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iPad vs Macbook for Students - Can a tablet replace your laptop?

2018-10-10 · Tech review, setup or bag tour · Ali · recording, 9:31 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Tools, apps and tech · mode: Review and recommendation · tags: Aimed at students, Sponsor segment present

Junior doctor Ali argues that an iPad Pro with Apple Pencil cannot yet replace a MacBook for students: it is slower for general use, essays with references, printing, presentations and spreadsheets, so a student choosing between them should get the laptop and use the iPad as a glorified piece of paper.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The conclusion up front: the iPad probably cannot replace your laptop

  • ★★★ Ali's up-front verdict is that an iPad Pro with Apple Pencil probably cannot replace a MacBook Pro or equivalent laptop: the iPad is not yet at the point where it feasibly can. (hedged) — 00:00:00 · iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, MacBook
  • ★ Ali says he is a fan of up-front conclusions, so he gives his verdict at the start of the video. — 00:00:00

00:00:42 — Sponsor read for UNiDAYS

00:01:11 — The plan of the video

  • ★★ The story of the whole iPad-versus-laptop debate, Ali thinks, is that an iPad can sort of replace a laptop but would be such an annoyance for many tasks that it is probably not worth doing. (hedged) — 00:01:11 · iPad, MacBook, iPad Pro
  • ★★ MacBook Pros start at about £1,500, which Ali calls a lot of money. — 00:01:40 · MacBook

00:01:46 — The case for the iPad

  • ★★ For a student who only writes a few assignments, takes notes in class and watches YouTube, Netflix or Facebook, Ali says replacing the laptop with an iPad kind of makes sense, though it is not the full story. — 00:02:17 · iPad, iPad Pro

00:02:36 — General efficiency

  • ★★ Devices are only tools for your own tasks, Ali says, and the one to have is the device that gets a student's essay or assignment done fastest, leaving time for more interesting things. — 00:02:47
  • ★★★ For general efficiency the iPad is not a very efficient device, Ali says: its touch navigation is cool but objectively slower than navigating with a keyboard on a MacBook. — 00:02:47 · iPad, MacBook, keyboard navigation, iPad Pro
  • ★★ Opening a web address on an iPad takes a swipe up to the dock, a tap on Safari, a tap on the address bar and typing; on a MacBook used with Spotlight, Alfred and keyboard navigation, Ali says, almost anything is a little faster. — 00:03:16 · iPad, Safari, MacBook, Alfred, keyboard navigation, iPad Pro
  • ★★★ Ali genuinely tried replacing his MacBook with an iPad for a few days of standard student work and found that it was possible, but he grew frustrated with how slow the whole process was. — 00:03:16 · MacBook, iPad, iPad Pro
  • ★★ Ali wants an action done as soon as he thinks of it, which a fast typing speed with Alfred or Spotlight allows, while on an iPad the software and the touch interface hold him back. — 00:03:45 · Alfred, iPad, iPad Pro

00:04:14 — Essays and references

  • ★★ For essays and long assignments with references, finding good reference software and integrating it with a word processor is much more of a pain on the iPad than on a MacBook or a Windows laptop, Ali says. — 00:04:14 · iPad, MacBook, Microsoft Windows, iPad Pro
  • ★★ On a MacBook or Windows laptop there are EndNote and Mendeley; Ali uses Mendeley with its Microsoft Word plugin, which he says just works nicely and which everyone knows how to use. — 00:04:14 · MacBook
  • ★★ At medical school Ali collaborated with friends on several papers, and all of them having Microsoft Word with the Mendeley plugin kept their references from getting messed up. — 00:04:14
  • ★★ Anyone writing essays with references will be glad in the long run to have a laptop rather than only an iPad, Ali says. — 00:04:59 · iPad Pro
  • ★★ Ali has gone completely paperless but still has to print very occasionally, such as travel expense forms for claiming back from the university the cost of travelling to his medical school placement. — 00:04:59

00:05:09 — Printing

  • ★★ Printing from an iPad is possible but a pain, since AirPrint printers seldom connect reliably, Ali says; with a laptop you can always plug in the printer's USB cable, so a MacBook makes printing more pleasant. — 00:05:41 · MacBook, iPad, iPad Pro

00:06:09 — Presentations

  • ★★ PowerPoint or Keynote presentations can be made on an iPad, Ali says, but it is much faster on a laptop, whose interface everyone knows, including anyone you hand the file to. — 00:06:09 · Microsoft PowerPoint, iPad, MacBook, iPad Pro
  • ★★★ Preparing a teaching session for students in the year below, Ali tried to make the presentation in Keynote on his iPad, gave up after about five minutes of struggling, and went home to do it on his MacBook. — 00:06:38 · iPad, MacBook, iPad Pro
  • ★★ Ali uses Google Sheets for many things, including his active recall spreadsheets and spaced repetition. — 00:07:07 · Google Sheets, active recall, spaced repetition
  • ★★ Google Sheets can be used on an iPad, Ali says, but formulas, conditional formatting and dragging formulae across cells are much faster on his MacBook. — 00:07:07 · Google Sheets, iPad, MacBook, iPad Pro

00:07:09 — Spreadsheets

00:07:43 — Wrapping up: the iPad as a glorified piece of paper

  • ★★ Ali still absolutely loves his iPad Pro and uses it every day: at work for his to-do list, for drafting YouTube videos and for taking notes. — 00:08:10 · iPad Pro

  • ★★★ For the most part Ali uses his iPad as a glorified piece of paper, and he says that is not the only device you want to have with you. — 00:08:10 · iPad Pro

    “I'm using my iPad as a glorified piece of paper.”

  • ★★★ A student really choosing between an iPad and a laptop should definitely go for the laptop, Ali says. — 00:08:10 · iPad, MacBook, iPad Pro

  • ★★ In a few years, if tablets get more advanced or if he switches to the Microsoft ecosystem and a Surface, Ali says he may make another video readdressing whether an iPad can replace a laptop. (hedged) — 00:08:39 · iPad Pro

In the description and comments

  • ★★ In a channel reply of October 2020 to a viewer asking for an updated version of this iPad-versus-laptop video now that iPadOS has made the iPad Pro a more viable laptop replacement, Ali says he has made one. — creator comment · iPad Pro

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: iPad · iPad Pro · MacBook

Also: Concepts: active recall · keyboard navigation · spaced repetition

Products: Alfred · Apple Pencil · EndNote · Google Sheets · Keynote · Mendeley · Microsoft PowerPoint · Microsoft Surface · Microsoft Windows · Microsoft Word · Safari · Spotlight

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