I Used an iPad Pro As My Computer for 1500 days, Here’s What I’ve Learned

so I'm creeping up on 1500 days of using the iPad Pro as my main form of computing and I say main form because I still use a MacBook Air from time to time but again my iPad Pro is my main computer and I use it for everything from video editing to word processing to leisure activities like gaming and watching Netflix and literally everything in between so in this video what I want to do is talk to you guys about how I use my iPad Pro my workflow and let you guys know my honest opinion and experience overall and what I've learned about using the iPad Pro as my full-time computer because there is a lot of good that I love about the iPad otherwise I wouldn't be using it as my main computer but there's also some things that you should definitely know about when coming to the iPad Pro and especially if you're thinking about making it your only computer so without further Ado let's talk about the iPad Pro The Good the Bad and everything in between let's get it so just a quick backstory on how I use my iPad Pro and how it came to be that I use my iPad Pro as my main computer so I got a hand-me-down 2015 iPad Pro back in 2017 and at first I just used it pretty much as a big tablet because that's what it was it was huge it had huge bezels it still had that home button it was kind of almost uncomfortable to use in the hand as a tablet but the more and more that I used it for different tasks that were a little bit more than just watching videos on YouTube and on Netflix I started to realize just how powerful and how quick things render how quick things export from both a video processing standpoint but also just from everyday tasks like Microsoft Word being able to open a Google doc things like that and as I started to do more with iPad Pro I started to realize like wow this is a very capable machine that's being held back dramatically by its operating system because when I got that 2015 iPad Pro it was still running just a different version of iOS it still hadn't done that separation into iPad OS 13. and I'm playing some clips right now of my old YouTube channel because I started my YouTube channel talking about the iPad Pro because I just kind of fell in love with it and I didn't see that there was much content out there relating to the iPad Pro especially in a professional setting so then came the 2018 iPad Pro they revamped the whole design of it to make it look just a lot more aesthetic a lot more industrial they got rid of the home button they replaced it with face ID they had a uniform bezels throughout and that is a form factor that we now see across pretty much the entire iPad lineup besides the iPad 9gen and with the 2018 iPad Pro first came out I didn't just jump at it right away because again I wasn't using the iPad for more than just kind of side stuff for hobby stuff for leisure stuff so to spend I think it was 800 at the time for that iPad was still a little bit much for what I was going to use it for but then I stumbled upon it on Prime day for a refurbished version and that is where this story kind of takes off where it's my iPad Pro from that day on I remember I opened that box and then I started to really see what this thing was capable of that was just being held back a little by its software but from a hardware standpoint it was Leaps and Bounds ahead of the competition from a power and efficiency standpoint the same thing goes it was just Leaps and Bounds ahead of everything else around it especially even some computers at that same price point that is how I started my personal YouTube channel and then eventually came onto here because I love the iPad Pro so much but didn't see much content of how to use it in a professional setting especially so now let's actually get into what I love about the iPad Pro and what really drew me to it so the first thing was just to look the feel and the versatility of the hardware itself it was the first time that Apple put a 120 hertz Pro motion display on pretty much any of their devices and from the moment you use that thing you were like wow this thing is extremely fluid it's easy to use everything is so Snappy the marriage of software and Hardware which is perfect especially for a kind of mobile OS operating system now again this is back when it was iPad OS 13 and they just made the split between iOS and iPad OS so there was still some learning curves and there was still some software limitations with iPad OS on the iPad Pro but it was Leaps and Bounds ahead of what it was with something like iOS 11 or iOS 12 which all it really did was give you like split screen on a larger 2015 iPad Pro but it was one of those devices where yes it was a tablet first and foremost it was a touch first interface first and foremost you know I had the apple pencil that I bought immediately when I did get the iPad Pro and then I had that slimfolio keyboard so it went from being a tablet that I would take handwritten notes on and again I was in a corporate setting so I wanted to figure out ways to use my iPad Pro in a world where everybody had IBM thinkpads and everybody was using Microsoft for day-to-day tasks so what I would do was I pulled out one note I started handwriting my notes it would kind of sync to my cloud those notes would then go onto my IBM Thinkpad that I would use but overall I just loved using it in different