iPad Why did you choose an iPad rather than a Laptop?

[ElDuderino91]

The past ten years I’ve always had a MBP and iPad. My last iPad was still fine and running smooth, my MBP however is a mid 2012 with i7, 16gb ram and 2tb ssd. Although it is still good enough for most tasks it should have been the MacBook I replace trough a new one… But instead I kept the oldie and got the new 12.9 iPad Pro.

I use the MBP mostly for Final Draft and Lightroom, some Word, Excel, Logic and FCPX. As I transferred my video editing to a windows/intel/nvidia based DaVinci Resolve workstation I hoped to get the last rest done on the new iPad Pro. Lightroom is a lot more fun on the iPad, thanks to the brilliant miniLED display. The final draft app is a little bit disappointing. Logic Pro is still not available and doesn’t seem to will be soon. I can’t get used to the Word app, but pages is okay for me.

I guess the iPad Air/Pro could replace a laptop for some people. For me there is still too much limitation from iPadOS. Give me the Final Draft desktop version and the pro apps from Apple and I’ll be fine. Together with the mucho overpriced magic keyboard my iPad Pro works like a charm. But the iPad is a tablet, not a laptop. Even with the keyboard and its trackpad it doesn’t really feel like working on a laptop. Not yet.

To answer the openers question short: I‘ve chosen the iPad Pro over a M1 MBA/MBP because I hoped I could get all my stuff done on it and so it could replace a laptop. It didn’t worked out for me but I’m still very happy with my decision.

 

[rui no onna]

I know that the keyboard is not always easy but I force myself, just like I do by alternating Windows and Mac (and iPadOS to some extent) at home, including for work, it's like forcing oneself to speak 2 different languages so that the body becomes more flexible and the muscle memory does not reject one as "too much effort" and it works, over time the body and mind gets used to switching from one system to the other....

Not much point for me unless work switches to Macs (unlikely). Almost all of the computers at home are Windows. My first and only Mac is the M1 MacBook Air. I almost never use it so it's likely going to be my last Mac purchase, too.

 

[Digitalguy]

Not much point for me unless work switches to Macs (unlikely). Almost all of the computers at home are Windows. My first and only Mac is the M1 MacBook Air. I almost never use it so it's likely going to be my last Mac purchase, too.

Well in my case it has mostly been like this forever... but the fact that I now know that I can run my Windows only software via Parallels fine on M1 and that I can have a totally silent and powerful desktop like the mac mini, which is better integrated with my iPads and AirPods is something that I appreciate. I am also waiting for the redesigned MacBooks next year. If they are under 1Kg they could become my travel laptop now that, again, I know I can use Windows only apps fine there... and take advantage of silent device with very long battery life....
So I am kind of moving more into Apple ecosystem, but I doubt I will ever move completely... My phone will be the last thing to move, if ever, to Apple. And I will always have windows devices around to some extent....

 

[Patriks7]

I have a work issued MacBook Pro, but for my personal usage I got myself an iPad Pro. Simply put, I don't do anything for my own usage that an iPad couldn't handle - typing up documents, editing photos and videos (in fact, I find this more enjoyable than on my Mac), general web browsing, watching videos, etc.

Mind you, I am allowed to use my work Mac for personal usage as well, but in the year+ that I have had this combo, I have not had the need for it.

 

[rui no onna]

I have a work issued MacBook Pro, but for my personal usage I got myself an iPad Pro. Simply put, I don't do anything for my own usage that an iPad couldn't handle - typing up documents, editing photos and videos (in fact, I find this more enjoyable than on my Mac), general web browsing, watching videos, etc.

Similar situation here. Work provides me with a desktop and laptop. For my personal use, the iPad works fine 95% of the time.

I still do have my own computers for that other 5%: iTunes backup and (DFU) restore, Calibre ebook management and DeDRM, Kindle jailbreaking, automated backups to NAS and external HDD, etc. Considering my usage split though, I don’t begrudge spending more on iPads and upgrading them more often than PCs.

 

[Channan]

I’ve been using iPads since day one. Back then I still needed a laptop. As time went on, I found myself using my laptop less and less and now I don’t use it at all. The iPad does everything I need it to.

