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 Pro 10.5 - it’s a trap
- Thread starter freddisier
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Absolutely right. I tried using my 12.9 as a laptop, but it was very frustrating. You don't have the same sense of space that you do in a real desktop environment. You can't just drag stuff where you want it or have loads of windows open at the same time. And reaching out to the screen is a pain. I've used a Surface before and that is a lot easier - a minimal movement from trackpad to key and back, but touch if you want it. Like the reviewer says - it's possible to use it as a laptop but it just isn't as good.
I enjoy watching Dave's reviews, I feel they are straightforward non biased and well done. Hey Dave?!, where did you get that 10.5 Pro with no yellow screen issue? LOL
And yes.....I ALWAYS reach for my 13" MBP first, even typing this on the MBP now, however I returned my 10.5 Pro yesterday, will revisit the purchase in 6 months.
And yes.....I ALWAYS reach for my 13" MBP first, even typing this on the MBP now, however I returned my 10.5 Pro yesterday, will revisit the purchase in 6 months.
I agree with Dave. Have been really trying to use the new iPad for everyday tasks w/o reaching for my laptop for nearly a week now.
While I'm able to do most of my work on the iPad, certain applications ( Excel, for example ) just make me wanna throw the damn thing!
It's a beautiful and very convenient mobile solution, especially with onboard Cellular...but just feels like it's not completely there yet. I'm seriously missing a mouse or trackpad/touchpad, as (for me) pausing in between tasks to touch the screen is an inconvenience that I'm finding hard to adapt.
I'm still going to give it a few more days, because I want it to work for me!
While I'm able to do most of my work on the iPad, certain applications ( Excel, for example ) just make me wanna throw the damn thing!
It's a beautiful and very convenient mobile solution, especially with onboard Cellular...but just feels like it's not completely there yet. I'm seriously missing a mouse or trackpad/touchpad, as (for me) pausing in between tasks to touch the screen is an inconvenience that I'm finding hard to adapt.
I'm still going to give it a few more days, because I want it to work for me!
I am not yet on iOS 11 (beta) and didn't buy it as a laptop replacement. I simply love my MacBook Pro too much and yes it is much more useful. BUT, being on the road a lot, the iPad including Apple keyboard does replace my laptop for day-2-day business, including watching video, listening radio or music, mounting in the car as dashboard extension, reading and writing e-mails and even logging into our corporate terminalserver having full windows functionality at reasonable level.
As in many case, it all depends on your particular needs. In my case: no brainer: laptop for heavy work, iPad for being on the road (replacing the HP tablet PC I have from the office with a magnificent battery life of 2,5 hours at max).
As in many case, it all depends on your particular needs. In my case: no brainer: laptop for heavy work, iPad for being on the road (replacing the HP tablet PC I have from the office with a magnificent battery life of 2,5 hours at max).
I fully agree with his review and conclusions. Its just too many work arounds and the exact reason I will not be using an ipad pro anytime soon. I know exactly how he feels (frustration galore) when i tried to use it as a laptop replacement. For now, even a chromebook suffices as a laptop replacement more than any ipad pro.
Review is pretty much spot on for me.
It's just not there and the major problem is iOS. My iPad pro is laid on the floor at the side of me and I'm on the rMBP again, its just more efficient and works more naturally for anything but a quick answer email or youtube/video consumption.
It's just not there and the major problem is iOS. My iPad pro is laid on the floor at the side of me and I'm on the rMBP again, its just more efficient and works more naturally for anything but a quick answer email or youtube/video consumption.
The iPad is great for bits of productivity - like typing up in a cafe or drawing, but for something like web design it just doesn't work. On the Mac, I might have a text editor, an image editor, a file system, reference websites up etc and be moving about from one to the other quickly. Try doing that on an iPad. Impossible. Now, a touchscreen Mac with mouse and keyboard - that would be cool.
