iPad vs MacBook - Which One Should You Buy as a Student? 

I personally bought a MacBook before I started my freshman year of college and I just recently purchased an iPad Pro to use alongside it for my sophomore year. In my opinion, a MacBook or any laptop is definitely best to start with. Writing papers and multitasking is a much better experience on a laptop, and while iPads are great for school, they’re best when supplemented by a laptop. There are just some classes that will surprise you with programs or websites you need to use that just don’t work on an iPad, and you really don’t want to find yourself in that situation. If you’re in between, my advice would be to either only buy a laptop or buy both. If you want both but it’s too expensive for both a MacBook and iPad Pro, go with another, cheaper brand for your laptop and buy a budget iPad or iPad Air. As a bio major, I don’t think I could through college without a laptop.

As a STEM major, one of my lab classes had to upload their data through this weird system we had to download onto our laptop and there was girl in my class who had the IPad Pro so she had to borrow someone's laptop. I prioritized getting a good laptop and then a couple months ago I got the budget iPad to supplement it. I think whatever you just do some research and don't need to splurge on two things to be a successful student. There's two in one laptops or cheaper alternatives

To be honest, I have always had 2 devices as a student. I'm a windows PC user myself as Apple's products are just too expensive for my budget. So I've always had both a laptop and a tablet. I would work on the laptop at home and use the tablet for school. The baseline tablet I have was my digital textbook and took notes on paper. But for medical school, I invested in an iPad Pro and I am in love with it. So much easier and secure since all my notes are in it and I won't lose them. In reality, as a student, we can't use a single device for everything. Like she said we have some work that needs a laptop but other things are for iPad. My note-taking and textbook work, as well as my question banks I use the iPad for, was actually gonna buy a cheaper iPad air but when I went Best Buy only had iPad Pros available as all other iPad devices had been cleaned out and I had to leave for medical school a week later to the Caribbean so I couldn't wait for the restoking and they were the only ones running a special that helped with the cost, could have bought directly from Apple but it cost more and the special too out 300 dollars from the cost. For anything I have to hand in as well as watching lectures in class and other video resources, I use the laptop. I can watch the videos on the iPad just fine but prefer to use the whole screen for note-taking and also prefer the larger screen of my laptop for the videos. I use my window laptop and can easily transfer stuff to the iPad via AirMore so that's not an issue either. My advice for a student is to invest in 2 devices because 1 is not always going to be enough. Start out buying a laptop first if you can't afford the two together then get the tablet. If you can't afford a mac then get a windows laptop and invest the money on an iPad. Personally, I would upgrade and get the iPad Air rather than the baseline iPad since the basic iPad has issues with lag time that is annoying while taking notes and drawing, especially when it changes what you did, but the Pro is very expensive so Air is a nice compromise with about the same strength as the pro but at a lower cost.

My Opinion as a Finance Major I’m going to start by saying I have both a laptop and an iPad. I have had my laptop since high school. It’s a Macbook Air 13 in from 2015. I’ve had it for 5 years and it still works perfectly. The only problem I’ve ever had with it is that it gets a little slow if there’s too many documents in it. To fix that problem I transfer my documents to an external device every semester. If you are also a finance or business major I recommend having a laptop over an iPad because Microsoft programs are much better on laptop. I recently bought the iPad Pro. I bought it mainly to go paperless and after saving up for a year. Originally I was going to buy a new laptop but I decided to go with the iPad since my laptop was still running perfectly. I haven’t had it for long but I prefer the digital note taking over paper notes because I can move things around and make things neat. I also like the multitasking function for textbook note taking. I prefer to travel with the iPad cause its lighter and I do use the Word app on it to start assignments (i finish them on my laptop). Final Verdict: Laptop is best. iPad is good as an extra device but not at all necessary. A little tip: If you tell your parents that you are looking to buy a device for school around your birthday or christmas and ask them to tell your other family you could end up receiving quite a but of cash. It’s how I was able to afford the apple pencil with the iPad Pro I told my parents and my parents and grandparents split the cost of the pencil as my birthday gift.

Your editing is SUPERIOR.

I would love to see a video on how you use both devices for your studies as I have an iPad and a laptop and am trying to use them both in an efficient way!

