With iPadOS 26, Apple has at last delivered a software foundation that matches the iPad’s formidable silicon. Long-awaited additions — resizable floating windows, proper background processing, a grown-up Files app, and deeper Stage Manager improvements—transform what the tablet can do. Tasks that were frustrating or outright impossible are now routine. For students, note-takers, and many knowledge workers, the iPad is suddenly a legitimate laptop replacement. Yet the perennial question lingers: Can the iPad truly replace your Mac?
Khamosh Pathak for Lifehacker:
Can an iPad replace your MacBook? The answer to that question is more personal than ever. Subjectively, I can say not yet. While the new windowing system and background processes are a great start, it still lacks the core features that make a Mac so helpful. For someone like me who relies on desktop-class apps, dynamic websites, and loves the hundred little utilities that are only possible on the Mac, the iPad really can’t replace my MacBook…
I can see podcasters and even content creators take up an iPad as their main computer. It really depends on your workflow. For light workflow like editing documents, managing PDFs, taking notes, emails, and online meetings, the iPad is very much comparable to the Mac. And thanks to its cellular connectivity, it might even have an edge for people who are always on the road. If you like the idea of a light-weight tablet that’s built-really well, or if you’re a creative, the iPad can make a lot of sense for you.
For everyone else, I would recommend you pick up at least an M4 MacBook Air, which goes on sale regularly and costs less than an iPad Pro.
MacDailyNews Take: The bottom line is that, ghanks to iOS 26, more people than ever can replace their Mac with a modern iPad.
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[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
The iPad at this stage of the game and for the foreseeable, like five years isn’t going to replace the Mac.
I use Mac and iPad in completely different ways, so NOT for me. I use iPad while holding it, never with keyboard + trackpad/mouse. But I find the new windowing apps interface of iOS 26 quick useful. OTOH, a Mac is usually stationary during use even if MacBooks are easily transportable. I think iPad as Mac replacement may be more relevant to customers new to Apple, because they may actually want a “touchscreen MacBook.” Instead of adding kludgy unnecessary touch-based features to MacOS, Apple can suggest an iPad Pro or Air (the best tablet computers) with keyboard/trackpad accessory as the Apple touchscreen laptop. That accessory improves usability by making screen float above keyboard, closer to user’s hands.
iPad Replace the Mac? How about it replaces the iPhone. Simply put in eSIM capability, get a iPad Pencil and earbuds and your whole office is in your backpack.
You have it backwards, if anything the iPhone Ultra (fold) will replace the iPad for many people. The iPad will never replace the iPhone because it doesn’t fit in your pocket and you can’t hold it and interact with it in one hand.
As much as I like elements of the Vision Pro, iPad Pro and MacBook Pro, there’s no substitute for a device that is always within reach and can be drawn and used in 1 second like a six-shooter in the Old West. For all the talk about Mac vs iPad, it’s easy to forget that the iPhone is the one indispensable computer for vast majority of Apple users. It is the modern Mac.
I dunno…put a Max chip in it, let me use third party plugins in Logic Pro (oh, and also let me buy the app instead of renting it), and let me choose where I want to save my Word documents by default, and I’ll think about it. And I’ll need a headphone jack as well.
No! The iPad is not going to replace the Mac anytime soon. The UI/UX is quite limiting and not really ready for power users.
A laptop replacement is a possibility but not for professional or desktop users. And if Cook was so stupid to try then the company would be a husk of it’s former self.
After almost 50 years of use I’d know this would be the last Mac (MAC for non Mac users) I’d ever buy. The same for the iPhone as well. It just won’t happen.