The iPad Pro: A Powerful Machine with Many Uses

For my day-to-day use, the iPad Pro is a very powerful machine and more powerful than the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro at least in terms of the base models. However, none of that really matters if it can't accomplish the task that most people would want to get done. Let's go over a few different scenarios for one.

Working from Home with Video Calling

Those who are working from home right now and using Zoom, Slack, video Skype, or other video calling platforms might actually need the webcam quality on the iPad Pro. The webcam quality on the iPad Pro is significantly better than the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro, especially when in landscape mode. However, it always looks a bit weird, and you're kind of always looking off to a different side of the screen. But, this can be easily fixed by taking the iPad Pro off the keyboard, propping it up on a stand, and placing it in portrait mode for a better angle and a more natural look to others.

Note-taking and Reading Textbooks

For students who need to take notes, read textbooks, make flashcards, etc., all of that can be done on a Mac with no problems. However, the iPad Pro offers a few bonus features that are particularly useful when combined with being able to type out those notes and create presentations. One of these features is the Apple Pencil. With the Apple Pencil, students can take handwritten notes, highlight text easily, read textbooks in a more natural setting like portrait mode, which many people have said they would much rather do over reading on a Mac.

Creative Work

For creative work, such as editing photos or videos, the iPad Pro is definitely capable. However, it's not compatible with some of the apps that I use or need primarily, such as Final Cut Pro. For those who work in software like Photoshop or Lightroom, the iPad Pro's Magic Keyboard with trackpad support has really changed their view on the iPad as a total laptop replacement. It can absolutely be done for almost all of you out there.

Trade-offs

However, there are some trade-offs to using an iPad Pro as a laptop. Multitasking is not nearly as good as it would be on a Mac, especially if you're used to using Finder or have hated it in the past. Some people might miss having a Finder-style system for files on the iPad, which would replace the Files app. Additionally, battery life is pretty good, but taking the Magic Keyboard accessory attached can take a bit more of a hit.

Value

If we add money back into the equation and consider value, the base model MacBook Air is by far the best value of the three machines. The MacBook Pro is more of a workhorse machine and would be my choice out of the three for editing and final cut, but to really take advantage, you'd probably want to step up to the models with the 10th gen processors, which start at $1,799.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the iPad Pro offers many uses and is a powerful machine. However, it's not compatible with some of the apps that I use or need primarily, such as Final Cut Pro. Additionally, there are trade-offs to using an iPad Pro as a laptop, including multitasking limitations and battery life concerns.

Sponsor Information

Before we end today's video, I'd like to give you more information about today's sponsor, o WC. o WC offers a wide range of products for your Mac, including internal hard drives and SSDs, memory, Thunderbolt 3 docks, etc. They also have a couple of products that I literally use on a daily basis, such as the Excelsior 4M two PCIe module for my Mac Pro, which gives me blazing fast SSD speeds, including soft rate options, and is now available in a whopping 16 terabyte option. Additionally, o WC has bumped its storage to give users the chance to pick up a 4 terabyte model of their external SSD. For more information about these products or anything else o WC has to offer, be sure to click the link in the description down below this video.

