So, I’ve been using the iPad Pro with a magic keyboard for a while (along with the latest Dell XPS 15) as a duo combination. I mostly do financial and communication work, so this review won’t be touching on any creative / drawing / artist aspects. This is an iPad-as-a-laptop-replacement / companion review.
First, what I found the iPad Pro to be really good at:
1) On-the-go task and productivity manager. The iPad Pro combines the benefits of a mobile OS with a great keyboard and does a wonderful job at it: it has a great home view, a ton of productivity apps that are miles better than anything on Windows (or MacOS for that matter), a great Google Calendar application that again none of the systems have, much better notifications and reminders and so on. I usually place it alongside my laptop and use it to manage my day, plan projects and so on, works wonders.
2) Second display. I do a lot of “Look at something and then make it into an excel spreadsheet” work, and I’ve never liked the splitscreen view, even on a 15’’ laptop. With the iPad, I open the PDF or a web page on it, and do the main work on the laptop. Very nice and convenient (and also works great for online courses, where you watch the lectures while exploring a video editor at the same time, for example)
3) Mobile banking or investments. I never though about this before, but doing any financial transactions is great on an iPad (especially if you have a lot of them) - logging in with FaceID is a lot more convenient than laptop passwords or even Touch ID, and the apps are usually much more convenient than the banking websites.
4) On-the-go video watching or book reading or music listening. Pretty obvious, nothing really to add here, everything is great.
5) LTE on the go. Not really that useful in offices or at home, but in airports or on trains it’s wonderful, and I wish more laptops would go with the LTE options.
6) The touchscreen. I don’t think it’s that good on larger laptops (like my 15’’), but on the 11’’ it’s very convenient because it’s so close to your hands. I’ve been using it a lot in desktop mode and it’s definitely better that just keyboard and mouse for this form factor.
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Now for the things that I’ve disliked on the IPad Pro:
1) A lot of the apps are not optimized for the keyboard usage at all. Some are just annoying like:
Space bar doesn’t pause in the YouTube App
Can’t start typing in chrome when you open a new tab right away, instead you have to click on it
Can’t rearrange tabs in chrome
The right click menu takes a while to load up an is very bare-bones
And so on.
On the other hands, some of the apps are completely unusable, like instagram, which still cannot load up in horizontal mode (!!!) and certain news sites. Obviously its the developers fault and not Apple, but still.
2) The iOS file system. Let’s be honest, it’s terrible. It has abysmal file management on the iPad itself, and makes you rely solely on the Google Drives and Dropboxes (which for some apps are still not functioning properly).
3) The keyboard keys. Specifically, it for some reason iPad Pro foregoes ESC, any volume controls, screen brightness and so on, which I think would be great to have right there at your fingertips. Still, not really a big deal. The keyboard itself by the way is great and typing on it is very enjoyable.
4) The productivity apps - Excel, Word and so on. Decent for occasional work or simple corrections, but definitely not even close to what the desktops have to offer. I really hope they’ll be brought up to the level of Windows apps at some point in the future.
Overall, I definitely don’t see the iPad Pro as a laptop replacement. Where I think it really shines is being a companion device that you use alongside your computer or on its own when you need to be mobile, and I think it fills that role fantastically.
First, what I found the iPad Pro to be really good at:
1) On-the-go task and productivity manager. The iPad Pro combines the benefits of a mobile OS with a great keyboard and does a wonderful job at it: it has a great home view, a ton of productivity apps that are miles better than anything on Windows (or MacOS for that matter), a great Google Calendar application that again none of the systems have, much better notifications and reminders and so on. I usually place it alongside my laptop and use it to manage my day, plan projects and so on, works wonders.
2) Second display. I do a lot of “Look at something and then make it into an excel spreadsheet” work, and I’ve never liked the splitscreen view, even on a 15’’ laptop. With the iPad, I open the PDF or a web page on it, and do the main work on the laptop. Very nice and convenient (and also works great for online courses, where you watch the lectures while exploring a video editor at the same time, for example)
3) Mobile banking or investments. I never though about this before, but doing any financial transactions is great on an iPad (especially if you have a lot of them) - logging in with FaceID is a lot more convenient than laptop passwords or even Touch ID, and the apps are usually much more convenient than the banking websites.
4) On-the-go video watching or book reading or music listening. Pretty obvious, nothing really to add here, everything is great.
5) LTE on the go. Not really that useful in offices or at home, but in airports or on trains it’s wonderful, and I wish more laptops would go with the LTE options.
6) The touchscreen. I don’t think it’s that good on larger laptops (like my 15’’), but on the 11’’ it’s very convenient because it’s so close to your hands. I’ve been using it a lot in desktop mode and it’s definitely better that just keyboard and mouse for this form factor.
————————————-
Now for the things that I’ve disliked on the IPad Pro:
1) A lot of the apps are not optimized for the keyboard usage at all. Some are just annoying like:
Space bar doesn’t pause in the YouTube App
Can’t start typing in chrome when you open a new tab right away, instead you have to click on it
Can’t rearrange tabs in chrome
The right click menu takes a while to load up an is very bare-bones
And so on.
On the other hands, some of the apps are completely unusable, like instagram, which still cannot load up in horizontal mode (!!!) and certain news sites. Obviously its the developers fault and not Apple, but still.
2) The iOS file system. Let’s be honest, it’s terrible. It has abysmal file management on the iPad itself, and makes you rely solely on the Google Drives and Dropboxes (which for some apps are still not functioning properly).
3) The keyboard keys. Specifically, it for some reason iPad Pro foregoes ESC, any volume controls, screen brightness and so on, which I think would be great to have right there at your fingertips. Still, not really a big deal. The keyboard itself by the way is great and typing on it is very enjoyable.
4) The productivity apps - Excel, Word and so on. Decent for occasional work or simple corrections, but definitely not even close to what the desktops have to offer. I really hope they’ll be brought up to the level of Windows apps at some point in the future.
Overall, I definitely don’t see the iPad Pro as a laptop replacement. Where I think it really shines is being a companion device that you use alongside your computer or on its own when you need to be mobile, and I think it fills that role fantastically.
