In 2021, iPads are Not Ready For Work

One theme Apple (fans) has been pushing for years is that the iPad is no longer just a content consumption device, and can be used for work.

Since it has been many years since I last tried that, I gave it another shot. I used my 13-inch iPad “Pro” from 2015, in preference to my 11-inch 2020 iPad “Pro”, because I preferred the bigger screen. Along with an Apple Bluetooth keyboard.

I often work sitting in bed, and the first problem I found was that the iPad doesn’t have a hinge (like a laptop) or a stand (like the Surface) to prop it up at an angle. So it would lay flat on the bed. I tried propping it up against a pillow, but it would slide down. I tried using my mobile stand, but it was too small for the iPad. After multiple days of inconvenience, it finally struck me that I can use my laptop stand as an iPad stand. This worked far better than not using a stand, or trying to use a smartphone stand. But it still was far less wieldy than a laptop — I could not use it sitting in a sofa, the way I can use my laptop. And less ergonomic.

Once this issue was sorted, my first impression was that the iPad was far more powerful than I’d found the last time I used it for work in 2015.

I ran into some annoyances, but told myself to be patient, since a new way of doing things requires patience and adjustment. But after weeks, I still kept finding too many limitations:

iPad apps are still far less powerful than desktop apps. When I tried to share a file “Discussion About Scalability.m4a” in Slack, it became “File from iOS.m4a”, which didn’t tell people what it was about. I tried to rename the file the way I can on the desktop, but the Slack iOS app can’t do that. The app would often crash, or spontaneously log me out. When I tried to get a 2-factor code via SMS, the code once didn’t work, because Slack sent me a code, then spontaneously sent me another code and deactivated the first one.

Moving on from Slack, I found that when rescheduling a meeting in Google Calendar, it would not show me people’s availability, so I can’t pick a time that works for everyone. So I had to switch to the desktop version, accessing it in Safari, which was glitchy because it wasn’t touch-optimised. YouTrack’s iPad app was very limited — I can’t create a tag. Its UI is also different from the one I was familiar with from the desktop, so there was a learning curve — a learning curve to use something less powerful than what I already knew how to use. Even after that, I had to keep deciding whether to use the native or web app for a given function, and this was more cognitive load than using the desktop. I sometimes delete one email in a thread in Gmail, which the Gmail iPad app can’t do. I often get encrypted PDFs, with the password emailed separately, which I decrypt and save, but I can’t do that on the iPad, because I couldn’t find an app for that, which I could find on both Windows and Mac. In Google Docs, I had a numbered list that started from 7 (because it was created by splitting a big numbered list into two) so I wanted to restart numbering at 1, which is a feature Google Docs offers, but not on the iPad. And I can’t see an earlier version of the document to restore something I accidentally removed. In Google Sheets, UI would appear on top of the tab bar, not letting me switch to another tab. I can’t record a Google Meet call using QuickTime Player, the way I can on my Mac. I was listening to some music from Google Drive, and I wanted to open a document, which I can’t on iPad, because the music will stop, unlike on the desktop, where I can just open another tab. I ended up using Safari, which I consider second-rate compared to Chrome, but which I was nevertheless forced to use, since the iPad is Apple’s walled garden, and Apple forces its second-rate services on you. I’m comfortable using certain Unix command-line tools like find, grep, sort and head. I don’t use them regularly, but sometimes they’re the easiest solution I know to a problem, and I couldn’t use them on the iPad.

These are all the limitations I encountered trying to get work done on the iPad. And we’re not even getting into trying to program on the iPad.

In summary, the iPad was too limited to get work done. I could excuse any one of the above limitations taken individually, but in aggregate they added up to too crippled a device. When I switched back to a real computer, I was suddenly far more productive. I was flying. The OS was no longer coming in my way at every turn.

Not only was the iPad too limited, it had a learning curve. It makes no sense to retrain yourself to be less productive than before. And the combination of the iPad, Bluteooth keyboard and laptop stand was too unwieldy, heavy and less ergonomic as compared to a laptop.

Using an iPad for work is like trying to strap a motor to a bicycle to make it a motorcycle. You’ll still end up with a crappy motorcycle. If you want a motorcycle, buy a motorcyle.

iPads are best for content consumption [1], in 2021.

[1] Unless you’re an artist. Or a mechanic crawling under a car to repair it, using an iPad app to help you with your repair, a situation in which a laptop will be unwieldy.

If you told me I could not use a traditional desktop or laptop form factor for work, I’d use a Surface, which runs a real desktop operating system.

If you told me I could not use a desktop operating system like Windows or Mac, I’d use a Chromebook over an iPad.