Hey Macrumors, it's...been a minute.
From what I hear, there's due to be a refresh in the iPad lineup, and I have every intention of buying one. I've been out of the loop for a while regarding the latest updates, and I was hoping to get people's input to help me decide which one to get, and possibly start a discussion as well. Obviously we don't know for sure what the lineup is going to look like, but I've seen various pieces of speculation that would definitely influence my decision if they turn out to be true, and I wanted to discuss it with y'all since you're probably much more informed than I am.
My setup when I left university was as follows:
- iPhone 12, bought in 2021, completely reliable, nothing to complain about.
- 12-inch MacBook (remember those?), bought in 2018, riddled with hardware and software issues almost right out of the gate, complete nightmare.
- iPad Air 2, bought in 2015, still going very strong despite its age, not much that it can't still do.
Back when I was a student I had an idea (which I didn't act on for obvious financial reasons) of a setup which included my iPhone, a bigger iPad Pro to replace both the iPad and the MacBook, and an iMac at home to satisfy my desktop needs and give me the optimal consumer experience with the big screen. My idea was to get the iPad first since there was more of a pressing need for it, but once I actually got a job about a year ago, I found that since I was mostly working from home and expected my job to involve a lot of desktop work, not to mention the laptop was becoming almost unusable, I got the iMac first. And it was a good purchase. I use it as my main work device and I find the vast screen space super useful for a lot of things.
And now that the iPad lineup is due to be updated, as well as having a bit more money on hand, I think it's time for me to complete the setup. I was initially committed to a 13-inch iPad Pro since the bigger screen would be a big plus for me, but because of two very major pieces of speculation, I'm reconsidering. First, the fact that they may release a 13-inch iPad Air, and second, the fact that they may be majorly bumping up the price of the iPad Pro. If both of these follow through, getting an Air seems like a no-brainer.
So one of my big questions is, would I really be losing out on much if I got the Air over the Pro? To me it's always seemed like overkill to have four different iPad models, and by giving us a 13-inch Air model they're basically taking away one of the Pro's biggest advantages. Obviously I'm not complaining about being spoiled for choice, but from Apple's point of view it just seems like straight-up cannibalisation. The only major advantage of getting the Pro that I can think of is that overtime it might be capable of running more advanced programs as a desktop replacement, which I always thought was the long-term aim of the iPad Pro lineup in the first place, but really, if the Air has the M-line processors then in theory there shouldn't be anything that the Pro can do that the Air can't handle, right?
What are everybody's thoughts on the matter? Curious to hear whether anybody's thinking of getting the Pro even if recent speculation turns out to be true, or if anybody's thinking of 'downgrading' from a Pro to an Air.
From what I hear, there's due to be a refresh in the iPad lineup, and I have every intention of buying one. I've been out of the loop for a while regarding the latest updates, and I was hoping to get people's input to help me decide which one to get, and possibly start a discussion as well. Obviously we don't know for sure what the lineup is going to look like, but I've seen various pieces of speculation that would definitely influence my decision if they turn out to be true, and I wanted to discuss it with y'all since you're probably much more informed than I am.
My setup when I left university was as follows:
- iPhone 12, bought in 2021, completely reliable, nothing to complain about.
- 12-inch MacBook (remember those?), bought in 2018, riddled with hardware and software issues almost right out of the gate, complete nightmare.
- iPad Air 2, bought in 2015, still going very strong despite its age, not much that it can't still do.
Back when I was a student I had an idea (which I didn't act on for obvious financial reasons) of a setup which included my iPhone, a bigger iPad Pro to replace both the iPad and the MacBook, and an iMac at home to satisfy my desktop needs and give me the optimal consumer experience with the big screen. My idea was to get the iPad first since there was more of a pressing need for it, but once I actually got a job about a year ago, I found that since I was mostly working from home and expected my job to involve a lot of desktop work, not to mention the laptop was becoming almost unusable, I got the iMac first. And it was a good purchase. I use it as my main work device and I find the vast screen space super useful for a lot of things.
And now that the iPad lineup is due to be updated, as well as having a bit more money on hand, I think it's time for me to complete the setup. I was initially committed to a 13-inch iPad Pro since the bigger screen would be a big plus for me, but because of two very major pieces of speculation, I'm reconsidering. First, the fact that they may release a 13-inch iPad Air, and second, the fact that they may be majorly bumping up the price of the iPad Pro. If both of these follow through, getting an Air seems like a no-brainer.
So one of my big questions is, would I really be losing out on much if I got the Air over the Pro? To me it's always seemed like overkill to have four different iPad models, and by giving us a 13-inch Air model they're basically taking away one of the Pro's biggest advantages. Obviously I'm not complaining about being spoiled for choice, but from Apple's point of view it just seems like straight-up cannibalisation. The only major advantage of getting the Pro that I can think of is that overtime it might be capable of running more advanced programs as a desktop replacement, which I always thought was the long-term aim of the iPad Pro lineup in the first place, but really, if the Air has the M-line processors then in theory there shouldn't be anything that the Pro can do that the Air can't handle, right?
What are everybody's thoughts on the matter? Curious to hear whether anybody's thinking of getting the Pro even if recent speculation turns out to be true, or if anybody's thinking of 'downgrading' from a Pro to an Air.
