iPad Pro I returned my M1 iPad Pro 12.9" 2TB

[Bubble99]

Toy for you, tool for others.

I think it mostly folks here are upset they can’t run a full desktop version of Microsoft Office and Photoshop but it is running a mobile version the same with mobile web browsers and complain of lack of fetures.

But keep in mind these full desktop apps are not designed for touch user interface. They are designed for mouse and keyboard.

 

[Bubble99]

To be fair, I appreciate that we will be able to make iOS and iPad apps in iPadOS 15. But it’s just too little, too late. PROs need a complete file system and a non-sandboxed Unix terminal. I should be able to create command-line applications and run them *on the iPad*. I should be able to run Swift scripts and background services *on the iPad*.

Universal mode is a nice gimmick but it won’t make me go out and buy a new iPad just to swap files between operating systems.

The traditional sandboxed walls of iOS don’t translate well for the iPad when it’s just begging to be used in Mac-like ways. I can definitely understand the frustration but I will always offer the same advice: Just get a Mac.

What do you mean by complete file system? Access system level files? OS files needed to run iPadOS?

I think even windows has these files set to hide.

Unless you are a IT person or programmer how would Terminal be helpful for most people?

 

[cupcakes2000]

To be fair, I appreciate that we will be able to make iOS and iPad apps in iPadOS 15. But it’s just too little, too late. PROs need a complete file system and a non-sandboxed Unix terminal. I should be able to create command-line applications and run them *on the iPad*. I should be able to run Swift scripts and background services *on the iPad*.

Universal mode is a nice gimmick but it won’t make me go out and buy a new iPad just to swap files between operating systems.

The traditional sandboxed walls of iOS don’t translate well for the iPad when it’s just begging to be used in Mac-like ways. I can definitely understand the frustration but I will always offer the same advice: Just get a Mac.

Pros? What are you talking about? Plenty of professionals don’t need a non sandboxed unix terminal. I would bet good money that 90% of the professionals which use an iPad Pro for their daily work don’t even know what a non-sandboxed unix terminal means.
If you’re talking about an IT pro, or a computer engineer, or a programmer, or some other highly specialised computer expert, then don’t these people buy macs, windows or Linux capable machines anyway?
The iPad isn’t one of those, and isn’t likely to ever be one of those.
The universal control feature will sure be nice for those in these groups that you’re speaking about though who own an iPad, it’s nice tech and will be appreciated.

 

[Bubble99]

Heres my two sense. I really wanted to get me an 2021 Ipad Pro 12.9. But after WWDC i cant think of a single reason outside of really just showing off.

It will never replace an M1 Laptop...and with the rumored new Ipad Mini coming out...id get that hands down way before i ever spent the $1577 with keyboard and pencil to get the most out of it (128 gigs and wifi is good enough for me) when id be spending way less to get a full fledge m1 laptop that does more.

It just makes absolutely no sense RIGHT NOW for the next year to spend that kind of money on a device that cant do what a cheeper dedicated laptop can do!

I get you lose pencil and touch screen support, but honestly how is this a PRO device if you cant run PRO apps on it!

Apple really nurffed their own product here and its frankly really stupid of them to do so. They did it, simply because they dont want the pros canibalizing there macbook sales, (Which is really stupid because with the keyboard and then penic it cost MORE then a macbook).

If i were you and just needed an ipad, i wouldn't spend anymore then the cost of the new airs (even though i really hate that fingerprint sensor. it just makes no sense to me to put it there, hopefully the mini's fingerprint sensor will have a better placement)

Also...i keep hearing about distracting backlight bleed from the panel too which is a shame too.

Look, apples hardware and software are on two totally different pages lately. Every single one agrees on this. They play catchup with other software devices and act like they are the ones who invented the damn things!

They lack vision to be honest as of late. Tim cook is a great manager, sure but he is not the visionary steve jobs was and the fact that your own software limits the power of your own hardware is proof of this. Had steve been alive, i can promise you the ipad pro would be a genuine pro device instead of a higher tier price bracket!

There are third party keyboards and pencils you can get for under $100 if you don’t want to pay the high price.

There are even Bluetooth keyboards you can get that work with any device.

 

[Bubble99]

You never needed an iPad Pro in the first place let alone the most expensive model. Why on earth did you think you needed a 2TB 12.9” model?

Sounds like he got the pro just because of the big screen and large SSD.

But it would be way cheaper to get 512 SSD iPad and just get NAS system set up for his large movie collection.

 

[cupcakes2000]

Since I’ve now read several posts to that effect - People think they “need” an iPad Pro for… media consumption and browsing the web?
To each their own, of course, but that strikes me as a lot of money for what you could just as well do on a device half the price.
Even if you factor in that web pages are getting more complex over time, that seems a bit overkill.

Then again, I’m the sort of person that buys according to what I need to get a specific task done (or just a little higher to make sure I don’t have to buy again next year) and not according to what I can afford.

Why buy a 75” TV when you can watch stuff on a 15” right? It’s a lot cheaper, and you can watch stuff just as well.

 

[rui no onna]

Sounds like he got the pro just because of the big screen and large SSD.

