Can iPad replace Mac? Again!
My iPad Pro when it was brought in Apple Store
People have been discussing whether iPad can replace laptops (especially Mac) for long. Even though they can’t at this moment, they will try again when new hardware and OS is released.
My iPad and MacBook Air used to compete with each other
I am no exception more than a decade ago because my iPad was always competing against my MacBook Air. Starting from iPad Air in 2013 which was capable of sketching, reading, watching movies, as I found note taking and documentation was never satisfactory, I left my iPad Air for MacBook Air for years.
The introduction of iPad Pro (10.5-inch) with Apple Pencil made me try again in 2017, that the experience was getting better except website design, blog publication and file management. Two years later, I replaced my 6-year-old MacBook Air (2012) with the then latest one due to battery degradation.
The topic is repeating again online when iPadOS 26 is out recently, however I found myself that I have naturally given up this idea, and use both devices in different places and circumstances.
I can change the way of doing and even apps
For me an iPad is my dream device thanks to its flexibility to become an ebook, a sketchbook while I can do something which my MacBook is able to. While I learnt that Apple is working hard to bring more Mac features to iPad, the brutal reality is many developers are still reluctant to improve their iPad experience to allow users to enjoy full functionality as on laptop, and some of them even don’t have an iPad version yet.
On the other hand, we need to acknowledge that iPad and MacBook/laptops are two different machines, that we may have to change our ways of doing. Of course, we can simply buy a Magic Keyboard in an attempt to duplicate our laptop experience, but inevitably there will still be something that we should get used to. Alternatively, I can try the touch keyboard instead, and my experience told me that it’s not worse than my butterfly keyboard, and emojis are convenient on iPad than on Mac. That’s why I never buy Magic Keyboard for my iPad.
An iPad is still an iPad, and it’s evolving.
As I said before in 2025.8.1 iPad and me for 14 years — my journey of illustration: An iPad is still an iPad. But what is iPad? Changing (evolving) is the nature of the device. While it can include more laptop features, it does not necessarily replace a laptop and even a MacBook. That said, we can still choose to get rid of our MacBook, but we shouldn’t insist on the same way of doing as on our laptop by figuring out if there are other (better) ways to achieve our same goals.
This can be changing my workflows or tools. My only case is Squarespace, which contributes to around 5% of my usage. Maybe in the long run I will switch to more responsive services like BearBlog, but as I still need some research and testing, at this moment I will keep my 6-year-old MacBook Air which has only one-year security update left, so that it can serve as a backup when my iPad can’t do its 5%.
