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Ode to the Cheapest iPad

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not much of an Apple guy. Never owned an iPhone and never owned a Mac.  But I really do like the iPad.

One of my curiosities – pre pandemic - was to see how light I can travel, while still being 100% productive. I guess that comes from too many business trips in the past, lugging around big heavy laptops and always hunting for an electrical outlet and a Wi-Fi connection. My laptop is far lighter these days, but an iPad is so much more convenient, as long as you can get real work done .

In that blissful period between the first bout of COVID and delta variant, when we were able to move around, go to the office and visit clients – I checked an iPad out of our project stock to see if I could really use it for a full day as my work device. It is the cheapest, most basic iPad 8. Is is protected by a simple cover, no keyboard, no pencil.

Because I use it mainly for work, the most frequently used apps are Teams, Outlook, ToDo etc. I rarely use an Apple app.

There are many tasks I can do perfectly well on an iPad: calls on Teams, Zoom or Webex, email, reviewing files. I greatly appreciate that the iPad fits into a small bag, weighing practically nothing, then when you have 10 minutes to sit down and work, it’s there doing almost everything you need.

There are limitations. If I need to go deep into a dense spreadsheet, or create slides for a presentation, then I’m waiting to get back in front of a notebook. If I’m commenting on or proofing someone else’s document or presentation, or writing words that someone else will design, again iPad is fine.

Something I do appreciate about Apple is the products are built to last, and the software gets updated for years. On the home front, we recently replaced our 8 year old family iPad with a new iPad Pro. The old iPad still works fine, running the latest software. It had memory limitations, and we wanted better mic and speakers for online schooling. There are not that many consumer products designed to last more than 8 years.

Which brings me to value. An iPad Pro and most flagship smartphones are over USD 1,000. The basic iPad is just over USD 300. At one-third the price of the Pro, the basic iPad does almost everything the Pro does. It looks a little dated, but iPad has to be one of the best value-for-money tools you can buy today. I find a certain freedom in that. It is a completely different feeling to throw a $300 tool in your bag, than a $1,000 tool. I’m much less precious about it.

Another benefit is that iPad is so dominant, other software makers take it seriously. The Microsoft and Google apps on iPad are generally excellent. A while ago, I needed to make a last-minute change to a PowerPoint file, while traveling between two places. There was an image in on old file to be copied into the new file. And not just copied – it needed to be inserted in that little slot where images go, so the size and position is just so (fellow PowerPoint serfs know what I mean). This is usually the time when Murphy shows up and it all gets way too hard. I pulled up both files side by side on the iPad and dragged the image across with my finger into its little slot. And it just worked. Perfectly. I felt like I was living in a promotional video for the future.

Not everything is perfect.  32GB base level of storage is woefully inadequate and I bump up against the limit regularly. I see the newly released iPad 9 has 64GB, which should make a huge difference.

I feel like a tablet has become a more personal device than a phone. We are constantly on and off our phones - checking messages, finding directions, translating a phrase, checking what time the footy kicks off. I find phones have become a painful necessity. I don’t enjoy the time using my phone. When I use a tablet, it is a conscious decision to spend 15 minutes knocking out some work, or a few minutes relaxing, reading or watching video. 

And that can all be achieved with the cheapest iPad.

When it comes to iPads, you don’t necessarily need to shell out your hard-earned money on the top model. The cheap one might be all you need.

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Location: Bang Phli District, Samut Prakan, Thailand

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