Pete, that about sums it up for me. I like my 9.7 iPad Pro, and when I need to mark papers using a pencil, it's great. I'm look forward to getting my 12.9. BUT, as for the work I should be doing right now, I'm currently tweaking an Adobe Captivate presentation. Not only can I not even run that on my iPad, even if I could, I couldn't very quickly go between Captivate, Omnigraffle, Word, Mail and Path Finder. Oh, it goes with saying that I have WAY more screen real estate on my 27" iMac and 2 external 24" 2560x1440 displays!
I've got a question. Why do people think or want just a single compromised device?
If i want to go long distances, i jump on an aircraft. If i want a medium distance journey i take a train - sure i could drive or fly, but both have downsides. Aircraft means i have to go early in order to contend with security and i have less precision in terms of end/start point. If i drive while i get away from the end/start point precision issues i still have 1000s of other nutters on the roads all heading in other directions too, then i have parking to contend with at the other side too. If its a local thing, the car is perfect, but still you have traffic issues while planes and trains dont work at all...
I'm not saying any one mode is better than the other for everything, they all work - but for different things...!
But the laptop is the best hybrid car/boat/copter i can think of right now if i have to pick a single workflow.
If i want to go long distances, i jump on an aircraft. If i want a medium distance journey i take a train - sure i could drive or fly, but both have downsides. Aircraft means i have to go early in order to contend with security and i have less precision in terms of end/start point. If i drive while i get away from the end/start point precision issues i still have 1000s of other nutters on the roads all heading in other directions too, then i have parking to contend with at the other side too. If its a local thing, the car is perfect, but still you have traffic issues while planes and trains dont work at all...
I'm not saying any one mode is better than the other for everything, they all work - but for different things...!
But the laptop is the best hybrid car/boat/copter i can think of right now if i have to pick a single workflow.
I enjoy his reviews. I bought the 12.9 iPad Pro because I used my ipad Air 2 every day. I sold my last MacBook a year before I bought the bigger iPad. So it wasn‘t a laptop replacement for me. But i still think it highly depends on your use case. If you do anything more than emailing, surfing and consuming - it‘s frankly not for you. But if you do just that, it‘s really great.
So, I think Dave is absolutely correct. It‘s not a laptop replacement. It‘s something different. A laptop is not an iPad replacement either.
So, I think Dave is absolutely correct. It‘s not a laptop replacement. It‘s something different. A laptop is not an iPad replacement either.
I suppose it's only an issue because Apple keep touting the iPad as a laptop replacement. If they just said here's a great mobile device it wouldn't make you compare the two things.
No mouse, no cheese.
Still love iPads for what they can do.
Still love iPads for what they can do.
I really wish there was an all in one device. That is what I hope will happen someday. One device that does it all.
LOL
[doublepost=1499206965][/doublepost]
The legal pad of paper!! Does everything. Battery lasts forever. Thin. Light. Foldable display.
I have to agree with many of the points that he brings, I always like his reviews/videos. I think he touches on a good point where, you can use the touch screen (say in excel) to select cells and move around, but the laptop/mouse/trackpad is still more efficient.
100% agree with the review: the hardware is excellent, but there are two major factors that compromise the iPad as a laptop replacement:
Look guys, lets not kid ourselves: iPads are amazing for content consumption and casual use (email, browsing, skype, movies, etc). However, as working machines, they simply cant replace a laptop... and despite whatever Apple's marketing might say, they were never meant to.
The only way an iPad would be a real laptop replacement is if it sported MacOS and was mouse compatible... which basically would convert it into a Macbook with touch screen.
- iOS is too limited, even version 11
- Touch interfaces are less fluid/accurate than a mouse cursor
Look guys, lets not kid ourselves: iPads are amazing for content consumption and casual use (email, browsing, skype, movies, etc). However, as working machines, they simply cant replace a laptop... and despite whatever Apple's marketing might say, they were never meant to.
The only way an iPad would be a real laptop replacement is if it sported MacOS and was mouse compatible... which basically would convert it into a Macbook with touch screen.
Last edited:
I agree with this review. I returned my pro 10.5 a few weeks back and sticking with my air 2. I will switch when I can use a mouse on an iPad.
Although I have plans to sell my MacBook, my reason to buy an iPad Pro is not to replace a laptop or make it my only device. Using Excel on iPad is a horrible experience, even with Smart Keyboard.
