This past weekend, I peeled my iPad out of its accessory cocoon, revealing its svelte industrial design, a magic pane of glass with aluminum trim. It had been my laptop replacement, but now it’s just my tablet computer — it’s fantastic. With this iPad refreshing, Apple’s recent iPad news, and like some bloggers lately (here, here, here), I’m re-telling my iPad journey.
The iPads
iPad
iPad Air 2
iPad 8
iPad Air 5
iPad
2011-2014
The original 9.7” iPad was the slate of slates, the new hotness, the culmination of console computing from Steve Jobs and crew. It was to usher in the post-PC era, a milestone of modern tech. So naturally, this tech geek had to have one.
My lovely wife bought the iPad used from a friend and gifted it to me one random day in 2011, much to my utter surprise and disbelief. She’s also the one who gifted me my first iPod touch (2nd gen) for Christmas in 2008.
My iPad was great — I read the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson on it — but it was basically a giant iPod touch (same 30-pin connector) and was no replacement for my desktop PC. So in 2012, I got my first MacBook. Eventually my iPad battery died, only working plugged in, and I sold it.
Kindle Fire HD and Samsung Galaxy Tab 4
2015-2017
These were two 7” tablets I owned during some of my Android phone years. They were pure casual consumption devices, two androids that served me well. They were also the smallest tablets I’ve owned. Another 8” Lenovo tablet I bought was quickly returned, being afflicted with ghost touches out of the box.
iPad Air 2
2017-2019
I bought the iPad Air 2 used in great shape and loved it as a 9.7” tablet. It was the first time I was iPad-only as my personal computer, surprising me by how capable yet simple it was, a modern marvel of computing elegance.
At the time, though, the iPad lacked cursor support, so I didn’t use a mouse. The bluetooth connection randomly dropped too often, breaking my wordflow from the external keyboard. And Safari was still a mobile browser without “Desktop-Class” functionality.
I had pushed the tablet to be more like a laptop replacement but found it wasn’t enough. So I was iPad-mostly or iPad-first until I caved to buy an actual laptop, which was a Chromebook in 2019.
iPad 8
2021-2022
This time was a new aim to live iPad-only. I was all-in with Apple again but didn’t find it in the budget to buy a MacBook. And with the iPad now having the features it once lacked — like cursor support — I was ready to embrace the iPad lifestyle with renewed vigor.
It worked, mostly. The bluetooth mouse and keyboard worked. And Safari handled WordPress admin surprisingly well. But the 10.2” display felt too cramped for multi-tasking. And with my family’s new Windows 11 gaming laptop in the house, I was drawn to full file management and app-windowing on a 15.6” display.
This led me to ignore the iPad as a laptop replacement (thus missing its tablet prowess) and shopping for my own Windows laptop (not a Chromebook). But in 2022, I ended up getting the M1 MacBook Air instead, which I enjoy regularly to this day.
iPad Air 5
2023-Now
Last fall, my wife got the 12.9” M1 iPad Pro; my eyes saw a new gadget. And at the beginning of the fall homeschool semester, my kids were in need of an extra laptop. So I gave up my MacBook for them to use and bought the 10.9” M1 iPad Air 5 to become my laptop replacement once again.
But this time, I pushed it stronger than ever, encasing the iPad in a Logitech Folio Touch keyboard case with function row, trackpad, and multi-angle kickstand. It folded too, acting as a 2-in-1.
It allowed me to be iPad-mostly again. I enjoyed toting it in my EDC bag to a coffee shop to hand-code my HTML blog at the time. It’s capable, and after getting the Apple Pencil 2, it proved more versatile too. I sometimes used Stage Manager app windows on an external display, which felt much like a Mac. The USB-C port also has external drive usage.
Yet I had noticed my kids were using the MacBook as nothing more than an glorified Chromebook, and I began to miss the quality and elegance of a true Mac laptop. As good as my iPad was at replacing my MacBook, it was still not as nice.
I went back to the Mac, barely using my iPad Air 5 at all because it was encased in a 2-in-1 keyboard folio. In my mind, it was still a quasi-laptop, not a tablet.
But last weekend, I freed my iPad from its bulky confines and let loose the tablet.
Once again, I’m trying to see how the iPad best fits between my smartphone and laptop.
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