As I’ve mentioned several times in the past, in 2020 I decided to do without a laptop and adopt the iPad Pro with one of its Magic Keyboard as my work machine (and leisure) in times of mobility and press trips. There are good and bad sides to doing this, but so far the experience has been decent.
However, I will soon be going through a life change that will lead me to rely more on work outside of working hours, both offices away from home and trains. And after two years of giving it very occasional professional use, the time is coming when i will put my iPad Pro 2020 with A2Z chip to the test. Both from a hardware and software perspective.
Yes you can, but is it comfortable?
On paper, working on an iPad Pro instead of a MacBook is no problem. As I said when I covered Mobile World Congress, the secret is to get used to doing certain tasks a little slower. When it has to be done once a month it’s not a problem, but soon I will have to do it several times a week. The few minutes I spend doing certain tasks with iPadOS and not macOS can take a lot longer.
This is the approach I have on the table, with which I have to consider choosing between two different paths:
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Keep working with the iPad Pro, getting used to its limitations but enjoying the comfort and portability of an 11-inch device.
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Buy a MacBook Air, so I can work better away from home and ditch the iPad-as-a-laptop philosophy.
iPadOS has a great ally: Siri Shortcuts. But I don’t know if it’ll be enough
The main factor that will allow me to choose one of these paths will be iPadOS 16. Apple promises that this system has taken a more differentiated route from iOS 16, adopting features of a Mac designed to meet my exact needs. It’s worth trying for a few weeks, but there are also other variables in the equation that I need to consider:
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My iPad Pro with A12Z chip will not be able to use Visual Organizer on iPadOS 16, it is not supported. Also, in some web pages I have to work with, the performance is somewhat slow, probably due to RAM memory issues. I can renew it (new models with M2 chip are expected in October), but it would be an already very high cost and it looks dangerously like a laptop with macOS.
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This visual organizer was criticized during the iPadOS 16 beta, which may have been one of the main reasons for its delayed release date. It doesn’t inspire much confidence compared to a macOS that would solve the productivity problem.
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I’m starting to get a lot of benefits from Siri Shortcuts and Runtimes in iPadOS that allow me to easily get around system limitations. Text substitutions also help a lot.
The decision will not be immediate, because iPadOS 16 won’t be released until October and I want to give it a good “trial period” from then on. But it may be that in November, by which time I will have worked several days more frequently from this iPad Pro, it will be time to decide whether I continue like this or go back to a laptop.