 

[neutrino23]

I used to use an iPad an a MBP, but a year or so ago I replaced the MBP with a 27" iMac. The iMac is needed for the heavy lifting like FCPX, making presentations in Keynote and large posters in Pages, some record keeping in Numbers. Most of these require using five or six different apps to produce content. It is much easier to switch between these and share documents on macOS.

The iPad is good enough for short business trips of a week or so. I can keep up with email and document reading and editing.

The iPad is superior to the MBP when interacting with customers. If you tell someone you want to show them something on a laptop they often demur because they expect you to sit down, plug in, boot up and take a lot of time. Instead you just pull out the iPad and say "Here, look at this information." It is much more intimate and fast and you can easily zoom and pan images and documents. If you do a little prep before the meeting you will have quotations, brochures, customer data and support documents all on hand for quick access.

Note taking in meetings is nicer with an iPad. It lies flat and doesn't present a barrier between you and your colleagues. Writing with the Pencil is less isolating than typing on a keyboard. It is also easy to hold it up and grab a photo of the white board or samples or parts that are part of the discussion and add those to your notes.

The one issue for me is that our proprietary software only runs on windows. Worse, the new version is kind of brain dead about detecting the monitor resolution so it no longer runs well in Parallels. Somehow, it gets weird defaults for monitor resolution so widgets and text are all out of proportion. I can access this through some sort of Remote Desktop to a Windows machine, but that is too fidgety for a demonstration. However, I might look into this again. We now have gigabit fiber in my home office. That with 5G on the new iPad Pro might make this a happier experience.

 

[Mac47]

Portrait orientation is nice to use. You get more of anything you’re reading — webpage, PDF, ePub, whatever.

I am an online teacher of Greek and Latin, and I mark up students’ work with the Apple pencil.

I love the iPad more than the Mac. If the Zoom app didn’t put the chat window right in the middle of the screen, I could teach all my classes with just the iPad Pro.

 

[Jeepdon]

For me, the ability to have offline media (shows, music) is critical, and that’s not possible with macOS, because most streaming services don’t provide an offline viewing mode. With the iPad, OTOH, I can download tons of stuff for offline viewing. And when I’m in a service area, the built-in cellular capability gets a ton of use. I’ve got all but one of my critical apps on the iPad now, and I’ve adjusted my habits to accommodate the touchpad differences, multitasking differences, and so on. I wrote a 100k-word book on the iPad and exported it as a decently formatted EPUB and DOCX for the publisher… so everything I used to rely on a laptop for, I’m now doing on the iPad. Plus I get my offline media.

Weirdly, Center Stage on the new M1 iPad Pro has been a big deal for me. With Zoom adopting it, it’s just been… well, not game-changing, but certainly important in terms of using the device for work video conferences. And because my company can enroll the iPad and only control work-related apps, it’s a better personal+work situation than a laptop, where the company won’t enroll a personal machine because it’s more of a total-takeover vs. app-by-app (plus some settings like display lock).

Focus Mode in iOS/iPadOS 15 also has some great options. I’m be made one Home Screen with all my work apps, so in a given focus mode I can show only that screen, or show all but that screen—effectively taking me “out of the office” or letting me concentrate on work apps. Focus Mode on the Mac doesn’t work quite the same, obviously, so there’s still the temptation to open Slack because… well, it’s right there, isn’t it? .

I do with iPadOS multitasking was more sophisticated, but for the screen size I’m actually unsure what that would even look like. Those improvements would need to be subtle, because even on a laptop (I tend to go for 13” machines for portability), I tend to run one app more-or-less full-screen, or two apps tiled next to each other, which is what iPadOS does anyway. I think the accessibility of the macOS dock might be better/quicker, but now that I’ve learned to “swipe” between iPad apps/screens using the trackpad… it’s really starting to be close-to-equal for me.

 

[Jeepdon]

Yes, though having an Apple Magic Keyboard/trackpad makes it a little easier.

A better windowing system would help. It is too limited now to multitask "easy" (there's that word again), when you have only a few options on how windows are arranged. Resizing app windows and re-arranging them flexibly would help a lot. But then I guess you are getting into MacOS territory.

