iPad Pro (2018) review: very powerful with a beautiful screen, but iOS limitations like no USB-C storage support means it is still a poor laptop replacement
The thing about bullet trains is that they're always on rails — Apple introduced the new iPad Pro with a spectacular series …
Context & Ripple Effects
This review lands mid-arc in a decade-long argument about whether the iPad Pro can replace a laptop. The original 2015 iPad Pro review already flagged the same split — excellent hardware held back by iOS — and the 10.5-inch model two years later repeated it, with reviewers noting the true cost climbs once you add the Smart Keyboard and Pencil.
What makes the 2018 model the interesting data point is that Apple moved to USB-C, removing the physical excuse, yet the software still refuses external storage — so the limitation is now clearly a choice rather than a port constraint. The verdict here set up everything after it: the 2020 review's trackpad support, and eventually an iPadOS that the M5-era 2025 review describes as getting more Mac-like, while still calling the device too pricey as a secondary computer.
First-order effects
- Buyers paying flagship prices plus keyboard and Pencil accessories get a machine whose headline hardware upgrade — USB-C — cannot be used for the external-storage workflows that define laptop replacement.
Second-order effects
- Every subsequent iPad Pro generation inherits this review's framing as its benchmark: Apple's own follow-ups (trackpad in 2020, progressively more Mac-like iPadOS) read as responses to exactly the software ceiling this review names.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds across the review record, the iPad Pro stays structurally a premium secondary computer — hardware that outclasses laptops paired with software that never fully closes the gap — capping how much of the laptop market Apple can convert at these price points.
The trend: Across a decade of iPad Pro reviews, Apple's tablet hardware consistently outruns its software, with iPadOS converging toward the Mac slowly enough that 'laptop replacement' remains perpetually one release away.