Thanks for Watching

Finally, thanks so much for watching and I hope to see you around in the next video.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis video is sponsored by OWCA last month Apple announced a new MacBook Air and an iPad pro with an all-new match a keyboard accessory to really give the iPad pro that traditional laptop like feel this past week Apple also launched its latest 13-inch MacBook Pro and so in this video I figured why not quickly break down these three devices to see which one might be right for you before we get started be sure to subscribe and hit the bell to get notifications whenever we share a video before we get into the comparison I do want to let you know which machines will be tested for this video the MacBook Air is the base model that features a 10th gen dual-core intel core i3 processor intel iris + graphics 8 gigabytes of ram and 256 gigs of internal storage on the macbook pro side we also have the base model but it features an eighth generation quad core Intel Core i5 processor with Intel iris + graphics 8 gigabytes of RAM and 256 gigs of internal storage finally the 20/20 iPad pro offers apples a 12 Z Bionic chip 6 gigabytes of RAM and 128 gigs of internal storage the base model MacBook Air that we have is 999 dollars the MacBook Pro is $12.99 and the iPad pro with magic keyboard which in my mind is a necessary accessory to get that full laptop like experience that we talked about that will cost users around 1350 so last month we did a comparison video of the MacBook Air and the iPad pro and we spent a lot of time going over the differences between each device so I don't really think we need to do that again if you do want to see that video I'll leave that link in the card in the upper right-hand corner but instead I kind of want to go over performance and benchmarks of each device talk about what I think each device is capable of and which one I choose if I had to pick one so in terms of benchmarks and really starting with Geekbench which is kind of the go-to for people who aren't familiar with exactly how powerful these iPad pros can be you'll be plenty surprised to see that it's very capable of outperforming both the MacBook Air and the 13-inch MacBook Pro in fact the eye Pro just barely edged out the new 10th generation Intel processor on the MacBook Air and is quite a bit ahead of the 8th gen chip that's found on the base model 2020 macbook pro for single core scores in multi-core the iPad pro was far and away ahead of both the MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air with the MacBook Pro coming in second by a healthy margin over the MacBook Air I guess it's comforting to know that this very expensive iPad is benchmarking better than the other two options but how does this translate into real world use well for me as a content creator is something that I do on a regular basis is transferring files from an SD card or an external hard drive or exporting videos from a project and so I performed each of those tasks on these devices this isn't going to be an exact science but I did my best to kind of time things out and with this file that's about 1.3 gigs in size a very standard small video file that I might transfer and move around quite a bit that took approximately five seconds for both the MacBook Pro in the MacBook Air while the iPad pro unfortunately suffered a lot with not only transferring files from external drive to the iPad but just kind of file management as a whole is still not very good it's still weird to see this very powerful iPad take nearly 50 seconds to finish that transfer now on the other hand when exporting a video and Final Cut Pro or 4 in this case of the iPad pro we had to use luma fusion things are a bit different the iPad pro was able to blaze through an export of a 4k timeline of a 5-minute project in only three minutes the MacBook Pro using Final Cut Pro took around four minutes and ten seconds and the MacBook Air took a bit longer and actually took longer in real time coming in at over five minutes and thirty seconds so to sum this all up the iPad pro is a very powerful machine and more powerful for my day to day use than the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro at least in terms of the base models but none of that really matters if it can't accomplish the task that most people would want to get done so let's go over a few different scenarios for one I can easily argue that those who are working from home right now and using zoom slack video Skype whatever video calling platforms you might actually need the webcam quality on the iPad pro is significantly better than the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro unfortunately when in landscape it always looks a bit weird and you're kind of always looking off to a different side of the screen but you could just take the iPad pro off the keyboard prop it up on a stand in portrait mode for a better angle and a more natural look to others for students looking to take notes read textbooks make flashcards etc all of that stuff can be done on a Mac with no problems but the iPad does offer a few bonus features in conjunction with being able to type out all of those notes and creating presentations etc you can now pair it with an Apple pencil take handwritten notes highlight text easily read text books in a more natural setting like in portrait mode which I've heard people say they'd much rather do over reading it on a Mac and it's been a long time since I was a student but I honestly wish I had an iPad pro as a Productivity tool back over then bring just my general laptop to class creative work can definitely be done on all of these machines though the iPad pro is not compatible with some of the apps that I use or need primarily Final Cut Pro and learning the