I spent 3 hours yesterday at PC World looking at new ones, and have whittled my options down to a £500 2018 Chromebook, a £500 2019 iPad (including keyboard and usb adaptors) and a £780 2017 MacBook.
I’m leaning towards the iPad for it’s size (10.5 inch) and portability.
Do any of you work entirely from an iPad?
I’ll be editing photos, printing and scanning (my printer is compatible), writing tutorials, writing my blog, emailing, managing my online shops. Creating slideshows, and possibly creating short videos at some point in the future.
I can’t use just a touchpad. My finger tips are quite fat (I’m not !) and I’ve touch typed since my teens so I prefer a keyboard. I even use a mouse on my laptop and disable the touchpad as they are right hand configured and I’m left and if I leave it on I find the mouse often leaps all over the place.
So I use this desktop in the office and now my brand new laptop and I am exceedingly pleased with it… Lenovo Yoga 530. It is both keyboard And tablet touchscreen and might suit you perfectly.
Only finished setting it up yesterday but have to say so far exceedingly so good. Got it from Curry’s / PC world. Wanted Lenovo as have their phone (motorola) and Bob their tablet and they are both excellent and bloatware free which is a bonus !
Had not intended to go for the foldable keyboard / tablet option but found it irresistible so we did.
I do everything from my iPad Pro, I opted for the biggest screen I could get.
Snapseed is a brilliant compatible photo editing program.
And it is easy to do Folksy things on it, and Instagram etc.
Takes a bit of getting used to, where the print option is hiding etc, but it is all there.
Laptop every time for me, but thats a personal preference. I don’t need to be on the move while using my laptop so an ipad would score points on that front. Happy hunting
Like Andy says, I think it’s all down to personal preference. I absolutely hate browsing on a phone/tablet and dread to think what it’d be like editing/creating images or writing anything lengthy. I prefer to use my desktop for most things, and just view a tablet as a useful option for when out and about, rather than something I’d want to use full time. But that’s just me, I love proper keyboards and my trackball mouse, I avoided switching to a touchscreen only phone for as long as I possibly could.
If you’ve got access to a tablet I’d probably try using only that for a week to see how well you cope, if there’s anything missing or anything you think would be so much simpler on a laptop. If it all goes smoothly and it’s easy for you to work with, go for that.
There are some extremely good points here, thanks guys.
@JOYSofGLASS My daughter’s last laptop was a Lenovo and was nothing but a nightmare. We all have Moto phones though, and they’re fab so maybe a Lenovo Chromebook may be worth a look. I definitely don’t want Windows as they’re so heavy on the operating system. We’ve always bought mid-high end Windows machines in the past and found them clunky.
@twistedturner Andy I need to be able to fit it on my desk I’m not the tidiest of artists
@konyskiw Kim I spend a lot of time using my phone for web based stuff, and only get my laptop out for writing my miniature magazine articles or for printing trickier layouts, so an iPad would be a step up
I had a play with a friend’s iPad this morning - she has the 10.5 inch and her husband has the 12.5 inch. That was interesting - the bigger one is very tempting - but I think portability is winning so far.
I have a laptop and also touch type…so much quicker…and much easier for me.
I also have an ipad that I struggle with and typing is so complicated…and I have yet to work out how to do photos etc…I can’t even work out how to copy and paste…I typed that lot in about 12 seconds on my laptop…I would still be on the first sentence on my ipad.!!
I like to have the ipad though because I worry in case something on my ipad goes wrong and I have a back up plant…
Joy , I also struggle with the ipad not because of fat fingers, but because of very long nails, so I have a pen thingy with a soft rubber end to it that I use to move things around…I couldn’t manage at all without it…It is all a big learning curve for me but I DO want to use the ipad more but the laptop will always be my choice.x
I also do NOT have a smart phone so my laptop is my only connection to the internet at the moment.
Something that I have found works very well for me on my phone is dictation rather than typing. I dictate sentence by sentence, add in punctuation, and then I just need to go back and correct a few things here and there but mostly it’s perfect.
If for some reason I can’t dictate, maybe because I’m in company (and they’re all doing something else of course, I’m not that rude) or there’s too much background noise or something, then I’ve got “swipe” installed on my phone keyboard which means I can draw the words rather than type them individually. It’s much faster.
I decided to try Snapseed on my laptop. Downloaded as instructed and it said Installed but I couldn’t find it.
Found where I’d put my phone. It seems Google Play did too
Guess which device got the Snapseed.
I use my iPad Pro for everything and I’d be lost without it. I also use Snapseed all the time - a fabulous App. Phonto is really good too for adding text.
Just want to say that I now LOVE my new Lenovo. Beautiful to type on but I’ve tried it in tablet mode now too and I can use that as well. My old Asus / Acers were not a patch on this.Cost a bit more than planned but you get what you pay for.
Signed
Happy Bunny
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I’m not the tidiest of artists
