All iPads Is getting iPad worth it?

[spiderman0616]

I no longer like using an iPad as my main work machine, but I don't think that's what you're asking about here. I think what you're asking is whether or not an iPad can stand in for your computer when you're traveling or doing mobile work and I would surmise that it can. Case in point:

I had an in-person professional event a few weeks ago. It was just for a morning, not overnight or anything like that, but I was going to need something other than my phone for note-taking and looking at some interactive items online. I also had a feeling I was going to be trudging around the event location in the cold looking for the right room because the directions I was given were terrible. In light of all these things, I decided that my non-phone device for the day should be my cellular enabled iPad mini and Apple Pencil. That turned out to be the correct decision. It was cold that day, I did have trouble finding the room, the building's wifi sucked, and I did benefit from having something with me that was thinner, lighter, and more versatile for note taking and web surfing than a MacBook.

I do all my professional and personal work in macOS all day every day, but to me, the answer to the OP's question is YES--if you embrace the iPad for the things it's good at and don't try to force it into things that don't work as well in your personal workflows, you will LOVE the iPad and it will never sit on a shelf for very long. On the other hand, if you buy it expecting it to eliminate Macs from your life, that's just not going to happen. Macs have gotten a rocket boost of late and have made a very strong case for not needing to be eliminated.

PS: You can also use it with a keyboard and mouse and external monitor—doing just that with my mini 6 at my desk right now. Turns it into a sort of mobile desktop as well and I have found that to work just fine for what I do in Excel and all the other Office apps.

 

[Nhwhazup]

I no longer like using an iPad as my main work machine, but I don't think that's what you're asking about here. I think what you're asking is whether or not an iPad can stand in for your computer when you're traveling or doing mobile work and I would surmise that it can. Case in point:

I had an in-person professional event a few weeks ago. It was just for a morning, not overnight or anything like that, but I was going to need something other than my phone for note-taking and looking at some interactive items online. I also had a feeling I was going to be trudging around the event location in the cold looking for the right room because the directions I was given were terrible. In light of all these things, I decided that my non-phone device for the day should be my cellular enabled iPad mini and Apple Pencil. That turned out to be the correct decision. It was cold that day, I did have trouble finding the room, the building's wifi sucked, and I did benefit from having something with me that was thinner, lighter, and more versatile for note taking and web surfing than a MacBook.

I do all my professional and personal work in macOS all day every day, but to me, the answer to the OP's question is YES--if you embrace the iPad for the things it's good at and don't try to force it into things that don't work as well in your personal workflows, you will LOVE the iPad and it will never sit on a shelf for very long. On the other hand, if you buy it expecting it to eliminate Macs from your life, that's just not going to happen. Macs have gotten a rocket boost of late and have made a very strong case for not needing to be eliminated.

PS: You can also use it with a keyboard and mouse and external monitor—doing just that with my mini 6 at my desk right now. Turns it into a sort of mobile desktop as well and I have found that to work just fine for what I do in Excel and all the other Office apps.

I have the full set up with Magic Keyboard and mouse. Basic stuff - great. But if I need to do anything Office 365 even a little in-depth - back to my laptop.

 

[spiderman0616]

I have the full set up with Magic Keyboard and mouse. Basic stuff - great. But if I need to do anything Office 365 even a little in-depth - back to my laptop.

Exactly this. And it's the same way for me if I'm in Excel or Smartsheet or whatever other software I use for work--If I really need to go fast and use tried and true workflows, I'm back to the MacBook. For just day to day managing my projects and babysitting inboxes though, no problem on the iPad.

But that's the great thing about the iPad--it can fill in wherever you need it to for as in-depth of a use case as your willing to use it for. It's the only device that can use ALL of Apple's input methods, so it is a valuable piece of my workflow every day, even though it's not the core device RUNNING all my workflows anymore.

 

[MayfairMissy]

We have several different iPads in our household. And even though we use our Macs the iPads also get used everyday for watching shows, browsing, exercising, gaming, reading etc.

 

[Isamilis]

I have the full set up with Magic Keyboard and mouse. Basic stuff - great. But if I need to do anything Office 365 even a little in-depth - back to my laptop.

For a few days, I have to do my full work using ipad 11” + Magic Keyboard only (due to my laptop was under repair). My work involve large analytical data in excel - 10mb - 50mb. I can do my work, outlook, word, and reviewing large excel file; even I can update presentation. I like the portability and the stylish look, but it’s not comfortable for long duration work, probably due to 11” size (probably will be better in 12.9”, or I should use iPad stand for better view angle).

 

[Nhwhazup]

For a few days, I have to do my full work using ipad 11” + Magic Keyboard only (due to my laptop was under repair). My work involve large analytical data in excel - 10mb - 50mb. I can do my work, outlook, word, and reviewing large excel file; even I can update presentation. I like the portability and the stylish look, but it’s not comfortable for long duration work, probably due to 11” size (probably will be better in 12.9”, or I should use iPad stand for better view angle).

I was creating an excel budget spreadsheet for a friend and found that I wasn’t able to lock and protect the formulas from my iPad so back to the laptop to do that kind of stuff.

 

[spiderman0616]

I was creating an excel budget spreadsheet for a friend and found that I wasn’t able to lock and protect the formulas from my iPad so back to the laptop to do that kind of stuff.

