It's a big iPhone if that's how you choose to limit its usage.
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iPad as a laptop replacement
- Thread starter Omar Comin' Yo
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It's a big iPhone if that's how you choose to limit its usage.
nope, it has apps just the same ol, bigger screen
Plus laptop-class apps unavailable on the iPhone like Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, Affinity Publisher, Procreate, ZBrush, Blender (coming soon), DaVinci Resolve, Octane X, just to name a few… And then you have all the apps that are far more practical/useful on an iPad than iPhone, including Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Word, Excel, Nomad Sculpt, Valence 3D, Morphin, Google Docs (desktop web version just like Mac), Files, just to name a few of those as well. Plus multi-windowing. Hardly anything like a “big iPhone”… 🤦🏼♂️
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Multi windows on a 11" iPad nah too small.
Only one of all those apps I use is pages.
Ok, but you said the iPad is just a big iPhone, and that it has the same apps as the iPhone. Which isn’t really true, as the iPad runs iPadOS with more functionality than the iPhone, and has many apps the iPhone doesn’t have in addition to iPhone apps. Nobody’s faulting you for not liking the iPad, or not wanting to use it, but saying it’s “just a big iPhone” isn’t really true or fair… 🤷🏼♂️
...or sit too close at the movie theater
I parted with my iPad Pro M4 which originally replaced my M1 MBP. I needed full OS flexibility. Command line access and then when it came down to it simplified UI on a limited screen space made even otherwise decent apps take many more hand raised taps to achieve the same thing I could do with CTRL C and V on desktop, along with things like arrow key precise moving of objects on screens. Some apps are very well thought out and great keyboard / mouse trackpad citizens. But even these fall short… PowerPoint is a good example.
I remoted into Windows from my iPP 11” and it scaled perfectly to the screen and resolution. And on the same canvas.. PowerPoint full fat version worked beautifully. Still.. more screen real estate would be welcome and no RDP lag.
I found myself using our iMac M4. I accidentally opened up the presentation (150+ slides and a lot of animations and content). Suddenly… even PowerPoint on Mac was just clunky and tedious to do the same tasks as on Windows…. I remoted in from the iMac and at that stage my iPP was just sitting playing YouTube videos as I worked.
So forcing the iPP to be my desktop sort of forced me back to…. Windows. At least for serious ‘I’m charging the client by the hour and I need to produce bills that don’t make me look like an idiot spending more time doing simple tasks than I should be’ workloads.
Animation pane is a thing on PowerPoint iOS… but for anything consistent and repetitive. Forget it. Same on Mac, much better but lags behind the Windows versions. Definitely Microsoft dragging their feet on macOS. On iPad… it’s Apples fault. Many, many good apps like Juno for data science which is based on open source Jupyter stuff is beautifully translated to the Apple UI… except basic time saving commands are outright blocked by Apples rules. Don’t tell me the developers of Juno isn’t ready to put it in. They would do it but have to state that Apple block it in the current version.
Anyway, iPad Pro was a beautiful device. iPad OS feels closer than ever to Mac but I remember feeling that way in 2011 when the need to set it up with a Mac was removed, or in 2017 when the files app was released. Now it’s also gave me false hope I wanted to believe. Now everything is actually doable with workarounds… now it’s ’is this worth it for my use case’. For me it’s not.
That and apples lack of x86 / real Boot Camp and extortionate SSD prices drove me to a clunky, big ole Windows laptop with a GPU. Two SSD slots. I’m in awe that I can fit two 4TV drives for £200 a piece. I paid £400+ for 1TB on the iPP and couldn’t use it because Files crapped the bed on big file operations or cloud file moves.
I remoted into Windows from my iPP 11” and it scaled perfectly to the screen and resolution. And on the same canvas.. PowerPoint full fat version worked beautifully. Still.. more screen real estate would be welcome and no RDP lag.
I found myself using our iMac M4. I accidentally opened up the presentation (150+ slides and a lot of animations and content). Suddenly… even PowerPoint on Mac was just clunky and tedious to do the same tasks as on Windows…. I remoted in from the iMac and at that stage my iPP was just sitting playing YouTube videos as I worked.
