iPad Pro iPad has become quite useless and I regret purchasing it

[maflynn]

I too am very underwhelmed by my iPad Pro (12.9) - I don't think its a bad device in any way. Battery life is very short, that's probably my only gripe. I thought a larger iPad would fit better for my usage, and it was a great iPad, but I just didn't use it. The thing is just too big.

I'm in the market for the mini at this point. I probably would have purchased one, had it not been for Apple's planned event next week. I'll save my pennies and see what they do there - I don't expect a new iPad, but I do want to see what they release, since my funds are limited.

 

[George Dawes]

Regarding the add items to an email , why don’t they follow their own design guidelines and have a box with items pop up,? Wouldn’t that make things a lot easier ?

ignore this … they do … user error ?‍♀️

 

[Rafterman]

I sold my iPad Pro 12.9 and switched to a Surface Pro 8 as my large format tablet. But I still have (snd love) my iPad Mini 6. It's awesome for consumption, video, books, etc. But for work, the Surface is just more suitible. The iPad Pro can do it in many cases, but Windows/MacOS are just better for the heavy stuff.

I wish I could put MacOS on the Surface.

 

[Rafterman]

I too am very underwhelmed by my iPad Pro (12.9) - I don't think its a bad device in any way. Battery life is very short, that's probably my only gripe. I thought a larger iPad would fit better for my usage, and it was a great iPad, but I just didn't use it. The thing is just too big.

I'm in the market for the mini at this point. I probably would have purchased one, had it not been for Apple's planned event next week. I'll save my pennies and see what they do there - I don't expect a new iPad, but I do want to see what they release, since my funds are limited.

I'd be shocked if there was an updated Mini. Especially since it has the lastest iPhone processor and there won't even be a chance to upgrade it until after iPhone 14 is released. I hope the next Mini has at least 512GB storage. I can't believe they stuck with 256GB max.

 

[maflynn]

I'd be shocked if there was an updated Mini

No question, I'm holding off because if they release a new MBP, it may be something I want - I'll not be able to afford both, so I want to wait and see what they release

 

[Ludatyk]

This is my set up when I’m at my desk, just replaced the keys for my K2 Keychron Keyboard.

We all get into this debate on the preference of what device to use or not use. But at the end of the day… choose the device that works for you.

I like the iPad Pro for all the things it does for me… it’s a sheet of glass that can be molded into whatever I want it to be. And I’m fully aware of the limitations.. but I don’t dwell on it.

When I leave my desk… I use the Magic Keyboard and if I don’t need a keyboard attach to it, I have no trouble using on the couch or bed. Heck, since it’s a cellular model (GPS included) it becomes a navigation device when I’m on the road.

 

[paulcons]

Boy, hot thread. Vastly prefer touch id to face... it NEVER fails (and I have a previous iPad Pro with touch id that I used for a few years)... like I speculated, it's the placement of the camera that may be the issue. I see the "face not recognized" and tilt it so my nose if 4" from where the camera is located. AND you only get one attempt... if it fails twice it gets disabled.

I'll try and bring it in, but I may have a fight on my hands if it doesn't exhibit what I see several times a day. I had a devil of a time bringing in my previous Pro for a hardware defect that was exactly the same on the replacement!

 

[str0ppy]

It seem like the most satisfied iPad customers are the ones that buy the basic model. Of course, the basic iPad is popular because of the low price. Also, I think people buy this model with the idea of only using it as a simple tablet. I would guess the most consumers don't buy expensive accessories for the base model, so they aren't tempted to try to turn it into a laptop replacement. They tend to use it for casual computing activities and Apps: Mail, iMessages, Safari, Photos, Contacts, Calendar, Reminders, Notes, Files, FaceTime/Zoom, Books/PDFs, and Streaming TV/Video. If your mobile computing needs are simple, then this makes a lot of sense....save the heavy lifting for the laptop or desktop back at home or the office.

Once you start investing in Pro models with expensive Apple accessories, you raise the bar for performance and expectations. Higher expectations often lead to greater disappointment. It's hard to be disappointed with a $300 iPad.

Really well put.

 

[bondr006]

Interesting....

Geekbench just banned the last four years of Samsung flagships over throttling debacle

Mess with benchmarks, and your phones get benched

www.androidpolice.com

 

[prospervic]

The hardware is great but the software is utter garbage.

