Surface Ripples

iPads Over the Years

Since 2011, I’ve had four different iPads.

I started in 2011 with the 9” iPad.  To be honest, I love my gadgets and this was a great-looking gadget to try out.  That said, I quickly became “hooked” on the potential this device offered for portable computing rather than lugging around a laptop.

In something like 2016 or so I bought the iPad 13” when it first came out in the 1TB only version. Having more “Screen Real Estate” was great but, being the first 13“ iPad, it weighed a ton and was extremely difficult to hold in one hand for more than about five minutes.

So later on, I naturally downsized to the iPad 11”!  It seemed at the time like the ideal compromise between the heavy and large 13” version and carrying a laptop.  This was also the first iPad I combined with a touchpad keyboard for greater flexibility (and let me tell you now, whatever they say about the price, the iPad “Magic Keyboard” is a dream to use).

You’d have thought that by now I’d finally have found my “Goldilocks iPad”. 

Far from it.

I still felt that the 11” version was too heavy to hold for long periods of time.

No guesses as to what happened next: I bought the updated iPad mini (V.7) when it came out and have been using that since 2024.

I have to admit this is the most flexible iPad I’ve ever owned.  It’s highly portable (I can just squeeze it into a trouser pocket, although it looks slightly peculiar!)  It’s light and does most of what I need it to which is essentially content consumption, internet browsing and a bit of email.  I can also use it to read/sign documents with my Apple Pencil and I’m generally very happy with it. 

Now, whilst it’s light and highly portable, it still has its downsides.  For some strange reason, Apple saw fit not to include Face ID in the iPad Mini package.  Quite why I don’t know as I don’t think this would have taken anything away from it.  It’s larger cousins have it, but that was Apple‘s decision.

Another compromise I’ve had to make is that at 8.3 inches, the “screen real estate” is lacking and therefore I’m usually forced to “zoom in” to be able to read certain sizes of text. It also makes working with drop-down menus far more “fiddly” and I often end up hitting the wrong choice.

Battery life is also compromised as, with a smaller device, one naturally has a smaller battery. Whether it’s my usage or something else, I've noticed that the battery has already lost something like 13% of capacity in about 1.5 years of use (I also have the “charge limit” set to 80% to preserve battery life, so I can’t charge beyond this amount which means I’ll obviously get shorter battery life).  As I’m usually moving between home and office, topping up the battery isn’t a problem: I just have to do it more often.  What this means in practical terms is that if, say, I go on a trip, I need a power bank with me and on a long flight from Asia to the UK (roughly 13 - 14 hours), I’ll probably charge the iPad at least once from the in-aircraft power system.

As a content consumption device, however, it’s without equal in my eyes. Instead of carrying a laptop, iPad and Kindle reader, I can now manage on extended business travel (anything over five days) with my laptop and iPad Mini which doubles as a Kindle with the Kindle app installed.

It’ll also handle simple emailing with its soft keyboard, although the latter tends  to take up a lot of screen space and I find I constantly have to use the “remove keyboard" button to check what I’ve actually typed.  This is easily fixed by using any of the numerous bluetooth keyboards out there that can be connected to the iPad.  An even simpler solution is to use the voice recognition capability of the device to dictate emails and reports as I did to start this article!

The one thing none of the iPads I’ve earned can do is completely replace a laptop.  They can do a lot of “at a pinch“ work (like reading and sending a quick response to an email, reading/signing a document and creating a simple Word or Excel or Powerpoint document) but for people like me who are heavy users of Microsoft office programs, the simple formatting and creative solutions offered on the iPad simply don’t meet my needs.  The odd edit?  Yes. Creating something with animations, etc?  No. 

For those, I’ll still turn to my trusty MacBook - and that's probably just what Apple want...

I deliver change in markets ranging from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management.  I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email.

Labels: Productivity

posted by William Martin @ 09:39