The iPad Has Never Been More Like a Mac, but Can It Replace One? ...Middle East

The iPad's new windowing system is good, but a bit messy

Apple now offers three different multitasking modes on the iPad. And it can be a bit overwhelming. There’s the default Full-Screen mode, the new Windowed Apps mode, and the old-school Stage Manager mode.

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

If you have a newer, more powerful iPad, Windowed mode lets you comfortably use seven or ten apps together in the same desktop without missing a beat. That's not a limit with iPadOS 26, to be clear, but once you go over 10 apps, things start to get a bit laggy. I can pull off opening a couple of apps together on my aging iPad Pro from 2018, but that's about it.

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

The Windowed app mode also has a version of the classic Split View, if you just want to dock two apps side by side. Pick up a window, and flick it to the left or right. When there are just two windows on the screen, you’ll see a little handle in the middle to freely resize the windows.

Credit: Jake Peterson

I'll admit that all of this can seem like a bit much on such a small, touch-based screen, especially for the iPad users who are used to the traditional approach to Split View and Slide Over. Apple really isn't helping the case by separating out the different modes. Though, like most things, it's a learning curve that you can get over pretty quickly. In time, I think the gesture for resizing windows will become second nature.

How the iPad is inching closer to the Mac

External monitor support is finally worth using, and doesn’t require you to use Stage Manager. Now, the display automatically adapts to the 16:9 aspect ratio of the monitor, so no more black bars. But you still can’t use the external display as the primary display, as you can on the Mac (the menu bar and Control Center still only work on the iPad). That means you always have to have the iPad display on, and you can't connect to more than one external monitor.

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

There’s also support for background tasks in the Files app and some third-party apps. That means longer actions, like moving large folders or downloading large files, can continue in the background (monitored via Live Activities). Switching to a different app won’t kill large exports of render jobs. There’s even a new Local Capture feature that lets you record professional audio from any attached microphone, and it supports independent audio capture from multiple microphones at once. A boon for podcasters and YouTubers.

There’s also no Terminal, so you can’t do things like running Homebrew projects, automation scripts, and more. iPadOS 26, is still single-user focused, so you can’t create multiple accounts like you can on the Mac. As discussed above, the external display mode, while a nice addition, is also severely limited.

Can you replace a Mac with an iPad?

But the iPad can be a great companion for me, and is. I love using the iPad for research, reading, taking notes, and watching media. Now, with the new features in the iPadOS 26 update, 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.

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