iPad as a laptop... how well does it work

You can't use a mouse with an iPad.

I think the better question to ask is what you plan to use the iPad for, other than having it sit on your desk.

~Lyssa

Bottom line is that it isn't a laptop. If you need a laptop, you should get one.

If you already had the iPad, no harm in hooking it up to a monitor and keyboard. If it were me, I wouldn't go out and buy either of those for the purpose.

I find that my iPad and Zaggmate keyboard make a fine substitute for a netbook for answering emails, making notes. However, the iPad as a desktop computer replacement is certainly not using the iPad for the things it's best at and you're bound to be disappointed because it doesn't do everything that a standard computer does well. You can use a hand saw to cut down a tree but really, a chain saw works better.

at the end of the day it's a bigger iphone/ipod touch
with a nicer gui
but a stand alone device it's not
not that it can't perform many of those tasks but people who want access to a filesystem
and external things will not have their requirements met

Again, if you already have the iPad and you either already have the keyboard and monitor or can get them cheaply, why not?

as someone else indicated earlier, iPad only supports the bluetooth keyboard natively. Some people have been successful at jailbreaking their iPad to enable it for use with a bluetooth mouse, but I dont' know that anyone has had luck using the bluetooth keyboard and mouse at the same time. It may be possible with the keyboard dock, but you would really be experimenting.

antknee869 wrote:
I have an iPad 1. I am think of adding a monitor with eith the VGA

The iPad 1 doesn't do video mirroring. Only certain applications will output to the vga adapter: like KeyNote. You would need to verify that each application you want will output to the vga monitor.

or HDMI adapter

There is no HDMI on the iPad 1.

I turn my iPad sideways and type on it quite fast as if it were a normal computer. Practice it your notepad.

If you are having problems with sight, then you can zoom in so you can see the words better than you could on a regular VGA computer. If it is just trying to get used to the keypad, there are pens out there that will relieve you from having to use your fingers. Just look up Apple iPad stylus. You can buy one from Targus at Best Buy (if there is one close to you) for under 30.00. This should make typing much easier. However, as I have learned on my own, they are metal so don't use them cor long periods of time. Hope this information helps!
Sincerely,
The Silver Streak Impala

If you're looking for a laptop analog, you'd be much happier with a MacBook or MacBook Air.

antknee869 wrote:
I have an iPad 1. I am think of adding a monitor with eith the VGA or HDMI adapter, the keyboard and possibly a mouse.
Does anyone else use a similar setup? How well does it work?
Thanks

To give a more realistic, but positive viewpoint: other than typing taks, I find that I do 80% of my "consumption" is on the iPad. The other 20% is for Java or Flash websites, which means I use one of my Macs or PCs. 😟 But overall, I'm using the iPad about 50-70% of time over my 15" Macbook Pro and my Mac Mini and my Win7 PC. I had Windows Mobile PDAs & phones and was using them similar to how the iPod Touch & iPhones are used. Even to the point of remote controlling my Mac and PCs, so I knew the limitations of a "non-computer" as a replacement computer. I had been wanting a TabletPC for years since the time Bill Gates promoted them. But Windows really didn't work well on a tablet. (It needed a stylus because of the small buttons on screen.)

So I got an iPad thinking that it probably couldn't do very much over what I had now. But it really ended up being "what can't the iPad do." I have all my email accounts viewable from the iPad. (Multiple Exchange accounts, plus Yahoo, Hotmail & Gmail.) And with RDP and VNC apps, I can remote control my home and office PCs. RDP without a mouse takes some getting used to, but once you learn to zoom-in-then-select, it's not too bad. Evernote, Keepass, StreamToMe, and many other apps, means that there are only a few functions that I "need" my Macs for. (e.g.: VMware Fusion.)

With the addition of a Zaggmate keyboard/case, I find that even replying to email is quite acceptable. If I were really typing a lot (i.e.: writing a novel) then I'd get a full sized keyboard. But often I don't bother with the external keyboard and I'm just typing a little less in my email responses, which is not necessarily a bad thing. 😉 I was going to get the Clamcase, but the additional thickness was not appealing. Besides, I'm like Steve, I didn't want to "hide" the iPad inside of a permanent case.

With the iPad2 and the HDMI adapter, using a larger screen could be useful. But since you'd still need to touch the iPad instead of using a mouse, it sounds impractical. Me personally, I don't find the <10" screen of the iPad to be that big of a limitation. A 7", screen would have made an external "main monitor" many times more desirable, but IMHO Steve got it right with the idea that 10" is just about the lower limit for size. YMMV depending on your eyesight, of course. (And I'm saying this with 40+ year old eyeballs, not teenage ones. 😉 )

So overall, the idea of using the iPad as a "laptop" is almost possible. It's still a "companion" to a computer, rather than a replacement. My recommendation is get a keyboard if you need it. Don't bother with a mouse, because you won't need it. (Or rather, eventually, you'll stop missing it.) A larger monitor is of limited value since the iPad1 can't mirror the display, so don't worry about that except for Netflix and such. Just use the iPad for what it is: a very good "consumption companion". If you need to "create" beyond what apps there are, then at that point you probably need a "normal" computer. But if you really want to make the iPad a "primary computer" instead of a "companion", then "drink the Kool-Aid" and use the iPad as an iPad, not as a laptop. It's a cliche, but "there's an app for that" really is the thinking you need in order to make the iPad as close to a "full computer" as possible, rather than trying to do things the "traditional way" with keyboard and mouse, etc.