I have a love-hate relationship with Apple’s iPad. It’s an extra device to carry around and, since the arrival of the phablet-sized iPhone Plus in 2014 I have had little incentive to tote the tablet. Not even the iPad mini which I enthused about for a time.
The arrival of the 9.7in iPad Pro made me think. Would it be a device I could come to love? Having inspected the entrails, I concluded the auguries we’re favourable. I bought one and, a week or so later, added the Smart Keyboard cover.
Today I am back with the iPhone 6 Plus and my portable Logitech Keys-to-Go keyboard. So what went wrong?
Convenience is everything
In most respects the combination of the iPad Pro and the Smart Keyboard offers a superior user experience to using the iPhone. But I have concluded that this isn’t everything. Convenience trumps sheer usability and the prospect of carting round both iPhone and iPad has never appealed. Furthermore, the iPad Pro with the Smart Keyboard is bulkier and nearly as heavy as my MacBook. The MacBook, it has to be said, trumps the lot of them.
The iPad Pro is very easy to live with. The Smart Keyboard is convenient, though a little bulky, and I love the way it switches itself on and off automatically. No more live keyboard causing mayhem from the depths of my bag. Yet despite its size, the Smart Keyboard is not as accurate as the smaller Logitech keyboard. I can type at full speed on the Logitech whereas I stumble constantly with the Smart Keyboard. I can’t explain this but it is something you need to try for yourself. I just feel more in command with the Keys to Go.
The iPad Pro combination is also easier to pack and retrieve. Open the cover and it is ready for action, no on/off switch to twiddle, no prop to arrange for the screen. When relying on the iPhone I must pack the keyboard and a plastic stand to hold the phone in a reading position. I also need to remember to switch off the keyboard before putting it back in the bag. Apart from the risk of random keystrokes caused by contact with the inside of the bag, the live keyboard prevents the iPhone’s virtual keyboard from actuating, something which is occasionally very frustrating.
I have just one complaint about the Smart Cover: You need to be a black belt in origami to fold it back into place. Practice makes perfect, of course, but it is hardly intuitive.
Conflict
All things considered, however, the trio of iPhone Plus, Logitech keyboard and stand takes up far less room that the iPhone and iPad combination. It is much lighter and, on balance, just so much more convenient to have one live device.
I have tried to love the iPad Pro and the Smart Keyboard. I thought it would be the answer for carrying around home, the note taker and reference device when watching television or relaxing. It does do all these things, but it isn’t essential for them. Most of the time I have the iPhone in hand and I find it more convenient to use the one device for everything.
Not everyone will agree with me on this. Many love their iPads and carry them around with them at all times. Some even take pictures with them, perish the thought, and are clearly sold on the tablet concept.
For the moment, however, I am happy with the iPhone Plus with its typing peripherals for day-to-day work. For heavier lifting I can always throw in the MacBook with very little weight penalty over toting the iPad.
I am really sorry to say this. But I think I am not cut out to be an iPad user. This may change in the future when iOS and MacOS capabilities merge further. Watch this space.
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Very useful article and comments, thank you, as I try to decide how I want to go computer-mobile. I’m coming down on the side of a 13" macbook pro with 8MB ram and 256GB storage. I’m happy with the smallest and most primitive of mobile phones, so don’t feel tempted to try a phone-keyboard combo.
I recently came to the same conclusion. My 13" MacBook Pro covers most of the tasks for which many use an iPad and it isn’t much heavier or bulkier than an iPad with keyboard. For pure portability, an iPhone 6 and iPod Nano have been all I really need. (I record a lot of audio for interviews with the Nano and a Blue Mikey.) I have an iPad from work and the only areas where it excels are as a second screen and as a presentation device that’s lighter than a computer but has a screen bigger than a phone. Perhaps one of the differences with iPad partisans is that I carry my MacBook Pro with me almost all of the time. If I didn’t, I suppose I would be forced to learn to love the iPad.
Yes Mike, it is the problem that I am tussling with at the moment… Where there is a difference between you and me is that I am less happy to spend, experiment and lose as I learn.
The problem with these devices is that whilst they all try to be all things to everyman, they also have unique features that (by definition) only one device can do well.
The phone can make and receive phone calls, neither the Pad, nor the Book can do this.
The Pad with its interactive display can offer some brilliant usability when it comes to photo-processing… When speaking with Ivor Cooper of Red Dot Cameras a couple of weeks back (bit of trading), the wide ranging conversation came around to camera clubs… Ivor whipped out his iPad Pro and demonstrated an app SnapSpeed (I think) which he uses to prepare his photos for club competitions, and was tearing around the screen with a finger… the Apple Pencil thing would be good too… The point though is that neither of the other iDevices could really work in this way.
I have been very pleased with my iPhone 5 but it is now well past its use by, and my issue is how to proceed from here.
Looking at the Geordie LeicaPhone (Huawei P9) they have made a very decent camera system, but they have economised on the display performance… Not because they are not capable, but simply because the higher the quality of some of these aspects, the shorter the battery life.
When out and about, what is useful in a phone, is not how well one can format a document, which is best done with a laptop or desktop, but maps, so that when in Berlin one can expect the phone to not only ensure that one knows what is around the corner and perhaps take a snapshot, or where the nearest pub is. It isn’t important to have handoff or what ever Apple call it, far more important to be able to phone a friend…
And for those and other tasks, one needs reliable battery life and 2/3/4G performance.
Obviously, when at home, a really decent desktop display is the top priority, I am really impressed with NEC, but there is another level with EIZO and that means avoiding Apple displays like the plague, therefore my disdain for the iMac (even though I have had one).
I don’t watch much TV anymore… too many establishment lefties for my liking, Netflix is OK now and again, so is Apple TV… But anyway in that scenario, the MacBook comes into its own… It has a proper keyboard.
And being able to jab a finger at a photo directly on the display makes any of the iPad devices king for photo editing.
So in my view there is no single device, and there is no good reason to stick to the one giant corporation, or one unifying device, even if they are the best of the bunch!
I have even toyed with the idea of going really basic for pedestrian activities, with the Zanco phone and a Fuji X70 (no inny-outy as in the Ricoh GRrrrrr) no mapping tools though.
So in the end, possibly the iPhone 7, but not ruling out the Geordiefone either.
At home the iPad, the MacBook, a decent desktop display all have their niche, and no single device can cover every eventuality.
A lot of sense in what you say. Ivor, I know, is a dab hand with processing on the iPad but I don’t use it for that al all. Call me old fashioned vyninhave to have my MacBook with me.
Sometimes, though, the smartphone is lacking even for basic editing tasks. I got sick cutting and pasting some pearls of wisdom this morning (I thought I would use the iPhone on the train) and had to get out the MacBook to finish off the article.
Strangely, though, I kept prodding the screen of the MacBook. I wonder when we will see a touch screen?