It’s a bit telling when the primary differentiator, or at least one, between iPadOS and macOS is “you can arrange windows more flexibly.” Granted, there are certain apps currently not well-suited to a mainly-touch UI, but that’s not an OS or device differentiator, it’s an app design decision.

I think the big thing is for folks used to working on large external monitors vs. their laptops’ built-in screens. If you limit yourself to your ~13” laptop screen, I at least find myself using simpler windowing layouts anyway. I dislike screen clutter a LOT, so I actually don’t work well with a lot of overlapping windows. I tend to arrange them in Spaces on my Mac, and have found I can closely-enough approximate that on iPad now. But if you’re used to a big external monitor… yeah. IPadOS’ lacks there become pretty pronounced.

 

[1BadManVan]

Portability and the LTE option. Just as powerful if not more then majority of laptops out there and does all the functions I need it for.

 

[GloriousAndrew]

For me it’s the perfect device for home that I can use as a companion device for my work laptop (a crappy Dell but what can you do)

- home : banking, gaming, YouTube, browsing, streaming services,… mostly consumption stuff
- work : teams meetings, outlook mail, office 365 apps, note taking, pdf signing, Report viewing + I can perform our group consolidation (web based software) on it
- dell laptop is mostly needed for excel reports that connect to databases (which a Mac isn’t great at too by the way - excel is still limited on the Mac, better than the iPad yes but still limited)

highly subjective but i much prefer using my iPad Pro than a laptop. Lots more fun to use.

For my job in accounting / reporting I need to use a traditional computer but to be honest I am better off with a desktop than a laptop. For me a laptop is always a second hand choice because I’ll always need a external keyboard with numeric pad and mouse and preferably a large screen to do my work properly. And when I’m on holiday, I follow up on things for my job but I’m not going to sit behind a desk working on excel spreadsheets with some rubbish WiFi connection. I can do my follow ups on my iPad Pro easily.

So I’d rather have an iMac, preferably with windows in bootcamp + my iPad Pro as a fully fledged system instead of a laptop. And the iPad Pro is my main computer because of the home stuff

It’s weird how closely this resembles me.

I recently bought a MacBook Air because of how amazing the deals have been at Best Buy. It’s set to arrive tomorrow, but I can’t shake the feeling that I made the wrong choice. Like you, I also work in accounting. More on the audit side. I have a crappy Dell for work as well that I used for most tasks. I am beginning to think that the iPad Pro May be a better complement to all the things I do on my work laptop rather than a MacBook Air. I would just be browsing Reddit and the internet, watching my own stuff while the kids hog the main living room tv, listening to music.

It doesn’t hurt that Best Buy just put the M1 iPad Pro 11 on sale for $699. I think I may return the MacBook and get that or one of the refurbished 2020 iPad Pro 12.9 from Apple for $749.

 

[jagolden]

I use my 12.9 in combination with a Brydge Max+ keyboard/trackpad case.
I get the best of both worlds. The iPad is held in firmly with strong magnets but lifts out easily for hand held use, while the case gives a full keyboard and enormous trackpad.

 

[eba]

I've recently gone the opposite route. I've used an iPad Pro 12.9 and Magic Keyboard for the last year or so and been happy. They're almost as good as a laptop. But I bought an M1 MacBook Air recently, and it just reminded me how much easier, and more productive, it is to use a notebook. I don't use a pencil much, so there's very little I can do on an iPad that I can't do as well - and usually easier - on my MBA.

I had planned to replace by iPad Pro with a new one, but now that I have the MBA, I've just traded in my old iPad Pro for a new iPad Air, which has everything I need for a portable hand-held device. Speaks more the the awesomeness of the new MBA than a criticism of the iPad.

 

[Harmonious Zen]

I've recently gone the opposite route. I've used an iPad Pro 12.9 and Magic Keyboard for the last year or so and been happy. They're almost as good as a laptop. But I bought an M1 MacBook Air recently, and it just reminded me how much easier, and more productive, it is to use a notebook. I don't use a pencil much, so there's very little I can do on an iPad that I can't do as well - and usually easier - on my MBA.

