iPad Pro Looking to buy a mac mini, would iPad be able to virtualize the desktop to become a mac?

[FrozenDarkness]

I kind of gave up on making my iPad a computer. Safari is just not great and google docs is absolute trash on iPads. The photo app is also just really hard to use.

However, I did spend like $1500 on my iPad and I dont' want to turn it into a netflix machine. I'm tempted to buy a $500 mac mini m4 that's on sale at costco because I already have a monitor and essentially turn my iPad into a virtualization machine.

I've read a lot about Jump but it's always glowing. I want to know like if I want mac level functionality, if i'm just lying to myself (getting Jump and a mac mini) because it won't be a great experience and maybe just spring for a macbook air or something.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

It's.... fine. I tried to turn my M1 iPad Pro into a computer too, used it for a year and a half remoting into the Mac mini when required. I used Splashtop instead of Jump, but basically the same thing.

Remote access worked, but wasn't great. I ended up selling the iPad and got a MacBook instead, was a lot happier with it.

 

[FrozenDarkness]

It's.... fine. I tried to turn my M1 iPad Pro into a computer too, used it for a year and a half remoting into the Mac mini when required. I used Splashtop instead of Jump, but basically the same thing.

Remote access worked, but wasn't great. I ended up selling the iPad and got a MacBook instead, was a lot happier with it.

you have like walked the path before me and apparently it ends with a macbook

 

[Digitalguy]

you have like walked the path before me and apparently it ends with a macbook

Remote desktop is not virtualization, it depends on the internet. I used it a lot in the past with a cellular iPad (and sometimes still do), but ended up buying a cellular laptop (thinkpad) because the times when internet was bad or absent made it impossible to work, while with a laptop I could still work even without internet. It's not often, but when it happens it's so frustrating that as some point you end up giving up.

PS having said that I do have a virtualized Windows 11 on one of my iPads, but that's a very specific configuration, that only works with non updated M1 and M2, before Apple removed the hypervisor from iPadOS.

 

[FrozenDarkness]

Remote desktop is not virtualization, it depends on the internet. I used it a lot in the past with a cellular iPad (and sometimes still do), but ended up buying a cellular laptop (thinkpad) because the times when internet was bad or absent made it impossible to work, while with a laptop I could still work even without internet. It's not often, but when it happens it's so frustrating that as some point you end up giving up.

PS having said that I do have a virtualized Windows 11 on one of my iPads, but that's a very specific configuration, that only works with non updated M1 and M2, before Apple removed the hypervisor from iPadOS.

when internet is good, is remote desktop like useable? Like is it the same as a laptop experience?

 

[FreakinEurekan]

when internet is good, is remote desktop like useable? Like is it the same as a laptop experience?

Usable - sure.
Laptop experience - eh 😬 not really.

 

[Digitalguy]

when internet is good, is remote desktop like useable? Like is it the same as a laptop experience?

It is, but it depends what you mean by laptop experience.
It's smaller.
With Windows I can easily adapt the aspect ratio to fill the iPad display. With MacOS it tends to revert to the original aspect ratio, so there are black bars. So essentially with an 11" iPad you have a 10" display (unusable for me). With a 13" iPad you have more or less a 12" display, same size as the retina Macbook, which for me is usable, but not as comfortable as a 13,6" Macbook air for instance.
Assuming you use the Magic keyboard it's perfectly fine on a desk, it's usable on your lap but a bit top heavy, so no as nice as a clamshell. The M4 keyboard is worse than the previous generation keyboards on your lap (more top heavy, steeper angle). But still usable. Much more usable than something like the Logitech Keyboard or as Surface pro.
Honestly if you have a 13" and your internet is always good wherever you are, it's a pretty good solution (and you have your tablet too).

 

[Ctrlos]

Samuel Nam might have the answer:

 

[Digitalguy]

Samuel Nam might have the answer:

not ideal, he used Screens, which is worse than Jump Desktop, I suggested he tried Jump and he told me that he just bought it and he is trying it, so maybe he will come with a new video

 

[FrozenDarkness]

it looks like the "not full screen" issue is a problem no remote desktop has fixed?

