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I’m really into using the iPad as more than a device for media consumption, but the most difficult thing was not having a real, desktop level browser. The best browser I could have was iCab, but even using that was complicated.
When I heard of the new Safari browser in iPad OS, I knew I had to install the beta. And boy, did it deliver: Safari is now a genuinely great browser.
To give you an idea: when I tried using Google Analytics, Google Docs or a WordPress dashboard on iOS 12, it was an exercise in frustration. “Clicking” somewhere was a hit-or-miss experience, it would take a long time loading, it would stop sometimes completely. It was bad.
Now, it’s completely different. It really is like using my laptop’s browser. I don’t remember any sites in the last month or so giving me issues whatsoever.
Just for this only I would choose the beta iPad. Of course, it also has a download manager (but iCab also had one), you can use multiple windows of Safari, drag to create windows and the likes. You can see a list of the added things here.
But! Before installing the beta iPad OS, I need to tell you that the beta experience, over all, was quite bad. Yes, Safari is great, but weird bugs appear out of nowhere: keyboard not resizing or readjusting to vertical/horizontal positioning, apps being stuck… If you use an iPad as your primary device, I wouldn’t, frankly, use iPad OS just yet. Just wait until September for the public version.
