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iPad My #1 reason the iPad is greater than MacBook Air

temna

temna

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 5, 2008
715
410
I hear complaints about how the price of the 128gb iPad 4 with LTE's price is enough to push someone to the MacBook Air. That's fine for some people, but the one feature that the iPad has that the MacBook doesn't have is LTE. And considering you can remote into a Mac Mini and get full functionality from anywhere, I don't really see the advantage of the Air, except for the keyboard. And that advantage goes away quickly with any number of bluetooth keyboards. I guess until the Air adds built in LTE, in my mind anyways, the iPad wins.
 
Most places where I would use/need to use a MBA there's free Wi-Fi so I dont see the need for LTE.

Tried bluetooth keyboards...MacBook keyboard or any laptop ones still feel the best.
 
But as you said, most places. There are plenty of places that don't though. Especially when I go to sporting events, camping and other family events. If Apple added LTE to the Air, it would be amazing. As it is now though, the ipad has it beat.
 
temna said:
But as you said, most places. There are plenty of places that don't though. Especially when I go to sporting events, camping and other family events. If Apple added LTE to the Air, it would be amazing. As it is now though, the ipad has it beat.
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I'm sure you could find somewhere where there isn't wi-fi.

But libraries, McDonald, Starbucks, airports, etc.

Plus bringing a MBA to a football game...people usually don't do that.

I rather have Apple have even better battery than LTE.
 
For me, the #1 reason I prefer the iPad over the Air is NO KEYBOARD. Because the ipad has no keyboard, it is a much more comfortable device for reading. Of course, if I have to type a long document, I use my Air. But I spend a lot more time reading on my iPad than I ever do typing documents on the Air. Also, right now I'm typing this post on my iPad in bed, using the on-screen keyboard. For short posts like this one, it is much more comfortable to do it this way than to take out the Air.
 
Jessica Lares said:
Yeah, I would rather the MBA too. A USB dongle, or hotspot would easily make up for the lack of 4G/LTE. Plus, you can use an external drive with it.
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The thing is, considering that they have been working with 3G/LTE chipsets for quite a while now, why should we still have to rely on hotspots, tethering or dongles. How difficult or expensive would it be for Apple to include cellular in the Air? I want things simple. I don't want to have to worry if I brought my hotspot. I don't want to bother with having to charge secondary devices.
 
temna said:
The thing is, considering that they have been working with 3G/LTE chipsets for quite a while now, why should we still have to rely on hotspots, tethering or dongles. How difficult or expensive would it be for Apple to include cellular in the Air? I want things simple. I don't want to have to worry if I brought my hotspot. I don't want to bother with having to charge secondary devices.
Click to expand...

It's not as easy as it looks.
 
temna said:
And considering you can remote into a Mac Mini and get full functionality from anywhere, I don't really see the advantage of the Air, except for the keyboard...
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Remoting in to do programming and/or design work is not a viable solution. I love my iPads, but the MBA still trumps the iPad.
 
ucfgrad93 said:
For me, the advantages of the Air are an integrated keyboard, and USB ports.
Click to expand...

Heck, for me the advantage of the Air (or my MBP) is OSX which beyond work lets me manage my music, photos, etc. Nothing on the ipad matches iPhoto on OSX, and until I can directly edit my music's IDE tags the ipad will always be inferior to something running OSX.
 
temna said:
I hear complaints about how the price of the 128gb iPad 4 with LTE's price is enough to push someone to the MacBook Air. That's fine for some people, but the one feature that the iPad has that the MacBook doesn't have is LTE. And considering you can remote into a Mac Mini and get full functionality from anywhere, I don't really see the advantage of the Air, except for the keyboard. And that advantage goes away quickly with any number of bluetooth keyboards. I guess until the Air adds built in LTE, in my mind anyways, the iPad wins.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say greater than but it is a definite advantage over it, but without a real keyboard and freedom it'll never replace a PC. Why hasn't anyone at apple put LTE in a MacBook?!?!
 
darngooddesign said:
Heck, for me the advantage of the Air (or my MBP) is OSX which beyond work lets me manage my music, photos, etc. Nothing on the ipad matches iPhoto on OSX, and until I can directly edit my music's IDE tags the ipad will always be inferior to something running OSX.
Click to expand...

Actually, the OP is running OSX on the iPad via remote login. I like the idea, and it is something I have done using the MBA and iPad. I take the iPad on the road, login remotely, and I can access files I may not have available on the iPad. It is a great system when paired with a bluetooth keyboard, that would probably work even better with the Mini (and its larger storage), except for one problem: lag. There is a lot of lag (in my experience) and it is just a lot easier to use the MBA than to remote login. For this reason, the remote login is just a backup for me.

