The Future of the Laptop is an iPad
Last week I bought an iPad Pro 10.5. Despite my predeliction for all things Apple, this wasn’t really my original intent. I was just fine with my iPad Pro 9.7 and was/am certain I could easily have gotten two more years out of that very solid device.
But, then my son went to college, which got me thinking. I didn’t want to get him a new laptop and at the same time, it didn’t make sense to me why he’d need to lug a MacBook Pro around all day, along with all his books. It seemed to me that a iPad with corresponding keyboard case would do the trick. Throw in an Apple pencil for good measure for note taking and there you have it. During his college orientation this summer I actually managed to run into the school’s head of IT and I talked to him about this gameplan. He thought it made perfect sense and told me he’d do the exact same if he was a student. So, there was that. Maybe I should be a college IT director. But, I digress.
So, I gave him mine old one (again, cheaper than a new laptop) and got myself the 10.5. My wallet aside (the new iPads are quite expensive) we both came out winners.
For the past year plus I have been using my iPad as a laptop replacement when traveling for business, which I do quite often. It does the trick, but to be honest after about three or four days, I start to pine for my MacBook. It was close, but not quite there yet. The screen was a little too small, the multitasking was close, but still not fully developed out and of course, there was no file system (thoughboth Box and Dropbox do the trick nicely).
However, having used this new device now for a little shy of two weeks, coupled with the Logitech Slim Combo Case (disclosure: Logitech is a client and we support this product), I can say without further equivocation, the future of a the laptop is an iPad.
I am running a beta of iOS 11 (I suspect this current version is pretty close to the Gold Master. It’s pretty much bug free, unlike earlier versions, which were maddening to use) and it is very, vey impressive. I still don’t have what I’d categorize as full knowledge of every aspect of iOs 11, but it’s quite clear that this iOS was built with the iPad in mind, not the iPhone, which is quite a departure. The 10.5 absolutely flies, which is important when toggling between apps and screens, which this thing does seamlessly. The new screen is incredible and the Apple pen is even more responsive than on the 9.7, which makes note taking a breeze. Honestly, so far there’s nothing I don’t absolutely love about it so far and as stated above, I am certain there’s still a lot of ios11 I have yet to tap.
And if I can do a plug for a client, the Logitech Slim Combo is the piece de resistance that makes the entire thing work. I originally bought the Apple keyboard case, as the Logitech was on backorder. The Apple case is ok, if not a big rudimentary and I simply cannot see how they charge $159 for it. That got returned pretty quickly. The Logitech case does add a bit more bulk but at the same time, quite a bit more protection too compared to the Apple case. And I particularly like that the keyboard very easily detaches when you want to use it for more traditional iPad purposes (i.e. reading, web surfing, etc). Again, I know they are a client but I call things as I see them and this is just a killer product. And the fact that it’s a good $30 cheaper than the Apple keyboard doesn’t hurt either.
So, it will be interesting to here what the “pro” reviewers have to say once iOs 11 is officially released, but I think we’ve finally reached the “grail” that many of us tech geeks have been seeking: using iPads as full fledged laptop replacement devices.

