For me neither is an option right now. But I can tell you why if I had $1500 to spend tomorrow I would buy a 12” iPad Pro with accessories over a MacBook Pro. I am a teacher. I currently use the base model 2019 ipad with Apple Pencil and now the new logitech combo touch case. For $500 I have the iPad, Apple Pencil, and keyboard / trackpad case. Not a bad deal. I use it as a laptop for the most part (literally typing this with it comfortably on my lap which surprised me at first). But today when recording a lesson for online learning for my students I whipped out the Apple Pencil, used screen recording to record my voice as I wrote all over the worksheet to aid kids in completing the activities. This would not have been possible with the MacBook Pro. For a lot of people there are cases where the iPad can do everything well enough so it makes more sense to spend their money on that rather than the macbook (which admittedly can do some things much better) because there are other things it can not do at all.
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iPad Pro Seriously, why not just get MacBook?
- Thread starter LovingTeddy
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For me neither is an option right now. But I can tell you why if I had $1500 to spend tomorrow I would buy a 12” iPad Pro with accessories over a MacBook Pro. I am a teacher. I currently use the base model 2019 ipad with Apple Pencil and now the new logitech combo touch case. For $500 I have the iPad, Apple Pencil, and keyboard / trackpad case. Not a bad deal. I use it as a laptop for the most part (literally typing this with it comfortably on my lap which surprised me at first). But today when recording a lesson for online learning for my students I whipped out the Apple Pencil, used screen recording to record my voice as I wrote all over the worksheet to aid kids in completing the activities. This would not have been possible with the MacBook Pro. For a lot of people there are cases where the iPad can do everything well enough so it makes more sense to spend their money on that rather than the macbook (which admittedly can do some things much better) because there are other things it can not do at all.
There's a place for both of them and at least for me I've learned over the past three weeks they're not going to replace each other. I use both and they each have their own tasks.
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I guess that's the problem for me. A PC could do everything I needed it to do, because that's what most tasks would be designed in mind for, but it doesn't necessarily mean it will do those tasks well.
Which brings me back to why I prefer working on an iPad for many tasks. Yes, it's limited, it doesn't run a full OS, and that's precisely what I love about it. There are fewer distractions (since I don't have multiple overlapping windows cluttering up the screen), many web apps have pretty good iPad apps, and there is less friction switching between my iPhone and iPad compared to my iPhone and iMac, since iPad and iPhone apps tend to share the same UI.
It's really computing made personal.
And I think that's why Apple will continue to be successful for a good long time to come. Many companies simply focus on the "what" and call it a day. Apple is one of those few companies which actually bothers with the "how", and their profits show that there is no lack of people willing to pay for the unique experience that they offer.
Ditching my MacBook Pro for an iPad Pro was a relatively easy decision for me as I have a 27" iMac in my home office. There are some things (primarily file management) that I definitely rely on my iMac for. However, I don't think I could go back to a MacBook as my portable machine just on the basis of media availability. It's so nice to be able to download media from various sources (Netflix, Disney+, etc.) directly to the iPad apps. This is something not currently enabled for the MacBook. In real world use, that is a huge reason not to just to get a MacBook.
I think each has it use. For those on a limited budget it depends on how much you’ll use which product. Like me for example:
I’m writing a court report as we speak and need to review case notes, notes, prior reports, word document, and pdf, and I’m using Pages to create the document. With this scenario I use my MacBook Pro. It’s just more usable because I can use multiple windows. Multiple documents are opened at the same time. Since this is a side consulting business that I do a few times a year, my MacBook Pro shines at this task.
But my MacBook Pro doesn’t get as much use as my iPad Pro for most of the year. I don’t use my Macbook for months at a time.
I suppose I can use my iPad to write this and I can get away with it but having multiple floating windows, and opening 6 different “spaces” is just more useful when managing multiple sources for reference information. I’m switching spaces swiping left and right in the track pad. I love it. My MacBook Pro is the lowest spec model, 2017 with 128gb SSD.
