Make your new iPhone or iPad work harder with five of the best productivity apps

That new iPad or iPhone of yours can be the best productivity tool you've ever owned. AppleInsider picks the tools that everyone should have.

There are still critics who argue that the iPad is only good for what they call consumption: watching videos, reading books, playing games. They're right that it's excellent at that, however, then there are those who have iPads and realize that they simply don't need our Macs as much as we used to.

The iPad is powerful, versatile and so convenient that it will always be with you. Right out of the box you can get to work, too. Add these five tools, though and that iPad will change your life —or at least change where and how you do all of your work.

These are the five apps that every new iPad user should take a look at. Everyone is different, and there are so many iPad apps that you will undoubtedly find more that are superb for your specific needs. Yet even when you do, these five will likely be the bedrock of your work on iPad.

Microsoft Word

Right away, you should know that Apple's own word processor, Pages, is very good. It tends to hide its capabilities behind its simple appearance but it's genuinely a powerful writing tool. It's just that Microsoft Word is better. 

In fact, Microsoft Word is better on iPad than it is on Mac: it doesn't go wrong, doesn't crash, and does have features you need for writing anything from a memo to a book.

If you have any iPad except the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, then Microsoft Word is free to use. The company has decided to make it free for all tablets below 10 iunches and for anything else, you have to pay a subscription to Microsoft's Office 365. If you use Word a lot, think about the subscription anyway as it benefits you to have the single account across your iPad, Mac or PC.

A Microsoft Office 365 subscription costs from $10/month.

Numbers

This time you should know that Microsoft Excel is very good - but it's limited on the iPad compared to the Mac. If you do a lot of spreadsheet work or a lot of any kind of calculations, Excel is good for working across Mac and iPad.