I've found this to be true as I get more and more complicated projects at work. For my personal needs the iPad versions are fine, but yes, things like the situation you mention eventually send me back to my Mac. However, once I get things fully built out, I can usually maintain/edit them easily from iPadOS.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Apple Certified Refurbished Fourth Generation iPad Air if you are constrained by finances.

Fifth Generation iPad Air if you aren't. The second generation Apple Pencil is key. You don't need an iPad Pro from the sounds of it, and the Air really is the perfect sweet spot for being an iPad user.

 

[Zest28]

The iPad is cool. It’s a fun device to use.

 

[Zest28]

Why do you guys even buy an iPad or a Mac for using a Microsoft product? The 100% full version is the Windows version, both the Mac and iPad version are limited. So get a PC instead or log into your PC from your iPad.

 

[secretk]

For a few days, I have to do my full work using ipad 11” + Magic Keyboard only (due to my laptop was under repair). My work involve large analytical data in excel - 10mb - 50mb. I can do my work, outlook, word, and reviewing large excel file; even I can update presentation. I like the portability and the stylish look, but it’s not comfortable for long duration work, probably due to 11” size (probably will be better in 12.9”, or I should use iPad stand for better view angle).

Could be but also to be honest Excel is not enjoyable on touch screen. Maybe it is just the type of Excel files I have to create/edit at work but they are so big with lots of formulas and dependencies that I need multiple screens and precision (aka mouse). Even 12.9 inch iPad would not give me this. Also yep Excel on iPadOs lack some features that the desktop version has.

 

[ericwn]

Why do you guys even buy an iPad or a Mac for using a Microsoft product? The 100% full version is the Windows version, both the Mac and iPad version are limited. So get a PC instead or log into your PC from your iPad.

Out of interest what does the Mac version lack in comparison to the Windows version? Not that that should be taken as an excuse for the iPad having even less featured product but still, I’m interested what use case here would force one into a Windows system.

 

[Isamilis]

Could be but also to be honest Excel is not enjoyable on touch screen. Maybe it is just the type of Excel files I have to create/edit at work but they are so big with lots of formulas and dependencies that I need multiple screens and precision (aka mouse). Even 12.9 inch iPad would not give me this. Also yep Excel on iPadOs lack some features that the desktop version has.

I actually used Magic Keyboard for working, but still it’s not easy for my eyes, as well as not as intuitive as in mac/windows version.

 

[spiderman0616]

Why do you guys even buy an iPad or a Mac for using a Microsoft product? The 100% full version is the Windows version, both the Mac and iPad version are limited. So get a PC instead or log into your PC from your iPad.

My company allows me to choose a Mac to work on, so that's what I choose. I can't stand Windows. But I honestly feel that Microsoft's productivity apps (barring Teams) for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS are quite nice. I use them in their standalone forms and as shared documents within Teams with no issues. They normally have several collaborators accessing them simultaneously on most days while my projects are active, and are very complicated and mission critical.

What exactly am I missing here? I can't imagine there are any features I don't have in macOS or Office online that would be worth me switching over to Windows. I honestly can't even believe anymore that the same company that makes Windows also makes Office.

 

[secretk]

Out of interest what does the Mac version lack in comparison to the Windows version? Not that that should be taken as an excuse for the iPad having even less featured product but still, I’m interested what use case here would force one into a Windows system.

I have not had time to compare them all but one thing that is easier to be done on Windows is Data Validation. For example sometimes I need to create say table and certain fields are drop-down control. The data for the selectable options is in Excel as well. Well this is easier to be configured on Windows than on Mac. Same for generating diagrams/graphs. It is way easier in Windows to define the different axis.

Another thing that is easier on Windows is formatting on line level - wanting to have multiple rows of text in the same line.

 

[Flower/Child]

Love my iPads a M1 12.9 256 iPad Pro and a 6th gen WiFi/Cellular mini pad. Cannot do without them and they ended up brining me into the Apple Echo-system I take my mini 6 everywhere with me. finally got my dream computer a M1 2021 16” MacBook Pro it’s so far out of my league so I had to trade some of my other electronics for a 2009 MacBook Pro and a 2015 MacBook Air just to train on so I can use my 2021 MacBook Pro. I now have gotten my wife on a used 9.5 IPad Pro and moved her over to a I Phone Pro 13, also got myself a I phone 14 Pro max 256 GB. This is not to Bragg but to say I got really tired of all the other systems FALING me! Why could I never get a windows computer to last 3 years? And phones lasting longer than 2 years? And tablets that would never update software?! And talk about software updates you had to buy a whole new windows operating system for $100 plus whenever Microsoft decided that they needed more money from you?! I swear I can go into my local Apple location (it’s nice if you make an appointment) and get almost anything done, when I ask how much I owe them they say 0 and we like to take care of our customers
(unless there was hardware replacement parts involved) I mean how many companies do that anymore? I have to admit I got a 12.9 iPad Pro early on because of Samsung just not performing for me artistically, so I went through the 1st, and 2 gen 12.9 Pro then straight to the 5th gen. Then everything else and I’m perfectly happy with all the other Apple tech that I have.

Sorry that this got so long but I think people need to know how happy I am with Apple and I hope others are too.