form factors in different ways when I would go into meetings people would ask me like how do you use an iPad in a work setting like how are you using Microsoft on the iPad there wasn't much content and much awareness but the iPad was more powerful than that laptop that that person was using in that meeting sitting across from me but the iPad Pro slowly but surely became more and more a part of my workflow and then after that I was using a MacBook Air to edit videos for YouTube on the side and things like that but then I found an app called lumafusion and you guys are probably very familiar with lumafusion now at this point but lumafusion was very new to me back in the day and the first thing that I noticed when I first made a video on lumafusion is just how quickly that a12x by ionic chip exported that and rendered that video in real time I was recording in 4k I was using an external camera I was using a Sony a5100 so I think it was 1080p but then also I was recording in 4k with my iPhone and it was just navigating all that footage so easily and seamlessly and I was like wow this thing is so powerful and it just keeps getting better and better and then as the OS evolved right we got 13.4 cursor support apple released the magic keyboard which then completely changed how you interact with the iPad Pro so again one of the best things about the iPad was this overall versatility it can be a laptop if you wanted to when you need it to be it's a tablet first and foremost with a touch first interface it's a digital notepad when you need it to be and then when it comes to Leisure it's a great gaming device right it connects to all of your Xbox PlayStation and mfi supported controllers and then also it's perfect for viewing movies and YouTube videos and everything and the like and in between so from a versatility standpoint there is nothing on the market in my opinion that matches that portability that form factor with all these use cases you can throw at it and then it can handle it with such Grace and Power and then one last thing I will say about the design and the versatility of it is think about it we are now coming up on five years of the iPad having that same exact form factor and I don't see apple kind of rushing to change the form factor of the design whatsoever if anything the entire lineup has now adopted that design language and it's because in my opinion they reach kind of the Peak form of what the iPad can be can they lessen the bezel's sure can they make it a little thinner maybe can they add more batteries sure but the actual Essence in the actual form factor in design I think is going to stay relatively the same and I don't see apple really making many changes aside from making some smaller camera bump changes or changing the orientation of the camera but from a look and feel standpoint it's going to look a lot like the 2018 iPad Pro for a little while longer so paperlink was one of the first iPad accessory companies that I had ever tried that had been around for years giving us the best screen protectors that money could buy but they recently decided to bring their iPad accessory expertise and create a new premium folio case for the iPad Pro and iPad Air their new charcoal folio case aims to bring users the look and feel of your favorite notebook but for your iPad the quality materials they decided to use are exceptional the exterior is made up of the sturdy polyester fabric that is rugged and able to protect your iPad screen while the interior is made out of a super soft microfiber lining to make sure no scratches come anywhere close to your precious iPad my favorite part is how it actually connects via magnets instead of having a shell or case to mount it all you do is slap your iPad on the magnets to hold it sturdily in place as you can see my scientific Shake test lets you know just how strong those magnets are they also decided to include a magnetic oversized closing flap to make sure you can securely fit your apple pencil and feel confident it's not going anywhere and it also works with paperlex pencil grips if you're looking for a tri-fold folio case that protects your iPad can act as a stand and a canvas is premium and and lightweight you definitely got to give this one a try click the first link in the description below to check it out it really helps support the 9 to 5 Mac channel so thank you to paperlife for partnering up with nine to five Mac and now back to the video now let's talk about the operating system because yes this is kind of in the middle it's a pain point for some people it's amazing for other people but the first thing I will talk about is the app store right you have millions of apps at your disposal made specifically for iPhones and iPads so they're optimized for I guess now the M2 Chip but they are still optimized for the a12x and a12z and the M1 chip they work extremely fast they're Nimble they're quick you can go from editing a video in lumafusion into editing a thumbnail and Affinity photo to going to photoshop to using iMovie to going into cap cut to going through all these creative applications and then quickly switching to the Microsoft Suite of products which even those applications have seen a crazy Improvement in usability and form factor and being able to actually give you the same one-to-one experience you would see on a Windows desktop so the iPad software experience in the App