MacBook Air 2020 or iPad Pro 2020?

[ElNino9]

So, I’ve finally paid my wedding off and and decided to treat myself. Currently undecided between the MacBook Air with i5 it the iPad Pro 11 inch.

Never owned a MacBook before, but have a 2013 iPad Air which has been made redundant about a few years back when I picked up an iPhone 8 Plus. But all in all, I do quite enjoy the iPad experience and I’m swayed by the Pro which would be useable for a quite a few years given it’s a pretty powerful device.

Device will be used for couch/bed browsing, watching Netflix, Youtube, some word processing - all in all, fairly casual use and the portability of both is appealing. Also would be nice to use something other than my phone.

Based on my use/needs, I’d appreciate the thoughts of people with experience of both devices in which they think would be better for me?

 

[Iammetaldave]

Device will be used for couch/bed browsing, watching Netflix, Youtube, some word processing - all in all, fairly casual use and the portability of both is appealing. Also would be nice to use something other than my phone.

Based on my use/needs, I’d appreciate the thoughts of people with experience of both devices in which they think would be better for me?

Sounds like the iPad is probably what you're looking at, to be honest... Although I personally find word processing on mine irritating I have an iPad but it pretty much only gets used for Netflix or the crossword or running my audio system. Everything else is done on my Air or iMac. I like the physical keyboard, if you're willing to spring for one of the options available for the iPad I think it'll cover all your needs, in my opinion.

[edit] also you probably wouldn't need to fork out for an iPad Pro for what you are looking to do, the iPad Air would probably do just fine unless you're looking for that bigger screen.

 

[ElNino9]

Sounds like the iPad is probably what you're looking at, to be honest... Although I personally find word processing on mine irritating I have an iPad but it pretty much only gets used for Netflix or the crossword or running my audio system. Everything else is done on my Air or iMac. I like the physical keyboard, if you're willing to spring for one of the options available for the iPad I think it'll cover all your needs, in my opinion.

[edit] also you probably wouldn't need to fork out for an iPad Pro for what you are looking to do, the iPad Air would probably do just fine unless you're looking for that bigger screen.

Cheers, appreciate your reply.
Probably could get away with an Air for my needs, but smitten with that Pro screen!

Probably will plum for the iPad over the MacBook.

 

[magbarn]

If you don't need MacOS apps, then the iPP is the way to go. Better performance with, much better camera(s) to boot
OTOH, that keyboard is very overpriced but looks nice.

 

[OddMacFan]

I have a 2008 MBP 15” which is so slow that it’s barely usable. About a year ago, I debated between a new MBP and an iPad Pro, and went the iPad Pro route. My needs are fairly basic most of the time, and I like the portability of the iPad Pro over even the smaller MacBook Pro 13.

I’ve spent the past year or so trying to use the iPad Pro as my main computer for general-purpose work. It can be done, but the iPad is still optimized for consumption and not productivity. Even some basic tasks like printing and file manipulation are horrendously bad and/or tedious on the iPad. Most general-purpose applications are stripped-down versions of their desktop counterparts. Many other functions, such as capturing audio streams for editing, simply can’t be done on the iPad. Apple attempted to address file management with the Files app, but it is incredibly limited compared to Finder on macOS, it’s far more tedious to use, and not all iOS apps interface with it the same way. When web browsing, many sites will still load a mobile or tablet version, even though the iPad defaults to requesting the desktop version—and there’s no way to override it (it doesn’t matter if the site or the iPad is at fault, the result is still the same—you get the mobile/tablet version). If you use split screen on the iPad, you get the mobile version on both sides, which makes the browsing problem even worse. And speaking of working with multiple windows, the touch-based process on the iPad is far more tedious than the click and drag process on a desktop. I bought the Apple Pencil for note taking and annotation, and though it works wonderfully, I almost never use it—the experience is not as easy and the results not as good as with pen and paper, and I usually find myself typing notes and annotations.

As a result, after spending money on an iPad Pro, I’m looking at MacBooks a year later. For me, the optimal setup I think is going to be a larger phone + real computer. It doesn’t matter if the iPad benchmarks 2x or 3x faster than the Mac if it takes me 2x or 3x longer to accomplish the same basic tasks, or discover that I simply can’t accomplish certain tasks at all. As a result, if I need to get actual work done—especially if it’s time sensitive—I find myself reaching for my company-issued MacBook Pro, even though I don’t like to do personal work on the company machine. I still like the iPad experience in many ways, but it really isn’t much more than a large phone, even with the enhancements of iPadOS. Until there is a real printing system, real file system access, real multi-window support, and full-featured applications, it simply won’t be an great laptop replacement for many.