I agree with you but I also have a similar study set up as you except I use a 6th gen iPad because my MBP 13" is already my main drive. The iPad 6th gen is already suitable enough for my needs for note taking on notability and for using anatomy apps. So for me yes the iPad has enhanced my note taking and learning experience but that's the reason why there is the iPad lineup so consumers and buy one that suits them and fits their budget! But all in all, you can't really beat the feeling and use of a laptop :) great video Alicia!

Both are reallllly expensive. But they are so aesthetically pleasing.

What an interesting and useful content, great video! I think it really emphasises the best of each device. Some months ago, I needed to do this choice and the MacBook Pro revealed to be the best option exactly because of its versatility. Keep up with the amazing work :)

when u have both but still watch this video because u just LOVE this girl.

Personally, I just bought a two-in-one laptop with a cheap stylus. It’s cheaper and has the benefits of both

I really like the desktop experience for school, such as file management and opening several apps and windows at once and managing them all so easily. The iPad is used like a tablet which is touch, write and draw. If ur someone who is just going to uni and doesn’t know how the digital notes will be then a laptop is safer because u can still hand write ur notes and it feels more comfortable to have ur digital notes on a laptop rather than a tablet. I started school with just a MacBook and I was so happy with it. Super fast and useful. I got the IPad after a year (budget one) and I really like using it as a second screen to look at recordings and to write out some notes. But I can’t imagine myself just using it alone without a laptop

This was a really nice, informative video :) My set up/tech devices I use are... iPhone 11, 128GB in Red (not relevant) as my daily driver iPad Pro, 11 inch 128GB in Silver, Wifi only (personally students don't really need mobile data connectivity) Huawei MateBook D14, in 512GB, in Space Grey (previous laptop I used was a 2017 MacBook Pro, 13 inch, 128GB, Space Grey, No-Touch Bar) And then I would either swap with the Beats Solo Pro or my apple earbuds, in terms of headphones. My experience with both using a tablet and a laptop. I'm a First year Drama Student at a UK university. Before I was a normal UK College Drama student. At that time, I used the iPad 6th Gen, with the 1st Gen Apple Pencil, when I got to my 2nd year of College. I watched several iPad videos and seeing people do note-taking and making all these aesthetic notes and I reacted very positively about the practicality and the functionality of the iPad. Even my teachers and my peers were super intrigued that I was able to create really nice looking notes for my coursework and liked my creativity of using a tablet as a supplement to help with my learning. Pretty much, when you get to college or sixth form in the UK, at least in my college we were allowed to use electronic devices in our practical classes to help us create the reflection logs that we had to do for each class and it was assessed. On top of that, I took extensive research notes on the themes of the play, the playwright, and had to write my own character development work to help with building character and apply the theories into practice. It was super fun to just write on a tablet, without having to go through several amounts of paper (even though in my final year of college, I did hop on the pen and paper trend for a term) and loads of pens and not having a concise system where it's easy and simple for me to follow. Laptop = I got the MacBook Pro during my second year of college. Again I did watch several tech videos on the MacBooks and what people recommended for students. I was that person who didn't care for the Touch Bar so I went with the one without the touch bar. It was a good laptop. At the time, I didn't mind the shallow key travel and not very bouncy keys on the keyboard, but over time some of the keys began to not function as well. For example = when you want to type the letter "k", it would do either of the 2 things for me, would not show on the screen, or repeated that letter two or more times and that began to be a little frustrating. Another thing I missed was playing my simulation games on steam. Before I was able to play a couple of simulation games on my mac, but once apple decided to basically drop support for steam, I was a little annoyed by that. Finally, I got the base model, which was 128GB. Initially, I didn't use the laptop for video editing, but there was a point where for a few months, I did exactly that and it ate my storage... real fast. That's when I realized, yeah I needed more on-board storage. So last month, I got a new laptop as a birthday present and I'm super happy with it. Moral of the story = For me, I see the iPad as a companion to your laptop, not necessarily a replacement, as to me both the software and hardware limitations of the iPad hinders any sort of hope of becoming a full-fledged laptop. At least not in our present time. Even with the new accessories that Apple has provided like the Magic Keyboard, again your not going to get the full benefits of a normal laptop or desktop computer.

