iPad iPad too expensive now: will you still buy?

[ChantyBinx]

I struggle to justify my M4 Pro. Thing is it's not that useful doing creative stuff on without the official keyboard or pencil. Reading and watching is good but then we have two Apple TV 4Ks... unless I want to watch something myself, it's no good and during work or the day I have YouTube on the corner of a screen I'm actually looking at.

Even for reading I'm noticing my eyes can read better from my iPhone Air and it fits in my hand, especially at night sideways much better. Bigger iPad screen, as beautiful as it is, more text to tune out visually. So even for that kind of consumption of content, I'm leaning toward utilising my iPhone as its more comfortable.

The expense, weight and cost of the official keyboard we have... at which point why not just whip out the MacBook? Especially with little quirks of Numbers on iOS being awkward and finicky, fine on the phone but with keyboard and mouse on iPad, still sub par to the Mac experience plus limitations / poor use of the 11" space.

I am leaning toward selling mine as its hard to justify a £1500 plus 1TB model gathering dust. Though its so stunning and impressive just as it exists.

 

[Dirk Pieters]

I struggle to justify my M4 Pro. Thing is it's not that useful doing creative stuff on without the official keyboard or pencil. Reading and watching is good but then we have two Apple TV 4Ks... unless I want to watch something myself, it's no good and during work or the day I have YouTube on the corner of a screen I'm actually looking at.

Even for reading I'm noticing my eyes can read better from my iPhone Air and it fits in my hand, especially at night sideways much better. Bigger iPad screen, as beautiful as it is, more text to tune out visually. So even for that kind of consumption of content, I'm leaning toward utilising my iPhone as its more comfortable.

The expense, weight and cost of the official keyboard we have... at which point why not just whip out the MacBook? Especially with little quirks of Numbers on iOS being awkward and finicky, fine on the phone but with keyboard and mouse on iPad, still sub par to the Mac experience plus limitations / poor use of the 11" space.

I am leaning toward selling mine as its hard to justify a £1500 plus 1TB model gathering dust. Though its so stunning and impressive just as it exists.

Yes, I agree. Couldn’t explain it like you did. Once you add all the peripherals to be productive on iPad, it becomes a mess. And you’re still fighting iPadOS!

I’ve been thinking about a Neo for my next reading/couch device. The only downside is that an iPad allows me to lay down on the couch and watch/read. A Neo would require sitting with Neo on my lap. First world problems.

The obvious benefit would be to have macOS and not having to deal with iPadOS anymore.

 

[ChantyBinx]

Yes, I agree. Couldn’t explain it like you did. Once you add all the peripherals to be productive on iPad, it becomes a mess. And you’re still fighting iPadOS!

I’ve been thinking about a Neo for my next reading/couch device. The only downside is that an iPad allows me to lay down on the couch and watch/read. A Neo would require sitting with Neo on my lap. First world problems.

The obvious benefit would be to have macOS and not having to deal with iPadOS anymore.

I get your dilemma, but consider this, the iPad needs a case to hold it up. Yeah, you can hold it up, and yeah, its light as a feather for its size but still heavy enough to tire your hand after a while and certainly the fact it needs your hands to stand up. The Mac, screen is a bit further back and holds it self up at many angles that suit - so it might be better?

I was sold that dream too of how much simpler and handier the iPad is but sometimes the lack of keyboard, holding it at weird angles for extended times, even down time replying here on the forum, can be a bit of an ergonomic mess and less comfortable.

But I get the dream. Its so much lighter than a laptop on its own, to throw in a backpack, it can handle life more and is less involved feeling than a laptop and even a different vibe to use it in more public settings / around people feels more like you're enjoying life and not 'tied to working on a laptop'. In my case though, yeah I kept leaning on the accessories so much that I was effectively carrying around a modular laptop (at more expense , 3x that of the Neo for my iPad set up even) and then all that was left was to reason to myself why I was dealing with the workarounds of the limiting iPad OS.

I love my iPad, but yeah, really struggling to justify it I guess. sorry if I repeated some points.

Partner has a Neo. It's fantastic and at its price, if it was a part time use device wouldn't feel such a shame

 

[Dirk Pieters]

I get your dilemma, but consider this, the iPad needs a case to hold it up. Yeah, you can hold it up, and yeah, its light as a feather for its size but still heavy enough to tire your hand after a while and certainly the fact it needs your hands to stand up. The Mac, screen is a bit further back and holds it self up at many angles that suit - so it might be better?

I was sold that dream too of how much simpler and handier the iPad is but sometimes the lack of keyboard, holding it at weird angles for extended times, even down time replying here on the forum, can be a bit of an ergonomic mess and less comfortable.

But I get the dream. Its so much lighter than a laptop on its own, to throw in a backpack, it can handle life more and is less involved feeling than a laptop and even a different vibe to use it in more public settings / around people feels more like you're enjoying life and not 'tied to working on a laptop'. In my case though, yeah I kept leaning on the accessories so much that I was effectively carrying around a modular laptop (at more expense , 3x that of the Neo for my iPad set up even) and then all that was left was to reason to myself why I was dealing with the workarounds of the limiting iPad OS.

