Using The iPad Pro As A Laptop In 2020

Lately I’ve been using the iPad Pro as my primary laptop while my current device is being repaired. While I also have a gaming PC as well, the iPad Pro 12.9in with the Magic Keyboard has effectively been what I use for most of what I would use my laptop for, even including some programming.

I do want to point out that the entire premise of this sort of usability is based on using an $999 USD tablet with a $349 USD keyboard, but if you compare the performance, portability, and ability to use the iPad Pro as a really great tablet, I think the value proposition is very competitive with other ultrabooks and sub-notebooks in the same price category.

In any case, this post is mostly going to highlight how I’ve been using it and what I recommend.

Magic Keyboard

I just want to start off by mentioning my thoughts on the Magic Keyboard itself. First, let’s get the negatives out of the way: it’s expensive, top-heavy, and it doesn’t have an escape key, which can be pretty annoying. Other than those negatives, I think this has been one of the best typing experiences I’ve ever had on a portable device. I’ve taken the full setup outside and had it in my lap for hours with no issues in stability or usability. In fact, one upside to the iPad sitting up top is that the bottom doesn’t get hot at all. The trackpad, while tiny, is really smooth, and the materials used on the palm rests are incredibly comfortable. The support for using a mouse in iPadOS is hit or miss, but for the most part it’s a great experience that will likely only get better in future software updates.

Writing

For writing, including this blog post, I’ve been using Ulysses. I also gave Bear a shot as well, but found Ulysses to be a better fit. As I had been taking a lot of notes on Swift lately, I noticed that Bear could simply not handle the amount of syntax highlighting I was using, or perhaps it was a bug of some sort in that version. Either way, it would slow down a lot, becoming unusable; worse, it would crash crash sometimes when simply trying to undo something.

Ulysses runs incredibly smooth no matter what, and it includes some great features that make blogging easy, such as being able to post directly to Ghost, Medium, or Wordpress. I had no problems with large amounts of syntax highlighting, and it never once crashed or slowed down for any reason; taking notes has been a very pleasant experience. I definitely recommend checking out both, however, as I do think Bear is powerful and worth a look regardless of the issues I had, and I plan to take another look at it in the future.

Programming

For programming, Working Copy is an expensive but really great git client for the iPad that makes working with git a breeze. Pythonista is an awesome Python IDE with all kinds of great libraries integrated, and it’s actually kind of crazy what you can do with it considering it’s just running on an iPad. Finally, Blink is an incredible SSH and Mosh client that is definitely worth checking out if you work with a VPS or remote server of any kind. I set up an entirely new VPS with Ghost using only Blink, and it’s definitely one of the best terminal experiences, iPad or otherwise.

For C++ I’ve used Matt Godbolt’s excellent Compiler Explorer website, which is a great way to test or mess around with any of the major compilers, and it even supports a variety of other languages, like Zig or Rust. I also want to mention that Swift Playgrounds has been a great way for me to practice some of the stuff I’ve been learning with Swift as well, but I do hope in the future we see a more full-featured Xcode-like experience from Apple. While some of these apps feature things that are free and open-source, you are paying for the convenience to use these on a tablet, and I think the user experience and attention to detail makes them worth the money.

Reading

For reading PDFs, I’ve found PDF Expert to be a great client, as it allows for tabs, making it super easy to have multiple books or documents open when you’re trying to research something. It’s fast, reasonably priced, and the devs are clearly investing in making it a great experience not only for marking up documents, but also reading, which is great for technical books of yore and DRM-free PDFs on independent sites. The Books app has been good enough for ePubs, and haven’t felt the need to explore other options.

Productivity

I don’t really use much in this category in my day-to-day, but I will say that Office 365 is as good as I really need it to be on the iPad, and while it may be lacking in some features, overall it can do pretty much anything you would reasonably need it to do.

Conclusion

If you're already invested in the Apple ecosystem (or willing to jump all-in on it) then I think this combo is a no-brainer for a number of use cases. In 2020, the iPad Pro could legitimately replace the need for a computer for many people. That said, in the category of software development there is still a lot the iPad simply can’t do due to the strong requirements of the App store, and I’m hoping Apple figures out a solution now that we have the hardware necessary to really take the iPad to the next level.

While there are some great full-featured IDEs available on the App store, like the aforementioned Pythonista, Codea, Panic’s Code Editor, and even a shader editor that can export to Unity, Shade, there is still a lack of native development tools for C or C++, as well as the ability to do major web development locally. While you can easily rely on a VPS for these situations, I think not being able to take advantage of the great hardware inside the iPad Pro is a huge downside, and it will be interesting to see what happens going forward.