The iPad Air has convinced me that the post-PC world is almost here

While the well-reviewed MacBook Air (2020) packs the same power as all-day battery life and cellular connectivity, the latest iPad Air is really a different one, and perhaps a better form factor than just a MacBook Air. Apple even shouted in its ad: “Your next computer is not a computer.”

And yet, 12 years after the introduction of the iPad, we’re still not quite in the post-PC world. Over the years, Apple has taken significant steps to bring more PC-like features to its tablets – a better file manager, stronger cursor support, and even dual monitor support with the upcoming iPadOS 16. With every subsequent update, more like the iPad is coming.

Related: Here are 9 things Apple has announced at WWDC that we want to see on Android

An educated guess suggests that Apple wants iPads to replace the consumer line of its products in a few years. The market for MacBook Air and iPad Air is almost parallel but not yet fully integrated. But how far are we? I’ve been using the iPad Air (5th generation) as my portable computer for the last few months and here are the good, bad and ugly of Apple’s post-PC world.

When it comes to using my iPad: work, play, and limitations

If you’re looking down here and dirty, I’ll point you to an excellent review of our iPad Air (5th generation). As a tablet, it builds on the excellence of previous generations of hardware and throws more energy into it than most regular customers know what to do. The rest of the package hasn’t changed much compared to the outgoing model and you’ll get a bright, color-accurate 10.9-inch display that is unfortunately locked at 60Hz. Another big change is the support for 5G if you choose the cellular model.

However, for my iPad as a laptop replacement test, I went full hog and found myself an incredibly expensive magic keyboard and Apple pencil to complete the experience. My first week with it was full of small and big frustrations. The first time I used a computer, it was Windows 3.1, and I’ve been using Macs since 2009. Compared to my 2018 Macbook Pro, using the iPad, presumably, requires a complete overhaul.

Curious reading: Ultravide monitors are overrated, here’s why I use a 4K TV as a monitor.

I’m used to tossing up half a dozen tabs on a 43-inch 4K TV that I use as a monitor. That obviously wasn’t going to work. No, iPad computing requires a more focused approach. I had to re-learn my usage pattern around the netbook-sized screen and split it into two apps at once. Interestingly, it was not as big of an obstacle as I had hoped.

The sheer abundance of high-quality iPad apps has comfortably plugged in the number of web apps used on my laptop. Moreover, I’ve found myself relying on efficient scaling, compelled by Apple’s strict developer guidelines for a comfortable user experience. Combined with the magic keyboard, I was typing thousands of words into a static clip. So far, so good but you don’t need a fast M1 chipset for sound processing.

That’s where my other use cases pop up. How well will the iPad Air hold up as an on-the-go video editing machine? Incredibly good, if anything to go by my experience. I spent a few hours editing a home movie Lumafusion It’s time to sip a Java chip frapuchino at my local Starbucks. The app isn’t going to replace Final Cut Pro for professional video editors but packs more than enough power for everyone else. Plus, where my older laptop takes more than an hour to render 4K video, the iPad Air M1 takes a few minutes to demonstrate the power of the chip. But even more impressive was the battery efficiency and the ability to use the touch screen for granular control in the video timeline. I can quickly jump into Photoshop and create a sketch with an Apple pencil and import it back into the video timeline in a matter of seconds. External peripherals, like a walkie-talkie digitizer, will be needed to do the same thing on a Mac.

My MacBook Pro also has a tendency to overheat at 45 সেল C in Delhi lately. In a team call last week, it went completely unresponsive. I quickly popped the iPad and made my call effortlessly using the incredible center-stage front-facing camera and even dropped the Slack into a secondary window. The fact that the iPad can slot so seamlessly as a replacement caught me off-guard in a very positive way.

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Of course, I can’t always work on a Dinky 10.9-inch display. I was intrigued by the latest external display capabilities built into the latest iPadOS. Could it be the experience of using a laptop plugged into a monitor? Last week I checked the developer preview of iPadOS 16, warts and all and the results are positive.

In fact, this entire article was plugged into my 4K monitor on the iPad Air and was written in a combination of external monitors and windows spread across tablets. It works fairly well like a proper laptop, although the limitations of a tack-on mouse interface become obvious thanks to the large cursor. It’s probably not as precise as what you’re probably used to. I’m not even sure by the new-fangled Stage Manager feature, but I can see the grouping of apps to use as an interesting addition once the hit-or-miss activation is clear in the stable release.

While using the iPad for a while may not surprise anyone, the real beauty of using it as your computer is when you switch from work to play mode. The same computer is instantly converted into a Netflix machine, e-book reader, or even a gaming tablet. As an idea, trying to be both work and play machine is far from the first, but Microsoft Surface is great for being a laptop, it fails miserably as a tablet. On the other hand, the iPad has so far proven to be an incredible tablet and half-decent laptop replacement.

See also: Apple is still considering the iPad as a second-class citizen

Although there are some downsides to using the iPad as a computer. Port selection, for one, is an issue that needs to be addressed. The hardware was originally designed as a tablet and all you get is a single USB-C port. Of course, you can use a multiport hub, but it’s a pretty irrelevant solution if the iPad is the computer that Apple claims it to be. When plugged into a monitor, you need to make sure the tablet is adequately charged.

There is also the question of screen size. A 10.9-inch tablet is not the last word of comfort. While Apple is rumored to be offering a larger 12.9-inch version of the iPad Pro and is also working on a 14-inch version, it would be nice to see the iPad Air offered in a larger version.

All in all, I would say my test with the iPad Air (5th generation) is half the success. For one, it proves what I’ve long suspected: if you don’t really think about the best mini-LED display and a higher refresh rate, the iPad Air is available to most users.

More importantly, the iPad has reached a turning point in its lifetime. The tablet already delivers more power than most Chromebooks and Windows laptops in its class, while being designed for a very different computing environment. In fact, it is not difficult to see that the whole definition of personal computing is changing. Your documents are online, and so is your music, and your photos are likely to be on the cloud service. Increasingly, for most general users, a computer is really an interface to the Internet.

Although I’m not a regular user. I spend my weekends wandering around in docker pots and tinkering with raspberry pie. So the iPad still can’t completely replace my laptop. However, the next generation of computer users is growing around an app-based ecosystem. Increasingly, the first computer that anyone accesses is not a laptop, but a smartphone with apps. Eliminate very specific uses, such as development or professional creative use, and the iPad can fit comfortably with the needs of the vast majority of users. It’s not there yet, but with the iPadOS 16 and newer desktop-grade chips, it’s clear that Apple is laying the groundwork for the future of its consumer computing portfolio for the iPad, and the iPad Air is perfectly positioned. MacBook Air for the next generation.

Next up: The iPad Stage Manager is good, but it has a lot to learn from the Samsung Dex