2022 MAC Book Air or IPAD air for Travel? What do you recommend and why

MAC

Member
Hi there,

I am trying to make the decision to purchase a MAC book Air or a IPAD for travel? I can't decide which would be best. What do you recommend? Cheers, Wendy McDonald
 

TimRichards

Well-Known Member
When I travel I find my iPad to be completely adequate. If you write a lot, you may find a keyboard more useful and efficient. Are there any functions you need a laptop for? I keep full resolution photos on my laptop, so if I was to intend to edit and organize my photos while travelling, they are in full resolution versions resident on my laptop but would need to be downloaded onto my iPad and consequently use a lot of (possibly very limited) bandwidth, which is very inconvenient.
So if at the end of a travel day I wish to review and edit my photos taken that day I’ll use Airdrop to send my Iphone photos over to my iPad where can edit them and delete the bad ones etc. The hazard there is that the iPad, when on Wi-FI, wants to dump them into the cloud for my laptop and only keep low res versions on the ipad. (Settings - Photos - Optimize IPad Storage).
 
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chas_m

Well-Known Member
As Tim notes, the real answer is very dependent on what you do when traveling, but broadly speaking an iPad Air with a keyboard and trackpad case is perfectly fine for 90+ percent of what people tend to do when away from home.

Likewise, a MacBook Air is a great travel companion as well if you’re dependent on Mac-only programs. For example, if I was still producing and editing my podcast but needed to be away from home during that time, I’d have to take a MacBook — but now that I’m not, the iPad Pro or Air with a keyboard case would be more than adequate.
 
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MAC

Member
When I travel I find my iPad to be completely adequate. If you write a lot, you may find a keyboard more useful and efficient. Are there any functions you need a laptop for? I keep full resolution photos on my laptop, so if I was to intend to edit and organize my photos while travelling, they are in full resolution versions resident on my laptop but would need to be downloaded onto my iPad and consequently use a lot of (possibly very limited) bandwidth, which is very inconvenient.
So if at the end of a travel day I wish to review and edit my photos taken that day I’ll use Airdrop to send my Iphone photos over to my iPad where can edit them and delete the bad ones etc. The hazard there is that the iPad, when on Wi-FI, wants to dump them into the cloud for my laptop and only keep low res versions on the ipad. (Settings - Photos - Optimize IPad Storage).
Thanks that was helpful!
 

MAC

Member
As Tim notes, the real answer is very dependent on what you do when traveling, but broadly speaking an iPad Air with a keyboard and trackpad case is perfectly fine for 90+ percent of what people tend to do when away from home.

Likewise, a MacBook Air is a great travel companion as well if you’re dependent on Mac-only programs. For example, if I was still producing and editing my podcast but needed to be away from home during that time, I’d have to take a MacBook — but now that I’m not, the iPad Pro or Air with a keyboard case would be more than adequate.
Thanks, that too is helpful!
 
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