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iPad iPad Air or Pro

J

jazzer15

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 8, 2010
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I have a 2018 11 inch iPad Pro with 256 GB (cellular) and it still does everything I need in addition to a 27 inch 2020 iMac -- except one of my uses is for storing and reading music and the screen is a bit small for that. I have been thinking about getting a 13 inch iPad for this purpose, but it does seem a bit of an extravagance for a music reader. I was looking at the Wifi iPad Air, which is currently $899 for 256 GB. For $200 more I can get the base level iPad Pro which has 256 GB of storage as well. I probably don't need it, but is it worth the extra money for the Pro? Does buying a prior generation iPad make any sense instead?

I can afford the Pro, but I have also been thinking about replacing my iMac with a new Mini and monitor, so the cost starts to escalate. I also don't really want to spend extra money if it's not going to make a discernible difference for my purpose.

One thing that I have been considering is that while the 2018 iPad is still plenty for my general needs, it is getting a little old and will need to be replaced eventually. I could get the 13 inch Pro as its replacement, but I do like the smaller form for most day-to-day things.
 
I recently upgraded from iPP 12.9 2018 to iPP11 M4. My reasons where: more space (64 gb vs 256 gb), lighter and more comfortable to put in my backpack, wanting something new before 2018 became impossible to sell.

Think about pros and cons of upgrading and do your choice 👍🏻
 
I upgraded from a 2018 11 inch iPad Pro to a 2022 12.9 iPad Pro when Best Buy had that sale a couple of months ago when they were getting rid of the stock for the new 2024 iPad Pros. For me, the screen size made a difference in reading PDFs. I can't really go back to the 11 inch screen now. It looks too small now. The iPad Air is 60hz, which I just couldn't get used to after using 120hz, but it may be different for each person and probably won't affect much for a music reader.

But yeah, it probably won't make a huge difference compared to upgrading a computer. It's an iPad running iPadOS after all.
 
Do you use your iMac or your iPad more?

When deciding what and when to upgrade, I always start with what I use most. If there's no need there, I move on to assess #2 and so on.
 
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jazzer15 said:
I have a 2018 11 inch iPad Pro with 256 GB (cellular) and it still does everything I need in addition to a 27 inch 2020 iMac -- except one of my uses is for storing and reading music and the screen is a bit small for that. I have been thinking about getting a 13 inch iPad for this purpose, but it does seem a bit of an extravagance for a music reader. I was looking at the Wifi iPad Air, which is currently $899 for 256 GB. For $200 more I can get the base level iPad Pro which has 256 GB of storage as well. I probably don't need it, but is it worth the extra money for the Pro? Does buying a prior generation iPad make any sense instead?

I can afford the Pro, but I have also been thinking about replacing my iMac with a new Mini and monitor, so the cost starts to escalate. I also don't really want to spend extra money if it's not going to make a discernible difference for my purpose.

One thing that I have been considering is that while the 2018 iPad is still plenty for my general needs, it is getting a little old and will need to be replaced eventually. I could get the 13 inch Pro as its replacement, but I do like the smaller form for most day-to-day things.
Click to expand...
I was facing this and instead bought an M1 13" iPad Pro off Swappa that included the Magic Keyboard for $700. Decided that until Apple started putting actual powerful apps/software into the Pro, why should I pay premium for overkill?
 
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ProbablyDylan said:
Do you use your iMac or your iPad more?

When deciding what and when to upgrade, I always start with what I use most. If there's no need there, I move on to assess #2 and so on.
Click to expand...
I definitely use my computer more. Actually I don't need to upgrade that, but my wife's iMac is several years older than mine and I expect Apple will start pushing people off of the intel computers as soon as they can get away with it, so I figured why not start thinking of replacing one rather than having to replace two at once.
 
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We bought recently an M1 Air with cellular (for my wife). It's downside was 64 GB storage. But then my wife's iPad Pro 10.5" (battery gone) hardly used any of her Pro's 64 GB storage. It had well over 40 GB un-used. I looked at pricing for the iPad M4 Pro with cell, and the new M1 Air with cellular. It cost 40% of the price of the Pro. And about 62% the price of a current Air. And $US24 more than the Gen 10 base iPad with cell. It's much better than my wife's 10.5" Pro, including the speakers. Its screen is way better than the earlier Pro. It seems to scroll very quickly too compared to my wife's 120 Hz Pro. I hadn't realised but it seems to me the Air is very close to recent Pros.
 
