If you are heading off on holiday over the next few days – don’t forget to pack your iPad
Over the weekend I was talking to a friend who was packing for a 10-day family holiday – and I tell you what, it sounded as stressful as heck!
If you’re about to go on your summer break or vacation, hopefully, today
I’m going to help you reduce the holiday stress – well at least from a tech point of view.
Look, there’s enough for you to think about when packing for a holiday like flights, check-in, hotels, taxis and insurance and that’s before we even think about the kids if you have them! The last thing you need to be worrying about with all that going on is what tech to pack – but the good news is that if you’ve got an iPad you’ve got pretty much all you need in one compact device!
There are a few camera settings I’m going to go over too – just make sure you are getting the most out of your iPad which I’ll cover a little later on – also I’ll mention a few niggles that have started to raise their head the more I use my M4 iPad.
But first, why take your iPad with you on holiday in the first place?
M4 iPad – create, shoot & edit
The iPad is a perfect holiday companion because it ticks so many boxes.
If you’re stuck in the airport for instance or on a long flight as we all know the iPad is a helluva great content consumption device. Whether bingeing on Netflix or catching up with the latest series on Apple TV – Presumed Innocent by the way with Jake Gyllenhaal is brilliant – the panel on all iPads are stunning, but the latest tandem OLED display on my M4 iPad Pro is the best display, outside of the Vision Pro that I had a demo on last week, that I’ve ever used.
The four-speaker stereo setup on the iPad is great if you want to have the iPad say as a central entertainment pod in your hotel room for instance for the family to enjoy. It’s loud enough that you won’t need to pack any extra speakers and even without any AirPods listening to music or podcasts is a joy on the iPad – good bass and clean mids. They’ve played a blinder with the audio on this latest iPad.
If you love reading the larger screen of an iPad is perfect – whether that’s news, books or your favourite blog. The screen is bright enough that it’s easy to take the iPad out with you and read in bright environments and the standard anti-reflective coating does a good enough job at reducing glare. And if you fancy brushing up on your long-forgotten drawing skills on holiday the iPad and Pencil Pro make a great combo to do just that.
The battery life, although not as good as I’d hoped it would be will get you through the best part of the day in general use.
And if you need to do a little bit of work while you’re away, the iPad lends itself perfectly to that as well. It’s easy to catch up with general admin, emailing, making notes, setting Reminders or editing spreadsheets in Numbers.
Out of office
As I’ve said before, working on an iPad feels less officey so even if you do have to catch up on a few bits of work it feels a bit less formal than getting a MacBook out or reaching for the phone.
There’s an argument to be made that away from the normal day-to-day grind in the office the iPad starts to shine and come to life. No longer are we as concerned about the multitasking or iPadOS capabilities – nope now we just want the iPad to get stuff done, relax and have a bit of fun – and that’s when it shines.
Earlier I said that the iPad is pretty much all you need tech-wise to pack if you’re going on holiday – let me explain…
Yes, of course, you’ll need to take your phone too, that’s a given but with the iPhone/iPad combo, you don’t need anything else. And if you’re on holiday one of the main features you are going to want to use is the camera app – right?
The camera on the iPad is a bit of an unsung hero.
Look, I know the iPad is a little cumbersome to use, but you’re on holiday right – so let’s just use what you have to hand. Maybe you want to park the phone for a few days to make sure you are properly switched off from work and that’s where the iPad comes in – and if you spec’d your iPad with the cellular option you really can be iPhone-free and use the fast onboard 5G connectivity.
They say the best camera you have is the one that’s with you – and if that’s the iPad just go with it.
The beauty of the iPad is it’s an all-in-one device – you can shoot, edit and share all on one device with a pro camera system that has studio-quality mics, and four speakers. You can capture 4K ProRes video, hop on a video call with family or friends at home with that new front-facing landscape camera and scan receipts or hotel bills for your records which is now powered by enhanced AI.
You can even set up Apple Pay on the iPad too so that you can pay those bills without reaching for your phone.
Making it easy
It’s all about ease – trying to pack and take as little out with you as possible.
The video specs of the cameras on the iPad are decent too. You have a 12MP wide camera which shoots 4K ProRes video and the front-facing landscape camera is also 12MP but with an Ultra Wide lens and that has Centre Stage. If you’re not a fan by the way, that can be turned off when on FaceTime calls via the Control Centre.
You can shoot 4K video at 24 or 30 fps or in 1080 at 30 or 60P. You can shoot in 720…but why would you unless you are specifically shooting to post on Twitter? Come to think of it, why is 720 even still an option on iPads?
For those dramatic filmy sequences, you can shoot in slo-mo too in 1080 at 120P.
Those mics I mentioned will do a decent job of capturing audio as well – the voice isolation feature works ever so well and will cut out some of the background noise as you record.
The photo side of the camera is more than able as well with a 1 & 2X camera – both having 5X digital zoom – although it is pretty grainy and I wouldn’t suggest using it all that often. You can shoot in either HEIF or JPEG formats. For now, though, there are no options to shoot in RAW on the iPad.
