Who Needs A Laptop When an iPad Is More Than Enough

A MacBook is be nice to have since it has a much longer battery life than anything that anyone can buy on the Apple side of the street including the iPhone Pro Max.  Still, lugging around a laptop is so 2010 and before that.  Now, there are tablets.  Okay, iPads, to be more specific, that can do the job of laptops and MacBooks and are better at specific tasks than regular computers.  And Apple suggests that users consider 

During the last 14 months of lockdown due to Covid, I've relied on my 2016 MacBook for work I do for my regular job.  I have my trusty iPad mini around when I need to use it as another screen or a distraction while I am working.  I came back to the office about a month ago and for the first week, I was bring my MacBook to and back from work.  Starting with the second week, I've been leaving it at work.  Now that I have a regular schedule, I only do what's necessarily for my job and I don't want to take my work home if I don't have to.

At home now, if I need a computer, I am 95% on the iPad mini (the other 5% is on the iPhone).  And I am comfortable doing because if how robust the iPad and iPadOS is now and goes to show that regular people who do not need a powerful device, a truck in the words of Steve Jobs, can comfortable stick with an iPad.  Or even an iPhone should one chooses.  

When I first decided that the iPad is all that I was going to rely on, I was a little nervous.  There is a possibility that I might need to some some work at home in the event of an emergency.  So far that has not happened yet and for some coworkers who are still on their desktop computers, they'll just have to deal with anything that comes up when they go to work the next day.  So, I adopted that attitude just as I adopted the attitude that work is for work hours only.  

With the iPad mini, I can do the everything else.  

• Gaming
• Social activities - messaging, video chats, email
• Transactions - paying bills, banking, buy/sell stocks if I wanted to, e-commerce
• Writing - just as I am doing now
• Reading news or books
• Streaming music or video
• Surfing the web for suggestions on my gardens
• Personal projects - these involve more writing as well as some spreadsheets that I use Pages and Numbers for.
• Drawing
• Taking photos - okay, I'm not an old folk who goes on vacation snapping away. But I really have to, the mini is not as bad as carrying around an iPad or iPad Air

I think these activities I've listed pretty much covers most of what everyone else do on their iPad or iPhone.  What has perplexed me somewhat was the skyrocketing sales of the iPad for enterprise.  I knew with schools going online, iPads were a great option.  

But for people working from home? With iPadOS 15 about to be released in less than three months, we already know a lot of what Apple has planned and we we can anticipate that Apple will do in the coming years.  And from the looks of things, we will see the iPad gains new features or see updates to existing features that make it a more powerful device that may eventually end up with mobile warriors selecting the iPad over a MacBook for work if they do not need the extra horsepower that the Mac offers.

For now, I'm happy that I do not need to carry my Mac around and can instead really go mobile and light with the iPad mini.