Now with full keyboard and a trackpad, it might kill some types of laptops…
Apple unveils new iPad Pro with LiDAR Scanner and trackpad support in iPadOS
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Looks decent.
My 10.5 Pro is due an upgrade, I think this could be it!
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The best keyboard solution I ever touched was the Google Pixel C as was both rigid so it didnt move when that’s what I wanted, so picking up and moving was a dream, and could get any angle to reduce glare and detachable to use in a tablet portrait mode. I wish that approach was reproduced. It gave you the laptop non wobble and tablet modes. Pixel C not perfect, I think about 12" size minimum for productivity.
So this pandemic we are in was inevitable but the reaction to it is not, so I will stick my neck out and say we are going to be in a sustained year long work remote, home, garden, beach, open spaces. So that has to involve working on your lap. My concern with this device is the rigidity of the keyboard. A true laptop, hint in the name, has the hinge rigidity and non floppy motion to work on your lap.
This looks like wobble hell. It looks like it will fall over off lap easily, the wobble impacts typing speed.
I am also wary of 18W PD, its too little Wattage for something this large. I own a 8.4" and 10.8"tablets with 18W in, the 8.4 is fine but the 10.8 barely can be recharged, move battery level up, while being used. So I am raising an eyebrow at that 12.9" iPad Pro having shipping with only 18W charger. Huawei gets that and put at least 30W chargers with their larger tablets.
So the notion of laptop killer, I doubt it, more just a tablet or secondary device to a laptop.
Also who is going to pay for a $1000+ iphone and a $1000+tablet with keyboard and a $1000+ laptop? That is too much $ total. There is little covergence, if you did go with this tablet then surely an older or otherwise lower cost phone would make sense.
Edit a month later:
Told ya, if you want a laptop, buy a laptop, it is better than a tablet which becomes a laptop.
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It supports 30W PD. Apple just doesn’t ship the fastest charger. Shocker.
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That is unpleasant of Apple to support 30W and save a couple of $ bundling 18W, in a $800+ tablet. The larger tablets really need 30W to get a decent recharge rate while being used.
I work around that weakness on my Huawei 10.8 tablet , which only has 18W input, via when entering an extended use period I plug in a Powercore at the start, and that keeps the tablet near full. I also put a USB meter on mine and not all cables are the same, some Anker cables lose 40% more energy than others. Certain 6ft thinner cables are quite inefficient.
I also prefer even when at home to move around with a Powercore on a short USB cable and then recharge the Powercore, than connect to a long cable to the wall, as that avoids the accidents where the cable gets yanked and pulls the device to the ground.
My nearest equivalent to this is an LTE 10.8" tablet with keyboard with trackpad I paid $575 total delivered last year. Not sure if paying double, $1128+tax+shipping, the price is worthwhile.
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I agree, it’s Apple so the price is double.
Agree in principle.
I think it will be fine at a desk/solid surface buy not on your lap as such.
He is saying what I am worried about its not really going to work on the lap.
I think 2020 has to view all technology through the lens of working from home or other distance like in the park, countryside, garden, etc.
So if you’re going to work you need a good machine, good battery life, bright screen, good keyboard, trackpad. So I can see the argument for the MacBook Air argument holds water, tethered to your phone, and your big 26800 Powercore to get hours of work done in a safely distant place. I don’t see a person wanting to spend more money for a worse iPad Pro than a MacBook.
This one is a fan of the software changes to support trackpad.
He is one of the better predictors of the future.
I still think the issue is that the cost of the tablet + accessories (dongles, keyboard, etc) makes for an inferior laptop than a laptop, for more money.
Tablets are tablets, designed for swapping landscape/portrait for little typing so tend to be 4:3, or similar, shape to be squarer so when in portrait not too tall.
Laptops are laptops, they can do things tablets can’t like be faster as fans with vent holes so handle fast processing power, best keyboards, best trackpads, as not trying to be as small/light to compete with tablets. Because they don’t need to cater to portrait mode, can be 16:9 for all the screen used for media.
Tablets made laptops are worse than laptops.
I am not saying you can’t made a decent laptop from a tablet, just you will get a worse laptop from a tablet than a laptop. When you factor price, this iPad into laptop is a very dubious argument.
I owned:
- Nexus 10, 10" 16:9
- Nexus 9" , 9" 4:3
- Nexus 7 2012, 2013, 7" 16:10
- LG Gpad 8.3 16:10
- Lenovo Tab 4 8 Pro , 8" 16:10
- Pixel C , 10" 64:45
- Huawei Mediapad M5 8.4 , 8" and 10 10.8" both 16:10
And my experience that the sweetspot for a tablet is about 8" size and 16:10 , when it gets larger, as a tablet then the more square 4:3 means still useful in portrait mode, but when you get to >10 " then it goes back to 16:9 and a laptop, not a tablet.
I can see the argument for a 13" laptop, I don’t see the argument for a 13" tablet which optionally has keyboard.
If that makes no sense, then once you get significantly larger than 8" , the tablet becomes too heavy to hold single handed, and use in landscape mode, so it becomes on a surface, in which case “might as well” add a keyboard, then it might as well be a laptop. Also above 8" if you attempt to operate in portrait mode, the hands are moving a long distance up/down using the display. So tablets 8", laptops for much larger than 8".
Edit: 4 weeks later added the hands-on review.
He is saying same as me, a tablet becoming a laptop is never as good as a laptop, he says this cannot replace his laptop, so why add the $$$ of the tablet keyboard, just instead go to your laptop for more productivity.