I’ve been using an iPad M4 13” for about two weeks now, and thought I’d share my experience thus far.

A storied test for me is the one-handed-reading-in-bed test: make an L with my thumb and index finger, and hold the iPad up while reading in bed. Almost every iPad improved on this test over the years as they lost weight, even when gaining some surface area. The 2018 12.9” was an unsurprising exception, so I often would use and older iPad for reading in bed.

The M4 Pro passes.

The places in which I use an iPad are the same, save one, as when I might use a laptop:

• In the office
• At meetings
• Observing Staff
• Working or reading on the sofa
• Reading in bed

I do not, nor have I ever, read in bed on a laptop.

I like to take an iPad to meetings and observations; I don’t like to carry a bag around with me once I check in at the office. My MacBook Adorable was the only Mac that I ever found light enough to port around this way; I’d pinch the clamshell between my thumb and index finger and carry it from place to place. Its replacement, an M1 MacBook Pro, never felt small enough for this kind of duty. To this end, I like to keep the iPad in an Apple Smart Cover, which Jason Snell rightly describes as “the unsung hero” of the iPad peripherals world, when traveling around. So no keyboard on the go.

Here’s the thing about meetings: I’m increasingly annoyed by typing at meetings. I fully support digital note-taking in meetings, but I’ve seen (and committed) my fair share of doing email or other work during them. In my more recent zeal for handwriting on screens, I find that writing in Apple Notes during meetings, with the device flat on the surface before me, is a warmer, more receptive way to conduct myself during meetings.

And that brings us to the Apple Pencil Pro. While this iteration of the famously expensive stylus is not revolutionary, it is a welcome evolution of a solid product. The barrel tap of the previous Pencil has been replaced by a squeeze gesture; where the former was inconsistent and vexatious for me (I was never able to reliably toggle between writing and erasing), the squeeze works reliably. It is, in its way, full of delight and whimsy in a way that only Apple is ever capable of: from the radial menu that appears near your pencil point when you squeeze, to the drop shadow on your “paper,” the Pencil is delightful to use.

Recent updates to Notes in iPadOS 18 include Smart Script, which for me changed my digital handwriting from a messy simulacrum of my normal handwriting to a more composed version of my recognizable script. I really enjoy writing in Notes now, and delight in the small details available: summoning the ruler and underlining titles, watching my handwriting straighten out when I lift the Pencil, and switching tools and colors. iPadOS has vastly improved the note-taking experience on iPad.

My intention was to use the iPad in the Smart Cover while moving around, and then dock it at the office using my Magic Trackpad and Magic Keyboard. I like this setup at the office a lot, and use it exactly that way. On my 11” M1 Pro at my last job, I did have the Magic Keyboard Case, but realized fairly quickly that it made the device not only larger and heavier than I wanted in a portable device, but that I often wanted to snap it out of the case and use it as a proper tablet. So swapping out the keyboard case for the Smart Cover was a frequent move. Still is.

The one use case where that all kind of falls apart is at home, where I do in fact want to use the iPad as a laptop, and the Magic Keyboard is absolutely the best tool for the job. Not only can you use the iPad with a keyboard on your lap, the cantilevered design pushes the screen closer to your face, which makes it better than a MacBook or other laptop for sofa use. It’s a strange middle ground to occupy, but there it is.

Happily, Amazon was selling the white version at a more palatable price this week. I would probably not have gotten the white keyboard save for the sale, but I was curious enough about it to consider it. I’m pretty happy with it, and while having a silver keyboard deck is, for me, reminiscent of a bygone era (I prefer the darker metals Apple makes theses days), it’s the first time my iPad keyboard case has been anything other than a shade of gray.

The first Magic Keyboard surfaced quietly during the COVID quarantine; I just checked DayOne and learned that mine arrived on April 22nd from Best Buy. I remember the day, in fact; Rhonda and I were enjoying a walk during the quarantine, as we were wont to do at that time.

On May 13th of the same year, I updated DayOne, calling it “a dream to type on” and also:

If I have one complaint, I’d like to be able to tilt the iPad back a hair more. I feel like I’m always trying to bend it back another few millimeters and it won’t quite stay where I want it to. This is on my lap.

I would say that this has been achieved in the 2024 update to the keyboard. While the Magic Keyboard still keeps the screen closer to your face than a laptop screen, this new keyboard pushes the iPad’s naked robotic core back a smidge. It’s more MacBook-like, but not exactly so.

Back to the iPad: It’s super thin and light. It’s incredibly fast; save for the first generation iPad I purchased back in 2010, where RAM usage caused a lot of apps to quit without warning or notice, though, I’ve never found an iPad to feel slow. The display is bright and crisp, and although I’ve been spoiling myself using ProMotion displays since 2017, the refresh rate is similarly buttery and a joy to use.

Having moved between sizes, with a 12.9” in 2018, and then an 11” from work in 2021, I’d say returning to the larger form factor was the right move. I just love the big iPad. It’s great to use on your desk, in a keyboard, or naked in your hands on the sofa. I could easily live with either size, but it’s good to know the big one is out there.

The M4 iPad Pro 13” is certainly the nicest iPad out there now: fast as fast can be, thin and light, mated to a glorious screen. There’s nothing not to love about the device itself. It’s really a question of whether you need one. And if you already have an Apple Silicon-powered iPad, the answer is probably no.

Due to iPadOS, iPad still occupies a weird liminal space between being a giant iPhone, but with a size and form factor that begs for more Mac-like use cases.