My 2016 MacBook Pro had to go in for keyboard replacement #2 (they also replaced the battery and the display too, not sure why).
Anyway, this put me having only a 12.9 inch 2nd generation iPad as my only device for a few days.
The Good
Putting together a Keynote presentation was easy, maybe even more fun that using a Macbook.
Using Outlook for iOS to do email and calendaring worked really well. Grabbing and reading PDF’s and Word documents out of my Dropbox using the Files app also worked nicely.
I used the Magic keyboard for typing and that worked well. Love that keyboard.
The Not so Good
Grading papers for an online class was not as easy, and was in fact painful. Downloading a paper and then putting the answer key side by side was not smooth and easy like the Macbook is. For some reason I have trouble getting the side by side to work the first time for me. Navigation in Blackboard was more difficult for some reason as well. I use quick keys on the MacBook for easy window management and miss this on the iPad.
I use Alfred for my text snippets and found myself typing in the shortcuts for various things like date stamp and signature that weren’t there.
Also needed to go into our document management site to approve contracts. No browser (Safari, Firefox, Chrome) would scroll the page to get to the submit button. (Yes, I requested desktop site). I had to load Citrix and get to it that way.
Guess I’ll have to hang onto this MacBook Pro, and am glad Apple keeps repairing it without charging me.
A link, I’ve seen yesterday… and laughed. It also summarises everything about iPad productivity very nice. iPad productivity is praised for things being non-existing (proper automation, proper handling of files, working with several Applications at the same time, proper and customisable keyboard shortcuts and so on). But in the end, if you really have to do a lot of different work with different kind of documents, or god forgive us, to develop, everything points back to a mac.
I’m a teacher as well. I think with some time the grading of papers you will begin to enjoy more (least that was my experience). It took a while to get used to but once you figure out specific ways to work on iOS it will be better. I used the app Copied for snippets a lot of the time. So I will have one document on the left, the key on the right, and Copied just a swipe away for the third view.
Yes, some sites are just terrible! I’ve found sometimes iCab Mobile will work when all other browsers fail but its no guarantee.
Apple is so inconsistent either their repair process. I took my 2016 MBP in for a warranty battery replacement, and they swapped out the entire top case, which gave me an updated keyboard, so I was ok with this. 4 months later I had a display failure, took it back to them and was told I’d need to cough up $500 for a repair…
Yes, they gave me a display. I didn’t ask for it and didn’t notice it had issues. This was an Apple authorized dealer/repair shop close to home. I have to say, these MacBook Pro’s and the pricing upticks make me more unhappy with Apple than I have ever been in the many years I have been using their products.
Agreed, I don’t have any issues with anything else. Other than these issues, I really like the MacBook Pro, how it looks, thin and light, and speed for doing tasks, etc.
Second the iCab recommendation. It can mimic other browsers (Safari for iPhone, Safari for iPad, Safari for Mac, Firefox for iPhone, etc), making it much easier to get sites to behave the way you want.
I’ve pretty much given up on trying to use iPad as a primary machine. Even sucks as a secondary machine to do any work really and exactly for the things you point out like lack of Alfred and similar tools. Macbooks are here to stay!