You can shoot in square or portrait and you have a 3 or 10-second timer with a live option on standard shots if you want to take group family shots.
With the portrait mode, I always like to wind back the depth of field – the soft blur – to around an F-stop 8 or 9 otherwise I feel the bokeh effect starts to look a bit phoney. You can play with it though to get quite a natural look. In the portrait mode, you also get to choose the lighting effect as well if you fancy – the Contour option for example gives quite a pleasing result…but I often rely on natural light.
If you want to take some gorgeous shots of the horizon or beach there is also the option to shoot in panoramic – just like on your iPhone.
As I mentioned earlier on though, there are a few basic settings you may want to go through in the settings menu to make sure you are getting the most out of your iPads camera. Most of these are a one-and-done so once you set them you’ll never have to re-visit them.
In the camera app first of all select the default video setting you want – which for me is 24 FPS. Also, make sure Lock White Balance is on – trust me it’s a way safer option unless you know what you are doing with a camera. Oh, and choose your Slo-Mo setting too while you’re there.
Next is the camera capture formats – which you choose may well come down to personal choice and what local storage you have. I chose ‘most compatible’ which means the default settings will be JPEG for photos and the H.264 codec for video.
Preserve Settings is super handy as it means every time you pick up the camera it will revert to how you last shot.
Camera Mode will mean it will go back to video or photo…and in the Camera app, it will even remember if you shot square or full-screen for instance. Depth Setting will recall the f-stop settings that I just mentioned so once you find your sweet spot you won’t have to waste time setting it again. Lastly, the Live setting will leave that feature either turned on or off – whichever you prefer. With it left on though, it gives you more options in post to play with things such as long exposure and so on in Apple’s Photo’s app.
I assume you’d always want to shoot with stereo audio so have that ticked on. Scanning QR codes is always handy as is Text Detect.
The Grid is something I swear by when it comes to getting a good composition for your shot and the level meter means it’s easier to get a straight shot rather than having to waste time later editing in post. The more you can get right in camera, the better.
Using the grids is easy – it’s just the standard rule of thirds and it takes all the guesswork out of framing a good photo or video. I even use that same grid system on my Canon.
With all those settings made you are good to go – but if you have an Apple Pencil Pro there are a couple of settings I like to make there too.
Firstly the Squeeze option – for me I like it set to a shortcut to open the Recently Played option in Apple Music – it’s one less distraction when I’m working. You can also set the Double Tap feature to various choices as well – I currently have set it to the eraser – but I often play around with that one as the mood strikes me.
And I’m sure you know this already, but you can set up Hot Corners just like you can on a Mac.
Using the Apple Pencil you can choose between taking a Screenshot, Notes or disabling it for both the left and right bottom corners of your iPad.
And now with Final Cut on the iPad, if you’ve taken loads of stunning footage on holiday you don’t have to wait until you get home to start editing – you can get right to it on holiday.
That means you can send finished videos back home to friends and family or post them to your socials on the fly which is pretty neat.
And if you want to impress them why not grab the free Final Cut Camera app and get into some Multicam shots – it’s super simple to set up and use and will take your videos to the next level. All you need is an iPhone and an M4 iPad.
Problems & niggles
I’m still loving my iPad journey, but now I’m using it more, there are a few problems or issues that are coming to light.
The keyboard, as great as it is to type and work on gets stuck for no obvious reason. Let’s say I want to go back and add or delete some text – the cursor just won’t go where I want it to go – and that’s using the first-party Magic Keyboard from Apple. The workaround is having to close the app and re-launch it which isn’t perfect!
And the 13-inch iPad Pro is heavy – deceptively heavy. I was in London at the weekend at the final E Prix of the year (Electric Grand Prix) and put the iPad in my rucksack. By the end of the day, I knew all about it!
With the keyboard on it starts to feel more like you’re carrying a MacBook Pro. Yes, I could lose weight by leaving the keyboard at home – but that’s not the answer. I’d be losing functionality and protection. So if portability is a big thing for you, just consider that when choosing which model iPad you’re going to buy.
Also, the Apple Pencil is too vulnerable and exposed where it is at the top of the iPad. As strong as the magnet is, the pencil either falls off in my rucksack or you feel it’s going to get knocked off and lost if you are carrying the iPad around. I wish that rumour of the pencil storing and charging in the hinge of the keyboard had come through – it makes way more sense.
Oh, and back in the office I’d like more flexibility of how I can re-size windows. It’s not a big issue but I’m now starting to understand the clamour for better window management.
Lastly, the battery is still a concern. It has good and bad days but no way does it ever give the 15+ hours that Apple suggested.
So there you go – the iPad is the perfect holiday companion.
If you are off on holiday over the next few weeks I’d love to hear your stories about what tech you’re packing and how you are going to use it. Let me know what your out-of-office setup is.
One Response
The “holiday essential” angle makes sense—travel days, family downtime, and last-minute planning are exactly when a lightweight device earns its keep. I usually pair gear planning with a quick look at upcoming public holidays so trips and work breaks don’t sneak up on me.