I can imagine it would be annoying using my iPad for this when with a magic keyboard and track pad support.
But my iPad is great for planning this project, writing notes, and working within the Apple eco system everything syncs. I can do interview on fscetime, make notes on my phones, notes syncs on the MacBook. For example, I can edit the document now and proof read on my iPad Pro which is way better than on the MacBook Pro. It’s like reading on paper.
If I could have one and it the other and my budget is limited and my main task is research and writing, I’d probably get a Mac if I was at school for versatility’s sake.
But I’d probably have both if given the option. Use the MacBook Pro for the heavy lifting, and iPad and iPhone for research purposes.
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Laptops suck
Fans are so noisy. Why have fans at all?
Battery life sucks. I cannot get 5 good hours from it
No touch screen. Feels ancient.
OSX as an interface is 25 years old. I feel old using a Mac. Why do people point and click
You cannot write on it. Wtf it is 2020.
Apps suck. The only way a laptop is usable for me is with a browser. Web apps suck. Seriously I only have 5 good apps that I know is better on a Mac. iOS apps are tastefully and wonderfully made. Mac App Store is anemic like it is on life support.
My most used Mac App? Safari. App collection is just bad.
The webcam sucks. No HD. Wtf it is 2020.
I just tried pulling the screen from my Macbook. The keyboard came hinged with it. Wtf it is 2020.
I tried using Macbook in portrait mode. It sucks.
Also tried using my Macbook for AR. It sucks.
There is nothing smooth at all with its interface. 120 FPS rules.
Like i said for long time..apple investing money just to make a mac clone that now with the ipad and magic keyb there is no much more money and dimensions difference
Just take a macbook pro that can run macos apps, windows 10 apps, linux and soon ipados apps.
Just take a macbook pro that can run macos apps, windows 10 apps, linux and soon ipados apps.
NO.
iPad Pro with MK is not a mac clone. Still runs iPadOS which many prefer over os X.
Magic Keyboard adds a new versatility on how to interact with iPad. Its not a must. Now we have more choice. Win-win for all iPad Pro user.
Yes in the future Apps will be Universal and could run on ios, ipadOS and os X.
A macbook will be able to run iPad apps but it CANNOT right now.
Same can be say on the reverse, once arm Macbook is out, whats stopping ipad to run osX app ??
If i were to be given a full-spec’ed-out Macbook Pro or iPad pro and cant be trade off for profit etc, i would still pick an iPad pro. Why?
Because it has all the apps that i need and not available on Macbook Pro
My usage and workflow is better suited on iPadOS
And believe me i know what macbook is capable of, i had plenty before even when it still called a Powerbook and an iBook.
And just in case you / OP gonna pit it agains windows, surface pro etc (which he does a lot), i been using windows since pentium 2 era, i know windows as much as os X and i had a surface pro 6 which makes me love and appreciate my iPad even more (another story).
So yeah, everyone needs is different.
At the moment iPad is my device of choice. I CAN afford any other devices available. I chose not to.
p.s. OP, Thanks for creating this thread and other similar before, now i can see many other iPad users that love theirs as much as i do. Kinda bring us together no? On the contrary, i think this tread will make people on the fence to actually buy an iPad.👌👌
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There's no perfect device, but maybe the iPad does more for their uses to choose it over a Macbook.
NO.
p.s. OP, Thanks for creating this thread and other similar before, now i can see many other iPad users that love theirs as much as i do. Kinda bring us together no? On the contrary, i think this tread will make people on the fence to actually buy an iPad.
I feel the first mistake many people make is trying to do the same exact process that they use on a laptop or desktop on their iPad. You cannot. They are different devices. What the iPad has been doing slowly over the years is changing the “how’. Is it fully changed for every single workflow? No. But it’s getting there.
For example, for many years, I would craft emails on my iMac to send to my teachers updating them on the lesson tasks for the following week. Even with tagging of files, email templates saved and the like, it took me about half an hour every weekend to craft 6 different emails for 6 different levels.