I love my iPad, but yeah, really struggling to justify it I guess. sorry if I repeated some points.

Partner has a Neo. It's fantastic and at its price, if it was a part time use device wouldn't feel such a shame

Valid point about the angles! I have a Moft cover on my iPad mini which can hold up the iPad in plenty of different angles. It's quite clever but it comes with its own magnets built on so it's quite heavy to add to a Mini.

I often remove the cover if I'm holding the iPad by hand, which sort of adds to the pile of things-not-making-sense.

I really dislike what Apple has done with iPadOS. It seems that every swipe now does something. I miss the simplicity and size (!!) of the original iPad. 11" is too large. The original iPad hit the sweet spot in screen size for me.

 

[ChantyBinx]

Valid point about the angles! I have a Moft cover on my iPad mini which can hold up the iPad in plenty of different angles. It's quite clever but it comes with its own magnets built on so it's quite heavy to add to a Mini.

I often remove the cover if I'm holding the iPad by hand, which sort of adds to the pile of things-not-making-sense.

I really dislike what Apple has done with iPadOS. It seems that every swipe now does something. I miss the simplicity and size (!!) of the original iPad. 11" is too large. The original iPad hit the sweet spot in screen size for me.

Yeah I bought a base iPad circa 2017 and although that OS and tablet was inferior to todays capable iPad OS, it was a happier, simpler, more intimate feeling single focus task machine. Limited, sure. But what it DID do was done well. Developers still made thoughtful apps. iPad was still 'on the up'.

Now there's still a wealth of good quality stuff but its very much the same great developers maintaining their apps (Affinity, Procreate, etc!) not much new coming along or at least I'm not hearing of it.

Apple focussing more on the Mac was great as it was in a slump back then, and I appreciate they've done a bit of giving the iPad what some of us really wanted - capability. But as it stands they've not given it enough to truly replace a Mac ( and I get it .... SHOULD the iPad replace the Mac? Maybe not) but in that they have added complexity that the iPad loyalists who appreciated the simplicity by design now needing to step over the more complex stuff.

I hate to say it, maybe a convertible touch screen Mac is the only way to reconcile it. But then the 2K+ MB Pro customers don't need s 1k+ iPad. I think the Folding iPhone will be haunted by much of the same. Make sense in the Samsung world with DeX and ability to tinker more to make it into more of a heavy duty machine outside of iOS limitations where they're grateful to win over iPhone users. On the iPhone Fold front... they will hold off on features to ensure we still need our iPads.. still need our Macs, even if they're Neos

I'm not sure what the answer is. Watching back the old 2010 keynote with Steve Jobs on the chair with the iPad, it's definitely morphed into something much wider than that simple device.

 

[Dirk Pieters]

Yeah I bought a base iPad circa 2017 and although that OS and tablet was inferior to todays capable iPad OS, it was a happier, simpler, more intimate feeling single focus task machine. Limited, sure. But what it DID do was done well.

I'm not sure what the answer is. Watching back the old 2010 keynote with Steve Jobs on the chair with the iPad, it's definitely morphed into something much wider than that simple device.

This sums it up for me. They added so much to iPadOS. It pretty much started when iOS became iPadOS. They added so much, which they sort of had to, to market it as a productivity tool.

Like the Files app. I mean, it gets better but who wants to deal with files like that? I find all this multi-window nonsense stressful as well. You're making every app smaller for the single reason of having them next to each other which makes it even harder to drag things around.

For me there was nothing wrong with iPad being a simple single-task device.

 

[Hajj.david]

I think so. Xcode is a beast and running it on an iPad is going to eat into its battery life. If you check the difference in battery size between an iPad Pro 13" and the lightest MacBook (the Air), it's quite significant.

(I left the Neo out of the lightest MacBook for obvious reasons)

There's also the fact that Xcode is built for use with a mouse. Porting that to touch would be quite scary I think. There's probably also the fact that in a Venn diagram the amount of users who want to use Xcode on an iPad is quite small.

There's no benefit in it for Apple.

Again they literally did all of the hard work to get 90% of the UI and app over to iPad via the Swift Playgrounds. What would it kill them to add proper git support and auto complete. The UI and battery is already a solved issue.

Also whats apple's excuse for not supporting ultrawides properly? The 5K display Apple sells is a larger resolution than a 5k2k ultrawide.

 

[Dirk Pieters]

Again they literally did all of the hard work to get 90% of the UI and app over to iPad via the Swift Playgrounds. What would it kill them to add proper git support and auto complete. The UI and battery is already a solved issue.

Xcode on the Mac can do a hell of a lot more than Swift Playgrounds. Therefor UI and battery are by no means a solved issue.

There is also zero financial benefit for Apple to do this.

 

[Leobreaker]

I just returned an M4 iPad Air. Even had the Magic Keyboard. The MK adds bulk and weight that is basically equivalent to my MacBook, so anything "laptop" I just used that. I did really like it as a digital notebook/writing tool, but for $800 it was just way too much. Going to consider a used A17 Pro iPad mini when the new one comes out instead for much cheaper.

