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iPad Pro Who else uses their iPad truly as a tablet/no keyboard?

I’ve been using iPads for 11 years, and the only time I go without a keyboard is when I break the damn thing. It’s just not a durable design—and at $350 a pop, it’s getting harder to justify. Honestly, it’s one more reason I’m starting to look elsewhere for my next device. Now, if Apple offered AppleCare+ then that would be different. 🫩
 
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The Cockney Rebel said:
I bought a tablet, to be a tablet. No interest in using it as a laptop replacement.

What about you?
Click to expand...
Yes.

CNET Insider

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night (as Dylan Thomas Once Said to His Walkman)

For nearly 20 years, mobile devices -- the marvelous, ubiquitous mobile phone, in particular -- have been reducing the need to carry around separate gadgets. Even Apple acknowledged that fact in its weird "Crush!" ad for the iPad Pro (the company then apologized for acknowledging it). Devices that slip into a pocket have subsequently killed entire categories, such as the compact camera, and gaming phones may one day replace consoles themselves.

Yet, there are inevitable compromises when a device tries to do too much. For instance, while Bluetooth headphones are "fine," the fact that phones had to get rid of a headphone jack to make room for other features has long irritated me. So much so that I've started using -- and enjoying -- a Sony MP3 Walkman again. I personally think it’s this frustration with technology's shortcomings that is driving a counterrevolution. Not coincidentally, we've seen the resurgence of vinyl, cassettes and even film cameras in recent years. May these single-use devices, and our love for them, "rage against the dying of the light."

Ty Pendlebury
Editor, CNET
Click to expand...
November 2024 issue/newsletter
 
Used to loving using the old style smart keyboard with my gen 2 iPP but once Apple moved away from that design in favor of a thicker and pricier keyboard folio and even heavier and pricier magic keyboard I moved onto an iPad Mini and a Surface Pro 9 to satisfy both itches for a portable tablet for media consumption and a small computer with touch screen.

I still think having a keyboard option on the larger iPads is great, I just have no desire to own such a combo now. We're all different for sure.
 
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I use a Logitech K780 and MX Ergo for both my Windows desktop and M1 12.9” iPad when I use the iPad docked on my work desk. It asks more as a companion to the desktop for background YouTube, messaging, web searches, reddit, check my blood sugar, etc.

When not at my desk, the 12.9” is just in tablet mode.

The iPad mini and 11” are always in tablet mode.
 
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My 4th gen iPad Air does not have a keyboard. For what I use it for it would only be in the way. It’s for browsing the web and watching YouTube/movies. My MacBook Air has a keyboard.

I’m not against using a keyboard with an iPad, but it’s just not what I do right now.
 
Digital Dude said:
I’ve been using iPads for 11 years, and the only time I go without a keyboard is when I break the damn thing. It’s just not a durable design—and at $350 a pop, it’s getting harder to justify. Honestly, it’s one more reason I’m starting to look elsewhere for my next device. 🫩
Click to expand...
How many keyboards have you broken and how do they break? Are you using the Apple magic keyboard?
 
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The Cockney Rebel said:
I use my M4 iPad Pro in an Apple Folio, and it suits me perfectly.

I have three Macs, if I need to do some heavy typing.

I bought a tablet, to be a tablet. No interest in using it as a laptop replacement.

What about you?
Click to expand...
I have a Magic Keyboard that I bought with my M4 iPad Pro, but I use that maybe like less than 10% of the time (when I really want to type something). For everything else, it's just the iPad as a tablet, and that's why I prefer that it runs iOS. Everything is just optimised for touch, and great to use on the couch, in bed or when talking around the class. :)
 
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I'm a weirdo that actually PREFERS typing on iPad glass. I have no need for archaic traditional feedback. I wish Apple would make a clamshell design with another iPad basically as the "keyboard" section (that can be made into into anything via software like a piano).
 
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The only time I use my 13” iPad as a tablet is with the Apple Pencil. Otherwise it’s always on my Magic Keyboard.

My iPad Mini on the other hand I use purely as a touch tablet 100% of the time, but that’s probably assumed.
 
I have a 12.9 IPP. I do not have a MKB. I do have a wireless Apple Keyboard that I sometimes travel with and use if I am think I might need it. But usually just use the pencil or the on-screen keyboard.
 
iPad mini 5 here, with Pencil.
Using with Magic keyboard and trackpad with Universal Control and MBr 12”, and sometimes without MBr when iPad is used to replace the old Apple TV and remote.
 
I used my 11" iPad with the Apple Magic Mouse and Keyboard (not the one that connects to the tablet) until I got a 13" MBA. Now, it runs entirely as a tablet and oddly find myself using it more now that I've fully committed to using it as a tablet in my personal and professional workflows.
 
Digital Dude said:
I’ve been using iPads for 11 years, and the only time I go without a keyboard is when I break the damn thing. It’s just not a durable design—and at $350 a pop, it’s getting harder to justify. Honestly, it’s one more reason I’m starting to look elsewhere for my next device. Now, if Apple offered AppleCare+ then that would be different. 🫩
Click to expand...
AppleCare+ for iPad covers one MKB (at least in the US):
The Plan covers the following equipment (collectively, the “Covered Equipment”): (i) the AirPods, Apple TV, Apple Watch (including the one Apple-branded band, Nike Sport band, or Hermès Sport band supplied in the same box as your covered Apple Watch), Beats device, HomePod, iPad (including one Apple Pencil, one Apple Pencil Pro, and/or one Apple-branded iPad keyboard to be used with your covered iPad, referred to as “iPad Input Devices”), iPhone, or iPod listed on your Plan Confirmation (“Covered Device”), and (ii) the accessories contained inside the original packaging of your Covered Device
Click to expand...
IIRC, you used to have to buy them in the same order, but this may not be the case anymore.
 
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I use the iPad as a tablet; no keyboard. I use one of my Mac’s if I need to do a lot of typing, or work style stuff.
 
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I used a 13" iPad Pro M4 with a Magic Keyboard for about 6 months, replacing my laptop completely. Did all my work there, my personal stuff too, it was quite interesting as an experiment and I'd say I was able to take care of around 90-95% of what I needed.

But man, that 5-10% that was missing ended up being really important stuff that eventually made me delay parts of my work in ways that took me too long to recover from. So I ended up selling it and getting an 11" model without a keyboard, and now I use it just as a tablet.

I do miss that iPad setup every now and then, but the memories of the things I couldn't do make me appreciate my Macbook Pro again :)
 
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Digital Dude said:
I’ve been using iPads for 11 years, and the only time I go without a keyboard is when I break the damn thing. It’s just not a durable design—and at $350 a pop, it’s getting harder to justify. Honestly, it’s one more reason I’m starting to look elsewhere for my next device. Now, if Apple offered AppleCare+ then that would be different. 🫩
Click to expand...
You can add it to your iPad’s AppleCare plus by calling apple
 
My iPad mini is the most traditionally used tablet. The only accessory is a Smart Folio that is often removed and I just pick up and use the device. My iPad Pro 11” is used primarily with Smart Folio to stand it up while watching. I put on the Magic Keyboard when I want to take it on-the-go.

The iPad mini is the only one that I really use as a tablet. The iPad Pro 11” is pretty much always on something else - a stand, cover, my knee, pillow, etc.
 
Seems like about half the replies to "Who uses an iPad without a keyboard?" (paraphrasing), stated that they do use a keyboard. I'm in the other half. I don't have a keyboard that works with my 11th gen. iPad. If I got one, it would just collect dust.
 
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