replacements usually gets put on hold since I don't really have time to sit down and dig into actually learning the software but for those of you who work in something like Photoshop or Lightroom the iPad pros magic keyboard with trackpad support really changed my view on the iPad as a total laptop replacement it can absolutely be done for almost a lot of you out there there are some trade-offs as I mentioned before multitasking is not nearly as good as it would be on a Mac for those who don't like using finder or have hated it in the past I think most of you would gladly take a finder style system for files on the iPad over the files app and battery life is pretty good but you'll take a bit more of a hit with the keyboard accessory attached and although you do get an extra charging port now thanks to the magic keyboard this might still be an issue for some of you out there not having extra Thunder both reports for me personally I'd probably pick the iPad pro like 99.9% of the time if I'm doing anything on a computer that's not video editing so if we take financials out of it I think the iPad pro offers more versatility functionality and performance clearly given the benchmarks that we've seen over the other two machines now if we add money back into the equation because it is very important the base model MacBook Air is by far the best value of the three the MacBook Pro is more of a workhorse machine and would be my choice out of the three for editing and final cut but to really take advantage you'd probably want to step up to the models with the 10th gen processors and those start at $17.99 of course I would love to know your thoughts about each of these machines which one are you thinking about getting maybe you picked one up which one did you choose and why did you choose that particular device go ahead let me know in those comments down below also before we end today's video I do want to give you more information about today's sponsor o WC o WC offers a wide range of products for your Mac like internal hard drives and SSDs memory Thunderbolt 3 docks etc o WC has a couple of products that I literally use on a daily basis like the Excelsior 4m two PCIe module for my mac pro which gives me blazing fast SSD speeds including soft rate options and now comes in a whopping 16 terabyte option 16 terabytes of SSD storage at 6,000 megabytes per second that's incredible when I'm on the go or working between the office or home I like to use the envoy Pro IX external SSD because it too is incredibly fast durable comes with a built-in Thunderbolt 3 cable so you don't need to bring around any extra cables and OWCA is also bumping its storage to give users the chance to pick up a 4 terabyte model of that external drive so for more information about these products or anything else o WC has to offer be sure to click the link in the description down below this video MacRumors thanks so much for watching and I hope to see you around in the next video youthis video is sponsored by OWCA last month Apple announced a new MacBook Air and an iPad pro with an all-new match a keyboard accessory to really give the iPad pro that traditional laptop like feel this past week Apple also launched its latest 13-inch MacBook Pro and so in this video I figured why not quickly break down these three devices to see which one might be right for you before we get started be sure to subscribe and hit the bell to get notifications whenever we share a video before we get into the comparison I do want to let you know which machines will be tested for this video the MacBook Air is the base model that features a 10th gen dual-core intel core i3 processor intel iris + graphics 8 gigabytes of ram and 256 gigs of internal storage on the macbook pro side we also have the base model but it features an eighth generation quad core Intel Core i5 processor with Intel iris + graphics 8 gigabytes of RAM and 256 gigs of internal storage finally the 20/20 iPad pro offers apples a 12 Z Bionic chip 6 gigabytes of RAM and 128 gigs of internal storage the base model MacBook Air that we have is 999 dollars the MacBook Pro is $12.99 and the iPad pro with magic keyboard which in my mind is a necessary accessory to get that full laptop like experience that we talked about that will cost users around 1350 so last month we did a comparison video of the MacBook Air and the iPad pro and we spent a lot of time going over the differences between each device so I don't really think we need to do that again if you do want to see that video I'll leave that link in the card in the upper right-hand corner but instead I kind of want to go over performance and benchmarks of each device talk about what I think each device is capable of and which one I choose if I had to pick one so in terms of benchmarks and really starting with Geekbench which is kind of the go-to for people who aren't familiar with exactly how powerful these iPad pros can be you'll be plenty surprised to see that it's very capable of outperforming both the MacBook Air and the 13-inch MacBook Pro in fact the eye Pro just barely edged out the new 10th generation Intel processor on the MacBook Air and is quite a bit ahead of the 8th gen chip that's found on the base model 2020 macbook pro for single core scores in multi-core the iPad pro was far and away ahead of both the MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air with the MacBook Pro coming in second by a healthy margin over the MacBook Air I guess it's comforting to know that this very expensive iPad is benchmarking better than the other two options but how does this translate into real world use well for me as a content creator is something that I do on a regular basis is transferring files from an SD card or an external hard drive or exporting videos from a project