Can a tablet replace an office laptop ? My journey.

[Bullit]

 

[kojack]

That is a cool tablet for sure, One+ have left a sour taste in my mouth since they were caught ripping people off making fraudulent charges on customers credit cards.  I have sworn them off since then. 

[Bullit]

Did not know that.

[kojack]

That was way back when the first and second versions of the phones were released.  However, It stuck with me as a consumer and tech fan.

[Bullit]

And here 1 year later is the heir to my Xiaomi Pad 6S Pro, the Xiaomi Pad 7S Pro. .

 

https://www.notebookcheck.net/An-extremely-fast-12-6-inch-Android-tablet-at-a-top-price-Xiaomi-Pad-7S-Pro-review.1083816.0.html

 

Note typo on  the title, it is 12.5 not 12.6.

[kojack]

Aweseome hardware internals let down by trying to be the iPad.  OS looks like iPadOS, the exterior, camera, keyboard, pen, etc all are direct copies of the iPad.  Shame. 

[kojack]

I have made up my mind that I am buying something that has 5g connectivity for sure. I had my iPad with me during my week long camping trip.  Never missed a beat. Just open it up and do what I needed to do without having to setup hotspot on my phone etc.  I will be moving to an android tablet but it will need 5g in order for me to consider. 

 

What are your suggestions on which one?

[Bullit]

For me phone hotspot is quite easy to give to my tablet. I only need to click a button in my phone, nothing more since it is in tablet connection memory it automatically starts. 

That said if you are willing to spend the premium cost of a 5G tablet i remember the  Samsungs and also some Lenovos.

[kojack]

On 8/25/2025 at 8:39 PM, Bullit said:

For me phone hotspot is quite easy to give to my tablet. I only need to click a button in my phone, nothing more since it is in tablet connection memory it automatically starts. 

That said if you are willing to spend the premium cost of a 5G tablet i remember the  Samsungs and also some Lenovos.

I have my pixel setup like that too. We are in a hotel right now and the WIFI is sewage.  I setup my hotspot and all is good. 

[kojack]

I have be playing more with my iPad using the 26 preview. It’s WAY better now that they gave it more MacOS like features and usefulness.  I am going to see how it goes. 

[kojack]

I have been using iPadOS 26 for about a week now and there is lots to like.  The actual ability to use windows now is great, and multitasking is working excellent. The menus and stop lights at the top of each app are great additions.  Some downsides is that when using edge and safari, when I got to type in forums like this, the OS stutters and skips an extra screen then goes back, and typing from my Logitech keyboard and track pad lag bad.  I do hope they get this fixed soon.

[kojack]

How’s your tablet working for you? Still using it as your primary? My wife and I are moving to iPad for our only computers soon. Everything I need is on iPad and same with her. She’s going to get the max spec IPad Air, and I am getting the max spec iPad Pro. Both 13 inch. 

 

On our desks we will both have alogic widescreens Hers will be a 34 mines going to be a 40. Add in keyboards and mice and speakers. 

 

I will sell all our PCs to offset cost. 

[kojack]

Upon further research, one glaring problem with doing the switch to iPad, is peripherals. I have an Epson flatbed scanner for scanning film and a large format Epson printer for printing large images.  Neither are Bluetooth. iPad does not work with USB printing.  OH WELL.  back to windows. ha ha.

[Kitje]

16 minutes ago, kojack said:

Upon further research, one glaring problem with doing the switch to iPad, is peripherals. I have an Epson flatbed scanner for scanning film and a large format Epson printer for printing large images.  Neither are Bluetooth. iPad does not work with USB printing.  OH WELL.  back to windows. ha ha.

Is WiFi not an option for printing?

[kojack]

Not for these printers and scanners no. it's all via USB. 

[Bullit]

20 hours ago, kojack said:

How’s your tablet working for you? Still using it as your primary? My wife and I are moving to iPad for our only computers soon. Everything I need is on iPad and same with her. She’s going to get the max spec IPad Air, and I am getting the max spec iPad Pro. Both 13 inch. 

 

On our desks we will both have alogic widescreens Hers will be a 34 mines going to be a 40. Add in keyboards and mice and speakers. 

