I’m struggling to get the placement of the iPad Pro. Certainly, it’s easy to understand what a tremendous boon the iPad Pro/Apple Pencil combination is for artists, graphic designers.
My struggle is in overcoming the notion of the iPad Pro as just a really big iPad. Can an iPad running iOS ever replace a laptop running OS X? Will the iPad ever become my primary device, as opposed to a supplementary portable device?
John Gruber’s thoughtful iPad Pro review helped move that conversation along for me. It did not resolve it, but it helped me see a little bit further down the road.
Some bits from the review:
We’ve now reached an inflection point. The new MacBook is slower, gets worse battery life, and even its cheapest configuration costs $200 more than the top-of-the-line iPad Pro. The iPad Pro is more powerful, cheaper, has a better display, and gets better battery life. It’s not a clear cut-and-dry win — MacBooks still have more RAM (the iPad Pro, in all configurations, has 4 GB of RAM, although Apple still isn’t publishing this information — MacBook Pros have either 8 or 16 GB), are expandable, and offer far more storage. But at a fundamental level — CPU speed, GPU speed, quality of the display, quality of the sound output, and overall responsiveness of interface — the iPad Pro is a better computer than a MacBook or MacBook Air, and a worthy rival to the far more expensive MacBook Pros.
I see this as a check box, a necessary condition for the iPad to replace my laptop. Not a sufficient condition, but a necessary one. The iPad Pro is now powerful enough. The question remains, can the iPad Pro fill the other requirements.
The iPad Pro is “pro” in the way MacBook Pros are. Genuine professionals with a professional need — visual artists in particular — are going to line up for them. But it’s also a perfectly reasonable choice for casual iPad users who just want a bigger display, louder (and now stereo) speakers, and faster performance.
Anyone tying themselves in knots looking for a specific target audience for the iPad Pro is going about it the wrong way. There is no single target audience. Is the iPad Pro meant for office workers in the enterprise? Professional artists creating content? Casual users playing games, watching movies, and reading? The answer is simply “Yes”.
I think this addresses the questions, “Will the iPad Pro succeed, will it sell enough units to earn its place in the Apple ecosystem?” I’m still struggling with the issue of the suitability of the iPad Pro as a laptop replacement.
If you don’t type much, or don’t mind using the on-screen keyboard when you do, you’re probably already sold on the iPad-as-primary-portable-computer lifestyle. If you do type a lot and want a hardware keyboard, the appeal of the iPad Pro is going to largely hinge on your affinity for the Smart Keyboard.
That’s one core issue. If you type a lot (and I do), the question is, “Is the Smart Keyboard good enough, can I get along with it well enough to type at a reasonable speed?”
I’ve written this entire review using it, Federico Viticci-style. I went into it thinking that my biggest complaint would be the keys themselves — I like my keyboards clicky, with a lot of travel. But I adjusted to it pretty quickly, and I kind of like the way it feels, as a tactile surface. It almost feels like canvas.
Excellent!
When the iPad Pro is open with the keyboard attached, holding your arm up to touch the screen for anything longer than a moment or two is ergonomically uncomfortable. Apple has stated for years that this is why they don’t make the displays on MacBooks or iMacs touchscreens (that, combined with the relatively tiny click targets of Mac OS X, which are designed for very precise mice and trackpads, not imprecise finger tips). Scrolling through a long document using the iPad Pro touch screen is uncomfortable when it’s in laptop position. Going through a slew of new emails, likewise. In laptop mode, I want to use the keyboard for these things — and in most cases, because of bugs and/or software limitations, I can’t. That the keyboard falls short in these cases is even worse on iPad than it would be on a MacBook, because a MacBook has a trackpad. The point is, if my fingers are on the keyboard, I don’t want to move my hands. With a trackpad, I don’t have to. With the iPad Pro, I do.
Ah, there it is. John put into words what I struggled to. There’s something about having my laptop anchored with my hands completely free to move between the trackpad/mouse/trackball and the keyboard. That and the ability to effortlessly change the angle of the screen to adjust for glare.
More than anything else, for me the tradeoff is between portability (the grab and go offered by my phone) and ergonomic comfort (like sitting in a well laid out cockpit). This is a second checkbox. For any iPad to replace my laptop, it has to solve that ergonomic issue. I realize that for many people, this is not a necessary condition. For a more casual user, the iPad Pro is likely a home run.
Go read John Gruber’s iPad Pro review. There’s much more to it than these bits I’ve quoted here and the review is well worth your time.
Ben Bajarin’s piece is also excellent.
https://techpinions.com/the-ipad-pro-the-start-of-something-new/42336
An iPad is not a laptop. Period.
The iPad Pro is an evolutionary device.
At the asking price of an iPad Pro, I will spend the money on the laptop every time.
Speed is not a factor. Computational resources are faster than most use cases these days.
iPads fail as general purpose machines for me because they obscure the file system. By itself this is not a big deal. But operational compromises are made along the way to work around this endeavor.
I am a web developer. I don’t push heavy iron. What I do push is several apps running concurrently and the ability to seamlessly transverse them.
iOS doesn’t allow for that level of complexity.
iPads work well when the tasks are more single purpose with the ability to multitask on some basic level.
That being said, I will buy this when it comes time to replace my iPad when it finally dies or no longer supports my use case.
That will take a while.
