Surprise!! It’s Better than the M2 Version.

Earlier this year, I traded in an older MacBook Air, and sold my M3 MacBook Pro so I could get a 13 inch M3 MacBook Air. The Pro is clearly a fantastic machine, but for my purposes and uses, the MBA is a better fit. I’m not editing terabytes of ProRes video, or modeling cancer cell genes or whatever.

I’m a dude who writes and enjoys good tech hardware. The MacBook Pro’s I found to be less comfortable and more fatiguing to write on than the Air. So, I ordered an up spec (16 gigs 1TB) Air that has a now “obsolete” chip and am very happy with it. For me, how I use, and what I need from a computer, the Air beats the Pro, and it wasn’t much of a contest. The Air does for me that the Pro doesn’t: it allows me to comfortably work / write for extended periods.

This is a very long winded way of introducing what for me are the killer apps for the shiny new M4 iPad Pro with the equally shiny any new Magic Keyboard. First are the ergonomics. Apple did what it typically does best; takes something that’s already pretty good and makes it better. Second, and some people are gonna moan and groan about this; it runs iPadOS, not MacOS.

Here’s the hardware I chose and why I selected it.

I got the 13-inch. When I tried an 11 for several months, it left me flat; I like the bigger screen. My iPad Pro’s (I’ve been using them since the beginning. Kate sill uses a 2nd gen) are either on my lap or in my backpack for the most part. I found no true advantage to the 11-inch portability wise, and the functionality was considerably decreased. Given that it had to happen, I also got the new Magic Keyboard. I struggle to draw stick figures, and as such have never owned an Apple Pencil. That hasn’t changed.

A given for me was that it would have a cellular (5G) modem. I spend a lot of time where there’s no WiFi, at least none that’s able to be connected to. For me this is one of (if not the) chief reasons I choose to carry a laptopified (we can make up words here, right?) iPad Pro instead of a MacBook.

After being rigorously honest about how I use my iPad Pro, I couldn’t justify the $$$ needed to get into the 16gb of RAM club. My video editing extends to trimming the first few seconds off a screen shot captured Instagram video. Further, I find it hard to believe that Apple is going to announce a version of iPadOS next month that an M4 with 8gb of RAM won’t cut thru like a hot knife thru butter.

I went with the base 256 Gigs of storage. I leave my pictures in the cloud, don’t hold onto every text I’ve ever sent, and only download videos from streamers when I need to. When I’m finished watching, I delete them. What music I choose to have downloaded lives on my iPhone (as do full res pictures) At no point, even with having a decent number of shows and movies downloaded for travel, did my last iPad Pro break the 120 gigs of storage used threshold. I’m guessing iPadOS will grow next month, but not enough to hobble 256 gigs of storage. Should I need more, there’s a terabyte SSD in my backpack, and Thunderbolt is pretty speedy.

Looking at the pics, they speak clearly to what my experience with the M4 IPP has been for the last week; it feels eerily similar a 13 inch MacBook Air.

The redesigned Magic Keyboard hits all the right points and is an instantly realized improvement. My typical “desk” is my lap, and as anyone who’s used an earlier version of the iPad Pro / Magic Keyboard knows, the balance isn’t great; it’s very top heavy. It’s still not traditional laptop perfect balance, but it takes a good bit more effort to make it tip.

The keyboard itself I’m sure it will feel small and cramped to some, for me, it’s in the Goldilocks zone. The function keys are great, and I’m sure I’ll be used to them in short order.

The feel of the M4 device as I go thru my day and routines (it’s more or less always attached to the Magic Keyboard) is a good bit different from the previous generation. It feels I suppose more complete than the M2 did; more refined. The weight and thickness reductions turned out to be the upgrade we needed but didn’t know we needed.

I’ve got zero issue or concern with durability. Yes, give it to a 3 year old without a case and all bets are off. Of course, accidents can and will happen. Apple Care Plus, baby.

The screen is great, I’m not really sure what more to say about it. It’s crisp, very bright when it needs to be. I never had an issue with the screen on my M2 IPP, which may explain why I’m on the meh side about the screen. Don’t get me wrong, I doubt you’ll find a better one on a tablet, or maybe laptop for that matter. That said, the bar to clear was already seriously high with the last generation. So much so, that the screen is perhaps the single biggest reason I prefer the iPad Pro over the iPad Air. The refresh rate for whatever reason bugs me on an iPad without ProMotion (aka 120hz refresh). I don’t notice it near as much on the MacBooks.

One big surprise so far has been that the new IPP sounds better. There’s (by my squinting count anyway) 4 extra cutout’s for each of the four speaker array’s. I’m not sure what they did on the inside, (perhaps a real tech blogger knows that) but it makes my ears smile.

The battery life in day to day use is a good couple hours longer than the M2 version.

Late edit to this post….then my grandson and I used it to watch a movie on Disney + (Planes: Fire & Rescue). The screen is a notable step up from the previous version. It’s pretty clearly the best screen I’ve ever used

Of course, at least for now, it’s still running the same iPad OS as every other iPad. This works for me. I guess it’s more of a mindset thing, but I’d rather find what’s good with what’s here that gripe about what it can’t do. At this point I get the limitations of platform, and if I need to do something that’s beyond the reach of iPadOS, I grab my Mac. It’s using the right tool for the job. IPadOS is stable, snappy, and like it or not is kind of the modern face of computing. Pretty much any human between the ages of 2 and 102 either knows intuitively how to use it or can learn pretty quickly.

Comparison is the thief of joy. It’s an iPad, not a Mac.

My sense is If you’re comparing a MacBook Pro with an iPad Pro, you’re making the wrong comparison. It seems the closest MacBook cousin is clearly the Air; Apple marketing, the “reality distortion field”, and use of the word “Pro” be damned. Both use base level version of the current M series chips, both have limited I/O ports, and neither has any fans. Clearly both are very capable devices, but they’re best off staying in their lanes. If you need heavy duty processing in a mobile form factor, the MacBook Pro is much more what you’re after.

I started writing this post on the M4, and will finish / post it as well. No issues.

My last tech article talked about my affinity for the iPad Pro and how if I could only have one tech device, that would be it. Well, I’m going to double down on this now that I have a shiny new M4 iPad Pro.

Thanks for reading!! Be kind to yourself and others…

Sam