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iPad iPad Pro 10.5 vs iPad Air 10.5 - Value?
- Thread starter TorontoSS
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What case? Do you mean the keyboard cover? If so, that's the Apple Smart Keyboard for the iPad Air and iPad Pro 10.5".
BTW, I was in the Apple Store today and checked out the new Air. For stuff like surfing and UI navigation, the iPad Pro 10.5" and the iPad Air felt exactly the same. Exactly. There was no perceivable difference in performance. Well, except for one thing, and that is ProMotion. There was no significant UI lag on either machine, and everything was near instantaneous. However, scrolling on the Air looked a lot worse than scrolling on the iPad Pro. Most people won't care but now that I'm used to ProMotion, I really noticed it.
Then I walked over to the iPad Pro 11" table. That one actually felt faster. Yes, I said the iPad Pro 10.5" and iPad Air both felt near-instantaneous, but for the 11" you can just remove the word "near". The same actions and page renders were just instantaneous. So, while UI navigation and surfing on the 11" didn't actually save any time (as we are talking differences of maybe a few dozen milliseconds here), it was still noticeable when compared side-by-side.
The biggest difference though (besides Face ID and lack of a home button) is just the width of the screen in landscape mode. While the 9.7" in Split View mode is quite awkward, it's very decent on the 10.5". However, on the 11", it's downright roomy in comparison. For example, take a look at the width of the Messages pane. Mind you, I might have preferred more pixels on the browser pane instead of the Messages pane though.
So, what I said before still applies. The best value here is the discounted closeout iPad Pro 10.5". The 10.5" Air feels almost exactly like the 10.5" Pro, but without ProMotion and a bunch of other features. However, if you really want to get an iPad with noticeably increased performance, the machine to get is the 11" Pro.
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Thanks to all of your comments, I just ordered a pair of iPad Pro 10.5", 256GB, LTE, one for my wife and one for me. From B&H... $799 with free FedEx 3-day shipping and no sales tax. BestBuy was $779 for the same, but with sales tax, would have been a lot more costly than going with B&H and no sales tax. I've been buying camera gear from B&H for about 44 years now and always treated very well with good pricing.
We're upgrading from 2014 iPad Airs with 1GB ram and 64GB, so I think we're going to be REALLY thrilled with the bump in specs!
Can't WAIT to be rid of our old iPad Airs... they have become unbelievably bogged-down and sluggish - especially in the last month or so. I think Apple has been messing with them somehow, through software updates, to guarantee that we dump our old Airs and buy new iPads.
We're upgrading from 2014 iPad Airs with 1GB ram and 64GB, so I think we're going to be REALLY thrilled with the bump in specs!
Can't WAIT to be rid of our old iPad Airs... they have become unbelievably bogged-down and sluggish - especially in the last month or so. I think Apple has been messing with them somehow, through software updates, to guarantee that we dump our old Airs and buy new iPads.
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Congrats!Thanks to all of your comments, I just ordered a pair of iPad Pro 10.5", 256GB, LTE, one for my wife and one for me. From B&H... $799 with free FedEx 3-day shipping and no sales tax. BestBuy was $779 for the same, but with sales tax, would have been a lot more costly than going with B&H and no sales tax. I've been buying camera gear from B&H for about 44 years now and always treated very well with good pricing.
We're upgrading from 2014 iPad Airs with 1GB ram and 64GB, so I think we're going to be REALLY thrilled with the bump in specs!
Can't WAIT to be rid of our old iPad Airs... they have become unbelievably bogged-down and sluggish - especially in the last month or so. I think Apple has been messing with them somehow, through software updates, to guarantee that we dump our old Airs and buy new iPads.
You bought the iPad Air in 2014? That’s when the iPad Air 2 came out. Mind you, it wasn’t until October. I guess the timing just didn’t work out?
We were luckily enough to be able to wait until 2 GB models came out, and got the iPad Air 2 on launch date (actually got 1 day before everyone else did) and then another one the following fall on sale since we liked it so much. Those two 64 GB models are still in use, by our kids now, and are still quite reasonable with their A8X and 2 GB RAM.
However, the iPad Pro 10.5” is better in just about every way. Completely different league. BTW, I have it sitting here next to my 2009 13” MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 2.26 GHz. It’s amazing that this iPad, which is half as fast as the new 11” Pro, is still almost 4X as fast as my MacBook Pro.
On a scale of 0-10 in 2019 for my type of usage:
11” iPad Pro: 10
10.5” iPad Pro: 9
10.5” iPad Air 3: 8 <— Loses points for no ProMotion and no quad speakers
9.7” iPad Air 2: 6
9.7” iPad Air: 4
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My wife and are sort of power users (graphics and everything else). We just updated our MacBook Pro 17"ers to a pair of the latest MacBookPro 15"ers with 32GB of RAM ((LONG overdue!). And also, our elderly MacBookAir 13"ers to a pair of the latest MacBook Air 13"ers with 16GB RAM (also long overdue), so the update to the iPad Pros bring our "pads" up to a respectable level.