 

[progx]

So after all of Apples price hikes, it seems the iPad is now in a rare place, since it's not an essential device for most people. Laptop or computer? Yeah, that's essential, so people will keep buying it. Phone? That's essential too.

What rare place? Not sure if you’ve seen the sale figures Apple releases, but the iPad line outsells the Mac by 1.5-2x more (60-70 million estimated in 2025 for iPads while Macs are less than 30 million). "Laptop or computer" isn’t an essential item for many people. I would say since the print function was introduced on phones and tablets, that killed the user who would buy one for super basic functions. It might by essential for you, but it isn’t for the wider audience.

But a tablet? For most people it's a redundant device, so what will happen now? Will sales decline significantly? It's really expensive now to buy, say, an iPad Ai, and even the basic iPad starts at an excessive price now.

For phone users, it really isn’t a redundant device. Again, your opinion there. The regular iPad and iPad mini is still cheaper than the MacBook Neo and Mac mini.

A lot of projection in your statement. I still have a need for Macs and PCs, but the everyday person enjoying life, doesn’t care much about it.

 

[browser740]

So after all of Apples price hikes, it seems the iPad is now in a rare place, since it's not an essential device for most people. Laptop or computer? Yeah, that's essential, so people will keep buying it. Phone? That's essential too.

But a tablet? For most people it's a redundant device, so what will happen now? Will sales decline significantly? It's really expensive now to buy, say, an iPad Ai, and even the basic iPad starts at an excessive price now.

NO…. Not until what I have dies and I have NO choice…

 

[East India Company]

But don't judge the merits of the whole line purely on the flagship. If it's about value, the base iPad does pretty much all the same things for much less money.

But even if you don't want any iPad, Apple is likely ok with that. They know not everyone is an iPad person, many are Mac people, and many are both. But that doesn't necessarily mean many want both in one device. macOS and iPadOS have very different focuses. macOS is focused on productivity; iPadOS is focused on ease of use. Their respective form factors also cater uniquely to their focuses--it's all streamlined (although iPads had to adopt an optional keyboard and trackpad in order to be a little more productive, especially for the iPad-only folks). But at their core, both devices retain their focus. Combining the two into one device would lose both focuses/identities, and you end up with a bit of a frankenstein, ie. no focus, and compromises that hinder the general UX, such as a desktop OS requiring a thicker heavier body for better thermals and bigger battery, and a disjointed transition between mouse and touch UI. That's not to say that product wouldn't be useful to some, but to determine a product's viability, it's a question of how many people. If the Windows world is any indication, it appears to be a somewhat niche group. The Surface Pro has really been the only major name in the game, and they've been scraping by with lackluster sales. So I think poor ROI, more than fear of losing iPad sales, is probably why Apple doesn't pursue a Mac tablet. Plus, if the demand was very strong, it's not even clear that they would be losing money. They could make an expensive Mac tablet and make much of that revenue back, plus likely gain significant sales from previously non-Mac users. But again, the demand is likely not strong due to the compromises of combining almost diametrically opposed devices/platforms.

I agree with the first part of your opinion but for the second, my view is that an iPad with an M chip should be able to dual boot into macOS when docked (to a keyboard and mouse and optionally a screen). There’s no identity crisis there neither clumsy UI. You have both and that’s your option. iPad mode is good as iPad mode and you can also use it as a Mac when needed.

 

[Fraserpatty]

When it comes to me, I will keep buying iPads. My MBP is more essential in my case, but I enjoy using my iPad Pro way more.

However, I'm disappointed with the new multitasking introduced in iPadOS 26. Maybe it's ok for people trying to execute basic workflows with keyboard and mouse, but it's been a real regression for many "pro" iPad users. But still, the tablet experience remains.

Yes, I don’t like the multitasking and iPadOS 26 either. I never use more than two sides button order to use those to. I have to OK the multitasking screen which opens a lot more windows accidentally than I choose and also keeps me from being able to use a hand gesture to take a screenshot. I really appreciated the three dots at the top. If I wanted a Mac version I would have bought a Mac.

 

[subjonas]

I agree with the first part of your opinion but for the second, my view is that an iPad with an M chip should be able to dual boot into macOS when docked (to a keyboard and mouse and optionally a screen). There’s no identity crisis there neither clumsy UI. You have both and that’s your option. iPad mode is good as iPad mode and you can also use it as a Mac when needed.

I think dual boot would be an even worse user experience for most people. It's even more jarring than just a keyboard/touch UI switch--having to completely shut down one OS to boot up another. There is no continuous workflow. Also that doesn't get around the need for a thicker heavier iPad to run a desktop OS. The M chip only enables booting macOS, but running it sustained has other hardware requirements--namely better thermal capacity and bigger battery. That's why MacBooks are significantly bigger/thicker and heavier than iPads. The difference is not just the a fixed keyboard. If it was just the keyboard, then a MacBook Air form factor would barely thicker/heavier than a 13" iPad Pro. If Apple could put macOS in a form factor like that and make it run well, they would have, because it would sell like crazy. Again, the question is how many people would be willing to live with the compromises of a significantly thicker and heavier iPad that can dual boot, and I don't think enough people would.