Store is what really sets it apart from anybody else in this space so what I always tell people if they are looking to go to the iPad Pro as their full-time computer is a make sure that you have the applications you need ready to go and then B just be ready to go from point A to point B in a different way than you would with a traditional OS like Mac OS or Windows right you can for the most part get from point A to point B because it's a little bit of a learning curve that you need to find out to actually get your workflow down so I figured out my workflow because I I was persistent with it and I wanted to use the iPad as my main computer because it was just so much more fun to use but some of the biggest complaints people had were the limitations of that software and to each their own yes there are some limitations a file manager is still a little bit wonky right there was a lot of issues with some apps opening multitasking wasn't always great up until stage manager but even some of the things that people hated on when it came to like things like multitasking is something that I looked at as a positive for instance my iPad Pro is my Workhorse machine I know that I can't be distracted by a third or fourth or fifth application or window open because I'm stuck on one application maybe two applications on my 12.9 inch iPad Pro and I'm getting my work done so whenever I'm editing a video I'm not distracted by my Discord I'm not distracted by a YouTube video I'm not distracted by some other window that's open like ESPN or Bleacher Report I'm focused on my lumafusion video or I'm focused on my Affinity photo thumbnail or that word processing dock or that PowerPoint that I'm working on so overall the fact that yes the multitasking isn't perfect and there is a bit of a learning curve actually works in your favor if you're trying to get actual work done so now let's get into you know the hard truths of the iPad Pro because like I keep mentioning there are some software limitations yes the App Store is vast and it's huge and there's a lot of apps dedicated for the iPad and that's one of the biggest reasons why the iPad is so successful developers don't want a code for a tablet that's not running iOS because there's so many inconsistencies and different variations and varieties and companies come and go and they there's no consistency for them to make money so why would they spend their time and resources on those app stores when the App Store in iOS iPad OS is consistently improving and is the most constant thing we've had since 2008 but again when it comes to those software limitations and the OS limitations things like the finder app or their you know their files application is still a little bit iffy I don't there's no real way to describe what makes it not as good as a finder app on let's say something like Mac OS but you you kind of feel it you feel it that it's not perfect yet the drag and drop maybe isn't as fluid the the transfer speeds aren't as good the the ability to kind of reorganize things in a quick manner just it isn't there's something off about it that's hard to pinpoint and if you're an iPad Pro user you know exactly what I'm talking about but it's hard to describe exactly what's wrong with it some people are used to it like I'm for the most part used to it but I still prefer the finder application on Mac OS and I do the files app on iPad OS and then when it comes to getting just day-to-day work done sometimes if you haven't actually gone through your learning curve you're still trying to figure out the iPad Pro it's going to take you a little longer to get from point A to point B that I keep mentioning you will get there eventually you might need to take a couple of detours to get there but you will be able to get to that point B it just might take you a little longer and that's one of the downfalls of the iPad you have to really want to use the iPad as your main computer to really kind of justify it to really add it to your workflow and to really maximize the efficiencies that you get on the other end and then some other gripes that I have about the OS itself because again this is going to be very OS focused the hardware of the iPad Pro is absolutely magnificent there's really nothing else like it but when it comes to the operating system and those limitations the evolution of the iPad even though it has been slowly coming that's the keyboard it's been so slow Apple has been very constrained on how what they want to do with iPad OS how they want to present it how they want to do things differently than they would on Mac OS like they don't want to just Port Macos Sonoma on the iPad because then it wouldn't be an iPad anymore it would be like a surface it would be a Windows Surface that you can just kind of sort of flip into a tablet Apple's focused on making the iPad a tablet first solution and then if it can do some mac osc things and you know it's just a cherry on top but some specific nitpicky things that I have even at the iPad OS 17 level we did finally add the support for an external webcam even though it's only for FaceTime right now but it is coming to other video conferencing apps but is being able to have maybe two YouTube videos or two audio sources coming out at once like sometimes people like to have a YouTube video open and their apple music playing at the same time or at least have the option to do that