Then came the workflow app for ios, and after some time spent creating a script, I was able to send the same email in under 10 minutes from my iphone or ipad, thanks to the way it was able to interact with various apps such as mail and Dropbox. And the best part - I can do this while out shopping with my mom (assuming some files are not too large, seems mail drop still doesn’t play well with 4g).
The same can be said about many other day to day activities people do, but no - not all of them. The biggest thing to remember is being open to changing the ‘how’, not the ‘what’.
New apps come out all the time. New tools come out every year to let app builders do better things. Siri Shortcuts is huge. Let’s all keep an open mind.
The iPad is a nice machine but even small tasks take a lot longer. Someone on the thread mentioned apps like Reddit and various sports are superior. uhm. Use a browser based version and you’d usually have a better user experience. There are apps I cant perform simple functions that require me to revert to a web based site. iPad is great, but compared to a laptop without a crippled OS it s still no comparison for productivity. But to each their own. Cheers.
The FaceTime camera is shocking. I mean why is it so hard to improve it? It really does look awful when you use it.
The way I see it is that if I had a MBP I would still need the iPad but I can have a iPad Pro without having a MBP. I dislike having so many units (got a Mac Mini, gaming desktop and work laptop on top of whichever MBP/iPad configuration I choose.
I had a MBP together with a iPad Pro previously and the MBP got no usage for 6 months before I sold it, so I know for a fact that I rather use the iPad Pro.
I had a MBP together with a iPad Pro previously and the MBP got no usage for 6 months before I sold it, so I know for a fact that I rather use the iPad Pro.
For me it is vice versa. I can go without an iPad. I can always replace iPad/Pencil combo with paper. Now do I want to do it? Well I prefer not to as I will end up with lots of printer papers that is difficult to sort out. However the thing is that I can do it.
I cannot go without a laptop. I do not have desktop and my laptop is my desktop machine basically. For me here is where the laptop just wins over the iPad:
1. Typing experience - definitely superior. Not just because of the keyboard size, it is also about the screen size. I get back pain if I type all day on my iPad and this is exactly what I do. I spent most of my day typing.
2. Listening to music via youtube while doing something else - awesome. Like that is how I go at my day at work every day.
3. Working with office apps - Word, Excel, Powerpoint
4. Superior RAM management. I do not restart my laptop for months. None of my apps get reloaded, none of my tabs get reloaded and I open ton of them.
5. External monitor support. Watching movie on a big screen while typing this? - awesome. Putting on one display my Webex/Zoom/Teams session while typing meeting notes on OneNote on another screen - awesome. This is what I am talking about.
6. Doing batch operations. Working with batch of files, batch of photos etc is far superior on a computer.
7. File management - and not just the pure storage or organization management. It is also the way the files are getting shared between apps. I hate iOS way. Like seriously? I have to go through series of hoops to transfer a file from one app to another. It is annoyingly slow.
8. As weird as it sounds watching movies on my laptop in bed is better experience compared to iPad. I mean 15.6 inch vs 9.7/11 - better. Also my laptop sits comfortably and secure on my lap without me needing to support it in any other way. I can add subtitles easier, I can even fix subtitles (sometimes sync is not good). I can watch youtube videos in bed without my laptop - same. No need to hold the device, my thighs do the work. I can answer to skype messages without interrupting the video every time or reloading (do not get me on the reloading which is annoying).
9. The whole charging cable/experience. I am on my computer at least 12 hours a day. Working on an iPad with a charger - not a good experience. The cable is shorter, the device gets heated up (same as laptops but I do not need to touch laptops the way I do with tablets and as a result I do not feel the heat every time).
In the end of the day for every day usage for me the laptop wins every time for me. I can do all of those things on an iPad (if it was the only device available) for a week. I do not want to go through all of that for an year. And if money was an issue and I had to choose I would choose the laptop. Luckily I do not need to choose and I can use both.
I can see how someone buying their first device would have a hard time choosing between a Mac and an iPad. I’d say the Macbook Air is the safer choice for school/university, or as the first device. Can’t go wrong with it.