But it would be way cheaper to get 512 SSD iPad and just get NAS system set up for his large movie collection.

NAS doesn't help when you're not on the LAN and have crappy internet. Ditto for power outage. I've got a 20TB NAS myself but I figured 9-10 years ago that 1TB is where I want my laptops and tablets to be (favorite content + extra storage for rotating stuff).

With that said, seems like it was just an impulse buy on the OP's part.

 

[Even Longer]

who does "need" one?

I do need one. It became one of the main devices I do most of my illustrations on, ever since the very first Pro was released with pencil support. And yes, despite owning a Cintiq 32...

What's more: I would instantly go for even larger iPad, if Apple ever released one.

Just to give you some perspective... Preferences are very different. ?

 

[sparksd]

I think it mostly folks here are upset they can’t run a full desktop version of Microsoft Office and Photoshop but it is running a mobile version the same with mobile web browsers and complain of lack of fetures.

But keep in mind these full desktop apps are not designed for touch user interface. They are designed for mouse and keyboard.

What do the missing features have to do with the touch interface? Missing macro support in Excel as an example - I don't believe that it's not supported because of the touch interface and at any rate, the iPad has supported mouse and keyboard for quite some time now.

 

[cupcakes2000]

What do the missing features have to do with the touch interface? Missing macro support in Excel as an example - I don't believe that it's not supported because of the touch interface and at any rate, the iPad has supported mouse and keyboard for quite some time now.

Exactly right, as is evidenced by the likes of Affinity, it’s neither Apple, iPadOS, the hardware or the interface which is the issue, it’s the devs or the companies themselves, or at least the direction in which they wish to go or put their efforts.

 

[Sinequanon83]

I can see the 12.9” vs 11” argument but for web browsing and reading a paper I find a phone a pretty awful experience so that I don’t get.

Personally i enjoy using the 12.9” on the couch or in bed.

I agree, I use mine as my primary "computing" device whenever I am not in my office with my desktops (which is like 80% of the time). My stupid 12.9" 2018 Pro is usually at 10% battery by 12 noon.

(I also don't know why OP got the 2TB model, I can't fathom why I'd ever need that much space on an iPad, I've lived with my 256 gb models for years, it's only half full.)

 

[Bubble99]

What do the missing features have to do with the touch interface? Missing macro support in Excel as an example - I don't believe that it's not supported because of the touch interface and at any rate, the iPad has supported mouse and keyboard for quite some time now.

Than blame Microsoft and Adobe for not bringing out mobile version of app with more features.

 

[sparksd]

Than blame Microsoft and Adobe for not bringing out mobile version of app with more features.

I do. I have never said anything about Apple on this.

 

[Bubble99]

I agree, I use mine as my primary "computing" device whenever I am not in my office with my desktops (which is like 80% of the time). My stupid 12.9" 2018 Pro is usually at 10% battery by 12 noon.

(I also don't know why OP got the 2TB model, I can't fathom why I'd ever need that much space on an iPad, I've lived with my 256 gb models for years, it's only half full.)

The OP says he has large movie collection thus the need for large SSD.

 

[Sinequanon83]

The OP says he has large movie collection thus the need for large SSD.

Ah, that makes sense (this was a longer thread than I realized when I first responded). My iPad never leaves the house (especially these days), so I stream movies and video from the iPad all the time and keep my storage off the device, or load a few movies on it when I plan to travel. I have thousands of hours of podcasts and thousands of books on the iPad already though for those kinds of situations.

 

[BanjoDudeAhoy]

Why buy a 75” TV when you can watch stuff on a 15” right? It’s a lot cheaper, and you can watch stuff just as well.

Thanks for the laugh. It’s a stressful day for me, so I appreciate it

 

[beanbaguk]

I've read through the first page of posts and all I see are "first world problems".

What you bought was entirely unnecessary. If you wanted to provide your kids an iPad, why didn't you simply keep what you had and buy them a basic iPad with 64GB memory? I did this for my son and I've not had to spend $2k+.

Your other argument is being able to read pages easier on a 12.9. Frankly, there is no difference between the two screen sizes. If you are into photography, video editing and more, then yeah, there is a difference. For just browsing, it's barely a difference and the 11" more than suffices.

You made a mistake, but there's nothing bad about the iPad.

 

[beanbaguk]

My kids have filled up it's 64gb drive with games and have turned it essentially into theirs. Plus I'd assume you'd get a better interface and multitasking capacity with the larger display. I was wrong.

Tell them to delete some games! Memory management man! I can fill up 1TB with junk if you want. Does this mean I need to buy 2TB instead? No! Just get your kids to delete apps!

 

[Branaghan]

The display drew me in. The 2TB was for my icloud drive and movie library. Wifi on airlines and road trips is never reliable.

The 11" has been repurposed for my children. 64gb is not enough space for me and they constantly want to use it.

If the goal is to put a lot of movies in your iPad it may be a better idea to spend on a portable 1 or 2 TB SSD like the Samsung T5 or Sandisk Extreme, and the necessary adapter to move the files. I too use my 256 GB iPad mostly for videos, and the max file size for a 4K movie extracted from a UHD disc (lossless, remux) can reach 70 GB.

