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iPad Pro 12.9 2020

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Jan Anne:
A couple of months ago I accidentally dropped my 3 year old 15” MacBook Pro, besides some scratches everything seemed fine but lately the Mac started acting weird like port failures for disks or charging, vents making strange noises from time to time, etc. So with things still somewhat operational I started looking for alternatives which fitted my current personal and professional needs before the notebook died for good.

The requirements:
- At home it needs to fit my Apple, HomeKit, Hue, AirPlay, Ubiquity, etc ecosystems
- For work it needs to be fully compatible with Microsoft Office 365 including Outlook, Authenticator, Teams, Skype, Yammer, OneDrive, etc
- I live on a large property with poor WiFi reception and (usually) travel a lot so Internet connection needs to be built in
- For hobby’s I need to be able to process, manage and share images and files
- Needs to have a USB-C port, minimal USB 3.2 and preferably Thunderbolt 3
- Nice to have is the compatibility with the ton of iOS apps in use for media consumption and hobby’s

As I was already hesitant to shell out 3K to replace a Mac mid lifecycle while Apple is planning to move away from Intel silicon in the coming years my little list of requirements also made it apparent that yet another MacBook wasn’t the obvious choice anymore to meet all the latest anno 2020 demands, at least not in the current form but maybe with further integration of MacOS and iOS down the road.

After ditching the original iPad years ago as it was merely a glorified iPhone with a big screen it took some time to get used to the idea of an iOS only setup for all my computing needs but with the recent iPad Pro and iPadOS upgrades it was time to give it a try.

So in this topic I would like to share my journey from a MacBook Pro to an 12.9 2020 iPad Pro 4G but am of course also very curious about the experiences from others :)

Attached a snapshot of my new setup with the field grade SupCase Beetle Pro, Paperlike screen protector, Apple Pencil and Asus NVMe SSD.

Akira:
Congrats on your purchase of iPad Pro, Jan.!  I also moved from MacOS to iPaOS last year by switching from MacBook Air to iPad Air for my mobile system.  To me, iOS13 was the game changer as it allowed much more flexible handling of the files.  Now Adobe offers the iOS version of Photoshop.

Since my move, I had added iPhone 8 Plus and then sold both iPhone and iPad Air to buy iPad mini 5.  The system is simple and handy now.  :)

John Geerts:
Thanks for the information.  I am looking forward to learn about the experiences!

Jan Anne:
As we are on NikonGear we of course also have to go into the nerdy technical stuff beyond the knowledge of the average YouTube “experts” whom will sell you anything for their Amazon commissions ;)

Let’s start with the basics and the first thing you need to do when receiving most of today’s new gadgets; charging.

Unlike some devices of the competition you can charge the iPad with almost any USB charger like you can with the recent MacBooks using USB-C ports, it will take some time but you can charge both with the 5W charger which comes with the iPhone in an emergency whereas my Dell work laptop with a USB-C “Thunderbolt 3” port needs a minimum of 45W to charge when in use.

There’s no upper limit either on which charger can be used as all devices determine themselves how many amps are being pulled in once the voltage has been set after the USB Power Delivery negotiations came to an agreed voltage of 5, 9, (12,) 15 or 20 Volt. So the good old 87W of my 15” MBP or the latest 96W charger which come with the 16” models can also be used but testing showed that the max power is around 32 Watt.

In the box however is Apple’s newest 18W USB-C charger which looks a lot like a fat version of the 5W iPhone charger, power wise the 30W USB-C charger which comes with the MacBook Air is better fit however which is close to what the iPad Pro can handle and isn’t much larger than the 18W charger. Especially when the iPad is almost empty a bigger than 18W charger will speed up charging times considerably but once the charge is above 80-90% things will slow down anyway. 

Attached an image of the measured wattage with the iPad less than half full and from left to right the tested 87W, 30W, 18W and 5W chargers.

Jan Anne:

--- Quote from: Akira on June 29, 2020, 19:16:00 ---Congrats on your purchase of iPad Pro, Jan.!  I also moved from MacOS to iPaOS last year by switching from MacBook Air to iPad Air for my mobile system.  To me, iOS13 was the game changer as it allowed much more flexible handling of the files.  Now Adobe offers the iOS version of Photoshop.

Since my move, I had added iPhone 8 Plus and then sold both iPhone and iPad Air to buy iPad mini 5.  The system is simple and handy now.  :)

--- End quote ---
That is some seriously impressive down sizing Akira, do I understand it correctly that you use the iPad Mini as a tablet and as a phone?

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