Macbook Air vs iPad Pro + Magic Keyboard
Discussion
As per the title, what are the pros and cons of either option? I need to replace my Macbook Air which I splashed a (really) tiny quantity of water onto, for less than 2 secs, whilst it was switched off, but the repair costs exceed that of an entry-level MBA by some margin.
Happy to go for another MBA but then I saw the 12.9" iPad Pro, with the Magic Keyboard. Quite a bit dearer but an interesting alternative. My first question would be, when using the Magic Keyboard, can you sit it on your lap just as you would with a laptop form-factor and type? My employers have given me the Lenovo Thinkpad equivalent of a MS Surface, and that can't be used on the lap (not with the keyboard) as the keyboard hinge has no rigidity and relies on the pop-out stand bit at the back, and thus everything moves about if it's not on a solid flat surface.
Happy to go for another MBA but then I saw the 12.9" iPad Pro, with the Magic Keyboard. Quite a bit dearer but an interesting alternative. My first question would be, when using the Magic Keyboard, can you sit it on your lap just as you would with a laptop form-factor and type? My employers have given me the Lenovo Thinkpad equivalent of a MS Surface, and that can't be used on the lap (not with the keyboard) as the keyboard hinge has no rigidity and relies on the pop-out stand bit at the back, and thus everything moves about if it's not on a solid flat surface.
TheVankce said:
Do you know exactly what is damaged/needs fixing? An unauthorised repair place (somewhere where they employ people who fix things not replace them) should be able to sort it out for a fraction of the price Apple (I'm guessing) quoted you.
Unless you want a new toy obviously.
Yes, I did think about trying this. I completely understand that water causes damage, but this was a splash or water, a few big drops, not a glass thrown all over it, and they have quoted for a new logic board, new keyboard, new screen (wtf, that never got wet), new wifi controller, and something else I can't remember.Unless you want a new toy obviously.
Whilst new toys are always nice, the MBA is only 2 years old so I wasn't planning on changing it just yet, tbh.
CAPP0 said:
TheVankce said:
Do you know exactly what is damaged/needs fixing? An unauthorised repair place (somewhere where they employ people who fix things not replace them) should be able to sort it out for a fraction of the price Apple (I'm guessing) quoted you.
Unless you want a new toy obviously.
Yes, I did think about trying this. I completely understand that water causes damage, but this was a splash or water, a few big drops, not a glass thrown all over it, and they have quoted for a new logic board, new keyboard, new screen (wtf, that never got wet), new wifi controller, and something else I can't remember.Unless you want a new toy obviously.
Whilst new toys are always nice, the MBA is only 2 years old so I wasn't planning on changing it just yet, tbh.
t off by default blocking any independent repair.Coming back to your issue, does the quote say what exactly is damaged? You can always try to find things on ebay. I tend to sell my Apple hardware on ebay as parts and make more on it than if I was selling the whole thing but still at fraction of a price each part would cost if it was to be sourced from Apple (often they use refurbished parts for repairs anyway).
CAPP0 said:
TheVankce said:
Do you know exactly what is damaged/needs fixing? An unauthorised repair place (somewhere where they employ people who fix things not replace them) should be able to sort it out for a fraction of the price Apple (I'm guessing) quoted you.
Unless you want a new toy obviously.
Yes, I did think about trying this. I completely understand that water causes damage, but this was a splash or water, a few big drops, not a glass thrown all over it, and they have quoted for a new logic board, new keyboard, new screen (wtf, that never got wet), new wifi controller, and something else I can't remember.Unless you want a new toy obviously.
Whilst new toys are always nice, the MBA is only 2 years old so I wasn't planning on changing it just yet, tbh.
here is a video that shows yje dubious practices employed at the apple "genius" bar..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2_SZ4tfLns&t=...
CAPP0 said:
Happy to go for another MBA but then I saw the 12.9" iPad Pro, with the Magic Keyboard. Quite a bit dearer but an interesting alternative. My first question would be, when using the Magic Keyboard, can you sit it on your lap just as you would with a laptop form-factor and type? My employers have given me the Lenovo Thinkpad equivalent of a MS Surface, and that can't be used on the lap (not with the keyboard) as the keyboard hinge has no rigidity and relies on the pop-out stand bit at the back, and thus everything moves about if it's not on a solid flat surface.
Yes, it sits very well in a lap and the keyboard and trackpad combo are great to use.However, it depends on what you use the laptop for. It couldn't replace half the stuff I do in excel for example, and as much as I love tech, I often get frustrated using the iPad for 'real work' because I tend to gravitate to doing the big boy computer stuff.
camel_landy said:
The way I've looked at the way both devices are pitched:
M
This is a good way of looking at it. I’ve just done the same thing, albeit the 11 inch one. It’s a great bit of kit, and the Pencil gives it another dimension. Got it thinking I wouldn’t use it, but have been signing various documents while we didn’t have access to a printer thanks to the office being closed.- iPad - If you're a consumer of content.
- Laptop - If you create content.
M
The keyboard is a little small, although the bigger version probably makes a difference. Just a case of getting used to it though. It’s perfect for what I use it for - browsing, reading newspapers, some Netflix etc. The MacBook Air still works, but I don’t open it any more.
camel_landy said:
The way I've looked at the way both devices are pitched:
M
One key thing, filesystem. If iOS for iPads is still as bad for manipulating files as what's on iPhone I'd never consider iPad for anything other than toy and I could not use a system, even not for work, if I can't see and move files about freely as in any non-zombie OS.- iPad - If you're a consumer of content.