So forcing the iPP to be my desktop sort of forced me back to…. Windows. At least for serious ‘I’m charging the client by the hour and I need to produce bills that don’t make me look like an idiot spending more time doing simple tasks than I should be’ workloads.
Animation pane is a thing on PowerPoint iOS… but for anything consistent and repetitive. Forget it. Same on Mac, much better but lags behind the Windows versions. Definitely Microsoft dragging their feet on macOS. On iPad… it’s Apples fault. Many, many good apps like Juno for data science which is based on open source Jupyter stuff is beautifully translated to the Apple UI… except basic time saving commands are outright blocked by Apples rules. Don’t tell me the developers of Juno isn’t ready to put it in. They would do it but have to state that Apple block it in the current version.
Anyway, iPad Pro was a beautiful device. iPad OS feels closer than ever to Mac but I remember feeling that way in 2011 when the need to set it up with a Mac was removed, or in 2017 when the files app was released. Now it’s also gave me false hope I wanted to believe. Now everything is actually doable with workarounds… now it’s ’is this worth it for my use case’. For me it’s not.
That and apples lack of x86 / real Boot Camp and extortionate SSD prices drove me to a clunky, big ole Windows laptop with a GPU. Two SSD slots. I’m in awe that I can fit two 4TV drives for £200 a piece. I paid £400+ for 1TB on the iPP and couldn’t use it because Files crapped the bed on big file operations or cloud file moves.
I don't use a PC anymore, and in fact, I don't have one anymore.
With my tablet, I surf the web, use social networks, download apps, play games, do photo editing, video editing, and watch movies. There's nothing more I can do with a PC.
With my tablet, I surf the web, use social networks, download apps, play games, do photo editing, video editing, and watch movies. There's nothing more I can do with a PC.
Sounds like you are all set with your tablet. There are actually many people like you with simple computing needs that a tablet computer easily fills. What tablet do you have?
The most complex thing I could do with a PC would be photo and video editing.
I recently got two MacBook Pros, but I almost always kept them turned off because they were inconvenient to carry around or to watch a movie on in bed.
A standard iPad would be fine for me, but I also have an iPad Pro M5 for fun.
I replaced my MBP with my iPad Pro back in Nov 2021 for my mobile computing needs and never looked back. There are still some things I need a Mac/PC for at home, so I have both a Mac Mini and a Mini PC. This is my setup for now but I'm longing for the day I can just do it all with just an iPad Pro. It is my opinion that the iPad Pro is the most flexible device that Apple has ever made.
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What motivated you to buy two MacBook Pros if the base iPad (and now M5) are doing it for you? Just curious - I know you don't need to explain your choices to anyone but on this forum on this topic, I simply must ask lol
That's how I feel at my day job with all the PCs issued for different purposes / systems lol
I've been trying to keep a computer.
I've tried twice since I got a tablet, but I couldn't. I didn't need it anymore.
I ditched my Mac Studio M2 Ultra at home and my m4 Mac mini at work now. The moment i heard about the 120hz on external, i instantly hit the order button on the m5 IPP. Since i use 120 and 240hz 4K monitors for several years now, I can’t stand working on 60 hz anymore. It’s like pain for me. I tried switching from Mac a few times but never went for it because the mouse felt sluggish and not precise and it was laggy af. Now that is gone and I like my new setup a lot. With 120hz the animations are very much fluid and mouse behavior is 100% better then before, near perfection.
I heavily rely on webapps and apps for all of my workflows (work and private) so I don’t need any pro dedicated pro apps for windows or Mac at all. The iPad suits perfectly there. I like the possibility to carry around my main workstation. I also like iPad OS in its current state. Filemanagement is nice IMHO, but as i said - i rely on webapps or apps with built in filemanagement.
I like gaming from time to time, and although the iPad comes with great games in the AppStore, I like the good old trippe A games with mouse and keyboard. Guess what: now works on iPad, too. With NVIDIA now and Nexus, you can play the most recent games with mouse and keyboard and as far as I tested at 120hz on external as well. That’s a game changing experience.
