Remember the iPad? You would be forgiven if you had forgotten. The iPad, which always seemed like an optional accessory sitting between your computer and smartphone, has long been treated as that “other” device. Now it’s time for us to reconsider the iPad.

With a bigger screen than an iPhone, the iPad excels at videoconferencing with apps like FaceTime and Zoom, and it’s great for watching movies and programmes on Netflix and YouTube. When you attach it to a good keyboard, it becomes an excellent budget computer with a zippy Internet connection for browsing the Web, writing emails and composing documents. All for half the price of a regular iPhone.

“It’s really in that sweet spot of being relatively affordable and having everything I think most people will need,” said Nick Guy, a writer for Wirecutter, a New York Times publication that tests products.

Over the past few weeks, the iPad has been my go-to device. Here’s why I’m naming it gadget of the pandemic.

Stay in touch

I’ve never been much of a video chatterer, but the pandemic has forced just about all of us to use videoconferencing with the people we care about and work with.

Initially, I preferred doing video calls on my office-provided laptop because the screen angle could be adjusted. But after about a week, I realised that video calls on a laptop were a power sucker; a half-hour call on Google Hangouts used 25 per cent of my laptop battery.

What’s more, security researchers have found that Zoom, the most popular video chatting app, has major security vulnerabilities on computers but not on mobile devices like the iPad. That’s because mobile apps operate in a more restricted environment with limited access to your data.

This made me eventually shift all my video calls to the iPad, which has a much longer battery life. And compared with a smartphone, the tablet has a bigger screen and can easily be propped up with a protective cover.

Get work done

After I started doing video calls on the iPad, many of my office tasks also began shifting over to the tablet, including composing emails, taking notes and doing expenses. I appreciated the device’s prolonged battery life and preferred the way apps took up the full screen, which helped me concentrate on tasks.

Not all credit goes to the iPad alone. The gadget has only a virtual keyboard, and using it to type on a slab of glass is no fun. Fortunately, I had researched several iPad keyboards before the pandemic and settled on the Logitech Slim Folio keyboard, which was simple to attach. Typing on it feels the same as using a normal keyboard, and its case protects the tablet while propping it up.

Entertain ourselves

Lately, I’ve been in the mood to shut off my brain by reading comics. The Comixology and Comic Zeal apps on the iPad make digital comics a better experience than reading in print: you can zoom in on individual panels, plus the screen is bright enough that you won’t need to turn on a reading lamp.

I also now spend several hours a day watching YouTube videos about everything from baking to DIY home improvement. Thanks to this new obsession, I finally optimised homemade pizza dough and learned how to instal a part in my motorcycle. The iPad has been a great video-playing companion through this journey.

Above the rest

So why the iPad and not another tablet computer? After all, many of the same tasks can be done on cheaper tablets, like Amazon’s Fire HD 8. Yet those other devices are generally much slower and have inferior screens. The iPad is ultimately the best tablet on the market.

There are just two caveats, both of which add to the price. The first is that a keyboard drives its cost up an extra $100. The second is that I recommend more storage (128 gigabytes instead of 32), which adds another $100.

Ryne Hager, an editor for the tech blog Android Police, said he bought an iPad for his girlfriend last Christmas and noticed that she was using it more frequently during the lockdown to video chat. The device’s ease of use and value were so compelling that he broke the Android Police site’s tradition of writing exclusively about Android products and wrote an article about why people should buy an iPad for the pandemic. “It’s kind of invaluable right now,” he said.