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The iPad Airs are very tempting. Even for professional artists. More than fast enough. Great form factor. Can use the Apple Pencil Pro & best of all are a lot less expensive than the iPad Pros. The iPad Pros do however have those gorgeous OLED screens tho, as well as face ID which many people prefer over touch ID. They also have faster screen refresh rates of 120hz which if you’re used to on your iPhone Pro, it’s hard to go unsee. But for others, it’s not a big deal. You just have to weigh those options and decide. But either way, you’re getting a great iPad that’ll last you for many years. I’m an artist and am still rocking a 2018 iPad Pro! The current iPad Airs are much faster than it! I also just bought an iPad mini 7 as a digital sketchbook when I really wanna travel light. It also is faster in many ways. I’ll probably upgrade my 2018 iPad Pro later this year. It’ll be a tough decision btwn the Air & another iPad Pro. I am leaning towards the Pro tho for that OLED screen. 🤔
 
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jazzer15 said:
I definitely use my computer more. Actually I don't need to upgrade that, but my wife's iMac is several years older than mine and I expect Apple will start pushing people off of the intel computers as soon as they can get away with it, so I figured why not start thinking of replacing one rather than having to replace two at once.
Click to expand...

The $599 Mac Mini is an incredibly good deal and worth considering. Especially if you can hold out on your current iPad for a little while loner.
 
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It sounds like you're leaning towards practicality with your iPad. If the iPad Air suits your needs and the iPad Pro feels like an unnecessary splurge, then I’d say go for the Air. Unless the extra features of the Pro make a significant difference in your daily use, it may not be worth the extra cost.
 
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What i really dislike about the iPad Air is that the display feels like the display of a > 6 year old iPad.
tbh the display of my iPad 6 had better uniformity than this of my recently purchased iPad Air M2.
So i returned it in the end.
LCD and even 60Hz is ok for me, but i expect up-to-date quality.
The display of my MacBook Air M1 also has an IPS LCD but on a much higher level.
 
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BaddAdvice said:
What’s the saying, “buy nice or buy twice”? Something along those lines. Point being, you may be doubting your purchase and thinking about what could’ve been. I speak from experience….
Click to expand...

This is my take, as well. It's all well and good to consider your options and try to save money where you can, but if you really like / enjoy something, then don't save money on that item. Save on things you don't particularly care about and spend good money on things you are enthusiastic about.
I had the "what could have been" feeling a number of times, until I decided to transition to high-end products. It's not just that there are no more regrets, now I often catch myself thinking how much I enjoy a particular product, whereas that didn't happen much while I was buying Apple products more budget-consciously. But that's because I have enthusiasm for these items, so it's worth it to me.
 
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This is more of a “want” to upgrade than “need’ to upgrade.
Base on your usage and needs, your iPad Pro 2018 is more than powerful enough to handle those things such as reading music, browsing web, with little to no games and as for upgrading to the latest M2 iPad Air 13” will surely improve battery life, bigger screen as well as better performance. But, for the speed itself it’s hardly noticeable unless you wanted to keep all the apps open without reloading as well as playing games, streaming, in which you will start to notice a boost in speed

Replacing your iMac 2020 is more of a hassle than just buying an iPad as new is more complicated and will keep you sleepless for a night in order to transfer files to a new unit too.

Others upgrade their “most used” device because they are into gaming, streaming, watching movies, and those task are more power hunger than just doing typing words, reading, excel or browsing web.. even if you play one of the most demanding game genshin impact that is 32gb of storage can run pretty much the same as m1, m2 and m4 but of course the newer will be smoother on max setting as it is clocked higher and more ram.

If you really want to upgrade it’s much better to skip Air not unless your iPad become slow or crashes often so that way, you will notice big difference in speed, some of my friends still use a much older device than yours and had no issues at all like the 2nd gen iPP as long as you have backup for storage you will be fine.
 
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Vivian125 said:
This is more of a “want” to upgrade than “need’ to upgrade.
Base on your usage and needs, your iPad Pro 2018 is more than powerful enough to handle those things such as reading music, browsing web, with little to no games and as for upgrading to the latest M2 iPad Air 13” will surely improve battery life, bigger screen as well as better performance. But, for the speed itself it’s hardly noticeable unless you wanted to keep all the apps open without reloading as well as playing games, streaming, in which you will start to notice a boost in speed

Replacing your iMac 2020 is more of a hassle than just buying an iPad as new is more complicated and will keep you sleepless for a night in order to transfer files to a new unit too.

Others upgrade their “most used” device because they are into gaming, streaming, watching movies, and those task are more power hunger than just doing typing words, reading, excel or browsing web.. even if you play one of the most demanding game genshin impact that is 32gb of storage can run pretty much the same as m1, m2 and m4 but of course the newer will be smoother on max setting as it is clocked higher and more ram.

If you really want to upgrade it’s much better to skip Air not unless your iPad become slow or crashes often so that way, you will notice big difference in speed, some of my friends still use a much older device than yours and had no issues at all like the 2nd gen iPP as long as you have backup for storage you will be fine.
Click to expand...
This is all true. The only reason for wanting to upgrade is the larger screen. Reading music on an 11 inch screen with aging eyes is not easy.
 
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