I'm not sure if anyone will find this interesting, but I wanted to share my thoughts on the current state of my gadget life, specifically the laptop/tablet side of things. Until the change mentioned in the title I had the following setup:
-Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 (a 13" 2-in-1 Windows laptop)
-M1 MBA
-12.9" iPad Pro (3rd gen) w/MKB
I like having a Windows machine for work and compatibility reasons, and my old Lenovo is dying so I replaced it with the Samsung. It's a great machine (OLED screen!) and justifies its presence via the aforementioned reasons. Things have always been tricker with the MacBook and iPad. Over the years I've tried going all in on one or the other, but in the end I've preferred having both available to me. I pretty quickly realized the iPad was a bit too big (great for some things, not so much for others) and as such it rarely left the MKB. As a result I basically had three laptops of similar size, which didn't make sense to me.
With the release of the new mini I saw the opportunity to sell my big iPad and finally replace it with a smaller version that I might actually use as a tablet. I played with the mini at Best Buy and the Apple store and read the reviews, threads, etc. It's a very cool device! At the same time I started to think more about the 11" iPad Pro as an option, and also checked it out. I ended up preferring the size and ProMotion display compared to the mini, which in my hands was too close to my iPhone Pro. (Note: I know that due to the differing aspect ratios there's actually quite a bit more real estate on the mini's screen. For me, the 'in hand feel' was too close, and for things like looking at Twitter and reading webpages the extra size of the mini just didn't make a big difference.)
Decision time! Earlier this week I sold my my big iPad Pro and picked up the 11". So far so great I really like the size and actually using it as a tablet. Perhaps someday I'll get a keyboard, but for now I'm happy using it strictly as-is. The mini is great, but for my situation the 11" iPad Pro really is the ideal device. On the laptop side of things, I like the Samsung so much--I'm using it to type this post--that I'm very rarely using the MBA. Having grown up with Windows I've never really gotten used to macOS, but the M1 is such an incredible machine that I'm hesitant to get rid of it. However, we have a few years old desktop iMac which is primarily used by my wife, so I don't think hanging on to the MBA make a lot of sense. That will be the next big decision to make, but for now things are pretty good 👍
If you're shopping for any of these devices, or are otherwise in a similar situation, feel free to ask me anything. Have a great weekend!
-Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 (a 13" 2-in-1 Windows laptop)
-M1 MBA
-12.9" iPad Pro (3rd gen) w/MKB
I like having a Windows machine for work and compatibility reasons, and my old Lenovo is dying so I replaced it with the Samsung. It's a great machine (OLED screen!) and justifies its presence via the aforementioned reasons. Things have always been tricker with the MacBook and iPad. Over the years I've tried going all in on one or the other, but in the end I've preferred having both available to me. I pretty quickly realized the iPad was a bit too big (great for some things, not so much for others) and as such it rarely left the MKB. As a result I basically had three laptops of similar size, which didn't make sense to me.
With the release of the new mini I saw the opportunity to sell my big iPad and finally replace it with a smaller version that I might actually use as a tablet. I played with the mini at Best Buy and the Apple store and read the reviews, threads, etc. It's a very cool device! At the same time I started to think more about the 11" iPad Pro as an option, and also checked it out. I ended up preferring the size and ProMotion display compared to the mini, which in my hands was too close to my iPhone Pro. (Note: I know that due to the differing aspect ratios there's actually quite a bit more real estate on the mini's screen. For me, the 'in hand feel' was too close, and for things like looking at Twitter and reading webpages the extra size of the mini just didn't make a big difference.)
Decision time! Earlier this week I sold my my big iPad Pro and picked up the 11". So far so great I really like the size and actually using it as a tablet. Perhaps someday I'll get a keyboard, but for now I'm happy using it strictly as-is. The mini is great, but for my situation the 11" iPad Pro really is the ideal device. On the laptop side of things, I like the Samsung so much--I'm using it to type this post--that I'm very rarely using the MBA. Having grown up with Windows I've never really gotten used to macOS, but the M1 is such an incredible machine that I'm hesitant to get rid of it. However, we have a few years old desktop iMac which is primarily used by my wife, so I don't think hanging on to the MBA make a lot of sense. That will be the next big decision to make, but for now things are pretty good 👍
If you're shopping for any of these devices, or are otherwise in a similar situation, feel free to ask me anything. Have a great weekend!