ZDNET’s key takeaways
- In iPadOS 26, the addition of a Mac-like windowing system, a menu bar, an actual cursor, and a much-improved Recordsdata app makes the iPad so much higher for getting work finished.
- There are nonetheless a pair lacking options that may make an enormous distinction in iPadOS 26.
- Whereas iPadOS 26 makes the iPad a way more full machine, energy customers should not count on to get productiveness advantages versus utilizing a Mac.
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The iPad and the Mac have at all times been complimentary units with just a few overlapping features — till iPadOS 26, which brings them so much nearer collectively. The large query since Apple introduced iPadOS 26 at WWDC 2025 in June has been, “Does this imply I can lastly use my iPad to interchange my laptop computer?”
The reply for me is, “No.” However that does not imply that iPadOS 26 is not an enormous step ahead. I have been utilizing the betas of iPadOS each day for the previous two months and I discovered so much to love. Let’s dig into one of the best new options that I believe you are going to love in your iPad when the brand new software program arrives.
How I examined iPadOS 26
I attempted iPadOS 26 on an 11-inch M4 iPad Professional, in order that I might choose it as a machine with laptop-like efficiency and capabilities (and a laptop-like worth at $1,899 for the configuration I used). The mannequin I used had a Tandem OLED show with nano-texture glass, which exceeds the show high quality of any MacBook Professional you should buy, at the least when it comes to colour gamut, distinction ratio, peak brightness, response occasions, and black ranges.
Additionally: Every iPad model that supports iPadOS 26 (and which ones won’t be compatible)
Make no mistake, this M4 iPad Professional is by far one of the best iPad I’ve ever used. In truth, it is probably the most succesful pill I’ve ever used. However that does not make it a laptop computer killer. There are nonetheless issues an iPad does higher than a laptop computer, and there are nonetheless issues which can be significantly better finished on a laptop computer. However we’ll get to that in a second.
My 4 favourite options in iPadOS 26
1. The brand new windowing system: In the end, Apple has introduced a Mac-like windowing system to the iPad and it is finished it in a robust and stylish means. The three acquainted inexperienced, yellow, and purple dots for shut, decrease, and maximize are actually current on iPad home windows, so long as you select Windowed Apps quite than Full-Display Apps or Stage Supervisor in your Settings. However now you possibly can resize home windows to your coronary heart’s content material, overlap home windows, and multi-task higher than ever. A number of occasions I resized home windows with out which means to and I am nonetheless unsure what I am doing fallacious that triggers that. In different phrases, it is not good but, however it nonetheless works rather well. And better of all, Apple constructed it into the underlying iPadOS in order that the function involves just about all iPad fashions which have been launched since 2020.
New windowing system on iPadOS 26.
Jason Hiner/ZDNET
2. The menu bar: Once you swipe down from the highest of the display whilst you’re in an app, a Mac-like menu bar now seems. This exposes a whole lot of features and choices that you just’d beforehand must dig by way of the Settings menu to entry. That is a win. As extra advanced apps undertake the menu bar it should be one of many sneaky energy person options that persons are going to like.
3. A real cursor: The iPad has had mouse assist and a cursor for a number of years now, however the iPad’s model of a cursor was a spherical dot that mimicked the tip of your finger since it is a touchscreen machine. I used to be thrilled to see that iPadOS 26 changed the dot with a triangular arrow that appears and feels way more like an actual mouse and is much more exact for working with the brand new windowing system and digging by way of the brand new menu bar.
Additionally: Your iPad is getting a huge upgrade for free. Features I can’t wait to use on iPadOS 26
So, iPadOS 26 now has an arrow cursor.
Jason Hiner/ZDNET
4. A totally useful Recordsdata app: Managing recordsdata has lengthy been one of the irritating issues on the iPad. I do a whole lot of studying on the iPad — it is a fantastic studying machine, and much more so with the nano-texture Tandem OLED show that blocks glare and fingerprints. However historically, it has typically been troublesome and brought too many steps to get paperwork downloaded from the online to the iPad after which open them in an app for fast and simple studying. In iPadOS 26, I navigated to a web site in Safari and located a PDF, swiped all the way down to entry the menu bar, clicked File | Save As after which navigated to a folder and saved it there. I opened the brand new Recordsdata app, simply positioned the file, and I rapidly popped it open within the new Preview app — one other among the best additions to iPadOS 26.
Two issues nonetheless lacking in iPadOS 26
1. A Mac-like Areas system to prepare units of home windows: As soon as I began resizing and shifting home windows round on iPadOS, I mechanically wished to arrange my system utilizing certainly one of my favourite options on the Mac: Areas. This allows you to set up a set of home windows, apps, a browser logged into your every day companies, and so on. After which you possibly can create one other house/desktop with a distinct set of issues. I typically use totally different areas for work apps, private apps, picture enhancing, background media gamers, and mission areas the place I am engaged on one thing particular. And among the best components on the Mac is that you may swipe up with three fingers in your mouse touchpad and it’ll present your entire areas and you’ll rapidly transfer to the one you need. In iPadOS 26, I often discovered myself desirous to swipe up with three fingers on the touchpad. Whereas the iPad has StageManager that does one thing comparable, it is simply not as intuitive, quick, and versatile as Areas. The iPad wants this.
Additionally: iPadOS 26 is turning my iPad Air into the ultraportable laptop it was meant to be
2. Clamshell mode: Now that iPadOS 26 has the iPad appearing extra like a Mac in some key methods and has the flexibility to hook up with exterior displays, one other one of many key Mac capabilities that may be nice to import could be clamshell mode. That is the place you connect with an exterior monitor after which shut the Mac, successfully making it function extra like a desktop as you’re employed solely on the monitor whereas utilizing an exterior mouse and keyboard. For instance, this got here up for me after I was at an offsite workforce assembly and we would have liked to dial-in a colleague. I attached my iPad to a TV within the convention room and used it to run Google Meet as a result of I wanted to be doing one thing else on my laptop computer. The one drawback with the setup was that the iPad needed to be open subsequent to the TV, so we noticed the identical picture on the iPad and the TV on the identical time, which was distracting. Clamshell mode would remedy this and would make the iPad much more like a grown-up laptop.
This is the Apple iPadOS 26 lock display on an 11-inch iPad Professional M4.
Jason Hiner/ZDNET
The place does this depart the iPad?
As a tool to do your day job, the iPad stays what it has at all times been — a light-weight computing machine that is not as succesful for work as a laptop computer. However, iPadOS 26 has made the iPad a way more succesful laptop that is so much much less irritating to make use of for doing extra highly effective duties.
And let’s not neglect, there are nonetheless loads of issues the iPad does higher than a laptop computer. It is higher for cell connectivity whenever you use the built-in 5G since you not often ever have to fret about Wi-Fi or hotspots. It is higher for drawing and taking handwritten notes with an Apple Pencil as a result of you possibly can’t do these issues on most laptops. It is higher for watching most motion pictures, exhibits, and movies as a result of it has a greater show and it has apps which can be typically quicker and simpler to tug up content material. And for work, it is typically higher for single-task jobs the place you should focus and block out distractions.
Nonetheless, if you should heavy multitasking, use a number of displays, copy-and-paste information between apps, manipulate massive information units, function advanced software program, or use shortcuts and scripts to automate key features, then you definitely’re nonetheless going to be a lot happier and extra productive utilizing a Mac (or a Linux or Home windows machine).
However, iPadOS 26 makes the iPad really feel just like the inevitable machine it was at all times meant to be. And that deserves a hat tip.