 

[Digitalguy]

it looks like the "not full screen" issue is a problem no remote desktop has fixed?

if you mean for MacOS yes, Jump is the best at it and even it struggles with that. Windows is much more flexible on this and it's non issue if you remote into Windows...

 

[FrozenDarkness]

Ok… I tested out Jump and it’s cool but not ideal. I think my takeaway is that it’s useful in a pinch but don’t think of it as transforming an ipad into a macbook. bummer

 

[Digitalguy]

Ok… I tested out Jump and it’s cool but not ideal. I think my takeaway is that it’s useful in a pinch but don’t think of it as transforming an ipad into a macbook. bummer

curious to know, what are your main drawbacks?

 

[erihp]

if only apple would sign and distribute the internal builds of macos for m# ipads.

 

[FrozenDarkness]

curious to know, what are your main drawbacks?

So I tested it out in my home on wifi. I put Jump on retina mode and there was already pretty noticeable “lag”. Inputs take time before it registers. It ends up being quite similar to the issues I have with Google Docs on iPad itself tbh. Text that fits poorly on screen. Scrolls that take time to register.

On non-retina it actually works quite well, it just looks pretty bad.

I think it’s because It’s not like there is a piece of software I can’t use on iPad, it’s just not ideal on iPad. Putting it on jump didn’t really make the experience that much better.

I mean i’ll still use jump because I already paid for it, but I don’t think I’ll spend even more money on a mac mini just for this experience.

 

[Digitalguy]

So I tested it out in my home on wifi. I put Jump on retina mode and there was already pretty noticeable “lag”. Inputs take time before it registers. It ends up being quite similar to the issues I have with Google Docs on iPad itself tbh. Text that fits poorly on screen. Scrolls that take time to register.

On non-retina it actually works quite well, it just looks pretty bad.

I think it’s because It’s not like there is a piece of software I can’t use on iPad, it’s just not ideal on iPad. Putting it on jump didn’t really make the experience that much better.

I mean i’ll still use jump because I already paid for it, but I don’t think I’ll spend even more money on a mac mini just for this experience.

I don't know what you remoted into, but I have zero lag with my wifi. Only issue is if I remote in an old slow laptop, then I have lag, but that's expected. I have lag sometimes outside if the cellular connection is not good.

 

[FrozenDarkness]

I don't know what you remoted into, but I have zero lag with my wifi. Only issue is if I remote in an old slow laptop, then I have lag, but that's expected. I have lag sometimes outside if the cellular connection is not good.

can you share a little bit about your settings?

 

[Digitalguy]

can you share a little bit about your settings?

I didn't change any settings. I am using a wifi 6 router with fast internet. I mainly connect to Windows, more rarely to my Mac Mini M1. Sometimes I even remote to 2 devices or 2 monitors at the same time, one on the iPad screen and the other on an external monitor via stage manager (using both Jump desktop and Splashtop, which is free for use on a local network).
What are you remoting into?

 

[FrozenDarkness]

I didn't change any settings. I am using a wifi 6 router with fast internet. I mainly connect to Windows, more rarely to my Mac Mini M1. Sometimes I even remote to 2 devices or 2 monitors at the same time, one on the iPad screen and the other on an external monitor via stage manager (using both Jump desktop and Splashtop, which is free for use on a local network).
What are you remoting into?

a macbook air, just to test it out. but the default setting has "retina" off and I turned it on which is when the lag occurs. So that's why i'm curious maybe i'm missing something

 

[Digitalguy]

a macbook air, just to test it out. but the default setting has "retina" off and I turned it on which is when the lag occurs. So that's why i'm curious maybe i'm missing something

I have retina turned on on all my devices, the only issue I can think of is the network... Maybe try to do a speedtest

 

[Chancha]

With Jump Desktop, the key to lag free experience is to install “Jump Desktop Connect“ on the Mac side. This will turn the remote connection from vanilla VNC (macOS screen sharing have to use this tech), to use Jump’s own Fluid protocol. The difference is really stark, I can can remote from home to my office a few miles away and turn on retina 5k feeling like I am sitting in front of the remote Mac.