I was very close to smashing my pro up yesterday when I had to do an email with several attachments, the whole interface is so awful it beggars belief , in Mac OS it’s so incredibly simple , but in iOS it takes ages and loads of bizarre actions , it’s a toy , it’s fun for games and browsing the web , anything else forget it . Thank god I kept my iMac .

I used to have the very same frustrations with email attachments on iPad, making me want to use it as a frisbee. Then I realized that I was trying to do things in a Mac-way rather than an iOS-way, which entails an entirely different approach.

I found this great app called Yoink which is sort of a "shelf" where I can gather all my attachments in advance, then drag them all to the email I'm composing. (Alternatively, you could create a folder in the Files app and name it "Attachments" for the same purpose.)

Yes, it's true that for long-time Mac users this is not the way our muscle memory "wants" to do things, but then neither was using a touch screen, at first.

 

[prospervic]

This is my set up when I’m at my desk, just replaced the keys for my K2 Keychron Keyboard.

We all get into this debate on the preference of what device to use or not use. But at the end of the day… choose the device that works for you.

I like the iPad Pro for all the things it does for me… it’s a sheet of glass that can be molded into whatever I want it to be. And I’m fully aware of the limitations.. but I don’t dwell on it.

When I leave my desk… I use the Magic Keyboard and if I don’t need a keyboard attach to it, I have no trouble using on the couch or bed. Heck, since it’s a cellular model (GPS included) it becomes a navigation device when I’m on the road.

Love those colors! How did you get that black dock?

 

[DeepSix]

Your "full sized laptop" really made me laugh.... Do you you know that there are laptops that are actually lighter than the surface pro and just as compact while having a 13.3in screen (vs 12.3in)?
My Samsung notebook 9 from 2017 (i7 16GB RAM) is actually lighter than the surface pro (without the keyboard!). But even without something as light as the Samsung you will find many 13in laptops which as much lighter than the surface with keyboard (the 13in Thinkpad nano is a recent example).
I have been traveling with the Samsung and the HP surface pro clone (because the HP had LTE, in case tethering did not work).
And let me tell you the Samsung was far superior to the surface pro. No fan noise in the surface pro? It depends on which model you get (my HP is fanless but surface pro is only fanless with the i5 since the SP5, but you couldn't get a 16GB RAM fanless model till the SP7). USB C is only present since the pro 7 in 2019. My Samsung had it already it years before that and also had hdmi port which was a godsend for presentations.
At some point I even stopped carrying the HP since I was not using it. I just carried an LTE iPad mini to tether my "full sized" Samsung laptop.
As to why I didn't upgrade my SP3 to a new surface, Surface pro did not get LTE until SP5 and then again until SP7+ in 2021. And above all because the keyboard (I have the SP4 keyboard) was nothing special. The HP has Thinkpad level keyboard. The surface pro is far from that, even the 12.9 iPad pro magic keyboard feels better than it (but keyboard preference can be personal)

No I wasn’t aware that there are lighter laptops than the Surface Pro. I’ve been out of the laptop game up until the last few years when I got a full sized gaming laptop. I knew about Samsung laptops but never considered one because I remember the very first Samsung notebooks were terrible. Can’t remember the name but it was the silver ones. Then the Samsung books came out but I was never into chrome books really. Plus they were way overpriced just like the Google books.

SP7 i5 models were fanless. It’s nice having it quiet. My Pro 3 when I had it got so loud over the years. Honestly, the Pro 3 had better hardware quality than the later models. After having the touchscreen all of a sudden one day go bad from just a 1.5 year old, lightly used Pro 7, had It taken apart and diagnosed it was the motherboard, I will never buy another Surface device again. I don’t trust Microsoft anymore for hardware. Now I have a device that was worth $700cdn or so with the type cover, to almost nothing. I would literally have to give it away because a surface with no touch is not appealing to people.

 

[Isengardtom]

the iPad pros are just premium iPads (with a price to match), there is nothing professional about them. They are just the high end version of the line. That does not mean they are not worth the money if you want a premium device for media consumption, note taking, digital art etc. For most type of (paid) work different from art, they don't come close to what a desktop OS can do, despite some people having managed to run their business with them (they could have done it even with the basic iPad and they are the exception rather than the rule). They can be a useful companion device to a laptop/desktop, even for work, though.

