Personal Tech Set-Up

My new set-up for personal projects. Credits to M.

This is a tech review for people who are considering to buy either a laptop or a tablet. I have gone on a major research expedition for the replacement to my prematurely-dead Macbook. There was a lot of studying going on here because I know that the companies behind consumer tech ads and reviews will want to create needs in us where there originally was none. We’d want to value the products we have and don’t want to be tempted to buy things we don’t need. 

So after my first and last iPad was the iPad 2 from several years ago, I bit the bullet and got an iPad Air 4 with a Smart Keyboard folio and Apple Pencil 2. I could use a personal device after my Macbook died last year.  I was considering either a Macbook Air or an iPad and took quite some time in deciding. It all boils down to: laptop or tablet? Tablets are fun but can it do everything a laptop can do?

After backing up everything from my hard drives into the cloud and months (!) of careful research, I chose the iPad Air 4 over a Macbook Air, iPad Pro, and iPad 8 for the following reasons:

• “Pick-up” Factor, over the Macbook Air: I noticed that I tend to not immediately pick up my laptop for most things because of (a) the time it takes to boot up — even for Macs, it’s kind of a slow start still if you immediately want to use it, and have to wait for the boot up; (b) laptops need a surface to use it on, which makes it a little awkward if you’re lying down; (c) you have to be a bit more careful when you’re using a laptop. So I tend to pick up my phone most of the time over my laptop, and figured that I would be picking up and using an iPad more over a laptop. More usage = more value for money.

• Portability, over the Macbook Air: I already carry my work laptop most of the time and don’t want to add a second laptop. No, it is NOT an option to use your work laptop for personal use. Honestly, don’t even go there. Also, even if I’m just going to carry a Macbook Air, it’s still heavier and bigger than a tablet. So I wanted something that I can take to most places, like in my everyday tote bag.

• I don’t need MS Office for personal projects: So this is actually the biggest hurdle for me to overcome in not having a personal laptop. What about MS Word? Well, my friends, Google solves it all. Google Docs does everything I need on MS Word. If you haven’t tried working with a Word document on Google Docs yet, you’d be surprised at the amount of formatting it supports. It’s more than enough for me. For plain writing, there’s a lot of cool apps like Notion, and even the built-in Notes app surprisingly has jampacked features. I have to stress that this device is exclusively for personal projects only. Problem solved. However, if you are thinking of replacing a laptop with an iPad for your work, and you are heavily reliant on MS Word for your work like I am, I don’t recommend that you do it. You need a Windows machine that actually runs MS Word to be able to change between documents easily, to run several windows at a time, and so on.

• Longevity, over an iPad 8: there are many reviews that say that the iPad 8 is actually the best value for money iPad, that it already suffices for most people’s purposes and uses for an iPad. Not everyone is a heavy iPad user, and most people just use it for browsing and consuming content.  I’m no exception, my main purpose here is to use it for my writing and other creative/personal pursuits. Maybe try to edit photos and videos sometimes. The advantage of spending a bit more on an iPad Air however is the longevity as it is the first Apple device to use the new A14 processor, so its upgrade life should be longer than the iPad 8. That’s it for me, really.  Oh, plus it’s prettier.

• Practicality, over an iPad Pro: I’m not a professional graphic designer or video editor so I don’t need the iPad Pro. I’m okay to forego the new 12.9” screen too. It was tempting to get the iPad Pro because it ran on the M1 chip, similar to the new Macbook Air, so it advertised itself as the “new” laptop.  After checking out the reviews though, it’s still not up to par with the Macbook Air as a laptop; the Macbook Air is still leagues ahead in terms of performance, features, and capability, at a much lower price at that.

Why didn’t I consider a Microsoft Surface? I thought about it too. I’m too deep in the Apple ecosystem though and the iPads were all around, it’s easy to get more support if it conks out, so the choice was easy for me. I don’t know anyone with a Surface who can talk to me about it.

Accessories I got:

• Smart keyboard folio.  Since I want to write more, I wanted to get a keyboard, and this is very convenient.  Wirecutter gets consulted a lot in my major purchases, and it recommends this the most.  I was tempted with the Magic Keyboard but the price is insane, almost double the price of the Smart keyboard folio.

• Apple Pencil 2. Gosh how fun is it with this whole pencil business?! Coming from the iPad 2, I am mindblown at this technology where we can write everywhere and it’s easily translated to text, or just, your writings or drawings are just there. At first I was sceptical because I read that Steve Jobs dismissed the idea of a stylus for the iPad by wiggling his fingers and saying “We have ten natural styluses”. Now though the iPad is equipped with the technology to actually function as a notepad, and it’s just marvelous. Especially when your Apple Pencil 2 looks like this:

                                   

I highly recommend ordering directly from the website of Apple Store PH. Prices are lower and you get free engraving! 

You just have to wait for some weeks but the waiting was fun. Part of what makes one happy is the anticipation. Now I have this beautiful piece of tech I can read the New York Times and comics on, and write on, and watch movies and TV on, and draw on... 

Have a happy weekend! I might write here more often than just weekends now that I’ve got something to work with.