iPad Pro How much storage are you getting for the iPad Pro and why?

[Astonish_IT]

In my opinion 256 is the sweet spot, but you can absolutely get away with 128. If you intend on the iPad Pro being your main machine though you should try to do 256+ if it’s in your budget.

I agree, yesterday I was trying some Apple Arcade games (not that I game a lot, actually didn't find something I actually enjoyed) and found out that some of the games already started to be 3 GB in size. So I think that in future, several apps will start to grow bigger and in-app downloads such as on Netflix..etc, you can probably get away with 128 GB but could be little bit tight fit, so 256 gb would be the sweet spot between future proofness and the price and 512 would be peace of mind if you can afford it.

Once, if iPad Apps or their in app download contents could be installed / saved directly on an external usb, this could change the game.

 

[ingambe]

128GB
google photo stores my photo for free in HQ
iCloud for the things I care and want keep safe

So at the end of the day I just have apps stored on my ipad

 

[happyhippo1337]

128 on the 12.9 - my old one from 2018 had 256 and I never used it. Most of the stuff is in iCloud Photos or Dropbox anyway. If I need to have some videos downloaded for a road trip, 128 is more than adequate for this.

 

[thelookingglass]

128 on the 12.9 - my old one from 2018 had 256 and I never used it. Most of the stuff is in iCloud Photos or Dropbox anyway. If I need to have some videos downloaded for a road trip, 128 is more than adequate for this.

That’s my thought exactly. if you use cloud services for anything, chances are the 128 will be more than enough. Until the OS is updated to make syncing files across devices as easy as it is natively on a MacBook, there’s no reason to max out the storage on an iPad unless you’re just hoarding media or apps.

 

[DiCaprioAngel]

I prefer to get the maxed out GB on my iPad and my phone because I love having the peace of mind of not having to worry about how much data I need to keep on my device. Besides, I don’t upgrade to the newest one every time it comes out and I keep it for a few years which makes sense for me to make this purchase and use the local storage for all my important data as well as keep it on the iCloud for back up purposes. Everyone has their preferences and needs in terms of where they want to keep their data. Yes, I have purchased additional iCloud storage that will keep data saved from all my Apple devices without having to run out of storage, but like I said, I prefer to have the highest storage on all my devices if I plan on keeping them for longer than a couple of years simply because I do accumulate more data as time goes by with photos, music, files, etc.

 

[DrSarah]

I have a 256gb 11” now and i use it very frequently. I just looked at the storage and it used 32gb which is 10gb by overcast which i will delete and 6gb for Fortnite which i never play.

Just ordered a 12.9” with 128gb

 

[Christopher Kim]

In my opinion 256 is the sweet spot, but you can absolutely get away with 128. If you intend on the iPad Pro being your main machine though you should try to do 256+ if it’s in your budget.

Agree with this. I got 256gb for the 11" iPP (2018 version) I recently bought used. Also had 256gb for the 10.5" iPP which I've now given to my wife (she was previously using a first gen iPad Air). I generally used a little less than half of that (movies, tv shows, digital comics), and we share a 2TB iCloud family account so our photos are primarily iCloud based.

 

[Ungibbed]

I would say that even for cloud storage users, 256GB is still a solid choice for the long run. Or just get what you can afford cause iPads are great gadgets!

Myself, currently I have an older 512GB model. Large music library synced and also using it for both media consumption and creation. With a ton of games and such installed, I still have over 230GB of space left.

 

[Suspenders]

I went with the 512GB because I‘m planning on replacing my MacBook Pro with my iPad as my only “computer”.

I use my iPad pro mainly for picture and video editing and some DJing.

 

[BeatCrazy]

128GB is plenty for me, which is what I got on my recent 2020 12.9 purchase.

Over the past 8 months, I had two pre-planned hospital stays lasting 10+ days. I “loaded up” basically all the media I could consume in this period and it was ~100GB. At the time, I was using my 256GB 11” iPad Pro, and of course it was only about half full.

I consider this ^^^ my ‘worst case’ scenario for storage. I store photos (and everything else that I can) in iCloud, and my music is stored in a media server at my house. Even with dozens of movies/TV shows, plus several dozen comics, I would struggle to fill up 128GB.

 

[madrigal77]

I went with the 256 because that’s what Costco had in store haha!

 

[DrSarah]

I have a 256gb 11” now and i use it very frequently. I just looked at the storage and it used 32gb which is 10gb by overcast which i will delete and 6gb for Fortnite which i never play.

Just ordered a 12.9” with 128gb

i Just received the iPad and it is MASSIVE,, too massive, returning it because 11” is the way to go for me.
The moment i got it in my hands i knew it was to big,, weird how those things work.

 

[hipnetic]

I could most likely get away with 128 or 256, but there are times like vacations where I load up the iPad with movies and books to read so the extra space is valuable.

How many books do you read on vacation? You'd have to load up an awful lot of books before you'd have to start worrying about running low on storage space.

FWIW, I just had to order a new MBA for my wife. She had 256GB of storage on her old MBA, but was running a bit tight on storage, and I was contemplating whether I needed to get 512GB on the new one. But after digging into her storage usage, I saw that most of it was from Photos/Videos, so I decided to up our family iCloud storage plan to 2TB and switch her Photos app's iCloud settings to "Optimize Mac Storage", which freed up a huge chunk of storage.

Her other big usage is "Documents" but I think a lot of that may actually be iMovies projects. So my next decision was to purchase an external SSD drive (I haven't purchased it yet, but likely getting a Samsung T7 500GB for about $129), with the thinking that she can offload her iMovie projects onto that drive and further minimize her MBA storage needs.

Getting back on-topic...if you plan to edit movies on your iPad, using an external drive for storing files can help, but isn't as good as it is with a MacBook, because you can't edit *directly* on the external drive, but hopefully this will be improved in an upcoming version of iPad OS (I'm assuming it's an OS limitation and not something that a 3rd party developer has the ability to handle).

The OP will have to consider their own specific needs/requirements, of course. As for me, I'm also in the market to buy a 12.9" model for my daughter, and will probably go with the base (128GB) 2020 model. She already has a 2018 (?) MBP 13 and is anticipating using the iPad primarily for graphic design/illustration purposes, where much of those files can also be stored in the cloud. I suspect that she may find herself gravitating towards using the iPad more than her MBP, but even if that happens, I think that 128GB will be sufficient for her needs, as most of her TV/movie watching is via streaming services.