In mid-2018, continuing to use my 2009 15-inch MacBook Pro wasn’t feasible anymore. That Mac had started manifesting serious reliability problems, including the inability to switch between graphic cards without crashing, faulty thermal sensors, a failing battery, and the internal main SSD randomly not recognised at boot. I wanted to keep using a laptop as my main machine, but purchasing a new MacBook Pro with that terrible keyboard design was out of the question. Also, my available budget at the time would have been enough to get a base configuration of the 13-inch MacBook Pro without Touch Bar, which wouldn’t have been ideal for my needs anyway. If I wanted a Mac laptop with the good old keyboard design my options were essentially two: either purchase the 13-inch MacBook Air, or a used 2015 MacBook Pro.

My concern was that, while they were both decent candidates, both clearly having much better specs than my ageing MacBook Pro, neither represented a ‘future-proof’ option. I don’t need extreme CPU power for my work, but I also don’t upgrade my main Mac every year. I needed a solution that would last me a few years. That’s when I decided — not without mulling over it for weeks — to change strategy completely and get a 21.5‑inch 4K retina iMac. 

It was a good purchase and I really love the iMac. Having a 21.5‑inch retina display was the best gift I could make to my eyes. But the workaround plan wasn’t over, since I still needed a laptop for when I had to work away from home. My original idea was to get the 2009 MacBook Pro fixed as soon as possible, and keep using it as my mobile workstation. The iMac has enough power for my more complex photo editing, my occasional dabbling in video editing (still learning the basics), those work sessions needing a particularly extensive multitasking, and the occasional gaming. The 2009 MacBook Pro would still be powerful enough to handle work assignments when out and about.

But then I started wondering: what if the repairs end up being expensive enough that it actually makes more sense to look for a used, newer MacBook? Since it wouldn’t be my main Mac anyway, display size isn’t an issue, so I could search for a more compact MacBook. Long story short, I found a 2013 11-inch MacBook Air in great condition and at a bargain price. And, five months later and with hindsight, I can definitely say it has felt like adding the final piece to a giant, complex puzzle.

I know, when I tell people I had to upgrade my MacBook Pro, and to do that I purchased an iMac and a MacBook Air, it does sound a bit overkill, but it is a solution that has cost me less money than a new 15-inch MacBook Pro, and it has simultaneously solved different problems. Yes, it’s handy to have just one machine that can turn into a desktop workstation when at home, and that can also be carried around everywhere I need to use it. But with the iMac and the MacBook Air, I can have the power and comfort at home, and extreme portability with still enough power (and connections!) when on the go.

It’s already been a win-win, but in the past months I’ve noticed something else. Last year I was quite worried because it had come to a point where I needed to upgrade all my devices: 

• I couldn’t keep using my iPhone 5 as my main phone because, while there wasn’t and isn’t anything wrong with it, while it’s still a capable device today, it can’t be updated past iOS 10.3.3, and it’s a 32-bit device. For work I sometimes have to test iOS apps, so I needed to upgrade to a newer iPhone.
• With regard to the Mac situation, you know the story by now.
• I also felt the need to get a newer iPad, partly because of the same reasons I needed a newer iPhone, but also because my third-generation iPad is a device that, sadly, hasn’t aged as well as the iPhone 5, despite both being 2012 devices.

And when your budget isn’t great, you don’t want to end up in a situation like that. Not having €4,000 to invest in this general multi-device upgrade, I had to prioritise, and the Mac had to come first, the iPhone second, and the iPad third. Several months have passed, and after upgrading my Mac setup and later my iPhone, I have realised that I’m in no particular hurry to upgrade my iPad anymore.

Why? Mostly because of the 11-inch MacBook Air. When I first talked about it, I made the joke about it being my 11-inch iPad Pro. As time passed, that went from joke, to half joke, to actual truth. 

In recent times, I have asked myself many times why I should get a new iPad, and I haven’t found a compelling reason to spend money on a new iPad or iPad Air, much less an iPad Pro. It keeps feeling just like a ‘nice to have’ device. 

While I have much respect for those who have successfully managed to use an iPad as sole computing device for work and leisure, I still believe the iPad has important user interface limitations that prevent it from becoming as versatile and ‘scalable’ as a Mac, unless its operating system is transformed to a point where it essentially becomes ‘Mac OS with touch support’. 

I use my first- and third-generation iPads as consumption devices 90% of the time. While sometimes the iPad 3 gets frustratingly sluggish, it’s still capable of playing videos, surfing the Web, being an ebook reader and a tool for some photo retouching and even creative work. The big question here is: would purchasing a more powerful iPad lead me to use it in more ‘Pro’ ways? I have thought about this for weeks, I kid you not. In the end, the answer is no. Of course I’d buy one if I had money to burn. iPads are great devices, hardware-wise. (iOS is a whole other story. The operating system is on a path of greater complexity and poorer usability, and that is another factor which has dampened the enthusiasm I used to feel about the iPad in its first years). 

But since purchasing the 11-inch MacBook Air, I already have an ultraportable pro device, with a fantastic battery life and the best keyboard it can have. It doesn’t have a retina display, but that (to my great astonishment, I’ll add) hasn’t been a big deal at all.

In fact, since purchasing the 11-inch MacBook Air, I’ve almost stopped bringing an iPad with me when I go out. My iPads are now mostly household devices used for basic-to-intermediate tasks. A new iPad would simply be employed to do the same tasks, just in a faster, smoother fashion. Would this make things better? Yes. Would this be enough to justify the expense? Probably not. At this point, the only compelling reason to upgrade to a newer iPad for me would be strictly work-related, or if my current iPads would stop being useful (third-party apps/services ceasing to work) or stop functioning (hardware failure).

Tech nerds, especially iOS fundamentalists, love to talk about this amazing Post-PC era we’re all supposedly living today. I know I can’t use my personal habits and preferences as evidence to the contrary, but I’m writing this in a university library, in a room with at least 350 other people. I look around and I see laptops everywhere. If I had to estimate how many people are using tablets here, I’d say no more than 30. The guy sitting next to me has both, an old MacBook Air and an old iPad mini. Again, it could be anecdotal. I’ve been doing a lot of photo walks as of late. I’ve observed a lot of people in public places. I hardly see tablets, but I do see a lot of smartphone usage. While for some this is enough to validate their ‘Post-PC era’ stance, I still have the distinct impression that traditional computers aren’t going away anytime soon; and neither are smartphones. Are perhaps tablets the ones destined to turn into niche devices?