- Laptop - If you create content.
M
camel_landy said:
The way I've looked at the way both devices are pitched:
M
That’s transitioning IMO, I have a IPad Pro with Magic Keyboard and it’s 90% there depending on what you want to do with it. The whole world is transitioning to cloud based or web based apps, even during COVID the 35,000 seat organization I work for has had a massive shift. MS Teams, Office Online, OneDrive, Jira, LucidChart, OneNote, MS Whiteboard, Zoom, Google Office, MS Outlook, SharePoint etc - if that’s what you use you can pretty much do your job on the iPad these days. - iPad - If you're a consumer of content.
- Laptop - If you create content.
M
Then you have Citrix/VMWare/VDI etc - I can have a WIndows desktop on my iPad with full mouse control, no different from any other device.
TheGuru said:
The whole world is transitioning to cloud based or web based apps, even during COVID the 35,000 seat organization I work for has had a massive shift.
...and I've been brought into an organisation, who have come full circle and want to bring some of it back on-prem.Some organisations have forgotten their shiny building has been built to utilise the heat generated in the Data Centre, to heat the building. By the time everything has been costed up, it's cheaper & easier to move some of it back in-house.
But back to the question, ultimately it'll depend on what you need to use the device for and how you need to interface with the main applications. Test drive them both and see how you get on.
M
Edited by camel_landy on Saturday 19th September 10:15
CAPP0 said:
Yeah that might be the clincher really, I do need to be able to do stuff like that.
That's the bit I've struggled with.5 year old MacBook Pro that still works perfectly but I fancy a change/addition and I would love an iPad but certainly don't think it's sufficient as a sole device.
Sounds silly perhaps but just the lack of a mouse.
Plus taking things for granted like typing this in a browser with 10-15 tabs open with radio playing on one of them and a movie playing in the background on NOW TV.
Not sure an iPad can do all that even with iOS 14 but it's stuff you just take for granted with a proper laptop
I think you’ve all swung me back to the MacBook. Particularly the point about file storage, I have loads of docs on my machine.
The next thing is spec. My original MBP which I bought in about 2012 has, from memory, a 2.4GHz Core i5 chip. When that started playing up (it’s still working but none of the USB ports work so I can’t connect things or back it up), I then bought the current MBA a couple of years ago, that has a 2.2GHz Core, again i5 I think. All the new devices seem to have much lower performance chips. I confess I can’t recall why I bought the higher-spec machines as I don’t really thrash them, maybe I had an attack of PH-style “bigger is better” but in reality for the use I make what sort of level of chip do I need? Or are the more recent chips higher performance anyway?
The next thing is spec. My original MBP which I bought in about 2012 has, from memory, a 2.4GHz Core i5 chip. When that started playing up (it’s still working but none of the USB ports work so I can’t connect things or back it up), I then bought the current MBA a couple of years ago, that has a 2.2GHz Core, again i5 I think. All the new devices seem to have much lower performance chips. I confess I can’t recall why I bought the higher-spec machines as I don’t really thrash them, maybe I had an attack of PH-style “bigger is better” but in reality for the use I make what sort of level of chip do I need? Or are the more recent chips higher performance anyway?
CAPP0 said:
The next thing is spec.
As everything is 'glued' in these days, you have to make sure you get things correct from the start.Processor - Unless you're hammering it, go with a middle of the road spec.
RAM - This is where it can make a difference, it'll be a bit more expensive up front but max out the RAM.
SSD - Depends on what you're using it for but I'd be inclined to go for one of the larger capacities.
HTH
M
CAPP0 said:
Or are the more recent chips higher performance anyway?
CPUs are constrained by heat. The speed you typically see quoted is the all core base speed.As CPU manufacturing technology has improved, the no of processing cores that can be fitted in has increased, so the speed for all cores being busy has fallen. However, the CPU will run faster as fewer cores are active (called turbo) and I suspect you'll find that turbo speeds on modern CPUs are very comparable with older chips.
The reason for this approach is that heat (which is ultimately power consumed) is a a function that scales somewhere between frequency squared and cubed, so if you've a job you can scale over multiple cores efficiently, you can get more work done with multiple lower frequency cores. If the workload doesn't scale, several cores are idle and you get the single threaded turbo clock speed for that job so it runs as fast as possible.
Yeah I'd forgotten about that.
Just looking on the Apple Store now for my own requirements if I stick with Apple and £300 for a Smart Keyboard with mouse for an iPad Air is just ouch
I had to order a new charger for my 2015 MBP and the Razer laptop I'd got an eye on at Amazon has literally disappeared overnight with no low-stock warnings so I may just wait and see what happens with timescales on Apple bringing out laptops using their own CPUs.
Any excuse to put it off a bit more
Just looking on the Apple Store now for my own requirements if I stick with Apple and £300 for a Smart Keyboard with mouse for an iPad Air is just ouch
I had to order a new charger for my 2015 MBP and the Razer laptop I'd got an eye on at Amazon has literally disappeared overnight with no low-stock warnings so I may just wait and see what happens with timescales on Apple bringing out laptops using their own CPUs.
Any excuse to put it off a bit more
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