Paul Stamatiou:
Against my better judgement, I decided to give tablets one more chance. On the last day of a vacation that started in Rwanda and ended in the UK, I walked into the Regent Street Apple Store in London and purchased a 12.9″ iPad Pro and Smart Keyboard.
That was a few months ago. A few months in which my 13″ MacBook Pro has not even been powered up once. Any new gadget novelty has long since worn off and I’m still loving and using this iPad Pro daily.
What changed this time around?
Let me be clear about something. Though I often write about why I am still on a MacBook and the things that prevent me from moving full-time to an iPad Pro, I would love to make that move. I would love for an iPad to fill all my needs. I own a number of iPads and use them all the time.
Every time I read one of these stories, I dig down to see if, perhaps, the time has arrived. I do see us getting closer, but there are still a few things that make the MacBook my central computing device.
From Paul:
The viewing angle of the iPad Pro is not adjustable. You just get the two modes and that’s it. It’s okay most of the time but on a few occasions (usually when I’m slouching in a chair…) I have found myself stuffing something behind the iPad Pro to prop it up a bit more.
And:
Rather trivial but it’s hard to use the keyboard in a more relaxed, casual couch setting without placing a hard surface underneath.
The MacBook is its own platform. You could balance it on your lap, a small tray table (think airplane), even on a soft patch of grass. The iPad keyboard combo is not stiff enough to work on non rigid surfaces. Sure, I can use my iPad anywhere, but to type at speed, I need the keyboard, and the iPad keyboard combo requires a rigid surface.
More from Paul:
Repetitively placing a cursor or selecting text is a chore. It’s tedious to constantly move your hand from the keyboard up to the middle of the screen as opposed to a closer adjacent mouse as you have become accustomed to with a computer.
The text editing thing is the one thing I can’t get past. I would love to write a Loop post on my iPad. But typing and editing anything more than a paragraph is a chore on my iPad. I wish I could solve this. I want to believe!
All told, Paul made the transition. Terrific read, lots and lots of interesting detail, all written on the iPad Pro.
I used to be a MacBook Pro only user. When the iPad came out I got one and used it for lightweight travel and reading on the couch but I still used the MacBook Pro for all “serious” computing and writing. The iPad Pro put a dent in that and then I got an iMac Pro and recycled my old MacBook Pro thinking I’d get another one to replace it. It’s been a year and I haven’t done it. Part of the reason is that I’m not interested in the Touch Bar and the keyboard issues on the new MacBook Pros but the other is that the iPad Pro is holding its own. I do all serious computing and longer writing on the iMac but I’ve not been desperate to replace the MacBook Pro.
I will no doubt replace it at some point but the iPad takes the pressure off.
Dave, I want to push back on a couple of your points:
1. The iPad Pro works *fine* on my lap. It’s not as good as a laptop, obviously, but it is way better than other tablets (the Surface is terrible by comparison) and stable enough to type a lot (I’ve done extensive note taking in this configuration). While it is not good for propping up in other form factors (bed, curled up on a couch, etc.), I personally find it really bad ergonomically to type in those configurations (you twist your wrists etc.), and I just collapse my iPad, and not type, for those situations.
2. Use keyboard shortcuts to navigate whenever possible. This makes note taking just fine. You don’t touch the screen, just like you wouldn’t use your Mac’s trackpad, when editing text. (I really would love a virtual trackpad for the purposes of navigation, but the point is, when I’m in a text block/editor I really don’t miss it.)
Really, the biggest issue IMO is the reliability of the Smart Keyboard.
Good points, Janak. I will keep those in mind. I truly do want to do my writing on the iPad. Just haven’t felt nearly as comfortable as I do on my MacBook.
— Dave
I think the trick here is to not go for equivalence. The iPad has advantages and disadvantages.
The biggest _advantage_ in terms of writing is what the author talked about: it’s full screen, with multitasking being only intentional multitasking. It’s much easier to keep the writing app front and center when there aren’t random things at the corner of your eyes distracting you.
Now, if only WordPress better supported iPads (the text areas on this website do weird things when you backspace on an iPad Pro).
How do you put a text cursor at an arbitrary place in some text? That drives me batty. I don’t mean move it a few spaces left or right but… say you’re proofing a document and you see something you need to revise. Your cursor is nowhere near that position. How do you efficiently put the cursor right where you need it to be?
Assuming the software you’re using isn’t utter shit (and yes, a lot of it is), you’d just tap there wouldn’t you?
I also used to be a MBP 15″ user exclusively. A few months back, tired of lugging the power brick and MBP around, I bought a 12.9 2nd Gen iPad Pro, and haven’t looked back. I leave the MBP in the office, and use the iPad for *almost* everything else.
I agree with the comments about the poor usability of the Pro + keyboard on a lap without a hard surface in between. Besides the angle, the problem is the AWFUL reliability of the smart keyboard. It is, without a doubt, the worst Apple product I have ever purchased –am on my third replacement already, as they just stop working.
There are some things that are not doable on the iPad –particularly on the lesser, mobile versions of iWork Apple gives us for it. Table resizing, text formatting, etc suffer on Keynote particularly.
Still, I find that the iPad can accomplish a good 80% of what I used to do on the MBP comfortably. When I need a Mac, I use the MBP in the office or the iMac at home.
Heavy use of the option and command keys, which lets you jump paragraphs/lines/words. Pretty much the same as I do as on a Mac.
That said, there are two major problems with this:
iOS doesn’t have the same app consistency in respecting this. The biggest offender is (surprise) Twitter, where Cmd+Left takes you “back.” It drives me nuts. Luckily I use Twitter less nowadays 🙂
This still doesn’t help when you’re e.g. scrolling in a long doc. No debate there, this is subpar. Sometimes I’ll just place the cursor roughly (without holding) and if I miss use the cursor keys going forward.
I rarely find that tapping works well. It sometimes selects the word, sometimes a part it, etc when I want the cursor to go precisely between two letters, etc.
Without pointer support precision placement will always be a problem and that’s not surprising – the iPad was made for crude, ~40px pointing devices, i.e. fingers.
I read the linked article and if I ran into the issues he did, I’d be back on my MBP. Diff strokes though….
“Really, the biggest issue IMO is the reliability of the Smart Keyboard.”
Yup. Yesterday I watched a couple people swearing at their iPads over this. It’s just crazy. Personally I’ve stopped using my iPad “as a computer” because of this.