and so I performed each of those tasks on these devices this isn't going to be an exact science but I did my best to kind of time things out and with this file that's about 1.3 gigs in size a very standard small video file that I might transfer and move around quite a bit that took approximately five seconds for both the MacBook Pro in the MacBook Air while the iPad pro unfortunately suffered a lot with not only transferring files from external drive to the iPad but just kind of file management as a whole is still not very good it's still weird to see this very powerful iPad take nearly 50 seconds to finish that transfer now on the other hand when exporting a video and Final Cut Pro or 4 in this case of the iPad pro we had to use luma fusion things are a bit different the iPad pro was able to blaze through an export of a 4k timeline of a 5-minute project in only three minutes the MacBook Pro using Final Cut Pro took around four minutes and ten seconds and the MacBook Air took a bit longer and actually took longer in real time coming in at over five minutes and thirty seconds so to sum this all up the iPad pro is a very powerful machine and more powerful for my day to day use than the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro at least in terms of the base models but none of that really matters if it can't accomplish the task that most people would want to get done so let's go over a few different scenarios for one I can easily argue that those who are working from home right now and using zoom slack video Skype whatever video calling platforms you might actually need the webcam quality on the iPad pro is significantly better than the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro unfortunately when in landscape it always looks a bit weird and you're kind of always looking off to a different side of the screen but you could just take the iPad pro off the keyboard prop it up on a stand in portrait mode for a better angle and a more natural look to others for students looking to take notes read textbooks make flashcards etc all of that stuff can be done on a Mac with no problems but the iPad does offer a few bonus features in conjunction with being able to type out all of those notes and creating presentations etc you can now pair it with an Apple pencil take handwritten notes highlight text easily read text books in a more natural setting like in portrait mode which I've heard people say they'd much rather do over reading it on a Mac and it's been a long time since I was a student but I honestly wish I had an iPad pro as a Productivity tool back over then bring just my general laptop to class creative work can definitely be done on all of these machines though the iPad pro is not compatible with some of the apps that I use or need primarily Final Cut Pro and learning the replacements usually gets put on hold since I don't really have time to sit down and dig into actually learning the software but for those of you who work in something like Photoshop or Lightroom the iPad pros magic keyboard with trackpad support really changed my view on the iPad as a total laptop replacement it can absolutely be done for almost a lot of you out there there are some trade-offs as I mentioned before multitasking is not nearly as good as it would be on a Mac for those who don't like using finder or have hated it in the past I think most of you would gladly take a finder style system for files on the iPad over the files app and battery life is pretty good but you'll take a bit more of a hit with the keyboard accessory attached and although you do get an extra charging port now thanks to the magic keyboard this might still be an issue for some of you out there not having extra Thunder both reports for me personally I'd probably pick the iPad pro like 99.9% of the time if I'm doing anything on a computer that's not video editing so if we take financials out of it I think the iPad pro offers more versatility functionality and performance clearly given the benchmarks that we've seen over the other two machines now if we add money back into the equation because it is very important the base model MacBook Air is by far the best value of the three the MacBook Pro is more of a workhorse machine and would be my choice out of the three for editing and final cut but to really take advantage you'd probably want to step up to the models with the 10th gen processors and those start at $17.99 of course I would love to know your thoughts about each of these machines which one are you thinking about getting maybe you picked one up which one did you choose and why did you choose that particular device go ahead let me know in those comments down below also before we end today's video I do want to give you more information about today's sponsor o WC o WC offers a wide range of products for your Mac like internal hard drives and SSDs memory Thunderbolt 3 docks etc o WC has a couple of products that I literally use on a daily basis like the Excelsior 4m two PCIe module for my mac pro which gives me blazing fast SSD speeds including soft rate options and now comes in a whopping 16 terabyte option 16 terabytes of SSD storage at 6,000 megabytes per second that's incredible when I'm on the go or working between the office or home I like to use the envoy Pro IX external SSD because it too is incredibly fast durable comes with a built-in Thunderbolt 3 cable so you don't need to bring around any extra cables and OWCA is also bumping its storage to give users the chance to pick up a 4 terabyte model of that external drive so for more information about these products or anything else o WC has to offer be sure to click the link in the description down below this video MacRumors thanks so much for watching and I hope to see you around in the next video you\n"