As of 2018-6-5
After using an iPad for years, the question I keep coming back to is how to make it more useful—more specifically, how to use it to create things. With the iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, and Smart Keyboard, the iPad has gradually become a device that can handle real work instead of just consumption.
A 15-inch MacBook Pro is simply too heavy to carry around comfortably, and I’ve long hoped for the day I could leave the house without a laptop. But because of my field and the kind of work I do, the iPad still can’t stand in for a computer. It runs iOS, which means no IDEs, and that rules out most development work. There are cloud-based options, and connecting to a server over SSH is certainly possible, but that doesn’t fit the workflow I use right now.
So the more useful question is not whether the iPad can replace a computer in theory, but which tasks are actually possible on it and which ones still require a laptop or desktop. Comfort can come later; first comes feasibility.
Anything that lives on the web is naturally cross-platform, so in principle it can be done on an iPad. The catch is that the experience is not always as good as using a native app. And desktop browser extensions—especially Chrome extensions—remain a major advantage that mobile still doesn’t have.
Writing
Writing itself is not a problem on the iPad. Serious writing apps are already cross-platform, and iOS versions of tools like Ulysses and Scrivener are polished and thoughtfully designed.
The real issue is what surrounds writing. My blog is based on GitHub, and publishing to it requires the command line. That means the writing part works fine on the iPad, but the final step of actually getting the work online may still depend on a server.
There’s also the matter of typing. In the strictest sense, there are no barriers to writing: you can write on a phone, in Notes, or even inside a chat app. But writing usually means long stretches of typing, and keyboard comfort matters a lot once it becomes sustained work.
Right now, the Smart Keyboard feels quite good by the standards of portable keyboards, but it still falls short of the MacBook keyboard—specifically the older models before the butterfly keyboard era. So writing on the iPad is entirely possible, but the experience is still somewhat compromised.
Programming
This is where the iPad is clearly weak—unambiguously weak. At this stage, it cannot replace a computer.
On the iPad, coding is mostly limited to editing files. You can write code, but you often can’t run it locally. Once again, the workaround is a server, but that means giving up a GUI. It also depends on what kind of development you do. If you’re working on websites, the situation is manageable. If you’re writing C++, it’s a different story.
Video Editing
Here, iOS can actually feel better.
With the right professional software, editing on an iPad can be extremely smooth. Moving video and audio clips around with your fingers feels natural in a way that traditional desktop interaction sometimes doesn’t. Touch works in favor of this kind of task.
The limitation shows up when precision becomes critical. Fine timing adjustments are hard to nail with perfect accuracy on a touchscreen. Whenever exact control is required, a mouse still has the upper hand.
A Few Practical Observations
Any task that depends on precise manipulation is usually better with a mouse. I’ve tried using remote desktop sharing so I could control a computer through the iPad, and while the idea is appealing, the actual experience breaks down once clicking and dragging become important. A finger is a blunt instrument; it introduces all kinds of problems. Apple Pencil may help somewhat here, but touch alone doesn’t fully solve it.
There’s also a deeper difference between working on a MacBook and working on an iPad: they encourage different mental states.
On a MacBook, the mind tends to become more active in a multitasking way. Multiple windows are visible, and that naturally pushes you to think about several tasks at once and plan what needs to happen next. On an iPad, the experience is more one-task-at-a-time. That can improve focus, but once you’re immersed in one thing, it becomes easy to lose sight of everything else that still needs doing. In that sense, the iPad is not naturally friendly to multitasking.
It helps to begin with a task list before you start working. We build tools, but in the end we also have to adjust the way we think to fit the environment those tools create.