I had planned to replace by iPad Pro with a new one, but now that I have the MBA, I've just traded in my old iPad Pro for a new iPad Air, which has everything I need for a portable hand-held device. Speaks more the the awesomeness of the new MBA than a criticism of the iPad.

Same boat here. And an iPad Pro 12.9 plus Magic Keyboard is actually HEAVIER than a MacBook Air. So there goes the portability advantage. The M1 MBAs are amazing.

 

[eba]

The M1 MBAs are amazing.

Not to hijack the thread, but the M1 MBA is the best notebook I've ever owned. I can't believe how much more powerful the M1 chip is. It crushes my 2019 MBP.

 

[romanof]

I had planned to replace by iPad Pro with a new one, but now that I have the MBA, I've just traded in my old iPad Pro for a new iPad Air, which has everything I need for a portable hand-held device. Speaks more the the awesomeness of the new MBA than a criticism of the iPad.

Thanks all. Good discussion. I was kinda thinking that I would get the Pro just to see if I could use it for anything productive, but after all the posts I have read I have a feeling that it would just be (for me) another faddish toy that would go on the shelf with the other two iPads that I don't use.

And, I agree with eba. Very little could compare even with my old 2017 non-retina MBA, and almost nothing can touch the new M1 MBA. Looking at the pictures on here, once you add a keyboard and case to the Pro, you have the same amount of size and weight in your lap as a notebook but far less productivity for power users.
Not to say that the iPad isn't the perfect machine for many uses, but it just isn't for me, I guess.

Again, good discussions, all.

***Oh yes. There is also the matter that if you touch my screen, you can only count to nine thereafter.

 

[UBS28]

The M1 MBP and MBA are even worse computers than my 13” 2020 Intel MBP because they only have 2 ports (even 4 ports which my Intel MBP has is not sufficient so can you imagine only 2 ports)

So I am not buying any M1 MBP or MBA. So the 12.9 iPad Pro was an easy choice for this year.

Then hopefully later I will pick up the M2X 14” or 16” MBP with atleast 4 ports.

However I might actually consider getting a PC laptop if alot of software don’t work on ARM / M1 within my 14-day period.

 

[romanof]

The M1 MBP and MBA are even worse computers than my 13” 2020 Intel MBP because they only have 2 ports (even 4 ports which my Intel MBP has is not sufficient so can you imagine only 2 ports)

So I am not buying any M1 MBP or MBA. So the 12.9 iPad Pro was an easy choice for this year.

Then hopefully later I will pick up the M2X 14” or 16” MBP with atleast 4 ports.

An interesting argument. The M1's are lousy because they only have 2 ports, but the iPad is great with 1. I am missing something here.

 

[sparksd]

An interesting argument. The M1's are lousy because they only have 2 ports, but the iPad is great with 1. I am missing something here.

I can see it as I look for more ports on a laptop than I would on a tablet.

 

[Infinitewisdom]

I can see it as I look for more ports on a laptop than I would on a tablet.

Why not just use a dongle? Problem solved. And most people probably aren’t simultaneously using four ports constantly.

 

[UBS28]

An interesting argument. The M1's are lousy because they only have 2 ports, but the iPad is great with 1. I am missing something here.

The iPad Pro is not meant to replace my Intel MacBook Pro, but my older iPad Pro.

And the M1 MBP is a downgrade over my Intel MBP as 4 ports is actually not even enough. 2 ports is unacceptable for me.

So if I upgrade my Intel MBP, it will be the new 14” or the 16”.

 

[UBS28]

Why not just use a dongle? Problem solved. And most people probably aren’t simultaneously using four ports constantly.

Not at all. I have dongles on every port already.

2 ports is literally unusable for me.

 

[Abazigal]

Why not just use a dongle? Problem solved. And most people probably aren’t simultaneously using four ports constantly.

I am still trying to find a dongle with multiple USB-C ports.

On my M1 MBA, I have 1 port plugged in to power, and the 2nd plugged in to a portable USB-C monitor, and that’s all my ports used up.

And those thunderbolt docks aren’t cheap!

 

[sparksd]

Why not just use a dongle? Problem solved. And most people probably aren’t simultaneously using four ports constantly.

I do occasionally already and it's a pain as the hub also requires a power connection.