So all in all I couldn’t be more happy with my current setup. Good monitors (4K 120hz OLED and 4k 240hz OLED) and the iPad Pro m5 is the best setup I’ve ever had.
I heavily rely on webapps and apps for all of my workflows (work and private) so I don’t need any pro dedicated pro apps for windows or Mac at all. The iPad suits perfectly there. I like the possibility to carry around my main workstation. I also like iPad OS in its current state. Filemanagement is nice IMHO, but as i said - i rely on webapps or apps with built in filemanagement.
I like gaming from time to time, and although the iPad comes with great games in the AppStore, I like the good old trippe A games with mouse and keyboard. Guess what: now works on iPad, too. With NVIDIA now and Nexus, you can play the most recent games with mouse and keyboard and as far as I tested at 120hz on external as well. That’s a game changing experience.
So all in all I couldn’t be more happy with my current setup. Good monitors (4K 120hz OLED and 4k 240hz OLED) and the iPad Pro m5 is the best setup I’ve ever had.
I finally have my M2 MacBook Air boxed up and ready to send to Apple for a gift card (I'd rather not deal with trying to sell it) before it loses anymore value. The few things I did use it for now run poorly, especially so with macOS 26. It's been sitting around collecting dust as I use my iPad for just about everything anyway.
Most of the apps I use have native versions, and everything else is web based. So, I can't really think of anything I'm actually missing out on. If I need to, I can use my husband's MacBook or the PC at work, or if I really need to, I can reactivate Shadow PC or set up a Windows 365 account.
Most of the apps I use have native versions, and everything else is web based. So, I can't really think of anything I'm actually missing out on. If I need to, I can use my husband's MacBook or the PC at work, or if I really need to, I can reactivate Shadow PC or set up a Windows 365 account.
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Awesome! Glad to hear you’re enjoying it! Welcome to team iPad! 👍🏻🙂.
Awesome! Yeah, I still have an M1 Mac Mini, but rarely ever use it, just mostly for software comparisons with the iPad for my SubStack, and I also have it hooked up to an external drive I can use it to remote access kind of like a NAS. But other than that, I hardly ever use it. I probably will keep a Mac on hand for software review purposes as previously stated, but other than that, I would probably just go completely iPad-only as well. 👍🏻. Glad to hear it’s working out for you! Which iPad model are you using?
It's the base 11" M4 iPad Pro. Been using it for about a year now, my MacBook has been in storage for most of this time.
I might get a desktop Mac at some point in the future, once my child is old enough to start learning a computer, but that's probably a couple years away still. My M2 MacBook Air will be an antique by then.
Awesome! The 11” form factor is pretty nice, I used an 11” M1 for about 4 years as my primary computer before I upgraded to the 13” M4 earlier this year. The 11” is absolutely under-estimated, it’s still a perfectly capable multi-windowing experience and the keyboard is still pretty decently sized for general typing and productivity, especially with the new aluminum keyboards! I decided to move to the 13” just because it is my primary computer, and my workflow now involves a lot more typing than it used to, where a full-sized keyboard is helpful. Plus I get more screen real-estate for my 3D and graphic design workflows, which is helpful. But the smaller footprint of the 11” is quite appealing for many use-cases. 👍🏻. I don’t think you can really go wrong with either at this point for general productivity and use, especially since both now benefit from the Tandem-OLED display! 👍🏻.
And a desktop Mac would make a lot of sense. 👍🏻 I plan on probably keeping one around, and just updating it when it drops out of software support. 👍🏻
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If Quicken made a stand along iPad version, it would set me free from my desktop except for some photo editing.
I use Affinity Photo 2 on my iPad Pro for photo editing. I like it better than Photoshop on my desktop.
Affinity Photo 2 for iPad App - App Store
Download Affinity Photo 2 for iPad by Serif Labs on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips, and more games like Affinity Photo 2 for…
apps.apple.com
And, is this the Quicken you are talking about?
Quicken Classic App - App Store
Download Quicken Classic by Quicken Inc. on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips, and more games like Quicken Classic.
apps.apple.com