To clarify, when I say underrated I mean in the tech circles and places like this website.
In the tech world iPads are seen as an inferior product and always compared to laptops. Whereas I'm not sure that's always a fair comparison. iPads are ultimately consumption devices first with the work aspect an added bonus if you can make it work for you.
I mean its probably apples fault in a way as they are pushing it as a laptop replacement, but even before that it was dismissed as just a big iPhone. I think if the iPad had come out first the iPhone would be seen as a mini iPad not the other way round.
"Inferior" means different things to different people. "Inferior to a Mac" (for a particular person's needs) is different than "Inferior in build quality" (something I never hear about iPad when compared to other tablets).
I don't think there's anyone seriously arguing inferior quality. The focus is always on the "iPad can't replace my laptop" argument. In that case, "underrated" is only true if, in fact, an iPad
can replace a laptop but the person doesn't recognize that possibility. And there's always the basic human trait of assuming that what's true for me is true for everyone else.
If a tool, any tool, cannot do a particular task, then it's simply unsuited to that task. You can say that it is being rated accurately.
My first-generation iPad (purchased just three days after it was available in-store) had replaced my laptop within three months. That wasn't my plan. It started as a test - to see how my company's ebook and online content performed on that new platform (the classic "iPad as a content delivery device"). But I quickly learned that iPad-with-Bluetooth-keyboard served all my needs as a writer and photographer while in the field, at a substantial reduction in weight and bulk (and since I was carrying it in a backpack all day long, weight and bulk was a very big thing). iPad-and-keyboard (and for a fair amount of time, that keyboard was a full-size Apple Bluetooth keyboard) fit better on airline tray tables than my Powerbook G4, so I was actually more productive in that situation than I had been previously.
I'm still very much a desktop-in-the-office person. I just don't need the same capabilities when I go portable. So iPad has been the right
portable tool, for this professional, for a very long time.
If a laptop is a person's
only computer, then it's less likely a working professional will consider iPad a replacement for that laptop. If the apps and/or workflow they depend upon are not available/practical on iPad, then iPad can't be a laptop replacement.
However, there certainly are those who just won't consider the possibilities. Rather than modify workflow or adopt different apps, they insist that nothing but a duplication of their existing laptop environment is acceptable. That's where iPad can definitely be
underrated.
There's another "underrated" group who, I believe, argue that iPad is not a laptop replacement purely as a matter of ego. Back in the early days of PCs, there were minicomputer and mainframe users who called PCs "toys," despite all the professional work that was already being done on PCs (tell a small business that could afford to computerize for the first time that they were merely using a toy!). Some iPad "under-raters" fit into the same category - some of their self-esteem is tied up with the size/power of the tools they use (or the methods they use, like command line vs. GUI), regardless of whether they actually need all that size/power, or whether others need the same power they do.
Overall, just as the PC became less underrated as time went by, iPad is also less underrated with every passing year. I think this Year of COVID in particular will be a major leap forward in iPad acceptance - more people using them out of necessity who then learn just how capable an iPad can be.