I use Apple devices at work, and have found that MacBook 16” hooked into external displays is a great solution for Mac apps. I can easily detach it and get lots of horsepower when doing something complicated on the road, or at the office. Rest of the time it’s docked and always on.
And then there’s the iPad 12.9”, which is the device I always carry around. I can get a lot of work done with it and don’t need to detach cables from the Mac. In the evening, it’s nice to be able to use it just as a tablet, for fun. Now that I’ve attached the new Magic Keyboard to it, I can see even less need to use the Mac even during the day.
Yet, the Macbook will remain necessary for maybe 30% of the time, for example because multitasking (especially when presenting in a meeting) isn’t yet reliable enough on the iPad. For one thing, there are occasional app relaunches, apps forgetting where they were 5 minutes ago, and that’s not good when preparing to present something through multiple apps.
For light travel, I take the iPad. If I know I’ll do intensive work on the road, I’ll have the Mac, and use the iPad as the second screen.
It’s hard to make a “must have one or the other” choice. I think they complement each other wonderfully. I used to have an iMac 27” for the office and a 12” Macbook for travel, but with those I only had one small screen on the road, and not enough horsepower for complex multitasking. The current setup is far more preferable.
I use Apple devices at work, and have found that MacBook 16” hooked into external displays is a great solution for Mac apps. I can easily detach it and get lots of horsepower when doing something complicated on the road, or at the office. Rest of the time it’s docked and always on.
And then there’s the iPad 12.9”, which is the device I always carry around. I can get a lot of work done with it and don’t need to detach cables from the Mac. In the evening, it’s nice to be able to use it just as a tablet, for fun. Now that I’ve attached the new Magic Keyboard to it, I can see even less need to use the Mac even during the day.
Yet, the Macbook will remain necessary for maybe 30% of the time, for example because multitasking (especially when presenting in a meeting) isn’t yet reliable enough on the iPad. For one thing, there are occasional app relaunches, apps forgetting where they were 5 minutes ago, and that’s not good when preparing to present something through multiple apps.
For light travel, I take the iPad. If I know I’ll do intensive work on the road, I’ll have the Mac, and use the iPad as the second screen.
It’s hard to make a “must have one or the other” choice. I think they complement each other wonderfully. I used to have an iMac 27” for the office and a 12” Macbook for travel, but with those I only had one small screen on the road, and not enough horsepower for complex multitasking. The current setup is far more preferable.
Yeah, some of those points you listed is exactly why I cant use a MBP for everything and need a Windows laptop anyway. The Office suite is just horribly inefficient on Mac OS so I can’t use it for work. But for people who can actually do their work on a MBP I can def see the point of one.
I agree they need to do some new thinking when it comes to external monitors on iPad OS but I am really thinking it will be coming soon.
for 2., I can do that too on an iPad so what is the problem? Although I prefer using Spotify for music anyway but it is possible with YouTube if I want to.
For 8., how do you add subtitles easier than on the iPad? It is literally 3-4 touches if you have a decent player (or automatic for some). I can also answer messages perfectly fine with slide-over while the video is playing, and as for reloading not even the apps I last opened 4 days ago are being reloaded now with 6 GB RAM. Haven’t had a single app or web page I used recently reload since I got the 2020 iPad Pro so it seems to be working better now, even though it was rare to have a recently used one reload on the 2018 Pro.
I do use Windows laptop. Not a fan of Macbook - overpriced and I do not get what I want/need in terms of ports, in terms of hardware specs, in terms of ability to do hardware upgrades and in terms of OS restrictions.
That would be dandy
.How do you put youtube music in the background while doing other things? I mean I do not want to watch the youtube video at all. I use it as music player only.
Most of the time the iPad does not even find the subtitles, let alone add them. On PC I do it with two clicks. Click on button Add subtitles, choose the file and add it. If there is sync with keyboard shortcuts I fix it and even save it for future reference. I should mention that I am not talking about Netflix or Apple TV. I have my own collection of movies that I would like to play and this is where iPad does not do that well.
