Should You Buy An iPad Pro With Magic Keyboard Instead Of Laptop?

iPad Pro's Display And Battery Life Is Amazing

The display and the battery life of the iPad Pro have an advantage over most of the similarly priced laptops. As it uses an ARM architecture-based mobile CPUs, the 11-inch and the 12.9-inch models can deliver 10 hours of battery life along with fast charging support via the USB Type-C port.

The same goes for the display as well, the liquid retina display on the iPad Pro is color accurate with P3 color gamut calibration along with a higher refresh rate of 120Hz. Most of the laptops that cost around $600 just come with a 1080p panel with 60Hz resolution. So, if you want a device that lasts longer and has a great display, then the iPad Pro can easily replace your laptop.

 

iPads Are Easy To Carry And Can Be Used Anywhere

Though the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is one of the heaviest iPad, it’s still lighter than most of the laptops with a 13-inch screen. Not just that, the iPad Pro is also thinner, making it easy to carry around. This enables the iPad to be used in almost any location without looking like a nerd.

However, to use it as a laptop, you might have to carry an additional keyboard case, which sometimes acts as a protective cover as well and it definitely makes the iPad Pro bulkier. In fact, the iPad Pro with the new Magic Keyboard weighs 3 pounds, making it heavier than the Apple MacBook Air 2020.

So, this is not a complete fool-proof solution for those who want a light-weight device, as Apple's own laptop is lighter and has some additional advantages as well.

Great Cameras For Video Conferences

Apple has upgraded the camera system on the iPad Pro and I can say with 100 percent confidence that no web camera on a laptop will be as good as a 7MP selfie camera on the iPad Pro, as most of the laptops come with an HD camera. Thanks to the Face ID system, it is also much secure and will protect your files.

Similarly, the iPad Pro's main camera also gets a refresh, which now has a dual camera solution with a dedicated ultra-wide angle lens and a LiDAR sensor to assist with AR. As most of us carry a smartphone with us, taking a picture on an iPad Pro is not the sanest thing to do in public, unless you need someone to take pictures of you with a large slate in front of your face.

iPadOS Is Still Amature Compared to Windows/macOS

There is a reason for people to use laptops over large-screen tablet computer and one of the primary criteria is app support. The iPadOS does have a great library of apps, however, it is still far away from being perfect. Most of the apps on the iPad's App Store are derived from the iOS or they are just upscaled apps from iPhone.

The availability of some of the software or apps used by professions is still limited to macOS or Windows OS. So, even though the iPad Pro is more powerful than the base model of the MacBook Air, it still might not be able to run all the software that one might need.

With the latest update, iPadOS now supports mouse curser and in the coming days, it is likely to get better. However, in the present scenario, a device with iPadOS cannot replace a laptop with Windows 10 OS macOS Catalina.

Which One Should You Pick?

If you are planning to buy a base variant of the iPad Pro in India with the Magic Keyboard, the whole package will cost you around Rs. 1,00,000. And for the same price, one can also get the new MacBook Air with 10th Gen Intel processor and Magic Keyboard.

The iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard combo will definitely cost as much as a MacBook Air. Similarly, one can also get a Windows laptop around Rs. 1,00,000, which will be much powerful than the MacBook Air or the iPad Pro combo.

For my line of work, which is writing a lot of content, watching videos, and taking pictures, I would prefer the iPad Pro with LTE support. However, a coder, gamer developer, or a software engineer might opt for an old-school laptop due to software compatibility.