With the iPad Pro and its MacBooks, Apple has long been on two tracks. But the platforms are converging—Macs support iPad apps, and iPads have keyboards and trackpads. If TECHBOOK editor Adrian Mühlroth has his way, the iPad Pro will prevail in the long run and make the laptop superfluous.
In terms of performance, the iPad Pro has long outpaced most laptops. Currently equipped with the M2 chip, the tablet is even faster than the entry-level version of the new MacBook Air – and for significantly less money. The Air comes with an 8-core CPU and 8-core GPU for 1499 euros, while the 11-inch iPad Pro has two additional GPU cores and costs 1049 euros. Add the $369 Magic Keyboard and you have a $1418 mini-laptop that’s cheaper and more powerful than the MacBook Air. In the past, however, software has always held the iPad Pro back.
Is Apple playing 3D chess or is it haphazard?
With the new edition of the iPad Pro in 2018, Apple was way ahead of the competition. 120 Hertz screen, thin bezels and extremely high performance for a tablet. Even then, the Apple A12X Bionic chip was faster than most laptop processors. Quite impressive – but completely oversized for iOS 12 at the time. No app could make use of it, professional applications were still reserved for macOS anyway.
When Apple introduced the Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro in 2020, I was enthusiastic about the elegant design, but I still asked myself what the expensive accessory should be good for. Because back then, the iPad Pro had practically no apps that could make use of the laptop-like operation with a keyboard and trackpad. An accessory that costs almost as much as a completely new iPad should also offer significant added value, right? Instead, there was only a new operation with a mouse pointer, which was also structured quite inconsistently at the start.
Now it has turned out that Apple has pursued a long-term strategy. The Magic Keyboard simply came very early – even before performance and the range of apps could catch up. With the iPad Pro with M1 and currently M2, the company has proven how powerful tablet hardware can be. However, when Apple presented the first iPad Pro with M1 in April 2021, I thought this innovation was superfluous. Back then, iPadOS still had too many limitations and there was no trace of Adobe Premiere Pro and Apple’s Final Cut Pro. The only apps where the increased performance could have actually made a difference in rendering time. The software side is only now closing in on the promise of a compact, flexible iPad suitable for working.
Also read: New iPad Pro could be more expensive than ever
The iPad Pro finally has what it takes to be a laptop replacement
Over the years, the iPad Pro has received more and more functions known from the laptop – including multitasking, resizable windows and even the Stage Manager known from the Mac. But all these functions don’t help if there isn’t a solid app base behind them. That is now changing. The video editor Davinci Resolve for the iPad Pro was only released at the end of 2022. This is already one of the most powerful tools for color correction of videos, which enjoys great popularity in the film industry. Octane X for cinematic 3D rendering and Affinity Publisher for page layouts also came to iPad Pro at the same time. Although this was an important step, the editing program that is THE standard for video editing for many professional content creators was still missing: Final Cut Pro. However, the long wait is over. A version of the Apple program specially developed for the iPad Pro will be released on May 23rd.
Almost as if Apple were trying to make up for lost time, Final Cut Pro for iPad Pro comes with a whole new interface. The jog wheel can be used to scroll through the timeline and the Apple Pencil can be used to draw or write directly over video content. In addition, the tablet version of the editor can access the camera directly and record videos in ProRes format. It’s a pity that at least one iPad Pro with an M1 chip is required for this. The problem isn’t performance at all – even the A12 Bionic chips in older iPad Pros have enough resources. In fact, the older models simply have too little RAM. At least 8 gigabytes are required for Final Cut Pro and these are only available from M1 by default.
After all, owners of older iPad Pros can look forward to the second software innovation from Apple: Logic Pro. The well-known digital audio workstation with sequencer allows you to create and edit music samples. Here, too, the studio microphones of the iPad Pro can be used to quickly record voices and instruments.
Who needs a MacBook anymore?
Of course, the software has its price: both apps cost 4.99 euros per month or 49 euros per year. However, those who use the programs for professional use will hardly be bothered by them. Rather, Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro with desktop-level functionality show that Apple is finally taking the iPad Pro seriously as a laptop replacement. That’s gratifying, since the high-end tablets have long been able to compete with the hardware in the MacBook Pro – and far surpass that in the MacBook Air.
It will therefore be difficult for Apple to justify the MacBook Air as an entry-level laptop in the future. Only those who really use older desktop apps that are only available for macOS should still use a Mac. Even here, there’s no reason the iPad shouldn’t be able to run traditional Mac programs at some point – it’s more than capable of that. However, by offering apps for professional use, Apple has already taken an important step that could mean the end of MacBooks. That would be a major upheaval, but consistent. For most, the iPad Pro is already the better “laptop” today. In the future, MacBook Pros could only play a role for the really difficult tasks that require even more performance.
Anyway, I’ve been using my iPad Pro 11-inch 2018 daily for the past three years and will probably never go back to a traditional laptop. Ever since I got the iPad Pro, my expensive Dell XPS 15 has been gathering dust in the corner. Together with the Magic Keyboard – which I ended up getting during the corona pandemic – the tablet has become a fully-fledged laptop replacement for me. Although I can’t install Final Cut Pro on it, I still edit my videos faster with it than on my laptop.