When I started high school (7th grade - I live in Australia and we don't have middle school) my school required everyone to have iPads. This was 2013 so iPads were of course still only new, and digital handwritten notes didn't exist. My first iPad died (iPad 2) so I replaced it with an iPad Air 2 at the end of 2014. I used that until late 2017 when I invested in a macbook (I wish I purchased Windows!), and that became my only device for school, and my iPad remained unused. I'm now halfway through my second year of uni, and im considering purchasing a new iPad to be able to take handwritten notes. I began typing the majority of my uni notes and I feel that I take in far less information and I'm far less motivated than I used to be, and I'm always behind in classes. I recently got my iPad out again and I've been playing around with highlighting textbooks and then handwriting physical notes based on those annotations, and I'm honestly starting to enjoy studying again. I dont think an iPad could completely replace my laptop, especially for written assignments and stats programs I need to run, but I feel like they compliment each other very well, and I'm just happy to know that I'm finally interested in my studies again. I also just want to go paperless so everything is all in the one place and I dont have to worry about losing things, and it'll help keep my desk cleaner 🥺 I think I want to buy the new iPad Air 4 so I'll have to wait anyway, so I have time to think about it 😊 I think I'll wait for the Australian back to school deals at the start of year !!

I feel like the best thing to do is have a good laptop and an iPad (budget iPad for exemple or 2018 iPad Pro). I think they are complimentary, and have both is the best way to use both but it’s quiet expensive. But first, buy a laptop and a few months later, if you feel like you really need one, buy a budget ipad

I mean both of them are super good and think that at some point the iPad can replace the Laptop just because they are always improving and innovating the iPad. But for me the iPad has improved a looot my learning experience just because I feel like that with the iPad because you are always interacting with it (moving from screen to screen, trying to multitask etc) in a sense you are seeing the content (idk if I explained myself well 🥴) but of course having both would be amazing 😉

can you make a video of how you use our laptop for studying ?

thank you, the info in this video is amazing!

I hate to say this because I love and use Apple, but as a student I would get a 2 in 1 PC like the Microsoft Surface Book or the Dell XPS 13. You would have both a laptop and a tablet for a reasonable price.

Very helpful for an indecisive person like me! Thanks!

I have been reading the comments. I haven’t started college yet I hope next year when I get the chance. I would go with the MacBook Pro first and then the iPad if needed. I’m still in a debate to get an iPad since I like apple a lot and it’s the only company that I understand more about. For me a lot of teenagers are using their iPad for note taking. I’m like I guess old school not that old at all I’m 20 lol but what I’m saying is notebook and pencil and pen vs note taking on a iPad. I would honestly take the iPad because I can organize my notes and plus in the long run I can notes to look back at.

thank u very much! This video was very helpful wheter to choose the IPad or the Mac. Greetings from Switzerland!!

If you are a Design, or Architecture major, sometimes it's better to have a good Windows-based laptop, and if it is within your means, a desktop with a widescreen monitor (or at least the monitor, it can be tiring to work long hours looking at a 13 or 15-inch screen). There is software that only works on Windows, and depending on your uni, sometimes they discourage the use of any other operating system. I had classmates using the MacBook Pro through Bootcamp and it worked, but it was still kind of problematic sometimes.

also what note taking application do you recommend for a laptop ?

There is a very simple and economic solution: DO NOT HAVE ANY OF THE TWO No, I'm kidding😂. If there is no need to download heavy programs I think it is better to have an iPad with Apple Pencil and a cheap computer. Or just an iPad with keyboard and Apple Pencil ^-^

hi ! love this video but quick question- where did you get your phone case ?

I edit on my phone and I am think of buying Mac book or iPad ! I love taken notes but I think I can save money if I use iPad and not having to buy notebooks every time I need it .

