. . . because I am a PC guy with a compact Dell XPS 13 for travel purposes, a MacBook Pro killer in a Lenovo Yoga 920 (UHD touchscreen, 2-in-1 convertible, two Thunderbolt 3 ports), and two desktops including a high-end gaming machine (Alienware Aurora R7). When traveling in Japan via rental car, I rely on my iPhone 6+ for GPS navigation and in combination with Google Maps and Google Earth, I use it to find tourist attractions, hotel/ryokans, and places to eat. I tried to convert my Dell XPS into a GPS-capable navigation device to take advantage of the large screen, and to backup the iPhone, but it failed miserably. What do the CEOs of Apple, Google, and Microsoft have in common? They do not get along, so neither do their devices or software.
PCs are primitive compared to cell phones in their lack of a cellular function and built-in GPS. I tried attaching a GPS dongle to my Dell except it won't interface seamlessly with Google Maps or Google Earth. You have to install a clunky GPS software which is primitive in features compared to the Google apps. This is fine if you have a boat or plane and need something to update your location, but it won't do what Google Maps can do: you can find even the most obscure tourist attractions in a foreign country, you can find your hotel for the night, and you can find nearby restaurants complete with pictures of the food and customer reviews. In one instance, I needed to find the nearest supermarket to my hotel and you just poke on the location with your finger and you have photos of the grocery aisles and even the selection of obentos in the food section! Use Google Earth and you can find out how your hotel looks so you will recognize it when you arrive.
So I finally bit the bullet and ended up getting this tablet. The GPS chip is only in the expensive WIFI + cellular version. Apple products are way overpriced if you ask me; at $1050, this IPad Pro 11" cost more than my Dell XPS laptop. I agree with one reviewer that market price on these units should be in the $300-400 range, no more. And there is NO WAY an iPad can do as many things as a laptop.
To wit: this IPad Pro 11" has a USB-C port, correct? So I connect the USB-C hub for my PCs and hooked up a 4 TB portable HDD figuring I could access the data on it. HAHAHAHAHA! Apple products won't have anything to do with anything remotely PC-ish such as external HDDs. My only option here is to buy multiple 256 GB IPad compatible flash drives, when for the price of one of these, you can easily buy a 2 TB portable HDD for a PC. I could use Cloud storage, but I need to access the data on a plane and I don't want to pay for the pathetically slow WIFI you get on a flight.
Why isn't there one device that has:
- Built-in cellular, WIFI, and GPS
- Has a large, 2-in-1 touchscreen so you can use it as a tablet
- And has upgradeable RAM and cheap storage space, yet works seamlessly with Google apps?
I will say this IPad Pro 11" is sweet compared to my dated iPhone 6+. It's slick and fast, has a large, gorgeous liquid Retina screen, has facial recognition, and has better battery life, but as a retiree, it's a luxury I don't really use much unless I'm traveling. But I had gone 10 years before I recently upgraded my PCs, and my IPhone 6+ is a good 4-5 years old, so I imagine I'll be hanging on to this $1K investment for quite awhile.
Conserves energy compared to similar products.
As certified by
EPEAT
EPEAT
EPEAT addresses the sustainability impacts of electronic products. An EPEAT registered product must meet required criteria and can meet optional criteria. The criteria depend on the type of product and can include energy efficiency, reduction of fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-Gases), and end of life management. Products meeting 50% - 75% optional criteria are “Silver” and those meeting more than 75% are “Gold”.
Certification Level
GOLD
