All right, so let’s talk about this idea that you can completely replace your MacBook with your iPad.
I’m just going to come out and say it: while this notion makes for an interesting video or article idea that catches attention, in real life, the practicality of completely replacing a MacBook with an iPad is kind of ridiculous.
The people who are saying you can honestly do this are either delusional, crazy, don’t know what they’re talking about, don’t care about productivity or efficiency, or have a very specific use case that lends itself well to an iPad.
This probably means that it’s not so much that the iPad is replacing their MacBook as it is just that the iPad, for their specific primary use case, is better for them to use than their actual MacBook.
The Things the iPad is Good At
Don’t get me wrong. There are a lot of great use cases that are very specific to the iPad or to a tablet form that works really well—sometimes just as good or better than a laptop.
1. Watching Movies
For starters the tablet is a great consumption device. Whether you’re trying to watch movies or YouTube videos, I think the iPad is excellent for that.
2. Gaming
The iPad can be an OK gaming device, depending on the types of games you’re using it for. It’s not great, but it’s not necessarily all that bad either. Personally, if I were into gaming, I would probably stick to more dedicated gaming devices.
However, I’ve played some games on the iPad, and depending on the game—especially strategy games like Civilization or games designed specifically with the iPad in mind—it can be excellent.
3. Drawing
The iPad is great for certain creative jobs, especially drawing. Using apps like Procreate with the Apple Pencil makes it absolutely excellent for that.
4. Notetaking
The iPad also shines with note taking. It’s great for students—whether in high school, college, or university. With excellent note-taking apps like Notability, GoodNotes, or even the native Apple Notes, in my opinion, it should be a requirement for high schoolers and up to have one. I’ve personally used it for my note taking needs while in school, and I’ve been really impressed by how well it works and how much easier it makes my life as a student.
5. Editing Videos
Lastly, the iPad can work for light video editing. Just to clarify, I’m specifically talking about simple video editing because outside of that, things start falling apart and get difficult rather quickly.
6. Other Simple Tasks
Of course, there are other things I didn’t add to this list. Things like surfing the internet, reading the news, reading books, or checking emails. Sure, it can do that, but so can your phone. The 5 I referenced earlier were more specific things to the iPad, so this is, of course, not an all-encompassing list.
The iPad’s Limitations
With that said, outside of the five things I mentioned, things start getting very difficult for me personally.
The common theme among them is that they tend to have dedicated apps tailored specifically to the core strengths of the iPad.
For example, when it comes to note-taking, there are apps like Notability, and for drawing, there’s Procreate, and so forth.
Another commonality is that there’s not much multitasking or switching between apps, or if there is, it’s not very intensive.
1. Multitasking is Terrible
This brings me to the first big limitation, where using the iPad becomes a bit of a nightmare, and that’s when you need to be multitasking.
Multitasking on the iPad is nowhere near as fluid as it is on a regular laptop or computer; it’s downright atrocious. I find it painful, difficult, and cumbersome. The windows behave weirdly, and I can’t resize them as I would want to fit what I’m doing.
Even simple tasks, like taking notes and wanting to split the window in portrait mode instead of landscape, is not possible.
If you have a larger iPad, using split-screen to take notes on one side while having a window open on the other can work well—unless one of those split screens is a browser.
In that case, you’re at the mercy of how the webpage behaves based on your screen size. It’s simply not fluid to multitask and switch back and forth.
While some might mention Stage Manager, it honestly feels clunky and unhelpful. It occupies a significant portion of the screen space that I could be using for actual work, and I don’t find it helpful at all.
2. File Management Is More Difficult Than It Should Be
Then we have file management.
File management on the iPad is downright terrible. It’s difficult to organize, search, and find the apps you need. It’s not straightforward, and it absolutely kills productivity with how clunky the file management system is.
3. Attaching a Mouse and Keyboard Doesn’t Make it Feel More Like a Laptop
Even with a mouse and keyboard attached—essential for mimicking the MacBook experience—certain functions may not respond as intuitively as you would hope.
4. It’s More Expensive
Furthermore, achieving that MacBook-like feel requires investing in the Magic Keyboard and a mouse, which introduces other considerations.
When you calculate the total cost of an iPad with all the necessary accessories, you often find that it exceeds the price of a MacBook Air.
Not Easy to Use on Your Lap
Lastly, once you do have the iPad with a Magic Keyboard, using it on your lap is difficult. It doesn’t work as well as a laptop would in that scenario. This might not be a big deal to some of you, but it is for me.
I Don’t Hate the iPad
Some of you might get the wrong idea that I don’t like the iPad or that I’m some kind of iPad hater. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I have an iPad myself. My daily driver is the M2 iPad Pro 13-inch. I’ve also had an iPad Mini and the 11-inch iPad Pro at some point. For the last several years, I’ve always had an iPad, and I love it. I love what it is, and I’ve come to respect what Apple designed it for and what they plan to keep it as.
The iPad Is Not Intended To Replace the MacBook
And I think that’s the key thing. I love the iPad and use it, but I’ve always used it within its intended use case as designed by Apple. It’s absolutely clear that Apple has no intention of making the iPad better in a way that would cannibalize MacBook sales.
Honestly, as a publicly traded company, why would they make it better? What incentive do they have to make the iPad more Mac-like and risk cannibalizing the sales of their MacBooks?
The way they have it set up now, to get the full use out of their ecosystem based on productivity, you really need an iPhone, an iPad, and a MacBook.
All three of these devices are different enough that one can’t replace the other. They don’t want you to replace one device with another because that would mean losing out on probably a couple of grand per person who has all three devices.
So, it becomes this game where they could make the iPad better—let’s be honest, the technology is out there. We know they could easily make the iPad a complete replacement for the Mac if they really wanted to.
But then, if you think about it, they would lose the sale of the MacBook. Another thing people don’t talk about is that the iPad is still a closed system.
If you make it like the MacBook, are you now going to open it up to where you can install apps from the internet? Does that mean losing all that juicy revenue from the App Store?
So, it’s clear their game is to keep the devices distinctive enough to be good in certain aspects but not so much that they start cannibalizing each other’s sales.
Key Takeaways
For me, I’ve really had to learn that for my productivity and efficiency, I need to look at the strengths of each device the way the creator intended and see if that fits into my system.
Instead of trying to use something in a way it wasn’t designed for, I focus on its intended purpose.
Time and time again, I’ve noticed that whenever I try to force a device to solve a problem it wasn’t meant to solve, it just leads to frustration and wasted time.
In the case of the iPad, Apple actively ensures it doesn’t solve certain problems to maintain their product ecosystem and lineup.
Do you disagree? Let me know why and where I messed up.
About the Author
Thomas is a full-time nurse and a full-time side hustler. He’s always looking for a new side hustle and learning about ways to make more money, save more money, and invest that money.