Background
Back in Febuary of this year I decided to give using a IPad as a main productivity machine instead of a laptop a try. If you haven’t read the original post about this you can find it here. This post will be a follow up with some of my findings and experiances from the last 3 and a half months of using the IPad
The Good
Planning out your Day
I have found I am more likely to sit down with my IPad to plan out everything I want to get done in a day with my IPad then I ever was with my Laptop becasue i am now able to do it while still sitting in bed apposted to when i had to sit at my desk.
Productivity
To build on my point about being more likely to plan out my day I am also more likely to actually stick to that plan since i can leave my IPad open to my todo app as a constant reminder of what I need to get done that day.
Coding
Thanks to apps such as Serveditor and Shelly I am still able to use the same IDE I used on my Laptop and SSH into all the same servers. While there are IDE’s that run natively on an IPad I have grown to used to some of the features of VS Code which has made it difficult to give up.
Photo Editting
Thanks to ICloud automatically syncing the pictures I take on my IPhone and Snapseeds decent Apple Pencil support. I am able to easily edit any pichure I take. Which is nice since I have always enjoyed editting my pichures but rarely used to do it due to the pain in the ass that was importing any pictures I took
Gaming
Thanks to apps like Steam Link and the Xbox app. I am able to easily stream any game I own on both PC and Xbox to my IPad allowing me to game from anywhere in the house or anywhere with an internet connection with the use of my VPN.
Working
While I do still use my Windows Laptop for the bulk of my work at work I find myself recently using my IPad as a media consumption device while working partially due to being able to awnser any phone calls that come in on my work phone from my IPad meaning I dont have to take out one set of headphones to put in another anymore, which while it was a minor inconviance it is still nice not having to do it anymore.
I also find myself using my IPad to take notes more easiy during a meeting since it allows me to have the meeting open on my main monitor and my notes just bellow it.
I also find myself sometimes taking meetings on my IPad since I am able to easily connect my AirPods and have decent enough audio. This allows me to listen to a meeting while still being able to work on something on my main Monitor
Portability
I must admit the portability of an IPad over my 15.7 inch MSI gaming Laptop is unmeashurable. It is so nice being able to just grab it under one arm and walk outside to sit on the padio and awnser email or walk out to my car and throw it on the passanger seat for if I want to use it where ever I end up
Multitasking
Once you get used to it multitasking on the IPad can become very useful having the ability to have two apps open at the same time I would say is almost a game changer, for example you can have your note taking app of choice open as well as a document or web page that you are making notes about without having to switch between them. The Introduction of slide over apps was another great addition being able to quickly and easily access apps such as your todo app without having to leave what you are doing is amazing
Automation
I have only been playing around with Shortcuts for a few days at the time of writing this post but I can already say they seem to be very useful. I will likely end up writing an entire post about them once I have had a chance to use them a little more so I won’t say to much about them here.
The Bad
External Monitor Support
Theres no suger coting this external monitor support sucks on IPadOS it only Mirrors your display in the native aspect ratio of the IPad (4:3). At the time of writing this WWDC 2021 just happened and it appears we will be stuck with the same sucky external monitor support for another year
Virtulization
With working within the IT industry I find myself often needing to run virtual machines to test something. Unfortunitly there is little to no support to run virtual machines on an IPad although I am curious to see if this changes now that the IPad Pros are running the same CPU as the Mac Books and IMacs (M1)
The Price
Honestly this is still my biggest complaint about the IPad while I do love my IPad I do believe it was to expensive to get both the IPad itself as well as the first party accessories that we all know have the best support and provide the best experience.
The Unknown
Unfortunitly do to Covid restrictions in my area I havent had the opertunity to travel much, so I am still unsure if the IPad is able to replace the need for a personal Laptop when I am traveling although I should know that soon enough as my Fiancé and I have planned a little get away for the Canada Day Weekend and I plan on only bringing my IPad as my only computing device. I may write a follow up post about how that goes.
Summary
In Summary while I believe that the IPad and first party accessories are to expensive, I love my IPad because it allows me to achieve my goal of not being stuck behind my desk all day. Furthermore after having used my IPad for an extended period of time I can say without a doubt that it will be the only tablet I will be recommending moving forward.