Thinking of the iPad

The iPad mini in the wild.

Out and about in Wetherby this morning, I needed to get some designs approved for a function and knew I was likely to bump into one of the decision makers if I dropped into the local Saturday Coffee Shop at the Methodist Church*. I’d sent the designs out by email first thing, but knew there was little chance that they’d seen them, so I grabbed the iPad mini.

I’ve had this iPad since the mini 4 came out; it still feel fast. It’s very portable, and I have it in a Logitech keyboard case that is a predecessor of the versions on the iPad Pro models. It’s a really portable computing device, especially as I have a 4G SIM so data access is available most places. 

I met up with my contact, we reviewed the designs and signed the posters off for print. I’d pulled the designs off Dropbox (which I still rate more highly for reliability than iCloud**), and we reviewed the price quotes on the emails.

This set me pondering; could an iPad replace my Mac?

I think - especially when equipped with a hard keyboard - it could go a long way to doing so now. Certainly much further than it could have done back in May 2010 when I got my first iPad. I think it’s approaching an 80% device. I still prefer the familiarity and flexibility of macOS, but for most of my day-to-day activities the iPad would easily cut it.  If I wanted to go the design side of things, I suspect that I’d need to go to a iPad Pro in one of the larger sizes. In fact, one of my dilemmas with the iPad is whether I get a new mini when I upgrade, or go back to something around 10”. It’s something I’ll consider more when I eventually upgrade my iPhone 7; the new iPhones have bigger screens and that may well influence my decision to go large or not.

That said, when writing I do prefer a decent screen and keyboard. I completed most of my work for Lyonesse using the Lenovo Chromebook; this has a decent (but small) screen and a great keyboard. Plugged in with HDMI to an external screen, it handles two monitors with aplomb and gets the job done. I’m hoping to pass the Chromebook onto Nathan next year and upgrade to an ASUS C434, which looks great.

So coming back to my original thoughts; could an iPad replace my Mac? My answer at the moment is ‘no’, but it could go a long way towards doing so.

* Best Bacon Butties in Wetherby
** iCloud is borked on my desktop, refusing to sync so I need to log everything out and in again.

26 October 2019