I use both and honestly I don’t think I could ever chose just one🙈 but I 100% love having my iPad there as an extra screen when writing essays if I need more screens than my MacBook allows🙈

Just the video I need rn

I’m thinking of switching to an iPad Pro for my photo editing. I shoot portraits and headshots. I use Photoshop and Lightroom. I’m also a writer. I’m currently using an antiquated (but still chugging along) 21” desktop iMac with an elderly Wacom tablet for photo edits. I use a MacBook Air i3 as my laptop, and it does everything else, but throttles if I do anything intense. I mostly use the laptop for writing, as I’m also a professional copywriter. I do a lot of content consumption. And I take part time classes as a student. I need to read, write, edit photos and watch content. I want to pare down. I recently thought, “Would an iPad Pro just do everything I need? Could it?” Especially with the Apple Pencil and a Magic Keyboard, I feel like I could do everything. Photo edits & retouching, writing, reading and content consumption, etc. And after seeing the Apple keynote, and the new iPad....DROOL. Wow. Now I’m thinking of ditching my laptop and buying an iPad. Never really used one. Do you recommend?

Good point, paper and pen are just there. So, laptop seems to be the best choice, if we have to choose one.

You can connect any Bluetooth keyboard, mouse or trackpad to your iPad if you have iPadOS.

What is your editing programme Alicia? I really love these small features you included, they bring so much life!

nooooo I JUST BOUGHT THE IPAD PRO PENCIL AND MAGIC KEYBOARD TWO DAYS AGOO. so far have been loving it though, the keyboard is very useful and allows for shortcuts. personally as a user of the latest apple ipad and keyboard, an ipad is a close match to the laptop with the exception of photoshop etc :)) what program do you edit your videos on?

Im just going to 8th class but I have to say that just not being able to receive a document in zoom is frustrating!

My question is that can you store ms office documents on icloud? and notability,goodnotes files?

7:30 you can do this on the iPad pro too😉

I am gonna get a slightly cheaper windows laptop ( i need office for uni) and an ipad air 4 for the notes

Honestly as a PSHYC major an iPad Pro might be best, as of now I haven’t really needed special softwares that require a Laptop

I bought my iPad as a laptop in my junior year but I’m using a non apple product as a laptop

is going paperless and doing notes on apps as good as physically writing notes? I am considering buying an iPad but am worried i wont take in anything i'm learning in if its not on paper. Do you find that one method is better than the other for revision and general note taking?

hi alicia! just wanted to ask what size ipad pro you use? the 11 inch or 12.9 inch?

I’m a 51 years old computing science engineer and I’ll always try to be trained on new technologies so, in some way, I’m a student. I have both, the iPad Pro and the MacBook Pro, and I can say that I fully agree with Alicia. In my job it’s not possible to replace the MacBook for an iPad and I feel much more efficient when using the MacBook. I have to mention that for hand writing notes or annotating documents, the iPad is amazing and the MacBook has nothing to do. Many thanks for your great video.

I would have an Ad(that I got bc my aunt has a MacBook Air tho and I have the latest just an normal naem IPad Air bc it’s smaller to carry around and u can easily do stuff but I would see that with before college as I’m in grade 4

finally i got my new laptop asus vivobook its awsome i like to use is the most

I've been thinking of getting a Macbook Pro 13 since I do use my current one for light video editing occasionally and windows programs (like excel) work better. Then also, an Ipad Air with 64gb for digital notetaking since I could transfer notes that I don't need anymore to my phone/macbook. But my current laptop is somewhat shared with my family. So I don't know if I should get an iPad or macbook first, since I could still use my current one anyways.

The only video you need on mac vs ipad debate

Ipad Pro 8 gen + Midrange Laptop was a good move i think 🤔

You can sign things on the MacBook easily. You don’t have to send it to your ipad

But how would I write big papers on an Ipad? I need a proper keyboard for writing exams..

Any ideas on what a music major should have for tech?

Both

Try wireless Logitech keyboard for IPad

I use my ipad pro for my school work other then if i need to use pearson

i bought a laptop that's detachable from the keyboard, so it's like ipad but larger. and it's also realllyyyy cheap! it's not an apple product tho :(

This is why I have a Microsoft Surface Pro laptop. It's a laptop but you can write on it and it's the size of an Ipad. At least where I am it's around the cost of a MacBook.

Hello po mam .pedi po ba mag ask if maganda dn po ba siyang gamitin through work from home ? and Sa paggawa Ng resume po?

Thank you for your work!! I love your videos, they are very helpful!

