iPad Air

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Specs

Description

This was my only computer for over 6 months when I moved to Sweden in 2021, paired with a Magic Keyboard and a remote Azure machine running VSCode so I could code and write. After I got a proper computer it became a very expensive control center for lights and Spotify, stayed in a closet for months, and now it lives on my electronics workbench.

Impressions

I was never a fan of the iPad, I always thought it was too weak for a computer, not in specs but in actual usage, the UX at the time was terrible if you were not touching stuff. When the pencil came along, I used it as a portable note taking board, but the horrible battery which, unfortunately, is a signature of all Apple products, made it almost impossible to use for me. So I always had a cellphone and a notebook.

All of it changed when I came to Sweden in 2021 because I was working at Microsoft before, and I had a Macbook Pro, but I didn't have any other portable computer, just my desktop, which I was, obviously, not bringing with me (at least not in one piece). So I had to make do with what I had.

One of the first things I bought when I got here was this iPad, along with the Apple Watch Series 7 and the AirPods Pro all in one go (discounts…), I wasn't sure if this was going to help me, but all the other alternatives were either too expensive, or too shallow for what I needed, which was basically a computer.

At the time IA remember having read some article or something that said the iPad was possibly the next generation's computer because it allowed you to do almost everything you could do on a MacBook at a third of the size and weight and IA decided to actually put the theory to prove because that was the only computer I used for over six months.

Final thoughts

When IA started using it, it was a lifesaver, but it fell short almost in every aspect of everything IA would do because it was never the right to for the job, and IA had to make it work somehow so usually what I would do is to find some remote desktop solution and hook it up to a real machine that was either in a cloud provider or somewhere else.

The Magic Keyboard is actually a pretty good addition. It will allow you to do a lot more things than what you are used to in an iPad. But it is also not the best solution for any case. Because the touchpad is quite small. But it's a very nice keyboard to type in. The problem is that it only works with an iPad. And that's basically it. So you buy a product that is a single use. I don't know if it works with the newer ones. But I'm pretty sure it does just work with the one that I have. And the versions that came on that same year.

So, overall, while it was needed, it actually did the job. But when I got the first opportunity to switch to something better, I just switched. Because the iPad is still the same thing that bothered me a while ago. It is a machine that is quite average on everything it does, but it never excels on anything, except for maybe drawing. But at least it's not my use case. I even try drawing, I have the pen, But I mostly use it as a mouse. And right now, the use I'm giving it is pretty unique because I don't have enough space to use a full fledged computer on my electronics workbench. So I use it as a manual reader and research tool. And it works quite nice. But I wouldn't recommend an iPad to anyone who's really needing a computer, even thought the UX is hugely better.

Related

• Apple Watch Series 7
• AirPods Pro
• MacBook Pro M1 Max