The iPad is a superb consumption device - videos, web pages, books, PDFs, music, games, etc. Try doing anything remotely productive on it and its shortcomings soon become apparent.
I think he makes some good points, but I still see the iPad as a great complimentary device (though not necessarily a laptop replacement).
Basically everything I would normally do on my iPhone I now do on my iPad (10.5 inch Pro). I love having the huge bump in screen real estate. I have the LTE model which means I can do things like use navigation on my iPad, which is MUCH better than on the phone as it's far easier to see.
The iPad is much easier to carry around so I like to use it for music, podcasts, and things of that nature (especially with AirPods because I can just keep my iPad in my backpack and not worry about cords).
I also find certain things to be much more enjoyable on my iPad. For example reading sheet music is much easier because I can throw my iPad on the music stand and have at it, using a laptop was always a nightmare, and printed pages work alright but I'd rather save the paper plus there are some cool pedals out there that will turn pages forward/backward with the tap of a foot.
Annotating documents is far easier on the iPad, and I love apps like Scanner Pro which allows me to take a picture of a document and it will automatically convert it to PDF plus clean up the image for me, then I can go right to annotating. This is way better than trying to perform an equivalent task with a laptop. And of course drawing is much more enjoyable with the iPad over using a computer as it feels way more natural.
Of course laptops blow the iPad away in certain key areas, which is why having the best of both worlds is great.
One thing I don't understand is why he said the iPad Pro plus a pencil is not a good way to learn art. It seems like a great way to me! Not only can you draw in a natural way, you also get all the perks of the digital world (undo, copy/paste, cropping, clean erasing, layers, etc).
Basically everything I would normally do on my iPhone I now do on my iPad (10.5 inch Pro). I love having the huge bump in screen real estate. I have the LTE model which means I can do things like use navigation on my iPad, which is MUCH better than on the phone as it's far easier to see.
The iPad is much easier to carry around so I like to use it for music, podcasts, and things of that nature (especially with AirPods because I can just keep my iPad in my backpack and not worry about cords).
I also find certain things to be much more enjoyable on my iPad. For example reading sheet music is much easier because I can throw my iPad on the music stand and have at it, using a laptop was always a nightmare, and printed pages work alright but I'd rather save the paper plus there are some cool pedals out there that will turn pages forward/backward with the tap of a foot.
Annotating documents is far easier on the iPad, and I love apps like Scanner Pro which allows me to take a picture of a document and it will automatically convert it to PDF plus clean up the image for me, then I can go right to annotating. This is way better than trying to perform an equivalent task with a laptop. And of course drawing is much more enjoyable with the iPad over using a computer as it feels way more natural.
Of course laptops blow the iPad away in certain key areas, which is why having the best of both worlds is great.
One thing I don't understand is why he said the iPad Pro plus a pencil is not a good way to learn art. It seems like a great way to me! Not only can you draw in a natural way, you also get all the perks of the digital world (undo, copy/paste, cropping, clean erasing, layers, etc).
exactly the conclusion I got to with my 12.9. I had sold my MacBook for the 12" but realised that it just isn't as fluid to use as a notebook. It really needs a trackpad to make it a replacement - touching the screen is just painful for content creation.
So I got a 2016 MacBook Pro 13" and love it. I will also get the 10.5 for my sketching / book reading / image consumption.
really there is no one device that can do it all if you are in my game [design]. I need a 27" screen, powerful computer, mobile computer, tablet and a phone. Everything has its use and place, and everything gets used. I can see if you just need basic use [email and web], social media etc but beyond this is very tedious indeed.
I still don't understand where Apple are going with the iPad, they won't put OSX on it and now we even have Nintendo showing Apple how to implement a working system. Use the Switch on the big screen, disconnect and use it as a portable.
Using the iPad as external wireless touchscreen monitor would be the half way point, but I just can't get my head around the logic that you can't use a mouse on an iPad.
Using the iPad as external wireless touchscreen monitor would be the half way point, but I just can't get my head around the logic that you can't use a mouse on an iPad.