Hello, I am an iPad Air 3 user so sadly I am restricted to Lightning. I never seen it as much of an issue until I started seeing all the buzz around the external display support in iPad OS. But all the YouTuber’s I’m watching are using iPad Pros with USB-C support, making things much easier. AS a former MacBook Pro user I have lots of USB-C accessories laying around too, annoying! I’m an iPad only guy and hoping to use a mouse and keyboard with my monitor at home for my main setup.
I’m thinking a cheap eBay HDMI + Lightning Power to Lightning adapter will do? But if this results in a crappy, cutting out experience I’d happily invest in the Apple adapter if there’s a good reason to do so. Can someone help me out here?
I have both Apple dongles (VGA and HDMI) and both are rock solid for using my iPhone XS Max with an external monitor. I’ve also used them with the original 10.5-inch iPad Pro with a Lightning port and it also worked like a charm. The simultaneous charging via the Lightning port on the dongle is nice too. I would recommend either of them.
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I’ve tried both and found that adaptors I got which were cheap did not yield good results, and I even tried a €100 dock with HDMI which also proved to be unreliable. On some screens and projectors they worked fine but occasionally all the colours would be messed up or they wouldn’t connect at all. The official adapters worked perfectly on all the screens that had problems with the third party ones, so I ended up buying those and I think it is a much better investment (if you are using it for work especially), to avoid issues.
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I do think a keyboard/mouse/external monitor is a great way to use an iPad Pro. I tend to use keyboard shortcuts as my primary navigation. Mouse is the second go-to. And, if it’s quicker, I can always reach over to the iPad screen and manipulate something directly. The multiple options for such interactions seems like a reason to prefer using the iPad as the centerpiece of a workflow. If you get a mouse with multiple buttons, it’s really nice to be able assign different navigation shortcuts to each. My Logitech mouse has four programmable buttons. One reveals the notifications screen, another calls up the app switcher. Another summons spotlight. I use VoiceControl too as a navigation tool - the fourth programmable button toggles that on and off as needed. I’ve really grown used to using the mouse not so much for its cursor and dragging functionality but instead as a collection of buttons useful for one-step navigational options. I often don’t have to touch the iPad screen to do real work, but it’s there if I need it.
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Glad to hear it. Welcome to the club!
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