Redifining the Computer - M1 iPad Pro

We all know that Apple has started innovating again with the launch of their M1 SOC(System on a chip). The M1 Processor is ARM based and yet is so powerful and so efficient that it makes the Intel Macs look like a joke.

Apple has also been trying to promote their iPad pro line as a replacement for your laptop and with iPad OS, Mouse and keyboard support and the Magic keyboard, it seemed to actually be working, even though the price tag is a bit steep when you factor in all the things that you need to buy separately such as the Apple pencil and the Magic keyboard

But even though the iPad pro is a capable laptop replacement, the same can be said about the Samsung Tab S7. Now sure, it does run android and it maybe needs a bit of tweaking to get to anywhere near iPad OS levels of productivity focused UI, but don’t forget that since this is running android and has a lot of RAM at its disposal, you can easily run a Virtual Linux distro and you have the full power of a desktop computer.

But, the Tab can no longer be compared to the iPad pro, because now Apple put their desktop class M1 Chips into their iPad Pros! This tells us that Apple is pretty sure that the future of their computers is going to be the iPad Pro. Another indicator of this is that now the iPad has thunderbolt. It also comes with either 8 GB or 16 GB of RAM. This shows us that Apple is sure that the iPad pro is going to replace laptops.

The performance of the M1 is much superior to the A12 Bionic chip found in the previous gen iPad Pro. It is nearly 50% more powerful and due to the large amount of RAM, multitasking is seamless. You can literally open 20 apps and jump to the 1st one without any lag.

Now, I believe Apple has done a fantastic job with the new iPad Pro, and I won’t be surprised if they start to blur the lines between MacOS and iPad OS in their next event. Can this be a laptop replacement? Sure, but only for some people. If you are into creative work, then the iPad Pro is the clear choice. To my surprise, Microsoft Office runs better on the iPad than on the android counterparts.

But if I were to buy a tablet as a laptop replacement, I would still prefer to go with something like the Samsung Tab S7 as the freedom that android provides is far more valuable. Maybe when Samsung boosts their specs a little bit, the Tab with Linux on it can be a far better desktop experience than the iPad Pro. But for now, the most powerful tablet that can replace your laptop still remains the new M1 iPad pro. (That is if you are not a developer. If you are a developer, you probably don’t even want to replace your laptop at all 🙂)