Like a lot of people, whenever I go on a photo trip where I am spending multiple days photographing, I like to take a lap top with me. Every night I will copy the images to my lap top to review the photos. I don’t spend much time tweaking them, but I review to see what they look like and if, maybe I need to reshoot at that location. I do most of the work on the images on my desktop when I get home. My lap top has failed and needs to be replaced. My family is suggesting that I buy an iPad instead of a lap top. I have found out that Lightroom will work on an iPad. Has anyone used an iPad in this way and/or what would be your recommendations concerning this issue?

No.

They would not tolerate the clad in stone attitudes here for more than maybe two minutes.

However...there are many young people intetested in photography and interested in doing it right. I am working with a number of them. But you are going to have to go to them and work on their terms. They are legitimately interested in photography, but they don't care much about the attitudes and rigidity of old people. They are not interested in our forums, and they are not interested in our clubs. And if treated the way members here treat each other, they'll be gone in a minute.

If you're asking is the 2020 M1 MacBook Air suitable for use with Lightroom Classic and Photoshop, the answer is an emphatic YES from me.

CAVEAT: My Air is spec'd out this way:

> M1 un-binned chip (8 CPU cores, 8 GPU cores, 16 neural engine cores)
> 16 GB Unified Memory
> 1 TB SSD Storage.

I'll have had it for two years next week. I run Lightroom Classic and Photoshop frequently, and occasionally edit 4K video in Final Cut Pro. Those are the heavy lifting apps I have, but I use about 40 others on occasion, including all of MS 365 (Formerly MS Office).

Is the M1 enough? Yes, if you do NOT buy the base model. These chips SHARE RAM among all the processor cores. They also use SSD storage for virtual memory swaps. The less real memory you have, the more the system relies upon storage. But if you only have the base amount of storage, it fills up quickly, so you don't have enough for virtual memory swaps, and the system bogs down. You won't have problems with everyday tasks on the base models, but if you want to avoid slow-downs during heavy lifting tasks, get more memory and storage.

The sweet spot, where diminishing marginal returns on expenditure sets in, is at 16GB and 1TB. With any of the new Macs, you'll have smooth performance if you get at least that much memory and storage, respectively. If you're doing VERY heavy lifting (constant file rendering of thousands of images from Lightroom Classic, or 4K video editing with 8 streams of video and 16 tracks of audio plus effects, transitions, color grading and titles), then the MacBook Pro 14" or 16" or Mac Studio models are appropriate. But 95% of users can get by with the M1 or M2 Macs, given sufficient memory and internal storage.

If I were considering a Mac right now, I'd wait until after Apple's second rumored Fall announcement. The first will be iPhones in September, but M3 Macs are expected in October or November (but as late as next Spring). The M3 will feature faster processing and better battery life, although speed and battery life are already pretty amazing.

Oh, and about that iPad: Yes, people use them with mobile versions of Lightroom and Affinity Photo. There are some apps that can really shine on an iPad. But I still consider it a media consumption device, and the Mac to be a serious creation tool. I have an iPhone and a MacBook Air. I don't need an iPad.