Reply With QuoteIf you use Excel then it’s pretty clunky on an iPad. Only real reason I’ve kept my MacBook.Originally Posted by watchlovr
Thinking of doing away with my 2015 MacBook and replacing it with an iPad Pro.
Question is will it do everything my MacBook does?
Any real world stories good or bad?
If you use Excel then it’s pretty clunky on an iPad. Only real reason I’ve kept my MacBook.
I’ll post more tomorrow when I have some time but the short answer for now is don’t buy an iPad Pro at the moment. There are likely to be new models later this month.
I’ve got a MacBook Pro and an iPad Pro. If I was only keeping one of them it’s the MacBook every day of the week
Ditto.
Pete
Simply, no.
Office apps are terrible on an iPad, lack of a proper keyboard and mouse pad control gets very tiresome after a while
Yeah, it's not even close.
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
I've literally never had any need of an ipad . My macbook pro and iphone usually have me covered.
I did seriously consider one for sketching...bought paper , pencils and a small watercolour kit instead. I really see them as something kids watch youtube on .
Assuming you're being serious, the answer is No. So many shortcomings on the iPad (multitasking, text, speed, keyboard, connectivity, printing, apps). I don't think the iPad was ever designed to be a replacement for a serious laptop like the Pro - it's made to surf the web, write e-mails and watch movies.
Works for me but depends what you need/use the laptop for. I ditched my laptop when the 1st iPad Pro came out with no regrets.It can’t compete with a MacBook on certain tasks but is much more portable. In fairness it replaced my notepad (pen and paper) more than the laptop and I use the pencil all the time for design sketches and illustrations as well as reports. I have an iMac for the office and I find they compliment each other well.
If all you do is safari, email, Spotify, then yes. You'll need a decent bluetooth keyboard or the Logitech keyboard case.
Realistically it won't replace a laptop but if what you do is very basic you could get away with it. I have a MBP and an iPad Pro but only use the iPad for Zwift. My wife uses it for general browsing and email, rarely touching her MBA.
The answer is no, but the question is too simplistic.
If you consider what you actually do on your MacBook, then consider whether the iPad Pro is good-enough at doing those things, you'll get closer to the outcome you need.
In my case, I use both for different reasons. I wouldn't want to sit in front of an iPad and work on it for hours at a time, even with a proper keyboard and mouse, but back in the olden days when we used to work in offices with people I would rarely touch my laptop during the day and use my iPad Pro instead. Note taking, web browsing, calendar management, emails, video conferencing and chat, etc are all perfectly good on the iPad. Even light document writing and spreadsheet work is fine, but the moment I have more serious work in those apps to do, or need multiple documents on the go together, I'm back on the laptop.
I think this really comes down to what you want to do with the iPad compared with a MacBook. I have an 11" iPad Pro with a Magic Keyboard (with trackpad). I have been using it for the last year or more as my main portable device because my 2012 15" Retina MacBook Pro was unusable due to an old battery.
I've used the iPad to catalogue edit and share all my photos. I've been able to create and edit a new CV and apply for a lot of jobs, culminating in getting a new one. I've used Excel (with the updated trackpad support), Teams and Zoom. I can access my work VPN if needed. It is a very powerful and versatile portable computer.
Last month I got a new M1 MacBook Air. It has very quickly become my main device. The keyboard is just a bit bigger, and that makes a difference. The trackpad is wonderful, large and smooth. The screen is bigger which I really appreciate for my photo management. There are also extra things I can do with the MacBook Air including automate my backups.
I've just weighed the devices. The 11" iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard and Pencil weighs 1.1kg. My 13 " Air weighs 1.29kg so there is very little in it.
The cost is pretty eye opening too. My 1TB 16GB RAM Air cost £1550.40 for the laptop (after a discount buying through an EPP) with £229 for AppleCare. Pricing up the current 11" iPad Pro with 256GB storage, Magic Keyboard and Pencil with AppleCare comes to £1373.40 (again with EPP discount). That's a £400 difference which doesn't feel like a lot. If you match storage and RAM, they end up costing almost the same.
The new M1 Air is a fantastic performer, it is the fastest computer I've used for general everyday work.
If I were you I'd wait to see if the iPad Pro gets updated this month, as is rumoured, with the A14X (M1 equivalent) processor. I think the performance of the iPad will see a big jump just as the Air has with the new Apple silicon.
Thanks gents, very interesting answers. For clarity my MacBook is not a pro, I don’t do any work on it, just net surfing photo editing etc.
It would be my only device, apart from my iPhone 11 however.
Sounds like I’ll be waiting on the update.
If you are browsing and photo editing (I can recommend Affinity Photo as an alternative to Lightroom for photo editing - or just use the built in "Photos" App is getting quite good these days). If that's it an iPad may suite you. Bear in mind its a single user system so not designed to share (if you do hand over to someone else they can see all your browser history etc. - and will use your iCloud account etc)
I may be posting up my iPad magic pad for sale - that I bought for my wife butte didn't use. It is quite a heavy thing but effectively changes a iPad into a laptop - works with the Air and the Pro's
I would recommend this version - the iPad Air - which is new so unlikely to be updated soon - others may be. And its 'affordable' in the Apple world!
https://www.apple.com/uk/ipad-air/
The iPadOS is now at v14 (2021) and capabilities are here: https://www.apple.com/uk/ipados/ipados-14/
Last edited by MartynJC (UK); 2nd March 2021 at 17:47.
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