It may be capable of replacing a laptop, but not for real work while saddled with that rubbish iPadOS, zero usb-c data ports, n mouse support and stupidly high price.If they added the keyboard in for free, had 2 usb-c ports for power and data, and supported a mouse I consider one, but they are far more expensive than MacBook Air. A top tier model in Australia is $4K, which is literally insane. So many much better x86 laptops available with far more features, more memory, bigger ssd for a lot less.
Apple's new iPad Pro M5 offers more performance than many compact laptops. Combined with iPadOS26 and a keyboard cover, the iPad can definitely replace a laptop if you can live with the limitations. Especially the 5G connectivity can make a big difference on the road.