All the remains to be updated now in the household, this year, are my late 2012 27" iMac (still a great machine!) and my late 2012 MacMini Server. Those I plan to update later this year. Expensive, all these updates, but they are business expenses, so tax deductible. Good to get everything refreshed, yet one more time. (I've been using nothing but Macs since the Mac 512k, along around 1982, so there have been a LOT of refreshes for me!)
Then... we should be good for a few more years to come!
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OK, I’m officially a moron. I thought I scored yet another decent refurb deal lat week... on a Pencil for the iPad Pro 10.5”. Today I woke up and checked my orders for the tracking info and it was nowhere to be found. No record in my order history and no emails. I’m thinking I must have just not completed the order, and now it is gone from the refurb store. Doh! Luckily, I have edu access so I just bought it off the edu store instead for not too much more. However I used Apple Pay this time and the edu order didn’t show up in my order history either. Something about my info not matching. So I had to manually link it to my account. Anyone else experience this?
Anyhow, the point of this post in this particular thread is that Crayon was also there on the edu store and way, way cheaper. Unfortunately, it’s not compatible with the 10.5” Pro, but it is compatible with the Air, so this can also factor into the decision as to which of the two of the better value if you’re an edu customer. But then again, if you want Pencil you might also want the lower Pencil tracking latency of ProMotion.
BTW, I bought it just to help with occasional light photo edits with Affinity Photo, since using my finger got old fast. My fat finger is just too imprecise for stuff like selecting areas to correct, esp. on a 10.5” screen. (And it’s a good experiment to see if I actually use it enough to justify it, for my next iPad Pro 11” purchase in 2022 or whatever.) However, I wouldn’t be using the Pencil for drawing. In this scenario would the lack of pressure sensitivity with Crayon actually matter?
Anyhow, the point of this post in this particular thread is that Crayon was also there on the edu store and way, way cheaper. Unfortunately, it’s not compatible with the 10.5” Pro, but it is compatible with the Air, so this can also factor into the decision as to which of the two of the better value if you’re an edu customer. But then again, if you want Pencil you might also want the lower Pencil tracking latency of ProMotion.
BTW, I bought it just to help with occasional light photo edits with Affinity Photo, since using my finger got old fast. My fat finger is just too imprecise for stuff like selecting areas to correct, esp. on a 10.5” screen. (And it’s a good experiment to see if I actually use it enough to justify it, for my next iPad Pro 11” purchase in 2022 or whatever.) However, I wouldn’t be using the Pencil for drawing. In this scenario would the lack of pressure sensitivity with Crayon actually matter?
Seems like I’m not the only one having issues with Apple Pay and paying for things on the Store app... I’ve got the same exact issue each and every time I try buying something with it, no matter how many times I set it up again or re-link it. I’ve just given up using Apple Pay and use my card now (thank god for iCloud auto-fill
)
What compelled me to buy the iPad pro 10.5? I thought it was a good value at the time.
After I bought it is when I learned about the white spot. I also learned my MasterCard warranty does not cover refurbs.
AND, I go a new card that will pay $150 on a $500 charge.
Justifying things now.
Don't want to buy 2 year old technology. In this case probably not an immediate problem.
Don't want to buy 2 year old technology with a known issue.
Don't take pictures with my iPads, the phone covers the times I need a fast photo, iPads are too unwieldy and I decided I don't like the camera bump.
Don't listen to any iPad speakers, 85% of the time use headphones or sound through MBP and sound system.
Don't know about ProMotion, so can't feel the loss.
Don't do much photo/video rendering, so won't appreciate the GPU performance. A few times I might play with a photo in Affinity Photo, but from what I hear, people are doing just fine using regular iPads and Air 2...so there's that.
How will I notice 1 more GB or RAM? Maybe the Air's RAM is faster? Or the architecture is more efficient? lol
Anyway... I am returning the 10.5 iPad pro tomorrow. (I reserve the right to change my mind)
Holding off until I can see how the Air preforms over the next 1-2 months.
Well done to Apple for marketing the crap out of the older 2017 10.5 iPad pros sitting around. It might cost them upfront sales of the 2019 Air, but in the end, old inventory is a killer and next quarter Air sales will pick up.
AND... for taking a very similar aluminum body from the 10.5" and engineering the internals for the Air.
Really think the new Air will serve me just fine. IF I ever get to the point of needing heaving lifting, I'll buy a (by then) refurb iPad pro 11 or what ever is the latest out in 1-2 years.