Let me just say a laptop is a laptop , an iPad is an iPad, I don’t really see how an iPad can ‘take over’ as a “laptop” At the end of the day the iPad is a tablet. The iPad reminds me of my phone tbh. That’s why I personally want a MacBook but the iPad for note taking really is something different

❤

I know damn well that you got that painting in the back from kmart

I really loved your video Alicia..(as always...) But I don't have any money to buy any of these..not even an iPhone...😅😌🤓

Just so everyone knows, the iPad Pro Magic Keyboard is way too overpriced. Get the Logitech Folio keyboard with a trackpad instead! It's almost as good, has function keys, and is only $160. It's on the apple store,but I think they only carry it for 11 Inch right now.

Anyone with STEM background opinion here?

I will choose laptop because it will be better to save all your files and when you had to print out some information you can so that's why I had choose laptop I love your videos 😍 your videos are really important and intresting you should make more videos plz can I get heart from you di

When you can’t afford neither😬

All the problems you are addressing about iPad not having a keyboard are solved by using the magic keyboard. Now you could buy a Bluetooth keyboard and Bluetooth mouse then you practically have a more efficient device.

No one

When you simply don’t have the money...

I recently just purchased the MacBook Pro 2020 and updated from the MacBook Air 2017 mainly because of the storage I had on my Air 128gb. It wasn’t perfect for uni but soon as I started editing videos I was constantly running out of space. I’m loving the new Pro however I have the 2017 iPad Pro 12.9 and won’t be changing that anytime soon .. it’s great for studying on and of course Netflix/ RU-vid ✌🏼🇬🇧

Second

It comes down how you want to use them. If you want to go paperless and have the option to create presentations, write essays.. go for the ipad pro. But if you are going to do some heavy duty editing, or you dont necassarily depend on the touch screen go for a laptop. Also you don't have to buy a macbook pro if you're just going to use it for powerpoints its a waste of money. If you want apple go for an older gen renewed. Or a windows laptop.

Another thing I keep thinking about is consider what you'll be able to do with these devices AFTER uni . . . If I'm spending 3000 dollars on a device I'm gonna hope that it lasts me all through uni (and beyond) so if you dont think you'll ever use the iPad for the line of work you're going into, probs opt for the laptop. I'm fortunate enough to have an older version laptop (not Apple or anything) and next year I'm looking into investing into the budget iPad with its accessories because I feel it would really aid my learning experience. That being said: the macbook is a great device with amazing capabilities but I dont think it's that much better than a cheaper brand laptop (is that a hot take?). Maybe I just haven't done enough research but that's my opinion. I will however say that a lot of the student apps like goodnotes and notability cannot be accessed from non-Apple devices which could make trying to take notes really difficult. Again, the iPad pro is great, but for the normal user the iPad budget will work just fine. You can always trade in or upgrade your devices but I think going cheaper so that you can have both, but just have them have the functions you actually need and are gonna use instead of all the other bells and whistles is the way to go! Edit: Also try saving up for Black Friday or stalk the Apple website for specials ad have the money on hand you can also try going the second hand or refurbished route.

This was so informative :)

me writing notes in goodnotes: *Insert messiness* ----------------------- I also have a question- How did you afford the ipad and macbook pro?

If I have to be honest both devices are important in their own ways so yeah... ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Totally needed this. I was thinking about buying an iPad Pro for the new school year.

Really helpful ❤️❤️

Love you Alicia

I literally enjoyed the video!

I love your vids ....always waiting for a new one 😀❤️

What iPad and accessories do you have?

hiiii i love your videos

I have a 2-in-1 laptop that works as a tablet and a laptop and I love it! It's definitely for the people who enjoy having a laptop but need a way to make creative choices on the occasion. So I like sketching and doing Maths problems and I prefer doing them in the tablet format! It's really changed the way I work and it could do the same for others 💓 and it's wayyyy cheaper than buying a macbook and an ipad

First ❤️ ❤️

That a great content

I’m currently looking into getting a new computer this video came just in time !!!! Thank you!!!

Personally I got an 11” inch iPad + Apple Pencil + new magic key board and all you think is missing in the iPad feel good with the keyboard

First!!!!

first

Omg you go to usyd?!! Pharm student here 😅

Oml I was early and didn’t realise

When you are early but don't know what to write T _ T