That said, even though on iPadOS, I‘d consider Jump already the best remote experience; however, it is still somewhat “jumpy”, like the above mentioned full screen issues. A lot of it has to do with iOS being iOS. Ironically, using Jump Desktop client on a MacBook creates a much better experience, but that’s not what you are looking for lol. To put in perspective, the $1500 you dropped on this iPad could have been split into a base M4 Mac mini and a refurb M2 MBA.

 

[xxFoxtail]

It's.... fine. I tried to turn my M1 iPad Pro into a computer too, used it for a year and a half remoting into the Mac mini when required. I used Splashtop instead of Jump, but basically the same thing.

Remote access worked, but wasn't great. I ended up selling the iPad and got a MacBook instead, was a lot happier with it.

This was my experience as well. I loved my 12.9” iPad Pros I’ve owned, but I was either supplementing it with a headless Mac mini, or Shadow PC. Neither was that great of an experience, so I just went with a MacBook Air and called it a day.

 

[Weldor7]

My wife jumps into her desktop on her air, and other that the small screen, the biggest negative seems to be not having trackpad features to use Mission Control and Spaces.

 

[cis4life]

I have a M4 Mini at my desk for work, but when Im traveling, I just use my M4 iPad Pro 13. The trick to getting the best results with Jump is to…

1.) Install Jump Desktop Connect onto your Mac / Windows Machine. Setting up Jump Desktop Connect will supercharge your connection and fix you resolution issues and keeps your latency as low as possible.

2.) On your desktop machine, I run it in headless mode with a 4k Dummy adapter plugged into the HDMI. This makes the host machine believe a monitor is plugged into it and thus will properly resolve to your iPad display properly.

3.) Make sure your host machine is HARDWIRED to your modem or router. This makes a LOAD of difference as your going to maintain a much stronger connection with your up and down connections by being HARDWIRED to your network. Wifi is great, but not so great for the host machine.

I’ve been running this way for a few years now with 0 issues. I always hear about people talk about what if you don’t have internet, this is true, but I know with what I work on, if I don’t have internet, work is pretty much a no go also as almost everything we work on is in the cloud to some degree.

I work as a full time software architect and this works great. At home, I work on my (now) M4 Mini, but if I go out or travel (such as this week with Thanksgiving) I just take my iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard, and I’m good to go.

Just my personal experience as someone who has used this mobile setup for literally years.

Attached an image of my M4 Mini from my iPad Pro M4 13”

 

[erihp]

I have a M4 Mini at my desk for work, but when Im traveling, I just use my M4 iPad Pro 13. The trick to getting the best results with Jump is to…

1.) Install Jump Desktop Connect onto your Mac / Windows Machine. Setting up Jump Desktop Connect will supercharge your connection and fix you resolution issues and keeps your latency as low as possible.

2.) On your desktop machine, I run it in headless mode with a 4k Dummy adapter plugged into the HDMI. This makes the host machine believe a monitor is plugged into it and thus will properly resolve to your iPad display properly.

3.) Make sure your host machine is HARDWIRED to your modem or router. This makes a LOAD of difference as your going to maintain a much stronger connection with your up and down connections by being HARDWIRED to your network. Wifi is great, but not so great for the host machine.

I’ve been running this way for a few years now with 0 issues. I always hear about people talk about what if you don’t have internet, this is true, but I know with what I work on, if I don’t have internet, work is pretty much a no go also as almost everything we work on is in the cloud to some degree.

I work as a full time software architect and this works great. At home, I work on my (now) M4 Mini, but if I go out or travel (such as this week with Thanksgiving) I just take my iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard, and I’m good to go.

Just my personal experience as someone who has used this mobile setup for literally years.

Attached an image of my M4 Mini from my iPad Pro M4 13”

should be natively supported functionality given the cost and ecosystem