*Disclaimer – The blog describes the author’s experience with the device and may not be an actual indicator of the features and/or capability of the device.
Before purchasing any device the most logical thing to do is read or watch reviews. But based on my recent experience, I feel that most of the reviews are either irrelevant or too good to be true! And this is true especially for the iPad.
iPad can be your Primary Device
This is one of those sentences that are half true but NOT false. Yes, your iPad can be your primary device unless you are a power user but it CANNOT be your ONLY device. Despite the advances in iPad OS and its computing power, there are many things that an iPad simply cannot perform. We will enlist those frustrating limitations as well as hindrances. However, the truth is that most YouTube reviewers have multiple devices!
If it can edit 4k videos hen it can definitely handle PDFs!
This is definitely a flawed reasoning as 4K editing requires computing power, while editing and signing PDFs requires software mechanisms. Although the iPad is an excellent device, you just want to mark-up PDFs, signing PDFs can be frustrating as you need to export it to Adobe Acrobat – and then you need an USB C to USB A adapter to connect the token of your digital signing certificate. This import and export to Adobe reader can be a quite frustrating step.
File Browser, But definitely a Beta Version
Although it is much better than before, it is far from the desktop class File Manager. For someone like myself, managing files is a must on the primary device. There are three problems that I particularly faced, first is stability as the app would crash or freeze at various instances, second is reliability as many times I have been unable to seamlessly move files and folders across my connected cloud storage folders and finally the third is the compatibility for web upload as I was unable to upload files to certain websites.
Excel is only for Grocery Accounting
Long back iPad OS could handle only one file but this has recently been addressed. However, the problem is that the Excel features available on the iOS app are limited. For instances, only few functions under the Data tab are available – so you cannot perform Goal Seek on your iPad. Another problem is partly owing to muscle memory – if you are used to Excel work on a ThinkPad or Mac, using the iOS version is going to be simply frustrating.
Wireless Printing
Unless you have network printer, your iPad will connect to the printer through WiFi and this will cease your internet. This sounds okay, but once you realize that the file you want to print is not stored on device or the mail is yet to be downloaded, switching between WiFi networks may frustrate you.
WiFi drops
Yes, if you are relying on your iPhone tethering to get internet on your iPad, it is going to be frustrating. The moment you lock your screen or after a certain interval, the connection drops! Yes, even if your devices are paired. In fact this limitation along with the last one definitely convinces me to shell out an extra for 4G version of the iPad next time.
Browsing
Not sure as of now, but previously many websites popped up the mobile version on the iPad – which can be frustrating if you are relying on WebApp version of SaaS (Software as a Service) to get your work done. Well this may not be the case on the 12.9″ iPad or with certain web browsers. This is major issue if your Primary Project Management App or Company CRM or ERP has a web interface, then this can be a major issue.
Overall Feel
It is a great device for Media Consumption and replying to emails. However, you will soon discover the limitations and workarounds. For instance, it is difficult to work with email attachments if your email treads are too long as Apple Mail puts the attachments at the end of the text. And while working with the attached keyboard, you will need desk as most available hardware is not lap friendly. Although the OS supports split screen, the view is not workable in the portrait mode; moreover, the screen size is kinda too small to use multiple windows together without straining your eyes.
My Opinion
If you want a device – which is going to be your only device – you should look elsewhere, maybe a highly portable Laptop like the MacBook Air. And if you want a device that you can carry around because your laptop or primary computing device is too bulky to shuttle around then iPad is the right choice. You can read more about my experience with the latest iPad Mini here. In simple words, as long as you are expecting to do things that do NOT require a track-pad or Keyboard, then the iPad will get things done.
Header Image Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Savvy Munshi 