For years I’ve been striving for an iPad Only life. I love the portability of the iPad. I love just how nice it is to handle. I love how it's built for focused work. I love that it's always connected to the internet - so no matter wherever I am I'm online.
And YET, when my old MacBook Pro died, I had ordered an picked up the new Macbook Air within a few hours. Not even a day passed without a laptop in my life. And now I’m torn. I still love my iPad. But the MacBook Air ❤️. It's so nice. It's sleek. It's just as light as the iPad. And that battery life!
After two weeks of owning the new Macbook Air - I'm still in love with it. And my iPad consumption has gone down significantly. So, now I'm wondering - how do these two equally expensive devices fit into my life?
Firstly, some reasons why I was never able to go iPad only.
ZOOM. Sure, you could say Zoom on the iPad is fine if you're just participating in meetings every now and then. But it's shit if you want to share your screen at the same time as your camera or do any kind of multi-tasking. say I want to take ntoes and be in a meeting at the same time - which seems perfectly logical - and yet - not supported. And let's not mention the awkwardness of the camera on the side because I use my iPad in landscape mode most of the time.
But all those things could be looked over if I was just doing normal zoom meetings. But, I use Zoom to run virtual all day workshops for my clients. I need the full power of ZOOM for desktop to do that.
The second reason why I can't go iPad only. Notion. Sure, the iPad app is MILES ahead of anything that I've seen out there similar, and I use it on a daily basis on my iPad (I'm writing on it now). But so much of my work on notion is creating templates, and managing workspaces and it's just HARD. Formatting is hard and no column support drives me insane.
Lastly, one of the reasons I can't go iPad only is... Presentations. A big part of my job is creating presentations for workshops and although I could do this on the iPad (and have certainly done it in a pinch), it's also just not quite convenient and fast - so I always find myself reverting back to the laptop instead.
And Some of the things the iPad is great at
Writing. Whenever I need to get in and do some writing. The iPad is a joy to write on. I love how focused I am when I'm using it. There's no other apps to distract me, no clicking about. Just solid focus.
Drawing. I love to sketch ideas out or brainstorm or draw mindmaps and diagrams and the iPad is just amazing for this. I used to keep hundreds of notebooks with scribblings in them. But now I can do a quick diagram, export it into notion or a doc I'm creating and I'm done.
Consuming. Consuming content is fun on the iPad. Even though I could have the Kindle app on my laptop, it's kinda awkward to read a book on a laptop. The iPad is ideal, because I can just hold it in my hand while consuming and then if I need to write any notes in Notion, I just dock it back with my magic keyboard and get going.
So, here’s how I’m thinking about it. It’s not black or white. I’m not IPad Only, or MacBook Only. I’m team both. Now that I have the MacBook Air which is lighter, quieter and the battery lasts a long time. I can actually use both as complimentary to each other.
- When I’m in my home office, I have them side by side and use sidecar.
- When I want to focus on writing, I go to the iPad.
- When I need to build presentations or do zoom calls - it’s the MacBook.
I hope this helps if you were debating whether to get the new Macbook Air or an iPad Pro. I'd love to know how you use your devices - follow me on Twitter and let's have a conversation.
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