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Can the M1 MacBooks Replace My iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard?

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Apple silicon has arrived in the new MacBook Air and Pro with M1. What does that mean for my iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard? A few months ago I made a video about how Apple silicon Macs could reduce the appeal of my iPad Pro for couch and mobile computing.

Why I love the iPad Pro

My 12.9-inch iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard has been my go-to computer for two years, and the keyboard’s trackpad made it so much better. Together they give me 95% of what I need. It’s versatile because it’s a 2-in-1: pop the iPad off the keyboard to play games or surf the web on the couch, then reattach it to log into work servers, crank out emails or research.

  • Performance: it never slows down. Even the two-year-old A12X keeps up with my 2020 iMac for most tasks and sometimes outperforms it.
  • Connectivity: for a mobile computer, I need internet everywhere without fooling with insecure or crappy Wi-Fi. The built-in LTE is always ready, with no thinking about connecting or security.
  • Battery: as good as ever. Apple has promised about 10 hours since the original iPad in 2010. The Magic Keyboard seems to lessen that a little (anecdotally, I charge more often), but I don’t have battery anxiety away from a cord, and it lasts longer than any laptop I used before.
  • Safari is really good, especially with mouse support, and it’s the app I use most. It acts almost like a desktop browser, with two-finger swipes for back and forward, and sometimes has features native apps lack: for a long time you couldn’t do picture-in-picture in the YouTube iPad app, but in Safari you can. Sometimes websites still don’t work correctly because it’s not a true desktop browser, and then I go to a Mac or PC or remote into one.
  • Apps: most are perfect, and some have features a Mac can’t match: offline video playback in Netflix, or Apple Pencil support with a touch screen. But sometimes I need a full computer for certain kinds of video editing, sharing files, or applications that don’t exist on iPad.

I’ve had many PowerBooks, MacBooks and PC laptops. I do corporate IT for my real job, used PCs for the last seven years before this summer, and Macs for about 18 years before that. What drew me to the iPad were battery life, performance, cellular connectivity, and being cool and fanless; the 2-in-1 was a bonus and I liked the challenge of seeing whether the iPad could be my daily driver.

The M1 MacBooks

They look just like the previous MacBooks. If you used an early 2020 MacBook Air, you may have noticed it was really slow, got hot and roared its fans just from using Notes, and Apple Arcade games were so loud you couldn’t hear the game with the volume at max. Are the M1 MacBooks slow? No: they’re surprisingly fast, beating my iPad Pro and my 2020 mid-tier iMac in Geekbench, and doing everything (edit video, surf, watch video, Twitter) without slowing down. As on the iPad Pro, there’s no fan in the Air; the Pro’s fan is off almost all the time, and I only heard it after Cinebench for 5 minutes or exporting a video with Premiere Pro (an unoptimized Intel app).

You might think the battery can’t match the iPad’s with desktop apps, multiple windows and less optimization in macOS than iPadOS: you’d be wrong. Apple says up to 10 hours of web surfing for the iPad Pro, but up to 15 hours on the new MacBook Air and 17 hours on the MacBook Pro. They can also run iPad apps natively from the Mac App Store; LumaFusion, one of my favorites, worked much faster on the MacBooks than on the iPad.

What the MacBooks can’t do

  • No cellular. One of my biggest disappointments. There’s no substitute for built-in LTE that’s always there. (Yes, I know you can tether from your iPhone and set it to connect automatically, but that drains your iPhone battery. I was certain Apple silicon would bring cellular options: if the iPad can, why not these?)
  • No touch screen. I used to be against touchscreen laptops, but after using the iPad Pro as my laptop for years, there are times when touching the screen is easier or more comfortable than a trackpad: after many hours on a trackpad, I get arm or wrist fatigue, and reaching out to touch the screen is like a stretch. Some iPad apps and games work really well with touch and would translate to a touchscreen Mac.
  • Not every iPad app is available on the Mac, because developers opt out or the Mac lacks hardware like a rear camera or gyro.
  • Price: the 12.9-inch iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard is about $1,350, and the new Air about $1,000.

Where I land

I don’t know which device I’ll use as my primary in a month. The iPad is simple, fast and has great battery life, and I can fire up any app and be online without thinking. Rarely, I need a full computer, and I use my desktop or remote into it from the iPad. A MacBook as my primary would give me a full computer again with outstanding performance and run time, and Mac and iPad apps. I’ll keep using both until I need to decide which one to take on a trip. Which features matter most to you in a portable computer: connectivity, apps or battery life? If you’ve decided on a MacBook, see my video on the Air vs. Pro.

In this video

Some links in this post are affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I may receive a small commission. See my ethics statement.

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