iPad Pro review: not a laptop replacement, too bulky, disappointing and costly optional keyboard case, few optimized apps
Mossberg: The iPad Pro can't replace your laptop totally, even for a tablet lover — I am a tablet man, specifically an iPad man. I do love my trusty, iconic, MacBook Air laptop.
Context & Ripple Effects
Mossberg's launch verdict lands alongside Ars Technica's same-day take — both praise the hardware and pan the platform: expensive, limited by iOS 9's constraints, with few apps rebuilt for the big screen. The keyboard case draws special fire for being bulky and costly, pushing the total price into MacBook Air territory while still not replacing it.
What makes this review matter in hindsight is how long the complaint holds: two years later iOS 11 still lacks precise pointer input, the 2018 Pro ships with USB-C but no storage support, and by the time of the M5 model in 2025 reviewers are calling iPadOS 'Mac-like' yet still pricing it as a secondary computer. The hardware-software gap Mossberg identified becomes the recurring frame for every generation.
First-order effects
- Buyers weighing an iPad Pro plus Smart Keyboard against a MacBook Air face a worse deal than the spec sheet suggests — the accessory premium buys bulk and compromise rather than laptop capability.
Second-order effects
- Apple is pushed to close the gap in software rather than silicon: multitasking improvements arrive in iOS 11, pointer input follows years later, and each fix reopens the question of whether the iPad cannibalizes the Mac line.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — unbeaten hardware, lagging OS, premium accessories — the iPad Pro settles into a permanent hybrid tier above tablets but below laptops, with Apple's control over the platform itself, not component performance, as the binding constraint.
The trend: Across a decade of reviews, the iPad Pro keeps converging toward laptop capability while Apple's own operating system restrictions keep it a secondary device.