this is not capable of doing it the ability to decide where your audio is coming from right if you connect to an external display it's going to default to the external display speakers even if that external display doesn't have any built-in speakers so you cannot use your amazing quad speaker system that's built into the iPad Pro which is already better than most built-in speaker systems in any monitor from a recommendation standpoint when people come to me and say hey Fernando I'm going to college hey Fernando I'm starting my first job what do I get do I go and get a MacBook Air do I get a MacBook Pro or do I go get an iPad do I go use an iPad Pro as my main computer I for the most part still recommend people go get a MacBook Air why because even the M1 MacBook Air which is I think currently on sale for 750 on Amazon if you find it at that price it's kind of a no-brainer right it runs the latest version of Mac OS obviously it's got a built-in keyboard and mouse already built in there it's running the M1 chip it has eight gigs of RAM 256 gigs of storage for 750 it's really hard for me not to recommend that computer to somebody especially if they only have one choice I don't want to tell people to go iPad Pro then they end up not liking that experience and then kind of be regretful that they got the iPad Pro so for you to get the same experience on the iPad Pro if you get an M2 iPad Pro Baseline you're still only getting 128 gigs of storage you are getting 8 gigs of RAM but it's 1100 and that's just for the tablet you got to spend 130 on the pencil you have to spend 350 on the magic keyboard yes sometimes they're on sale but not by much so you're spending what fifteen hundred dollars compared to half of that you can get two M1 MacBook airs for that price sometimes it's a hard recommendation to tell people like hey get the iPad Pro because it's so versatile even though it's going to take you a little longer to learn how to use it and that is my biggest gripe with the iPad Pro it comes down to OS limitations and Os kind of workarounds and then also the price to Performance ratio M1 MacBook Air even the M2 MacBook Air at a thousand dollars even that's a great price point compared to an iPad Pro so I just wanted to give my two cents on the iPad Pro to let you guys know what it was like what my experience has been like do I regret it no I love my iPad Pro and I'm gonna continue to use it as my main computer because I just enjoy working on it more I enjoy editing on it more I enjoy interacting with it it's more fun to use like I I look forward to sitting down and using it versus the MacBook Air it's such a familiar kind of machine it's just a tool it's a computer it's been around since the freaking 1950s basically so I don't get as excited to use my MacBook Air no matter how cool or how big or whatever the case may be so that is my opinion on the iPad Pro it's got a lot of good that has going for it it's going to continue to get better like I mentioned I think the merging of the os's is coming and that's going to be into iPad OS not it's going to Mac OS not going to iOS I think it's all just going to kind of converge into one come the next five to ten years so that is my personal opinion and leave some comments down below about what you think about the iPad Pro could you use it as your main computer if you have one how do you use it use it to supplement your device because as a supplemental device it also is a great device it's just an expensive supplemental device that's the biggest key so for me all the good outweighs the bad like I mentioned there are limitations but those are all just growing pains Apple will eventually give us the final form of iPad Oso we want and what's that going to be exactly I don't really know but I know it's going to be great to see once it happens because for right now I'm really enjoying iPad OS 17 and it's going to be getting better and better stage manager on iPad OS 17 has this great new flow to it that's going to allow me to maybe recommend the iPad Pro to a lot more people than I did a couple years ago where stage manager was still so buggy it was still very limited and it wasn't really the same or the same one-to-one experience to Windows on let's say a Mac OS computer but that's gonna do it everybody if you made it to the end leave a little dolphin in the comments down below so I know you made it to the end I know this is more of kind of an experience video and I wanted to talk about how I use the iPad and what I use it for and why I use the iPad overall and again I wanted to be honest about some of the bad it's not perfect and not everybody should just go run out and get an iPad Pro as their only computer because I still would recommend like I mentioned a Mac over an iPad for now but that is my two cents leave some comments down below let's discuss exactly what you guys use your iPads for which iPad you have why you would get an iPad over a Macbook or vice versa I'm down to discuss in the comments down below don't forget to check out paper like and thanks for sponsoring this video but until next time I'm Fernando click on one of these videos to find out more about iOS iPad Os or Mac OS and until next time peace

Channel: 9to5Mac

Views: 560,790

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Id: -M9NslRKWJg

Length: 16min 37sec (997 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 15 2023