TL;DR: Do you have experiences with life with an iPad as only portable device?
Wednesday disaster struck (twice). Not only did Germany lose to Japan in the World Cup, but also my MBP from 2017 stopped working.
Now I am exploring options on what to replace it with. I have an M1 iPad Pro, but I feel the need to have some kind of Mac for automation backups, programming etc. Therefore, I am thinking of getting a Mac mini for that. Does anybody here work on that setup and if yes, do you enjoy it or wish for a MacBook of some form?
I have had that exact setup with multiple iPads and MacMinis for years, each with M1 and pre-M1. Especially now with external display support and someday () Stage Manager I see no reason for me to change. YMMV.
Not sure this is helpful for you , just wanted to share my experience
I have a mac mini connected to a 34" monitor, a 14" M1 MBP , a 12.9" iPad pro 2019 and a iPad mini 6
I use my iPad mini 6 mainly for reading (not replying) email, tweets and ebooks, watching video, etc. So this is for content consumption
I used to use 12.9" iPad for games, apps like Craft, etc, However, more and more I am using my 14" MBP insteading of using iPad for ‘work’
The mac mini remains my desktop machine that is also my ‘server’ as it is permanently connected , I am running some docker apps on the Mac. I use it for works that require multiple windows on a big monitor.
I was doing that setup for a few years when the 2018 Mac mini came out. I sold my 2016 MBP and went iPad Pro only for mobile needs. Since then, I’ve gone back to a laptop (14" M1 Pro) and now my iPad gets used much less. The reality is that for me, and for the type of work/things I like to do, the iPad wasn’t up to the task when it was trying to impersonate a laptop. I couldn’t really code in the languages of my choice, keyboards are never quite as comfortable as a laptop, and the multitasking options at the time weren’t great (I haven’t played with Stage Manager yet).
When the Apple Silicon macs came out, I went for a laptop and in most of my day to day tasks, it functions more effectively. Better automations, better software, snappier interface.
Don’t get me wrong, the iPad is a great device but when my current 2018 iPad Pro dies, I foresee a mini replacing it.
I pretty much split my private computing time between a Mac mini and an iPad (mini).
It depends on what you want to do with your device on the go.
Web browsing or watching videos can be as good or better (more portable) than on a MacBook. Reading eBooks or annotation may feel better on an iPad. Sketching, drawing and notetaking probably will.
For most text- and/or file-based editing and creation though (for what I‘d certainly include programming), a Mac computer will most certainly feel much more productive.
And the file management is just horrendous, compared to what even the stock Finder on a Mac can do.
Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences! Seems to me, that the mobile and desktop computing needs are the decisive factor.
I cannot foresee any need for mobile programming. I work on a Windows machine provided by my employer. So, it is only private computing for me. I actually pretty much only started my MacBook for playing some games with GeForce now in previous months. Also, I would like a permanently hooked up machine for server/backup needs I have as well as coding when I get to it. But this will happen at my desk. In conclusion, I think a server + desktop in a Mac mini is probably suitable.
I’ve run in this config since 2016. My MBP died, but it had already become a desktop as I was on an iPad as my daily driver.
When I looked at what I was using my MBP for, whatever I replaced it with needed a lot of storage which precluded a laptop and it needed to run OS X which meant I couldn’t go iPad only. The really, really key requirement for me was that I needed to be be able to backup my photos properly.
So I set off on the iPad + Mini lifestyle. I’ve since upgraded from the 2014 era Mac Mini to an M1 and I had no hesitation in doing so.
To be honest, most of my use of the iPad is consumption rather than creation, so YMMV.
when i was a freelancer i had a mac mini on my desk at home and my ipad was my portable device - the secret sauce was remote connecting back to the mac when i needed a full mac app - either using jump desktop or parallels access … even though i also had a macbook air i rarely actually used it - especially as my key client at the time provided a monitor on my work desk there and i had a bluetooth keyboard for my ipad
i used parallels access a lot when it first came out but jump desktop now fits my usage patterns better so use it nearly 100% of the time now (when wanting remote access) - i’m primarily looking for a remote desktop experience with the ability to quickly switch between apps on the remote mac (or pc for that matter), whereas parallels access is inherently a single app experience albeit with its own launch screen for switching to another app
) Stage Manager I see no reason for me to change. YMMV.
. I think I’ll look into jump when I get a Mac Mini.