iOS is too limited to call it a laptop replacement. Dumbed down OS. USB dongles which can't be used for let's say card readers because Apple brought the ampere allowance down from 100 to 20. It's just not all that Pro. If your profession only demands casual web browsing, simple emailing, cloud based document sharing and the likes then yea sure it's a nice device. But, again, it is simply too limited compared to a laptop.
And for us naysayers, we are posting here, because if you would read the title of this topic it says: "iPad as a laptop replacement" and some of us simply state that it does not suffice to replace a laptop.
Some of us naysayers like our iPad, but are realistic enough to admit that it is a limited device and are posting here in the hope apple makes it better and more versatile and opens up some of its capabilities by expanding certain features and stop dumbing down the OS. That to me seems to be a good reason to be posting in the iPad fora. Thank you.
I dont see iOS as dumbed down, I see it as simplified.
Look at a minimalistic interior. Some people see emptiness, unheimisch, just white, nothing there.
Others see space, openness, freedom, quiet.
In iOS I don't need to worry about what goes on under the hood. Hell, if it goes wrong I'm toast because there is nothing I can do. And it's not that I can't I've don lots of trouble shooting in Windows and in osX.
But if I pick up a computer it's because I want to work, not because I want to trouble shoot.
If you are a heavy photoshopper, video/audio editor, if you write code, if you do analysis of eddy currents or 3D mesh models, the ipad is not for you. It's simple, it's clear, that is not something the iPad is meant for.
But 5 years ago you couldn't do those things with a laptop either, you needed a big-bad-ass workstation for that. these days it can be done with laptops, it can't be done with iPads.
If you don't like to change your routine, don't change the OS, so if you have a routine that works really well on OS X, don't change to ios, because it will annoy you to no end.
I think ios is a very sophisticated os. It works really well without any input from the user. OS Updates are relative quick and pain free, the apps I use a lot (airmail, PDF expert, Microsoft office, Nebo, ProtonMail and the usual suspects from apple) are frequently updated and improved.
It doesn't allow you access to the system files, there is not file-system-thing you can use to tweak it.
There is a rudimenteray file-manager (iCloud) but there are way better apps that allow you to do file-management. I have well over 60.000 files and loads of folders that I maintain manually, I have a DEVONThink database with well over 140.000 files that are older than 5 years, I use ios devices to earn my living. I use them daily, 6 or 7 days a week.
And to the subject of laptop replacement.
What do people do with their 450 dollar laptop? Nothing that can't be done with an ipad for the overwhelming majority.
When I'm in a college class I saw a few years back loads of freshmen with MacBook Pro's 15" maxed out. Why? They are at a bloody law school, there isn't a thing they can't do with an iPad that cost 1/5th of the price and they can do it without any hassle. These days more and more just take an iPad. Law texts, text books, practica, everything loaded in one easy lightweight solution.
Remember, those are the people that call tech support after 20 minutes. To replace a battery in their microphone transmitter! They can't find a USB-dongle in a Logitech mouse, they can't find the laser pointer in a presentation-clicker. There are loads of people out there and there is nothing wrong with them, they are just not interested. It just needs to bloody work every day, exactly the same as yesterday.
Kids in kindergarten and school aren't using laptops anymore. Why would they? My kids saw a photo frame at their grandparents and wanted to swipe it. They even tried to swipe their laptop. Lol. They are using tablets, Androids, iOS. There is a whole generation coming that will never have learned to use a "real" OS. Teachers don't want to re-install windows, they don't want to update OSX with all kinds of clicks, questions, decisions. They want to educate kids.
There are sub-continents, India, South-America, China, where people never will have a real computer, just their mobile of phablet.
So get ready, the trucks are already outnumbered and the cars are a big majority these days.
It's no longer a question of an iPad can be a laptop replacement, for 80-95% of the people on this planet it is or could be if they had the money. Either as a phablet or as a tablet, Galaxy Note, iPads, you name it.
People don't want to be bothered with OS, they want to check Facebook, message, old-school email perhaps and most of all Netflix/HBO/YouTube/snap. So iPads are laptop replacement already. It's not a question anymore.
Edit: about those card readers, what cards do you use? CF? If it is SD or micro SD you could just buy the SD-card reader from apple. Doesn't need 100mAh, 20mAh is more than enough. Works nicely. Or the wifi-HDD solutions. 40 dollars, lets you read SD's attach USB-dongles, lets you make backups of your SD on the go, you can store movies for boring nights on the go, you can make backup of files to it.
