12.9” vs 10.5” My Opinion FWIW

[millydog]

I am a programmer, so use a work provided Windows 10 laptop for my day job.
For my personal life, I have a 2013 MacBook Pro 15” and it has slowly diminished into being used to supplement my iOS devices. It backs up photos taken with my iPhone X, backs up my iPhone X, iPad Pro 10.5”, iPad Pro 12.9” 2nd gen and my husband’s and kid’s iOS devices. I also use it to convert video for our iPads and store my iTunes downloaded podcasts, something which I am slowly moving away from since I use iCatcher for podcasts on my devices.
So I have both sizes of the latest iPad Pro. I use them both a lot. Sometimes I play a video or podcast on one (often the 12.9”), while using the 10.5” in my hands. Sometimes I sit in the recliner with the 12.9” and browse Facebook, forums or tech news sites. However, when I go out, I like to take my iPad with me, so the 10.5” is the best to take. It fits in my handbag and is light to take. The 12.9” is much bigger and heavier for taking in my handbag. It sometimes goes to the office with me and I do love the size for sitting and using it, but for portability, the 10.5” wins. I rarely use split screen mode too, so the 10.5” would probably be the best choice for myself if I could only pick one. Magazines, comics, Word documents and also some games are best on the larger iPad, but all of these work really well on the 10.5” and a device that can go everywhere with me and is equally as capable and feature rich would be my pick of the two.
Now, if there was a good scrapbooking app for the iPad, I’d imagine that it would be best on the 12.9” and that could sway me to then pick the 12.9” as the best one for myself.

 

[eVolcre]

Bit of a zombie bump here but I wish they’d update the mini. A 12.9 and mini combination would be ideal. Two tools tailored specifically for their jobs.

I went back and forth quite a bit and realized the 10.5 was too compromised. It’s too large for books and couch browsing. And too small for “actual work”.

 

[muzzy996]

Bit of a zombie bump here but I wish they’d update the mini. A 12.9 and mini combination would be ideal. Two tools tailored specifically for their jobs.

I went back and forth quite a bit and realized the 10.5 was too compromised. It’s too large for books and couch browsing. And too small for “actual work”.

Agree . . a mini would supplement my 12.9 IPP extremely well, especially if it had pencil support too.

 

[eVolcre]

Agree . . a mini would supplement my 12.9 IPP extremely well, especially if it had pencil support too.

Wouldn’t that be amazing? It would be a moleskine replacement, ereader, couch browser, remote, can fly my drone with it the list goes on. But .... Apple. *sigh*

I’m all in for the new 12.9. Going to try hard to make it a laptop replacement with a 6 month transition to create new workflows. Should be fine. But if there isn’t a new iPad mini I’ll be giving the surface andromeda foldable devices a serious serious look.

At this point I’m pretty OS agnostic. I live in Office, Browser, email, calendar and everything is on the cloud. Won’t be that much of a hassle to keep different OSs around. Tablet definitely iOS. Desktop definitely OSX but for my mobiles and laptops I don’t care. Heck right now I have a thinkpad and use an X and a blackberry together. No issues. Love my Apple Watch so I can’t see myself leaving iOS anytime soon.

 

[Shanghaichica]

I’ve not used the 12.9 iPad but I think it would just be too big to use it comfortably unless I was using it on a table or a desk.

My 10.5 inch iPad Pro is a great size. The screen is significantly bigger than the 9.7 inch iPads. It’s a nice size and can be used comfortably in most situations. I’ve used my 10.5 on my daily commute. I prefer to use my iPad mini but I can use my 10.5.

I’d not even bother taking the 12.9 out of the house not even on vacation.

 

[Macalicious2011]

If I was in the market for the laptop replacement or was travelling a lot, I would have considered the 12 inch.

In this case I only needed a secondary device which rarely leaves the house and the 10.5 was a pick to replace my iPad 3 that was made sluggish by Apple upDates.

 

[Cape Dave]

For anyone that absolutely loves multitasking with split screen, the larger screen real estate, the better.

Personally, the 12.9 hands down. On top that, the larger the storage space, the better. I’ve got the 512 gb version and will likely be left with less than 75gb after I have loaded all my tv sitcoms (Friends, Seinfeld, Will & Grace, The Big Bang Theory, Frasier). I still have plenty of other movies and videos including animations that I would like but need to be very selective seeing as how space will be getting low. I like using the picture in picture function to watch or listen to my favorite sitcoms while I work on the ipad. It’s comforting.

Split screen web browsing with youtube running on one side while I websurf on the adjacent window. For drawing purposes, I can fire up procreate ($10 dollar art app), load up a reference photo in split screen mode, and have my sitcom running in picture in picture mode.

My very first entry into the world of apple is the ipad 4 retina, which I still have but no longer use after giving the 12.9 a test run. The ipad 4 has nearly the same physical dimension as the 10.5, and as such, it’s simply too small (for me) for split screen multitasking. Was able to test the 10.5 down at Best Buy. No way could I comfortably use it as a drawing tablet nor do multitask split screens while having my sitcoms running in picture in pocture mode. The 10.5 is simply too small for my purposes. My minimum size for productivity is curently apple’s 12.9

You, sir, have superb taste in sitcoms I can binge 8 seasons of a good sitcom in about a month. Something I love to do. Current is Hot in Cleveland. 4 of the funniest women on the planet, all at the TOP TOP TOP of their game.