I do not want slide over. I want to be able to minimize the video and let it playing and answer skype message. Slide over is not a feature for me - not on such small screen. And the whole gestures hoops to go through this - no thank you. iOS gestures are PITA. They change them with every iOS major version and I have better things to do than to learn new gestures every time. I restrict myself to gestures with no more than 2 fingers. Not to mention that sometimes similar movements trigger different actions. Just not user friendly. Also iPad with hardware keyboard is less lappable (stable) compared to laptop on my thighs.
In terms of reloading apps I have no trust in Apple. I am sorry. Back in the iOS 12 days it was said apps and tabs do not reload on 2018 iPP. Now they do but they do not on 2020 iPP. In 2 years it would be the next big iPP. And yet apps and tabs do not reload on all of my laptops - no matter if is brand new or 3 years old. My current one is 2 and half years old - no issues and I can expand my RAM from 8 GB to 32 GB and still would not have issues. So basically I just go like that. Until iOS can manage to not reload apps and tabs on all iPads that have been manufactured for the last 5 years, I consider iOS RAM management inefficient and insufficient for my needs.
However it is good that currently you do not experience reloads on 2020 iPP. The thing is let's see how it will be in 2 years on that same iPP with new versions of apps and iPadOS.
Most stuff IPP still can't do is mostly down to Devs not bothering as too much work or Apple making it too hard, despite potential larger customer base?
Not parity yet with iWork or Office. No SQL DB or Filemaker, yet, or web servers, good CAD, engineering software etc. Where is BBEdit or equivalent on iPadOS? Cannot RIP Cds or convert FLAC etc to AIF or whatever. Apple need to lead the way here with porting their Pro Apps, surely only a mater of time. Why is there no push to have a Pro App Store or something where customers don’t mind paying for quality software, remember the hundreds of dollars for Past Mac software ... the iPad is no longer a toy like iPhone.
In almost all other ways, I far prefer the iPad and look forward to migrating from laptop, maybe just have a headless server for number crunching.
Not parity yet with iWork or Office. No SQL DB or Filemaker, yet, or web servers, good CAD, engineering software etc. Where is BBEdit or equivalent on iPadOS? Cannot RIP Cds or convert FLAC etc to AIF or whatever. Apple need to lead the way here with porting their Pro Apps, surely only a mater of time. Why is there no push to have a Pro App Store or something where customers don’t mind paying for quality software, remember the hundreds of dollars for Past Mac software ... the iPad is no longer a toy like iPhone.
In almost all other ways, I far prefer the iPad and look forward to migrating from laptop, maybe just have a headless server for number crunching.
I just put it on and switch apps, it keeps playing sound in the background. Might be because I have YouTube premium I guess, I hate ads but want to still support the creators.
Yeah I have my own collection of rips on a NAS, I use Infuse and play the movie and download the subs from OpenSubtitles with a few touches from within the app. I don’t have to bother with files and whatnot, it automatically finds the file needed. I have sync issues in maybe 1 out of 1000 movies/episodes and then its easy just doing a offset. And yes I only need to download the subtitles on one device and it syncs to my other devices via iCloud.
Best part is the app syncs between multiple devices so I can watch part of a movie on a flight and then pause to get off and finish watching on the big screen at home without having to do anything but press ”play”. Same goes for when moving from the TV to the iPad and so on.
Yeah you can do that as well if you want to, depends on the player if it supports PiP or not. But I can keep the video playing in the background or choose to have it on the side of Skype/whatever messenger app.
I love slide over, at least on a 12.9” display, it was a bit cramped on my 11” but now it truly shines. Same goes for split screen and the other multitasking features of iPad OS.
Doesn’t matter to me at all to be honest, I won’t have this unit in 2 years anyway. As soon as they release a new iPad Pro I will get that instead so if they start increasing the RAM I will be upgrading anyway. I did use a 2018 model up until 2 weeks ago though and it didn’t have massive reloads at all, just that apps that I didn’t open for a day or two would reload when I launched them.