I agree
If you look at the iPad line up the ”value“ increase between an iPad 9 and an iPad Pro 12.9” is fairly low in terms of what you can do with it.

With Samsung for example that curve is much steeper. You start pretty low with an A8 that doesn’t support the pen and Dex and gets fewer updates and you end up with the ultra or S8+ that’s fully featured and much better supported.

 

[Digitalguy]

No I wasn’t aware that there are lighter laptops than the Surface Pro. I’ve been out of the laptop game up until the last few years when I got a full sized gaming laptop. I knew about Samsung laptops but never considered one because I remember the very first Samsung notebooks were terrible. Can’t remember the name but it was the silver ones. Then the Samsung books came out but I was never into chrome books really. Plus they were way overpriced just like the Google books.

SP7 i5 models were fanless. It’s nice having it quiet. My Pro 3 when I had it got so loud over the years. Honestly, the Pro 3 had better hardware quality than the later models. After having the touchscreen all of a sudden one day go bad from just a 1.5 year old, lightly used Pro 7, had It taken apart and diagnosed it was the motherboard, I will never buy another Surface device again. I don’t trust Microsoft anymore for hardware. Now I have a device that was worth $700cdn or so with the type cover, to almost nothing. I would literally have to give it away because a surface with no touch is not appealing to people.

Yes, the surface line has been one of the most unreliable hardware-wise. My surface pro 3 lost USB 3.0 (USB 2.0 devices work fine, but USB 3.0 don't work unless I plug them through a USB 2.0 adapter). Crazy. They keyboard connector is almost dead, connects once in 10 times. My surface book 2 is still fine but I have treated it with extreme care (always stays at home, never shake it to avoid the top disconnecting etc.), but it suffers from ghosting since day 1, and I have heard pretty scary stuff about issues with it. My surface 3 (non pro) had the battery swelling and I broke the screen while trying to replace it.
Meantime my HP (surface pro clone) has replaceable battery and SSD (replaced both), and Thunderbolt + UBS A. The pro 8 is a nice device, but I am done with surface.

 

[sparksd]

Yes, the surface line has been one of the most unreliable hardware-wise. My surface pro 3 lost USB 3.0 (USB 2.0 devices work fine, but USB 3.0 don't work unless I plug them through a USB 2.0 adapter). Crazy. They keyboard connector is almost dead, connects once in 10 times. My surface book 2 is still fine but I have treated it with extreme care (always stays at home, never shake it to avoid the top disconnecting etc.), but it suffers from ghosting since day 1, and I have heard pretty scary stuff about issues with it. My surface 3 (non pro) had the battery swelling and I broke the screen while trying to replace it.
Meantime my HP (surface pro clone) has replaceable battery and SSD (replaced both), and Thunderbolt + UBS A. The pro 8 is a nice device, but I am done with surface.

Mine's been great - a year with 16GB i7 SP7 and no problems. It's my primary device, sees 12 hours or more use every day. Beats my previous Dell XPS-13.

 

[DeepSix]

I agree
If you look at the iPad line up the ”value“ increase between an iPad 9 and an iPad Pro 12.9” is fairly low in terms of what you can do with it.

With Samsung for example that curve is much steeper. You start pretty low with an A8 that doesn’t support the pen and Dex and gets fewer updates and you end up with the ultra or S8+ that’s fully featured and much better supported.

When I started looking for an ipad, I had my eyes set on the ipad 9 because I wanted to spend the least amount of money but the lack of Pencil 2 support is too bad. I just didn't see any point buying a pencil that is outdated and not the best current version available. I didn't care much for other stuff like pro motion or double the ram but now after using the Pro for 2 weeks, I will never go back to a 60hz tablet. Well worth the extra money for pro motion, double the ram, etc. But it's crazy to think that someone can buy TWO ipad 9's for just a little bit more than the price of a 2021 11" Pro. That just shows how much value is in the ipad 9 but I also see a ton of value in the 11 Pro when compared to the mini 6 or 12 Pro or Air 4. Once the Air 5 comes out, it will push the mini 6 even further down the list for value.

 

[BeatCrazy]

Typing this on my 12.9 iPad Pro with 5G, while at a kid birthday party. Invaluable!