 

I will sell all our PCs to offset cost. 

 

Yes. The only problem is the save files management as i said before. 

I have a printer/scanner etc. HP 4656 from 2018 and works ok with WIFI in the house with the HP app.

 

I still have my 17.3 gaming laptop and use it to backup MS OneNote files in situ - Android MS OneNote only save files in the cloud. So that is another issue.

[Bullit]

Check if there is some sort of usb to wifi device. Maybe a dock.

[kojack]

My printer is actually wifi I probably can get a dock but no software to run the scanner. I use it to scan 35mm and 120mm film from my film cameras . I am typing this on the iPad now and enjoying the experience. I have to figure out what I need for my business software and go from there.

[Bullit]

Get  cheap computer to run the scanner with whatever OS the software to run it needs.

[kojack]

My wife and I are starting something new here, so I will be purchasing two new laptops and desktops for us asap. I am doing some research. I have my iPad already for in the field use. I think it will work for now. I am seriously looking at moving to the "darkside" for our pcs.  think I am wanting to try something new and apple has it. I won't be getting rid of my pixel devices, but I am seriously looking at a new ipad, macbook and imac for her and a new macbook and mini pro for me. 

 

I really don't know at this time.  Windows pcs are all over the place now where I see no benefit of buying one over a mac. There use to be lots of benefits like upgrades when you are ready, software compatibility etc.  Now it's you are buying a windows macbook without the high quality. 

[Bullit]

Seems a substantial investment.

[Aaron44126]

9 hours ago, kojack said:

Now it's you are buying a windows macbook without the high quality. 

 

I mean, that's part of what pushed me to buy a MacBook (2+ years ago). "If you're going to make me buy a system that is difficult to repair and with limited upgrade options ... I might as well just buy a Mac, then."

 

I've spent a lot of time with Windows, Linux, and macOS. macOS is the best fit for me right now. There are definitely things about both the Apple hardware and software that I would like to see changed. But overall, it is just better than the alternatives.

 

If you're going to get rid of Windows (...and that totally makes sense, given the direction they are going...), I think macOS is better for productivity and Linux is better for gaming. Don't expect macOS to be perfect out of the gate, though. There will be a "learning curve" to get used to the "Apple way" of doing things, and there will probably need to be third-party tools installed to get the behavior that you want (i.e. especially if you want mouse scroll wheel behavior that isn't terrible).

 

This is fun:

 

[kojack]

14 hours ago, Bullit said:

Seems a substantial investment.

It is but we keep our systems for a long time. My current dell is from 2020 and in all honesty, I do love the system. The issue is I have to fight some times to turn it on. Meaning there is a software issue dell refuses to fix on their laptops.  You press the power button and it either does not produce graphics display or it does for a second and goes black or distorted. I have to boot my system 3 or 4 times to get it to work. It's a known dell laptop issue, and 3 of ours are affected. 

 

No bios updates etc fix it. There are many many reports of this issue on the Dell forums and there are no fixes. Then, I am looking at the current state of windows as well. The software I will be using is available on Mac for the most part with one program available on windows, Mac OS and android.  Supposedly there is a web based version as well. So that would be my only stumbling point. I only have 2 laptops on the windows side that would work for me which is the Razer 14 and the Asus proart/G 16.  I am missing items with both.  Plus with the price of both of them I could get 2 macbook air's configured the way I want for both of us. 

 

The iPad I have now is working fine and doing the things I need. Would more power be better for my creative work? sure, but if I got the macbook it would be a great companion device. 

[Weylaru]

I tried replacing my work laptop with an iPad Pro 12.9 for a year. It was great for email, Docs, Teams and OneNote, and the external monitor support is decent now, but in bright sun it’s only really usable in shade. I ended up moving to a Surface Pro 9 i5 because it’s fanless, wakes instantly, runs full Windows apps, and the pen in OneNote feels the most natural when I’m scribbling during meetings.

If you stay Android, make sure the USB‑C does DP Alt Mode for true extended desktop and test OneNote inking before buying. When I upgraded, I used a UK comparison site to sell my phone, freepost and a quick bank transfer made it painless.

[Bullit]

But still not usable in the bright sun?