When Apple announced iPadOS 26 on June 9, 2025, it billed it as “the biggest iPadOS release ever.” After hands‑on time with the beta—and reading what the likes of The Verge, TechRadar, and Wired are saying—I’m convinced: this is the update that’ll let me carry just my iPad instead of my MacBook Air.

Windows everywhere. On the iPad as well as an external display.

A Windowing System That Works

At the heart of this transformation is the brand‑new windowing system. Gone are the limits of Split View or Slide Over (if you even know what they are 🤷🏽‍♂️ )—now apps open in freely resizable, draggable windows, complete with familiar traffic‑light window controls. The Verge, after just a few hours, declared that using multiple apps “feels like a Mac,” and TechRadar called the windowing system “the coolest feature” of the update. That’s the kind of productivity boost I’ve been waiting years for.

Exposé is the icing on the cake—spread out all your open windows to pick the one you want, just like on macOS. And yes, we have a menu bar—swipe from the top or move your cursor, and there it is: your app’s commands neatly arranged and instantly accessible.

Exposé - show all your running apps at once

Liquid Glass and Apple Intelligence

Visually, iPadOS 26 sports a sleek new Liquid Glass design—translucent, dynamic, and expressive—across everything from the Lock Screen to Control Center. It feels fresh without sacrificing familiarity, modern without losing simplicity.

Smarter too: Apple Intelligence now powers live translation in Messages, FaceTime, and phone calls, and enhances creative tools—think Genmoji, Image Playground, and Shortcuts that intelligently summarize text or draft images.

Pro-Level Files, Preview and Background Tasks

The Files app has been overhauled with resizable columns, collapsible folders, colored icons, and dockable folders—finally giving file management on iPad the polish it deserves. Preview has come over from Mac, with PDF editing, AutoFill, and Apple Pencil markup built right in.

Need to export video, transcode audio or run a build? Background Tasks now let these run in the background with Live Activity progress, so your iPad stays responsive as it powers through.

iPad Files app looks like the Finder on macOS

Journal app for iPad

Another iPhone only app now makes it way to the iPad - the Journal app. This looks extremely promising and I think I would probably use it more on the iPad than an iPhone for journaling my daily activities. The seamless sharing between an iPhone and iPad means that all my activities and photos are now available on the iPad as well for mining journal ideas.

Reviews Say: Yes, You Can Ditch Your MacBook Air

The reviews don’t mince words: The Verge asks “Hang on, did the iPad just become a computer?” and says multitasking now “makes sense in a way it never has before.”

Wired even proclaimed “The iPad is a full‑on computer now,” calling iPadOS 26 a “tipping point.” That’s the kind of bold leap I’ve been waiting to see.

It’s true there are still some quirks in this early beta—bugs with external displays and a few touch‑mode limitations—but with the public beta due next month and full launch in the fall, I’m already daydreaming of my #iPadOnly workflow.

A menu bar ? On an iPad ? Wonder of wonders..

Bottom line:

iPadOS 26 isn’t just an incremental update—it’s the moment when the iPad stopped pretending and really started behaving like a laptop. With Mac‑style windowing, Liquid Glass design, smarter AI tools, pro‑grade file handling and more, I’m officially ready to leave my MacBook Air behind.

See you in the public beta.