u/Econwriter's Post

[extratone]

"r/iPhoneXsMax - What I Learned When I Used my iPhone XS Max as My Primary Work Computer for a Couple of Days"

20-06-2021 04:25

7 votes and 6 comments so far on Reddit
Sure, the title is meant to be provocative. But it's not based on a stunt. I already use an iPad Pro for 90% of my work (mainly text creation and editing, research and spreadsheet analysis.)

My main goal was to determine whether I could be so minimalist as to simply travel to and from my office with only my "pocket computer" and not an iPad. And I wanted to see if thinking of my device portfolio (which includes the aforementioned iPad Pro and a Mac Mini that lives on my desk at work) as based primarily on the iPhone was feasible particularly in regard to eliminating the need to pack any additional devices when traveling out of town for work.

Here's what occurred to me:

1.) An external keyboard was crucial. After pairing the Magic Keyboard to the iPhone - and placing the iPhone in a stand - I was able to mostly reproduce my general workflow and live the dream of a using a small computer that can morph into what is needed when it is needed. Still some frictions exist, of course: I really miss command-tab for app switching and the on-screen revealing of available shortcuts by holding down the control key. (I used the Assistive Touch virtual button as a workaround - allowed me to quickly trigger the stacked-card app switcher of the iPhone-variant of iOS - and leaned heavily on my own Shortcuts-based actions.) Unfortunately, not all keyboard shortcuts work on the iPhone versions of a few apps, including some native ones. This is surely because the iPhone versions of those apps aren’t designed as “full” versions - something that shouldn’t surprise anyone with an 11-inch-or-smaller iPad who tries to use Split View with those apps).

2.) Hooking it up to an external monitor was essential for long stretches. Orientation is a problem, though. If I had the phone in landscape (as I often did since it forced the larger aspect ratio onto the monitor view), returning to the home screen wasn’t as pleasant as it used to be on the older Plus models - none of the app icons reorient with the X-model phones. I would find myself having to pick up my phone and prop it up in portrait to accomplish certain tasks - anytime I had to use FaceID, for instance. So I ended up using it in portrait much of the time. And it was not an unpleasant experience. Even though there were large expanses of unused black space on the monitor, it did help me focus better on the tasks at hand. In fact, the forced focus that came with the lack of quick keyboard-activated app switching was unexpectedly nice.

The whole experience helped me realize that certain apps are indeed better at providing a shared experience between devices, particularly when used with an external keyboard. (Made me realize I appreciate the apps that have deeply-integrated keyboard shortcut support in both iPhone and iPad versions - Spark and Drafts were among the clear winners here.)

TLDR: I’ve concluded that for my purposes the iPhone XS Max can definitely be a very portable and capable travel computer, and is even up to the task of delivering an iPad-like experience that is improved when hooked up to an external monitor (although with some fairly obvious trade-offs). I will be doing some business-related travel the next few weeks and plan to leave my iPad at home and fly solo with the XS Max and a Magic Keyboard in my bag instead.

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• (1) What I Learned When I Used my iPhone XS Max as My Primary Work Computer for a Couple of Days : iPhoneXsMax