Why the iPad Pro is the Best Device You Will Ever Own
Technology has always been something that has fascinated me. The idea that companies are hard at work every single day trying to create products that will make our lives easier and/or better is truly inspiring. But what happens when a company makes a product so good, that it does almost everything that you could possibly need it to? Well… This is exactly what Apple did with the iPad Pro.
I’ve owned the 2018 iPad Pro for roughly 6 months now, and I can honestly say that it is the most incredible tech product that I have ever owned. Period. The design of the product alone is enough to make even the most stubborn techy drool. The boxy design is just as modern as it is retro, the ability to charge the Apple Pencil on the side is a welcome touch, and the 120 Hz display is just butter. The design isn’t why the iPad is so incredible though. I have come to my conclusion for three reasons: Power, Productivity, and Fun!
Power: Forget About It!
To prevent boredom, I’m not going to discuss things likes Geekbench scores. Not only has this already been done over and over, but it is absolutely unnecessary. All that you need to know is that the iPad Pro is more powerful than you could EVER need an iOS device to be. When paired with iPadOS, the Pro is so optimized that many tasks run better on this $799 device than on my $2,000 MacBook Pro. Rather you’re a video editor, a gamer, or an artist, nearly everything you do will run more smoothly on the iPad.
Keep in mind that I am not saying it will be easier to do all of these things on the iPad. I still prefer the MacBook Pro for all of my video editing needs. It is also my device of choice when I have to type up word documents for school. What I am saying, however, is that the iPad Pro will destroy any and every task that you throw at it. You will never find it overheating or freezing up like a Mac will. In a world where a frozen computer can feel like the end of the world, Apple definitely deserves some credit for optimizing iPadOS.
Productivity: The Beast Within
You may be wondering what the point of the power is if I still refer back to my MacBook Pro on a regular basis? Great question. The iPad is still a very capable device in its own way. Rather it is the multitasking functions, iOS capabilities, or overall ease of use, my productivity is drastically increased when using the iPad Pro. That’s why it’s my device of choice for things like doing research, transcribing scripts for my YouTube videos, sending/receiving emails, and much much more. Basically, anything that isn’t a major project gets taken care of on my iPad.
Eventually, I’d like to conquer all of my projects on the iPad, but the software has to come a bit further before I put desktop computing away for good. Specifically, I need two things. The first of which is a better word processing application. When it comes to word processing, they are all trash. Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and Apple Pages all do the best they can for a device that was designed primarily to be a touchscreen. However, they just don’t come close to touching the experience you will find on a traditional laptop. In large part, this is due to the trackpad integration on laptops. You can click around with ease, and you can edit text to your heart’s desire. The iPad just doesn’t give you the same freedom. With the recent addition of trackpad support, it is only a matter of time before this gripe is obsolete. But for now, it is a very unfortunate truth.
The next item on my wish list is Final Cut Pro for iPad. For that matter, I just want the entire suite of pro applications from Apple. As previously stated, the Pro is more than capable of handling anything that I have thrown at it in the past (including editing on iMovie and LumaFusion). Additionally, Apple is pushing the idea that this device is supposed to be your next “computer.” If this is the case, why don’t we have pro apps on the iPad yet? I could give you a page long list of people that would scoop an iPad up immediately if this one final barrier was torn down. My best guess, though, is that Apple is trying to prevent the cannibalization of their Mac market.
Fun: Nothing Like the iPad
I know what you’re thinking to yourself now. Throughout the course of this article, I have done almost nothing but down the iPad for all of its shortcomings. So why on earth am I telling you that it is the best device you will ever own? Well, sometimes a product isn’t the sum of its shortcomings. Sometimes, it doesn’t matter what a product can’t do. Sometimes, what matters is the way a product makes you feel. Nothing exemplifies this statement more than the iPad Pro. There is a reason that so many content creators continue to debate the viability of the iPad as a laptop replacement. It’s because the product is so much fun to use that you will want it to replace all of your computing functions.
This is a device that does nothing perfectly, but it does everything extraordinarily well. More than just a productivity device, you can find me using the iPad Pro to watch videos, surf the web, message friends and family, doodle with the Apple Pencil, take Peleton classes and even play Call of Duty for crying out loud. With ingenious additions like Xbox and PlayStation controller support, the iPad Pro is just an absolute blast to use. And because of what it is this it keeps you wanting to come back to use it over and over and over again.
Conclusion
All in all, the iPad Pro is a divinely frustrating product. It checks nearly every box that you could ever want a computing device to check. In a device no thicker than a notepad, you can crush basic computing tasks, you can become a content creator, and you can have an incredible entertainment consumption experience. This review was all over the place, I know. But this was by design. The iPad Pro can be so many different things that one review could never be fully comprehensive enough.