I have (or have had) the full range of iPads, including a base model 8th generation, and a 11” iPad Pro w/5G for work. The 12.9 is my favorite. I use it more like a laptop, never using my pencil and rarely touching the screen. The ProMotion is great, and I love the “close it up and go” aspect. The screen is amazing, and battery is fine for my purposes. I really can’t think of anything I’d change. A bit less weight would be nice, but I like the currently battery performance.

 

[DeepSix]

Yes, the surface line has been one of the most unreliable hardware-wise. My surface pro 3 lost USB 3.0 (USB 2.0 devices work fine, but USB 3.0 don't work unless I plug them through a USB 2.0 adapter). Crazy. They keyboard connector is almost dead, connects once in 10 times. My surface book 2 is still fine but I have treated it with extreme care (always stays at home, never shake it to avoid the top disconnecting etc.), but it suffers from ghosting since day 1, and I have heard pretty scary stuff about issues with it. My surface 3 (non pro) had the battery swelling and I broke the screen while trying to replace it.
Meantime my HP (surface pro clone) has replaceable battery and SSD (replaced both), and Thunderbolt + UBS A. The pro 8 is a nice device, but I am done with surface.

Surface hardware is the worst. Microsoft never learns. I know a lot of people who bought the Surface book and every single person had hardware issues. it's risky buying a device where everything inside is soldiered and non-replaceable. When I had the Pro 3, I went through 7 exchanges of brand new units before finding one that didn't have any faults or defects, seven!

Then when I got the Pro 6, I again had to exchange it a 4 times before finding one that was free of faults. I should have kept the Pro 6 but I upgraded to the 7 for USB-C when the 7 went on sale. It was not worth it in the end. Even if it wasn't for hardware issues, Surface is still terrible for battery life even after 9 generations of this product. Surface devices just aren't fully optimized to Intel CPUs like ipads are to their own Apple CPUs. Pretty much have to use it plugged into my 2lb USBC battery pack out of the house. But it was a blessing that the touch on my Pro 7 died because had it not, I wouldn't have gotten an ipad. But as soon as it did, I all of a sudden had an immediate use for an ipad.

If it was just the digitizer on my Pro 7 (What we originally thought it was before taking it apart), I would have just paid the $300 to get it replaced. But a motherboard replacement on a Pro 7 costs around $700cdn just for the part and that's not even brand new but previously rebuilt. Whose to say this new board wouldn't last long either. I wasn't making that mistake again. Put that money towards an ipad 11 and it was by far the smart choice. And now that the Surface Pro pricing has gone up with the 8, it's a no brainer that I would never buy another one again. 128GB/8GB in a base model for a late 2021 windows device is laughable. Even a lot of Ultrabooks now are 512/16Gb ram.

There's a guy on ebay down in NY who actually repairs the motherboards on Surface Pros (he completely rebuilds them) but after getting a quote from him, I would be spending more on shipping than for him to fix my motherboard. And there was no guarantee that he would be able to fix the issue but he said 99% chance he can. And whose to say the problem wouldn't come back over time, so even with a 90 day warranty from him, I just didn't want to take a chance wasting over $400 for him to repair something that could possibly re-occur again. Plus in the end, I still get the same product back with the same crappy battery life and same garbage tablet experience. So why bother. But he also can do ram upgrades in Surface Pros, he de-soldiers the stock ram and soldiers in new ram, so I did consider upgrading my ram to 16GB.

 

[Digitalguy]

Mine's been great - a year with 16GB i7 SP7 and no problems. It's my primary device, sees 12 hours or more use every day. Beats my previous Dell XPS-13.

My SP3 was great for the first couple of years then it started having issues. My SB2 was bought in 2020 and I have treated extremely carefully because of all the issues people report (and honestly I don't use it much anyway), so far no issues other than ghosting, which happens only with certain colors

 

[Rafterman]

Your "full sized laptop" really made me laugh.... Do you you know that there are laptops that are actually lighter than the surface pro and just as compact while having a 13.3in screen (vs 12.3in)?

I think some miss the point of the Surface. It's not just about lightness, it's the fact that it is a true "tablet" - you can remove the keyboard as use it as a flat piece of glass. I never cared for those 2-in-1's that you flip around. I don't like that how when you hold it in the back, you are "mashing keys" (even though I know the KB is deactivated in that mode). For 2-in-1s, I wish they would go back to that design where you swivel the screen around, then fold it back down- no mashing keys.

