A Day in the Life with the New M4 iPad Pro: A Writer’s Perspective
Writer’s paradise
An iPad is an iPad.
It’s neither a laptop nor a phone replacement.
I love the iPad, and it is the best device for writers.
Recently, I replaced my 4-year-old 2020 12.9-inch iPad Pro with the new M4 iPad Pro 13 inches.
I got the new space black colour with a white/silver Magic Keyboard, unlike earlier when I went with a black one.
Let me quickly summarise the changes I felt with the newer M4 compared to my older 2020 iPad Pro model.
Faster & Smoother
My older iPad with the A12Z Bionic chip struggled to open a huge database in Notion. (90% of my work happens in Notion.)
But this M4 chip is amazingly fast. There is no lag whatsoever while using Notion.
The 120Hz screen makes it feel incredibly smooth. My older one was also 120Hz, but it had started showing some age.
Any upgrade from a pre-M series (A series) iPad is a good upgrade. You feel the change in performance.
Better Display
Apple this time, as expected, brought an OLED screen but in a new way — the Tandem OLED display.
It is two OLED panels one over the other for better brightness and longevity of the screen.
And in the real world, it’s hands down an amazing display. I could feel the upgrade from my older 2020 model.
It feels crisper and more vivid. The maximum brightness for HDR content goes up to 1600 nits.
Magic Keyboard
I loved this accessory the most in my older iPad, and the experience just got better with the newer version.
The much-awaited function keys row has been added, which is a nice, subtle touch by Apple.
The trackpad also got bigger. It also has what Apple calls haptic feedback. Now, it doesn’t physically press, but the haptic engine makes one feel that it is pressed.
The trackpad has the same feel as my MacBook Pro, which is a nice thing to have.
The base of the keys is no longer plasticky rubbery like before. It is a piece of aluminum, just like any MacBook.
The hinge feels smoother and sturdier.
Other Changes
- The space black colour feels more subtle than the older boring space grey one.
- The front camera orientation is now landscape. The front camera quality is the same as before with the centre stage feature.
- It is by far the thinnest device by Apple. Not sure if I or anyone was looking for this change. However, it has shed some weight which makes it feel more portable.
- There is just one rear camera which makes it less classy than the older iPad Pros (2018–2023 iPad Pro models)
- The Apple Pencil Pro still didn’t excite me. The worst part remains the same — its placement on the iPad, which is bound to detach when you carry it.
A Day in My Life
I wake up at 6 am and the first thing I do is write my morning pages with calm music played on my iPad at ~40% volume.
And the music sounds amazing on the iPad. Mids, lows, and highs sound perfect at any volume level.
For the first hour of my day, I avoid screens.
Once I am fully awake and done with my pages of creativity, I jump onto the iPad to check the following things -
- Mails
- My Medium page stats, comments, and claps
- I try to read one or two articles if I get hooked by any title
- Memory in my DayOne app (Journal app) and also answer the daily prompt.
And that’s all.
My next usage of the iPad is the best one.
I drop my son off at his school and sit in the cafe nearby until he gets out of school.
I get a good three hours of disturbance-free writing at the cafe.
What I like about writing on the iPad -
- The Magic Keyboard (The typing feedback is addicting; good for writers)
- Notion app on iPad (Feels better than Mac)
- Portability (Better in M4)
- The music quality with AirPods Pro & Apple Music with noise cancellation mode
And not just writing. One good part is that if I want to jump into some reading, I can quickly detach it from the keyboard, and it turns into an amazing reading device.
The capability that comes with the compactness of iPad Pros is hard to find in any device.
With the newer M4, sitting outside in the sunlight in the cafe has zero issues.
Once I leave the cafe, my iPad is then used for consuming content at home.
Being a writer requires lots of consumption of relevant content, and the iPad is just one amazing device for that use case.
I do that mostly in three ways digitally -
- Listening to podcasts
- Reading articles on Medium
- Watching YouTube
While consuming all of it, I make sure to keep storing relevant things in my second brain.
I listen to podcasts with AirPods Max and iPad with Magic Keyboard with the Inbox page open in my Notion.
My favourite podcast channels -
- Deep Questions with Cal Newport
- Huberman Lab
- Waveform (an MKBHD podcast)
- Figuring Out (by Raj Shamani)
Reading on Medium is done with just the iPad and no accessory with it. I lie relaxed on my recliner and start reading.
I do have my reading playlist in my ears while reading.
I love reading about self-help, productivity, and life lessons.
My favourite writers on Medium -
- Darrin Atkins
- Alex Mathers
- The Writer’s Path
- Eve Arnold
- Smoul
- Sinem Günel
- Tim Denning
All relevant content goes into my second brain for me to organise and retrieve later.
I sometimes watch some YouTube videos, which is a kind of entertainment for me as well.
90% of the time I watch only two channels -
- MKBHD aka Marques Brownlee — The best tech reviewer on the planet.
- Ali Abdaal — The productivity guru.
I have hardly missed any of their videos. I find both of them interesting, and entertaining, and they go deep into their niches.
The last interaction with my iPad happens at least one hour before I sleep.
In those evening hours, I mainly do two things -
- Work on my novel
- Journal on DayOne
Currently, I’ve started my first novel and am finalising the plot. A lot of research is going on behind it, and I love doing all of it on the iPad.
Journaling is something I wind up my day with. I write highlights of my day and some learnings from the day.
Once a month, I journal about three aspects of my life — Work, Health, and Relationships.
After getting this new M4 iPad Pro, I hardly use my 16-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro. I have to put in the effort to take that heavy machine and work on it.
Are you an iPad person? If yes, how do you use it mainly?
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