The Truth About The iPad Pro...

Well, I said I was gonna use this device exclusively

I am going to go laptop-less. Computer-less. What is it, Jack? It's the iPad Pro

Ladies and gentlemen, there it is. That's the 11-inch iPad Pro. I told you I was gonna use it exclusively for two weeks

I think it went longer than that. Maybe someone can fact check me on this, but I think it's been three weeks

Maybe even a month, I don't know. As far as the iPad Pro is concerned, that's kind of a good thing

Because it means that I didn't miss my laptop as much as I thought I would

That's weird to say because I do miss using a laptop. I do have to be honest about that

But I was at least capable of living, surviving with this setup here

With the bizarre new age future of computing as far as Apple sees it

Like that kind of a thing there. Fingerprints? That's what happens. If you use an iPad, this is your future

You tap, you touch. What did I learn? Well, it's not a laptop, okay

It's not a computer in the sense of how people use that terminology

I still think that this device works best like this. Just like a tablet

It's the most comfortable to hold. It's about a pound like this, which makes it significantly lighter than any laptop you're gonna buy

It's of course very powerful. The speakers are good. And when you're sitting back and you're on the couch or you're in bed or something

this is comfortable and it's versatile. Even in a sort of coffee shop scenario, you can find a comfy spot

But the problem comes in when you want to do computer stuff relating to a keyboard

Now, Apple's done something kind of cool here with this cover. There's a lot that I like about it

It's super lightweight. With this connected to the iPad, it still comes in around 1.7 pounds

But it's still a small keyboard with very limited key travel. This is a weird thing to say but this is probably the one thing that reminds me of what I miss when using a laptop Which is like a nice clicky physical keyboard For me I have the luxury okay of using all these products having all these laptops iPads and so on

So it's hard to figure out how this investment, an investment in an iPad Pro, along with this case

which takes you up over $1,000, how that compares mapped one-to-one for an individual who can only have one or the other

Because there are advantages on the iPad side. You get great battery life, no fan noise

You get multiple methods of interaction. I was making music in the Oxy app on here

I was doing some video editing in LumaFusion. Is that what it's called

Yeah, LumaFusion, which is kind of like Final Cut Pro. So I'm not the guy that's going to come in here

and say that this device has no place, no purpose. The idea of having the pen charging on the side

It kind of motivates you to use that new modern input method

There's a lot that I like about this. But still, for a user like me who has this history of using laptops much like many of you do

I think at least for a while you're going to wish that you had access back to that laptop for certain things

The other day I had a zip file, a compressed archive. and I gotta go get a third party app to pull it out

and then put the file in drive and then pull it out of drive and there's these little moments where you're like

okay, this thing is not fully fleshed out. It doesn't mean that this isn't indicative of an eventual reality

of a future of computing. It might very well be that at some point

but right now, you know, it would be dishonest to say that there aren't some shortcomings

Oftentimes, you know, I'll go set up in a coffee shop. You probably saw I have been using this there and I'm thinking to myself what I have worked more quickly if I just popped out like a little

12 inch Mac book Which is essentially the same form factor weight and so on what I done the things I did more quickly most of the time I like geez I probably would have been faster for my personal situation just having the little laptop it might have been a little less cool Casual input so like anything that isn I going to sit down and do something serious feels a bit more fun on the iPad

Now I know it's very anecdotal, it's like, what does that mean for me

I'm just saying, when you're sitting in the morning shortly after waking up, or you're using this thing to just scan through email or something like this

There's something nice and inviting and different, less work-like, if that makes any sense, to just opening up your email client and just swiping through in this kind of a fashion right here

There's something about that input method which lends itself well to that type of casual behavior

But that's where this thing is kind of still an iPad. It doesn't mean you can't do work on here

I have done work on here. This is the coolest aspect. This pen thing, I never used the pens in the past

Even on the Note series phones, the Surface stuff. I just never reached for the pen

The Pixelbook, all those various devices. I think the reason is it's not front and center and constantly charging

This location for the pen invites you to use it. And it's always charged up and it's always connected

That's nice. Little nitpick here though on the cover. I don't know what this material is, but it's a bit gross

What is this? A $250 accessory. and it's got this kind of cheap plastic feel to it

If this was made of leather or something more substantial, my entire feeling about this product as a replacement for a laptop would increase

The likelihood of me accepting this reality would increase if this thing was just a bit more substantial than whatever they've chosen to make it out of

I mean, this is after three weeks of use. I don't know if Apple could put some feet on here, possibly

or like I said make it out of a different more robust material I think that would really change

my feelings about the device the keyboard it a great attachment it totally increases your productivity there all kinds of shortcuts that you can use to get in between apps and so on I did a couple tests where I would hook this thing up to an actual external keyboard I came to this conclusion that if you could eliminate this particular drawback you could take away a lot

of that laptop insecurity pretty quickly. Ergonomically, anywhere that isn't a desk

like a couch or something like that, I think this thing really excels. You just pull this off

you're interacting. I mean, it's smooth. It's nice. I like the product. I really do. I think

this is going to have a place within my workflow. Now, I know what you're asking. You see, you're

like, Lou, you're the special case. Lou, you get to have the laptop and the iPad Pro and God knows

whatever else gets sent to you. And you're right. It's true. That's the case. I'll just keep trying

everything as it comes through and I'll have way more devices than I can use. But you, on the other

hand, you may have to make a choice between this and a laptop. And for me, it breaks down real

simple. If you're going to do a ton of typing, like if you are constantly going to need access

to a great keyboard attached to a screen, I don't think this is the setup for you. But

if you're not a heavy keyboard user, there's a case to be made that this could be a bit more

convenient for you. So if you want an ultra portable scenario with great battery life

an awesome screen to interact with, and you want to be a part of this like futuristic idea

You can get by. You can look past some of those shortcomings in a way that I didn't expect

I expected to hate this life, to hate this thing more than I did

And that didn't happen. I lived my life. I was okay. Does that mean I've given up on laptops and computers? Absolutely not

As soon as this video is over, I'm going to sit down in front of my MacBook Pro. I got a smoothie over here. I'm going to drink that. I'm going to tap those keys

I'm going to get the satisfaction of tactile key presses. That's how it breaks down

I think it's a good product. I don't think it's going to replace a laptop for me. It could for you

That just depends on who you are