iPadOS review: The iPad is dead, long live the iPad

Foundational app changes

There are some Apple-made apps that form a foundation for the experience across the system, like Safari. Safari now defaults to desktop versions of websites and has a download manager, among other things. Files has been greatly expanded, and I'd argue it has been graduated to that foundation-level status.

There are of course numerous other changes to apps like Notes, Photos, and Reminders, as well as improvements to Maps, another foundational app. But since those also apply to the iPhone, I explored them more deeply in the iOS 13 review.

Files

On that note, I’ve generally avoided writing out individual sections in this review for features I already covered at length in the iOS 13 review. But the new Files is so substantial and fundamental to Apple’s attempts to reinvent the iPad as a workstation, I need to single it out.

First of all, read the section on Files in the iOS 13 review; everything there applies here. Notable changes include support for external drives and SD cards, expanded keyboard shortcuts, the ability to create new folders at the exposed root level, a new macOS-esque “Downloads” folder, direct camera import, and expanded Quick Actions and context menus on files, folders, and more.

In addition to all those things shared with iPhones, Files in iPadOS adds a new, tablet-specific view: column view. This is very similar to the column view in Finder under macOS, whereby you can see folders in cascading columns as they are nested.

Each column shows a level of the folder structure, and the far-right column can display metadata and other information similar to the Inspector in macOS’ Finder. This isn’t a game changer—although the Inspector-like view is really useful—but those context menus and the access to external drives might be for many users.

Safari

Safari now defaults to the desktop versions of websites on the iPad, and this is one of the most dramatic changes to the iPad user experience in iPadOS.

Websites see the iPadOS browser as the macOS version of Safari and deliver the content accordingly. And the "request desktop website" option in Safari for iPad has been replaced with "request mobile website," except in Slide Over app windows, which work just like Safari on the iPhone in this regard.

Apple’s browser team has made a strong effort to make mobile Safari play nice with these desktop websites, and generally the results are positive. In most cases, all functionality you’d get on a MacBook is available to you on the iPad now, and it’s usually just as easy to use. The company has done some wild stuff on this front. For example, Safari analyzes websites and offers its best effort to determine whether tapping on a UI element in a website will give you the hover event or the click event. It also adjusts website layouts to increase legibility. Safari on iPad now supports the necessary APIs to allow it to use some rich media websites like Netflix that didn't work before, too.

The work Apple's team has done here is commendable; it's a big improvement for browsing the Web on an iPad. It's a first step forward, and there are more steps to make, but it's an impressively big step regardless. I’d argue the Web browsing experience on the iPad achieves parity with the desktop experience the majority of the time, and it's good enough for most people's needs, most of the time.

I want to acknowledge all of that before I get a bit critical here. There are occasionally little limitations you’ll run across. Take Google Maps for example. It used to be a real pain to use the Google Maps Web app on mobile, and for the most part, it’s not anymore. But there’s one thing I do all the time on desktop that I can’t here: the long-click to place a marker at any point on any road. It doesn’t work in Safari on the iPad, even with the desktop website.

Of course, you can do that in the native Google Apps map from the App Store, so you have options, but it’s one example that shows that desktop Web apps on iPad are not quite 100%.

In another example, I’ve always found WordPress—which I use to input and publish my Ars Technica articles—frustratingly unusable on mobile. And there’s no working WordPress app for the type of website that Ars is. The changes in iPadOS Safari finally make WordPress functional, but the entire Web app glitches visually every time I scroll through a long post in the edit view.

Given that this is the new direction for iPads, I expect this sort of thing to improve over time thanks to efforts by both Apple and front-end Web developers and designers. Right now, it’s usually good enough, but you will run into some wonkiness now and then in the meantime.

Other updates to Safari in iPadOS (some of which I discussed in our iOS 13 review) include a fully functional download manager, new options for opening or bookmarking multiple tabs simultaneously, a start page that shows Siri recommendations, expanded keyboard shortcuts (including support for Web app-specific keyboard shortcuts like those in Gmail, which override Safari's own wherever there's a conflict), changes to how Safari windows work related to the above-discussed multitasking updates, and more.

All told, Safari represents one of the biggest focus areas for Apple's updates this year, and it's all good news... even if desktop browsing still has some kinks to work out.

Accessibility: Mouse and voice control

You've probably seen it on tech sites before: the iPad is getting mouse support! But as sexy a headline as that makes for said websites, this is not really mouse support in the way that some people want.

It's an accessibility feature. The mouse cursor simply represents a virtual finger, and a click is the same as a tap. The reason this will disappoint those who want normal mouse support is that there are numerous differences between the way iPadOS's touch-based interface works compared to how a mouse works on a computer. You can't click-and-drag to select text, for example. You have to use the same approach you use with a tap: double-click to select, then drag.

In practice, those who can touch the screen will be able to be more effective doing just that. The only advantage to using a mouse over using your fingers is that you don't have to raise your hand to the screen—which is what the company's accessibility-for-people-with-disabilities effort is all about.

So slow your roll there, mouse enthusiasts. This is not the mouse support you're looking for. It is, however, very welcome for those users with certain disabilities, and I continue to believe that Apple deserves a great deal of praise for its aggressive accessibility efforts in both iOS and macOS.

It's a similar story with voice control; leaving this enabled to augment your tapping-and-swiping-and-pinching motions doesn't make a lot of sense. It really is intended for users who cannot tap, swipe, or pinch. If you have the ability to do those physical motions, then you're best off sticking to Siri and Shortcuts to improve your productivity and efficiency.

Accessibility features are meant to be just that—features that increase access to what the platform has to offer for people with disabilities. Apple had no intention here to make voice or mouse control standard ways to interact with the operating system for most users. But what the company has done here is commendable nonetheless for those who need it.

Other changes shared with iOS 13

There are numerous other changes in iPadOS from last year’s iOS 12 release that we haven’t covered here. These are almost all changes that also apply to iPhone and iPod touch devices in iOS 13.

For details on these changes, read our full review of iOS 13, to which this review is an addendum. Unless otherwise noted, everything we covered in that review also applies to iPadOS.