The iPad Pro has been out for around a month and I decided to upgrade due to my iPad not being able to handle the enterprise work I was trying to accomplish. So with that a long awaited upgrade was in order. Was the upgrade worth it? Check out my review below.

First impressions

The iPad Pro was one of the leading showcases at this past WWDC, apples annual developer conference. There are two and a half differences in this new iPad compared to the last pro. So let’s get it out of the way, the screen. The new screen is a liquid XDR display, what does that mean? To sum it up, a very powerful screen that displays a very crisp clean image when HDR content is being shown. When you are watching something that supports the full HDR the screen is like a portable 4K screen from what I can tell.

The other big thing that Apple was touting was how they took the new M1 chip and put it into a tablet. Now the only downside currently is that there isn’t any apps that bring the Pro to fully take the system to that pro level especially if I compare it to the Surface Pro. But I am hoping with the new iPad surface update coming out in the fall that it will bring the ability for developers to fully take control of such a power. What I hope some developers bring to the iPad pros power is maybe some enterprise apps like maybe Visual Studio Code, bitbucket, or maybe giving us the ability to remote into our Mac.

The battery life was one of the big things that made me upgrade and this iPad is a double edged sword when it comes to its battery life. If I am just running my apps, not running the screen on blast, the iPad will last throughout the entire day and then some. But if I run it with HDR, full brightness then the iPad might only last 4 hours. So the battery life will vary depending on what you are doing.

If you are wondering if you can use this as a laptop replacement, it kind of varies…depending on what you plan on doing. If you are a internet user, writer, project manager, designer, Or using a program through the web like Salesforce. Then this could very well fit the mold, but if you require software like visual studio code, game dev, then you might want to pass on this. Now one of the things you can do is connect your iPad Pro to a USB C hub and actually use the connectors to connect to a keyboard or memory card or even a external monitor. Now the only catch with monitors is that it duplicates your iPad screen to the monitor you can’t extend it or use the iPad as a touchscreen keyboard and mouse. Maybe that will come with a future update but as of now… nope.

Who exactly is the iPad Pro for? If you have a computer already should you get it? Well I would say tablets like the iPad Pro, or a tablet running android, I always saw them as an companion computer in lieu if you have a all in one PC. Now if you have a MacBook Air or a surface no there really isn’t a point to purchase an iPad. Now if you have something akin to a Mac Pro or an iMac or a type of desktop computer then this could be a great companion device for your workflow. I use it to take and write notes, multi task with my project management software cause I dislike the web app and enjoy the iPad app way more.

The price point for this is a little steep in my opinion, depending on how you value this device you might feel definitely about it, I upgraded from a 5 year old iPad that couldn’t handle my multi tasking, it cost 300 dollars. The bigger iPad start off at 1099, which is 100 dollars more and if you get the pencil and keyboard you can definitely get the price up there. So it all depends on what you hope to accomplish with this. If you travel a lot like I might be doing in the future, a lot of my colleagues do have this and don’t regret it especially when they gotta answer emails, or jump on conference calls while storing all their movies and music. But if you aren’t buying this as pro user but still want the power and don’t care about the screen then go for the 11 inch model that starts at 799.

Another item to note in Apples weird off and off again relationship with certain ports, is this iPad does use a USBC port and there is no headphone jack. So if you want to use your iPhone ear buds that aren’t Bluetooth, yeah you are out of luck, you got two choices and that is buy a dongle or buy some Bluetooth headphones or headphones that use USBC. This iPad can be a barrier to entry due to the fact it does force you to upgrade your accessories if you have been holding out. Also with the keyboard being being 349 dollars, that’s a hefty price that have it cross over the MacBook Air and even the lower end MacBook pros. I don’t have a keyboard yet but would I buy the Apple keyboard…nope I have been looking at the Logitech one for the future.

 

In Conclusion

As I mentioned before, the iPad Pro in its current state is a companion piece to someone’s workflow if they have a desktop Mac, if you have a laptop or an older iPad Pro there is no need to update. If you have a older iPad and are due for the upgrade then maybe.  I do enjoy doing small things and have tried using this as my computer and it can handle the small tasks, including writing this blog and updating websites, and doing some project management work. But for managing multiple enterprise tasks…it’s not there yet, maybe in the fall it will reach the full potential with its new iPad update but we shall wait and see.

also just in case your wondering yes I have dropped this on my face while reading in bed…it did hurt.

 

see you space cowboy…