No, never learn the 拼音. 手写 is easy to me.

use the finger on the iPad is not slow.  The main issue is iPad often does not recognize certain words,  that I could never make it come up the first try.  Words (in Chinese), like restaurant,  from,  good,  etc  It always gives me something else,  "good" often becomes daugher and son, 2 Chinese words...

Right now I am on an ancient desktop, no touch screen therefore the quickest way is to type English!