, my MacBook air can. But could be my primary device, when not focussing on programming. In reality, I do my productivity on Mac, while my Ipad is used more recreational.

 

[subjonas]

Primary or only device. iPad could not be my only device, my MacBook air can. But could be my primary device, when not focussing on programming. In reality, I do my productivity on Mac, while my Ipad is used more recreational.

Yes, that’s an important distinction. I use my 12.9” iPad as my primary device for personal productivity, but not my only device. I have a Mac mini that I use for file/library management, as a hub/server, and for the occasional task that my iPad cannot do or do well.
Actually, even if I had a MacBook Air instead of the iPad, I would still have the Mac mini as a file/library hub/server with time machine backups.

 

[kp98077]

MBA for sure, I have both, much more productive on the MBA... the iPad is really a media device. The file system is awful on the iPad...

 

[spiderman0616]

Get the MBA, especially if battery life is important to you. I really loved having the touch screen and Pencil available with iPad Pro, but what I eventually realized is that I was using it 99% of the time as a laptop, even for media consumption. The M1 MBA was a no-brainer for me. The battery life, speed, silence, and lack of heat are not exaggerations--this thing is the real deal, all while being thinner, lighter, easier to open and pick up from a flat surface, and most importantly, sturdier. (It's not going to get bent in your backpack if you're a bit careful.)

 

[spiderman0616]

As much as I’m a iPad-primary user. It took me quite a long time to determine this was the right fit for me, but you have to research on what application you will need for your studies. I understand you mention note taking and diagrams will be the bulk of your use cases, but there might be some applications you didn’t consider.

I’m sure majority will tell you to get the MBA, that’s the safe choice. But you can get by with the iPad… you have to research to see if the applications you need are on the platform. Whether it be web based application or found on the App Store.

This was the problem I ended up having--too many backflips to get iPadOS multitasking to behave in the way I expected it to behave. At first blush, iPad multitasking looks a lot like dock-based multitasking and Spaces on macOS, where your full screen apps or app pairings live in their own Spaces, and you can put anything else you want in any manually created Spaces, and a quick swipe from the trackpad or mouse will allow you to flip through all your main work areas.

How iPad multitasking acts though is completely different. Spaces is baked into macOS. Apps that work with macOS pretty much have to work in Spaces too. Apps that work with iPadOS are still not required (so far) to support multitasking, multiwindow, drag and drop, etc. Heck, some of them don't even support the iPad at all yet and have to run as iPhone apps, or don't allow you to rotate the iPad into landscape even there is a real iPad app.

My mistake was thinking the 12.9" iPad Pro would take me the rest of the way there. The 2020 model I had was wonderful, but due to its size, I started expecting even more laptop functionality out of it than I did my smaller iPads just due to the bigger workspace. That was a plus for drawing, which I don't do, but for laptop type tasks and even entertainment tasks, it ended up really magnifying some issues that didn't bother me as much on my smaller iPads.

I'm back on Mac now because the multitasking just sticks with me better. I always know where everything is, the gestures come more naturally to me, and all the iPad apps I'm missing from my old iPad Pro run on my M1 machine, so I'm covered.

 

[Ludatyk]

How iPad multitasking acts though is completely different. Spaces is baked into macOS. Apps that work with macOS pretty much have to work in Spaces too. Apps that work with iPadOS are still not required (so far) to support multitasking, multiwindow, drag and drop, etc. Heck, some of them don't even support the iPad at all yet and have to run as iPhone apps, or don't allow you to rotate the iPad into landscape even there is a real iPad app.

Well, compared to macOS… I totally understand multitasking is fundamentally different on iPadOS. I’m only targeting application availability and your right some iPad apps doesn’t support multitasking, but those are rare.

This was the problem I ended up having--too many backflips to get iPadOS multitasking to behave in the way I expected it to behave. At first blush, iPad multitasking looks a lot like dock-based multitasking and Spaces on macOS, where your full screen apps or app pairings live in their own Spaces, and you can put anything else you want in any manually created Spaces, and a quick swipe from the trackpad or mouse will allow you to flip through all your main work areas.

I came from a MBP, then a iMac.. went back to MB then Mac Mini, back to a iMac (now gone). But with me.. I never tried to make iPadOS behave like macOS. I’m fully aware of the limitations of iPadOS and I just work within it. And I like the direction Apple is taking with iPadOS 15.. if you asked me right after WWDC, I would have had a different mindset.

I think the next transition Apple needs to make for multitasking is to allow SideOver to become standalone… it’s dependent on a full screen app. They finally allowed SlideOver to be dismissed on either side, before it was only on the left side. But we are judging iPadOS too harshly when it’s not as matured as macOS.

 

[slplss]

There will most likely be moments you will miss having a Mac or PC, if you don’t have it already as a secondary device for iPad now. Having an iPad is convenient, but you can’t 100% depend on it. You can 100% depend on MBA and get the iPad later (I’m saying that as a previous MBP user, now a student using iPP XDR with desktop PC).