Ex-developer here. I find the support groups help. 😉
Developers need to use multiple tools simultaneously to complete a task. You need deep access to a file structure. You need to take advantage of source code repositories and fine tune deployment pipelines. You need to gather and analyze hundreds of metrics. You need high degrees of automation.
You need the full meal deal.
You are, in Steve Job’s parlance, a truck driver.
The Microsoft Surface Pro comes close to this ideal; two of the four Windows admins in my office (IT for a college at a state university) use one as their primary computing device.
That said, in the office, it sits in a dock, connected to two or three screens with a keyboard and mouse (one has a sweet 34″ 4K main display).
Then at night, they pop it out of the dock, slip it into the case and voilà, their entire computing and systems control environment goes with them, and every part will work, albeit in a much more cramped screen.
An iPad pro that I can connect to a real monitor, keyboard and trackball, that i can use to develop web, OS X and iPad apps, then pop into a sleeve and read a book on the couch in the evening, watch some video or putter in BBEdit on some code…yeah, THAT will replace my MacBook Air (which has entirely replaced all the use cases of my ancient, slow iPad 2) in a heartbeat.
The iPad Pro is close, but until I can run terminal and call up perl to do some quick text munging work, it’s not going to replace my ‘truck’.
I expect that we’ll see a lot of keyboard fixes and improvements in iOS 9.2.
To me John’s review made it clear that this iteration of the Pro is transitional. The software isn’t quite there for the laptop uses that it wants to do and they probably need to rev the keyboard a bit (no dedicated shortcut keys for common iOS things). How fast the CPU and GPU are isn’t as important (within limits) as whether that speed is able to be put in service of what you want to do.
I’m firmly in the Macbook camp – I do front end software development and iOS doesn’t work well for that – but I have friends who are art directors and illustrators who may well love the tablet side of the Pro and find the laptop side of it to be perfectly fine for what they need.
If the Surface family of devices is on the side of “laptop with some occasional tablet uses” it seems the Pro is the inverse – “tablet with some occasional laptop uses.” It’s not for me, but it does fill a niche for people who could really use a large tablet but who also need a laptop enough that they would formerly have to carry two large devices.
And that’s not really a matter of hardware but of the OS… and I’m not sure I ever see iOS being like that. After all, they have a perfectly good system that does everything we need – OS X.
I’ve read/watched a lot of iPad Pro reviews today. I haven’t come away with any more clarity about this device than I had before its official launch. There are a lot of professional bloggers/reviewers/writers who have dubbed it a perfectly acceptable laptop replacement, but these are people who do not work in your standard, garden variety office environment.
It’s no doubt a beautiful device. It’s no doubt the most capable iPad ever made. It’s no doubt a LOT better at productivity and content creation than any other iPad before it. From all accounts I’ve read, the screen is breathtaking and the audio is fantastic. And I imagine for people who have already been trying to fit the iPad peg into the Mac hole, the split screen stuff is a much welcomed and much needed feature.
All that being said, trying to do my normal 40 hour a week office job on an iPad is still not feasible in any way. And it’s not that iOS just isn’t quite there yet, it’s that iOS isn’t even CLOSE to ready for that kind of work yet. I need multiple monitors. I need the capability to host and attend conference calls using many different kinds of proprietary and 3rd party software. I need to be looking at more than two apps at once, and I need them to be more than what current iOS apps offer. In general, iOS as a work machine completely destroys my workflow and would require me to make compromises that completely defeat the purpose.
I’m confused by Apple’s stance on this whole thing. Tim Cook has been very aggressive over the last couple of days about the death of the PC and “why would you buy a PC anymore”, but just a few weeks ago he seemed to still be defending its usefulness. When they do the next Mac event will he be saying “Why would you buy an iPad Pro when we have these great new Macs?” Will there ever even BE a Mac event again?
I’m sorry, I just think iPad Pro as laptop replacement is premature, and I think it’s going to take at least 2 more versions of iOS before I would ever take that idea seriously.
As the iPad becomes bigger and the MacBooks become lighter, doesn’t it seem like the choice will basically come down to whether you want to run iOS or OS X?
Why do I have to choose? If my job pays well enough for me to even consider using either an iPad Pro or a MacBook XX, I can likely afford both: The MBxx for most work tasks and have the iPad Pro for reading, leasure browsing, or writing simple emails from the couch at night – or on a plane? I am also a software dev – both Web and other – and not having a really good keyboard just doesn’t cut it for me. And a seemingly simple thing like adjusting the screen for changing sun glare (especially when working from the living room couch) is actually quite important.
However, I have to admit, I do have a current decision dilemma: My older MBP needs updating – the sooner, the better. But, should I hold out a bit longer and spring for the iPad Pro now? For me, that’s still a good question.
my mom has a laptop. she has no idea what multiple monitors is a thing. the pro can certainly replace her laptop.
she needs a car, not a truck.
and no, you’re simply wrong — Cook will not discredit the Pro to hilite the Mac. cars and trucks.
thought this would be obvious, but evidently not. hint — IF YOU ARE AN IT PROFESSIONAL READING A TECH SITE, YOU NEED A “TRUCK”. not a car. most people, normal non IT people, just need cars. for web, email, personal document creation including casual spreadsheets. that’s a car. iPad.
My personal goal has not to replace the laptop, its been to replace a piece of paper. When things get down to the nitty gritty, I grab a book and write something down. I really hope this is the replacement for me, finally.