If I were to buy the iPad again it would make sense to get at least 512 GB, and rely on an external drive or a cloud service like Google Drive, where you get 15 GB free accounts (and sometimes you are able to create without SMS validation, restricted to a single cell phone and 2 or 3 accounts) or pay for storage, if I am not mistaken 1 TB costs 10 $ monthly. Over the years I created multiple free accounts and use an app called nPlayer to download the files or stream them. You can also share the contents of these multiple accounts with a single one, so using nPlayer it can see what each one has, without the need of the tiresome work of logging into all the accounts just to see the scattered contents (define the main account and share them all with it).

Besides, Google reaches the max speed for download and upload here. I think paying for Apple storage is overkill if you can buy an external SSD. How so? You pay 200 $ from 256 to 512 GB (899 - 1099 $) and 400 from 512 GB - 1 TB (1099 - 1499 $). While a 1 TB SSD costs 230, 250 $.

Just avoid getting an iPad which will barely have space for holding apps, games and a few videos, so my advise is to get 512 GB (256 may do but it’s very likely you will run out of space eventually).

 

[rui no onna]

If the goal is to put a lot of movies in your iPad it may be a better idea to spend on a portable 1 or 2 TB SSD like the Samsung T5 or Sandisk Extreme, and the necessary adapter to move the files. I too use my 256 GB iPad mostly for videos, and the max file size for a 4K movie extracted from a UHD disc (lossless, remux) can reach 70 GB.

If I were to buy the iPad again it would make sense to get at least 512 GB, and rely on an external drive or a cloud service like Google Drive, where you get 15 GB free accounts (and sometimes you are able to create without SMS validation, restricted to a single cell phone and 2 or 3 accounts) or pay for storage, if I am not mistaken 1 TB costs 10 $ monthly. Over the years I created multiple free accounts and use an app called nPlayer to download the files or stream them. You can also share the contents of these multiple accounts with a single one, so using nPlayer it can see what each one has, without the need of the tiresome work of logging into all the accounts just to see the scattered contents (define the main account and share them all with it).

Besides, Google reaches the max speed for download and upload here. I think paying for Apple storage is overkill if you can buy an external SSD. How so? You pay 200 $ from 256 to 512 GB (899 - 1099 $) and 400 from 512 GB - 1 TB (1099 - 1499 $). While a 1 TB SSD costs 230, 250 $.

Just avoid getting an iPad which will barely have space for holding apps, games and a few videos, so my advise is to get 512 GB (256 may do but it’s very likely you will run out of space eventually).

If one is okay with external and for playback-only video storage, a 4-5TB portable HDD for $90-100 seems a better choice $/GB than SSD.

Caveat with external, you can't use them for videos with DRM (e.g. iTunes videos, Netflix, Disney+, etc). There's also the hassle/risk of the drive hanging off the iPad if one doesn't use the iPad on a desk setting.

External storage on the iPad is quite limited in use versus internal.

 

[Flabasha]

What do you mean by complete file system? Access system level files? OS files needed to run iPadOS?

I think even windows has these files set to hide.

Unless you are a IT person or programmer how would Terminal be helpful for most people?

I’d settle for just being able to find files I’ve put on my $1,200 tablet.

 

[cupcakes2000]

I’d settle for just being able to find files I’ve put on my $1,200 tablet.

Either search with the search bar or put them where you will find them? What a silly thing to write!

 

[Luposian]

My kids have filled up it's 64gb drive with games and have turned it essentially into theirs. Plus I'd assume you'd get a better interface and multitasking capacity with the larger display. I was wrong.

Since when does a larger display = a better interface and multitasking capability? iOS (or iPadOS or whatever they call it) IS your UI (User Interface). Whatever multitasking iOS/iPadOS/i-whateverOS does, it can/will do on any device that supports that version. Display size/quality will NOT affect that one iota. Things will look nicer, on a larger/higher quality display, but they won't perform better. If anything, the OS/CPU has to work harder (thus more slowly), to push more pixels on a larger display.

My wife had me buy the M1 iPad Pro (8/512 config) for whatever reason (I personally think she believes eventually Adobe apps will be "just like on the Mac", which is a foolish notion to bet on, but since I'm the one buying the thing, what does she care), so we're either going to sell the one she has now (about $500+ on eBay) and apply it towards the price of the new one she's getting or I'll keep it for myself and have a much larger/faster iPad to play the iOS game I'm having made (which I've done all the music/sound effects for; over 250 pieces of music, alone). It's in beta testing right now. However my aged iPad 2 Mini has been configured for and the game plays almost the same as on faster iOS devices, just with slightly lower graphics effects.

 

[AlumaMac]

Unless you are a IT person or programmer how would Terminal be helpful for most people

Do most people purchase an iPad Pro? What is wrong with the idea of the iPad Pro (with costs more than a laptop) having more features geared towards professionals?

 

[Stridr69]

Sounds like he got the pro just because of the big screen and large SSD.

But it would be way cheaper to get 512 SSD iPad and just get NAS system set up for his large movie collection.

Unless he want it "to go" or as our friends across the pond like to say: "Take away"