You should buy an iPad as your next daily driver computer
I get it. An iPad is a tablet, not a laptop — you use it to watch Youtube and Netflix easier, maybe even to draw, not to do your busy work…But with iOS 14, you can. And it works really, really well.
When Apple released the 8th Gen iPad ($329) back in September, I was bummed. It still had the “old fashioned design”; a home button, and an audio jack. Ew. I was waiting for the next “big” upgrade, and decided I’d wait for the 9th gen. But I found myself wanting a tablet now. My wife is 9 months pregnant, and we’re both working from home, so I wanted an easy way to watch videos, play games, and check up on work on the go. This is when I started researching. My initial thought was that perhaps I should get an Android tablet. They’ve gotten…better, but the ones that had good enough specs were the same price as iPad Pro’s. I decided to do the following: I’d buy an 8th gen iPad, and in a year when the new version came out, I can turn this one into my smarthome tablet, to control lights, speakers, TV’s, etc.
I went down to Best Buy and traded in a bunch of old tech I had (an iPhone, an ancient Samsung tablet, and a couple aging laptops), and surprisingly I got a $450 gift card. Score! So I decided to up the iPad to a 128gb model. Once I got home and powered it up, signed in, and updated it, I was ready to go. I paired my headphones, a bluetooth mouse, and a keyboard, downloaded my favorite apps, and we’re good to go!
After playing some games, responding to some emails, and tending to my Farmville crops, I couldn’t help but think, this thing is killing it with all of my apps, why not try to work with it? When I say work, I mean my IT day job.
I mean, everything that I need exists in either app-form or web-form, why not? So…I did.
I use 3 kinds of programs — Office products, a Remote Management & Monitoring (RMM) tool, and time and task management software (Trello, Microsoft Planner, etc). Within minutes, I was able to get it all loaded up. It takes some time getting used to the new cursor, but after about 15 mins, I was all set. I really like the way the stylus is “smarter” than the traditional desktop stylus — it changes shape and forms to buttons, which makes it a lot easier to just “snap” into place.
This made it super easy to get used to typing, editing, and navigating. At the end of the day, I was able to get all of my work completed. I’m used to 2 monitors, so it took a bit to adjust, but once I got used to it, it was all second nature. The best part is that the battery at the end of the day, after about 7.5 hours of total usage, was at approximately 20%. That was without any conscious effort to preserve battery — I bet with turning down screen brightness and turning on battery saver, I could’ve made it through the day with 30% battery left. I’m impressed.
At the end of the day, this won’t work for everyone. I just thought I was one of those people, and I’m so pleasantly surprised. I love the idea that I don’t have to bring my whole laptop (and the bulky charger) with me if I want to go away for the weekend — my work setup can be thrown into an overnight bag, or just be kept on hand, with little to no effort. And the best part? If I break it tomorrow, it costs 5x less than my workstation. Easy peasy.
