5 Ways the iPad Pro has Replaced my Laptop

I have really grown to love my iPad Pro. It still has its shortcomings, but since the release of the original iPad Pro, I find myself grabbing it over my laptop almost every time. When I upgraded to the iPad Pro 12.9″ earlier this year, my 16″ Macbook Pro has become more of a desktop for the majority of my daily computing tasks.

The iPad used to be a bit too slow and the apps were not optimized well enough to get actual work done for me. If I was creating, I needed the power of a laptop and full-featured apps. Things have changed a lot and continue to change. I am excited to be where we are at and even more excited for the future of portable computing.

With that said, the iPad is my laptop. My laptop has become my desktop. I am not ready to completely get rid of my laptop as I still need it for video editing and heavier computing where there is no solution for the iPad yet. With Apple moving to their own silicon in laptops and desktop computers, I can only imagine that apps like Final Cut Pro X and Logic Pro will eventually come to the iPad.

I will go into detailed reasons below, but the iPad Pro is simply more portable than my laptop. I know that I can get a smaller laptop, but the iPad Pro is easy to carry around. The battery life is fantastic. I can create all day on the iPad and still have 50% battery life remaining. My iPad Pro is the Cellular Edition, and I have a Google Fi Data Only SIM in it. Google Fi is a wireless provider for your smartphone but you can get a free Data Only SIM to use in a tablet. There is no monthly cost, you simply pay for the data you use at $10/GB.

If you are interested in using your iPad Pro for more of your daily tasks or are considering purchasing an iPad, I hope this article and YouTube video are useful to you.

If you prefer, you can watch the YouTube video or listen to this as a podcast.

5 Ways My iPad Pro is Superior to my Laptop

  1. Writing – I love the writing experience on my iPad. It’s fullscreen and distraction-free. Apps are designed to be fullscreen on the iPad, so they look good. I can go fullscreen on a laptop, but the app or browser is usually stretched out, leaving a ton of wasted screen space. It’s also easy to swipe between other apps, whereas, on my laptop, I feel the need to have them all organized. They never seem to go back to where I want them, so I always have to restructure my desktop. It’s a native experience on the iPad.
  2. Photo Editing – I edit just about all of my images in Lightroom CC. Lightroom CC is the same experience on my laptop as it is on the iPad, except the iPad display is fantastic, and I can use the Apple Pencil. I love this experience, and with the USB-C port on the iPad, I can easily import images into Lightroom directly from my camera.
  3. Research/Browsing – I get distracted easily, so researching while on my iPad is a better experience. On my laptop, files and folders are staring at me that want attention. The trackpad on the Magic Keyboard makes it easy to swipe between apps and copy/paste is actually useful on the iPad utilizing the trackpad.
  4. Focusing – I have already mentioned it, but the iPad Pro is a more distraction-free environment for me with fullscreen apps, do not disturb mode, and it being ultra-portable. I love being able to sit on the couch while I research, write, or edit a podcast episode. The excellent battery life means I don’t have to position myself near an outlet all of the time.
  5. Content Consumption – The iPad Pro is great for watching YouTube videos, tv shows, or movies. I often will watch a YouTube video in split-screen mode while doing some research for an article. The speakers on the iPad Pro are great but I love using Airpods Pro while consuming content. Being able to share audio with another person and their Airpods is great. My wife and I often watch something together while wearing out Airpods so we don’t disrupt our sleeping children.

YouTube Video Timestamps

Concluding Thoughts

The real winner here is the Magic Keyboard with its trackpad and the improved apps for iPad. The iPad has become so well optimized that the experience is improved over a standard laptop experience. iPadOS is fast and now provides the best of iOS and MacOS. iPadOS 14 is even better. The iPad Pro is not yet a complete laptop replacement for me but as I mentioned before, my laptop has become more of a portable desktop leaving me to wonder if I really need a laptop at all these days.

Let me know what you think in the comments section below. Are you an iPad Pro user? How are you using it over a traditional laptop?

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