As for LTE, I am probably never going to get that on my iPad, because the cost is outrageous. Besides the extra cost for the iPad, you'll easily be spending another $600 EACH year. Over the life of your iPad (let's say three years) you will spend $1800+ for data access. No thank you. I'll be fine with wifi.
 
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palpatine said:
There is a lot of lag (in my experience) and it is just a lot easier to use the MBA than to remote login. For this reason, the remote login is just a backup for me.
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Yep. I can't imagine running Photoshop with that kind of lag.


palpatine said:
As for LTE, I am probably never going to get that on my iPad, because the cost is outrageous. Besides the extra cost for the iPad, you'll easily be spending another $600 EACH year. Over the life of your iPad (let's say three years) you will spend $1800+ for data access. No thank you. I'll be fine with wifi.
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Because of the deal AT&T was, and maybe still is, running, the LTE iPad only costs $30 over the WiFi version; they take $100 off the price if you do a 2 year contract. Now considering I always had data on my iPad 2 I might as well see some savings. The cost of the data is only $10/month to add the iPad to our shared data plan.
 
temna said:
But as you said, most places. There are plenty of places that don't though. Especially when I go to sporting events, camping and other family events. If Apple added LTE to the Air, it would be amazing. As it is now though, the ipad has it beat.
Click to expand...

Oh come on, if you're going to a sporting event aren't you there to watch the game and not use your iPad? :p:p. But yes, I would rather use an iPad than a MacBook Air, unless I didn't have a computer.
 
MauerFan said:
Oh come on, if you're going to a sporting event aren't you there to watch the game and not use your iPad? :p:p. But yes, I would rather use an iPad than a MacBook Air, unless I didn't have a computer.
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Unless I'm only there to support my daughter cheer leading. ;)
 
palpatine said:
As for LTE, I am probably never going to get that on my iPad, because the cost is outrageous. Besides the extra cost for the iPad, you'll easily be spending another $600 EACH year. Over the life of your iPad (let's say three years) you will spend $1800+ for data access. No thank you. I'll be fine with wifi.
Click to expand...

You don't have to spend $600 a year - for instance, I'm on a $20 a month plan with Verizon. For me, the convenience of having Internet wherever I go is well worth it. Also, iPad data plans can be turned on and off, so say you just want a data plan while you go on vacation, you can just turn it on for that one month.

Also, it depends on whether you have wifi where you go. I often use my iPad while riding on the bus, where there is no wifi. And free public hotspots are often slower than the iPad's LTE connection.
 
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Really, if you could get by with just an ipad, you probably didn't need a laptop in the first place anyway.

The ipad is next to useless for heavy technical work. It's brilliant for consumption and light tasks though. Sort of reminds me of how a fridge is great at keeping things cool and a toaster is great at toasting bread. Not sure how well my fridge would toast my bread.

Oh yeah, and tethering works pretty well these days.

----------
palpatine said:
AI take the iPad on the road, login remotely, and I can access files I may not have available on the iPad. It is a great system when paired with a bluetooth keyboard, that would probably work even better with the Mini (and its larger storage), except for one problem: lag.
Click to expand...

Actually you've 2 other major problems. Ridiculously small physical screen real estate, and lack of precise pointing device such as mouse or trackpad.

This all but assures that the standard form factor tablet will never be a viable solution for heavy work, even if you could natively run a desktop OS at full speed.
 
Night Spring said:
For me, the #1 reason I prefer the iPad over the Air is NO KEYBOARD. Because the ipad has no keyboard, it is a much more comfortable device for reading. Of course, if I have to type a long document, I use my Air. But I spend a lot more time reading on my iPad than I ever do typing documents on the Air. Also, right now I'm typing this post on my iPad in bed, using the on-screen keyboard. For short posts like this one, it is much more comfortable to do it this way than to take out the Air.
Click to expand...

This is the much touted distinction between tablets and laptops with respect to content consumption and content creation.
 
It just comes down to different use cases, for some the Air is always going to be superior, for others the iPad. There's never gonna be a universal answer to "which is better iPad or Macbook Air?" other than it depends.
 
Huh?

temna said:
But as you said, most places. There are plenty of places that don't though. Especially when I go to sporting events, camping and other family events. If Apple added LTE to the Air, it would be amazing. As it is now though, the ipad has it beat.
Click to expand...

You take your iPad camping and to sporting events? Why?
 
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