Basically, I got a quad core i7, 1TB storage and 32GB RAM (I finally found the 32GB RAM model in stock - thanks, B&H Photo) in a device with the size and form factor of an iPad 12.9. The Surface Pro 8 is so thin, it just feels like premium hardware, like an iPad.

 

[Rafterman]

Just now I had to leave the iPad and go up three flights of stairs to my iMac as the stupid piece of junk can't seem to handle an email with a few pdfs in it , the interface for attaching stuff is just - pathetic ...

Pro hardware teamed to a fisher price level OS

That's why the Mini is perfect for iPad OS - a media consumption device. Browsing, light email, stuff like that. Small and light. Unless you are a graphics artist or something like that, the Pro now seems unnecesary to me - and I owned may Pros. Never used them like I did the Mini. And for the heavy work, a Windows tablet like the Surface is more suitable.

 

[Rafterman]

Interesting....

Geekbench just banned the last four years of Samsung flagships over throttling debacle

Mess with benchmarks, and your phones get benched

www.androidpolice.com

That seems odd that Geekbench would do that, since throttling actually hurts trhe performance of the phones. Samsung doesn't gain anything positive by doing that. Unless GB just doesn't want an inaccurate test in their pool, whether positive or negative for the device.

 

[sparksd]

That seems odd that Geekbench would do that, since throttling actually hurts trhe performance of the phones. Samsung doesn't gain anything positive by doing that. Unless GB just doesn't want an inaccurate test in their pool, whether positive or negative for the device.

That's the issue. By throttling other apps but not the benchmarking app, the scores are misleading.

 

[George Dawes]

That's why the Mini is perfect for iPad OS - a media consumption device. Browsing, light email, stuff like that. Small and light. Unless you are a graphics artist or something like that, the Pro now seems unnecesary to me - and I owned may Pros. Never used them like I did the Mini. And for the heavy work, a Windows tablet like the Surface is more suitable.

Couldn’t agree more , only thing pro about the pros is the price

 

[Digitalguy]

Surface hardware is the worst. Microsoft never learns. I know a lot of people who bought the Surface book and every single person had hardware issues. it's risky buying a device where everything inside is soldiered and non-replaceable. When I had the Pro 3, I went through 7 exchanges of brand new units before finding one that didn't have any faults or defects, seven!

Then when I got the Pro 6, I again had to exchange it a 4 times before finding one that was free of faults. I should have kept the Pro 6 but I upgraded to the 7 for USB-C when the 7 went on sale. It was not worth it in the end. Even if it wasn't for hardware issues, Surface is still terrible for battery life even after 9 generations of this product. Surface devices just aren't fully optimized to Intel CPUs like ipads are to their own Apple CPUs. Pretty much have to use it plugged into my 2lb USBC battery pack out of the house. But it was a blessing that the touch on my Pro 7 died because had it not, I wouldn't have gotten an ipad. But as soon as it did, I all of a sudden had an immediate use for an ipad.

If it was just the digitizer on my Pro 7 (What we originally thought it was before taking it apart), I would have just paid the $300 to get it replaced. But a motherboard replacement on a Pro 7 costs around $700cdn just for the part and that's not even brand new. Whose to say this new board wouldn't last long either. I wasn't making that mistake again. Put that money towards an ipad 11 and it was by far the smart choice. And now that the Surface Pro pricing has gone up with the 8, it's a no brainer that I would never buy another one again. 128GB/8GB in a base model for a late 2021 windows device is laughable. Even a lot of Ultrabooks now are 512/16Gb ram.

The SP8 went up in price but it did improve quite a bit compared to the SP7. It got a bigger battery (but also additional weight), a larger screen, Thunderbolt 4, removable SSD, way better speakers (finally getting close to iPad pro). Sure reliability is always a question mark. Again, I'll skip it. However I am very interested in Windows on Arm, so if Qualcomm/Nuvia really manages to (kind of) match Apple Silicon as they claim, I might try a future pro x or whatever it's called.... Given me a tablet that runs cool, fanless, it's light, reasonably powerful and with good battery life, with Windows on it and I am in.