As a creative device, the iPad Pro is a fantastic device and even with keyboard and pencil. It presents a fantastic value. I greatly prefer editing photos and making illustrations/vector graphics on the 12.9 vs my imac. The iMac would require a Wacom tablet as and drawing ”off-screen”.
In terms of performance, the iPad Pro is spectacular value for video editing performance. Editing 4K, 10-bit, h.265 with something like LumaFusion, the iPad Pro beats out low-to-mid range MacBook pros (non-16 inch) in terms of rendering, export time, and editing performance. It offers enough performance and enough feature to make a living off of and at a lower cost than getting some MacBooks.
With external drive support and now trackpad support, the iPad Pro has fewer and fewer shortcomings. Perhaps the biggest for me, from a creative perspective, is just software. There are a lot of things that I can do on my iMac that I cannot on my iPad. It is changing, but it is a slow process.
One big thing about iPad is that it is sort of modular. Not everyone needs the pencil, the magic keyboard, etc... Some will make due with just the iPad. Get yourself a refurbished or a used 2018 iPad Pro and you just can‘t beat the value, especially for creatives.
In terms of performance, the iPad Pro is spectacular value for video editing performance. Editing 4K, 10-bit, h.265 with something like LumaFusion, the iPad Pro beats out low-to-mid range MacBook pros (non-16 inch) in terms of rendering, export time, and editing performance. It offers enough performance and enough feature to make a living off of and at a lower cost than getting some MacBooks.
With external drive support and now trackpad support, the iPad Pro has fewer and fewer shortcomings. Perhaps the biggest for me, from a creative perspective, is just software. There are a lot of things that I can do on my iMac that I cannot on my iPad. It is changing, but it is a slow process.
One big thing about iPad is that it is sort of modular. Not everyone needs the pencil, the magic keyboard, etc... Some will make due with just the iPad. Get yourself a refurbished or a used 2018 iPad Pro and you just can‘t beat the value, especially for creatives.
I have been using the Magic Keyboard for the last hour and I can say that it definitely makes the iPad more useful. Does it replace my MacBook Pro? Well, the answer to that is no, mainly because of the lack of sophisticated Office apps and Virtualization Apps. Apart from that though, I can see me using the iPad more and more, at least for the cases where I don't need the extra power of my MacBook Pro. I don't do any video editing, but I understand that the tablet form factor is more attractive for creative pros.
Ah yeah now I see what you mean and where the confusion comes. Yes this is a feature that comes with Youtube premium. I don't have it hence why I cannot do it.
Thanks! I will check this app! For now I have been using VLC. Not because it is awesome app, it is what I use on my laptop and I like it
.Yes on 12.9 makes sense but 12.9 is too big for me. I have wrist issues and small hands and I would not be able to use 12.9 as a tablet. I would use it only as a device to stay on the desk and if it is about this I would go with the laptop experience as I already have it and love my laptop.
Yes, if you always upgrade to the latest one does not matter. I however do not find this OK for my needs. Meaning this is not who I am as a consumer and this is not what I expect from brands and manufacturers. If I have to buy always the latest to be able to work then for me there is something wrong with the device and the brand. But this is personal choice/point of view.
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Funny though, the lack of sophisticated Office apps is why I stay away from the MBP altogether for work. Office is just horrible on OS X with lack of features and bad optimization, I really wish that Microsoft would put in the effort to make their software good on other platforms (including iPad OS).
As a fun test I did try executing some heavier Python calculations on both the iPad Pro and my Lenovo work laptop (with a 9850H CPU) to test and the Lenovo was just about 15-20% ahead. Not bad since the Lenovos fans were audible while doing it and the iPad Pro is this quiet unit with much better battery life. So the power is definately there now, just need the software to catch up.
The thing is that I cannot go to a customer of mine and rely on my iPad Pro for delivering a Powerpoint presentation. It is much safer to do this with a Mac.