After I bought it is when I learned about the white spot. I also learned my MasterCard warranty does not cover refurbs.
AND, I go a new card that will pay $150 on a $500 charge.
Justifying things now.
Don't want to buy 2 year old technology. In this case probably not an immediate problem.
Don't want to buy 2 year old technology with a known issue.
Don't take pictures with my iPads, the phone covers the times I need a fast photo, iPads are too unwieldy and I decided I don't like the camera bump.
Don't listen to any iPad speakers, 85% of the time use headphones or sound through MBP and sound system.
Don't know about ProMotion, so can't feel the loss.
Don't do much photo/video rendering, so won't appreciate the GPU performance. A few times I might play with a photo in Affinity Photo, but from what I hear, people are doing just fine using regular iPads and Air 2...so there's that.
How will I notice 1 more GB or RAM? Maybe the Air's RAM is faster? Or the architecture is more efficient? lol
Anyway... I am returning the 10.5 iPad pro tomorrow. (I reserve the right to change my mind)
Holding off until I can see how the Air preforms over the next 1-2 months.
Well done to Apple for marketing the crap out of the older 2017 10.5 iPad pros sitting around. It might cost them upfront sales of the 2019 Air, but in the end, old inventory is a killer and next quarter Air sales will pick up.
AND... for taking a very similar aluminum body from the 10.5" and engineering the internals for the Air.
Really think the new Air will serve me just fine. IF I ever get to the point of needing heaving lifting, I'll buy a (by then) refurb iPad pro 11 or what ever is the latest out in 1-2 years.
Wow! I got my 10.5" Pro today and it's all true:
1. Four speakers is great. However, it's also true I won't use them all that much because most of the time I use headphones. But, for the times I do want speakers, this is a nice bonus. Not only is the sound better, if sound gets blocked on one side, there is still clear sound on the other.
2. The camera is quite decent. I'm impressed. Basically the iPad Air 2's camera is just OK, but it's very nice on the 10.5" Pro. Having a flash is also a nice bonus.
3. I'm really, really liking ProMotion. There is much less interface lag when swiping across the screen, and scrolling in applications (esp. Safari) is way smoother. Instead of a blurry mess of text when fast scrolling MacRumors, it's very clear.
The iPad does feel noticeably faster than my iPad Air 2 as well, although I can't say the iPad Air 2 is slow. The iPad Air 2 is good minimum threshold for a decent 2019 iPad, but the iPad Pro 10.5 is just speedier. That should come as no surprise though since Geekbench 4 gives me about 4000/9600 on my iPad Pro (iPad7,3 with J207AP motherboard), as compared to about 1850/4525 on my iPad Air 2 (iPad 5,3 with J81AP motherboard). Not quite the psychological 10000 threshold I wanted to achieve with my next iPad, but close enough.
I'm going to have to check out the iPad Air in person just to see how much swiping and scrolling lag there is without ProMotion. Maybe it's a bit better than the iPad Air 2, I dunno, but without the 120 Hz support, it's likely still will be quite noticeable.
Price of my 64 GB WiFi iPad Pro 10.5 was CAD$619 refurb, which is approximately US$465.
BTW, the box I got was a nice white box. I don't remember my other refurbs like this. My last Apple refurb was many years ago, and it came in a non-descript brown box.
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This was such a good deal. Wow.
The other bonus is I got the 10.5" Pro's Apple Smart Keyboard for CAD$150, which is US$113. Up here in Canada, periodically third party sellers have it available for this price, but the keyboard for the 11" is basically never discounted significantly, as far as I've seen anyway. That means you're usually paying full CAD$239 price, or US$179, for the 11" Apple Smart Keyboard.
Also, it's common to see Apple Pencil on the refurb store in Canada, but never Apple Pencil 2.
So, it seems like Apple is withholding 2018 iPad Pros and its accessories from the refurb store in Canada for the time being. Maybe it will show up there in a few months though.
Thanks to all of your comments, I just ordered a pair of iPad Pro 10.5", 256GB, LTE, one for my wife and one for me. From B&H... $799 with free FedEx 3-day shipping and no sales tax. BestBuy was $779 for the same, but with sales tax, would have been a lot more costly than going with B&H and no sales tax. I've been buying camera gear from B&H for about 44 years now and always treated very well with good pricing.
We're upgrading from 2014 iPad Airs with 1GB ram and 64GB, so I think we're going to be REALLY thrilled with the bump in specs!
Can't WAIT to be rid of our old iPad Airs... they have become unbelievably bogged-down and sluggish - especially in the last month or so. I think Apple has been messing with them somehow, through software updates, to guarantee that we dump our old Airs and buy new iPads.
Your new iPad Pro 2nd gens will blow your doors off for sure lol. Your going to notice quite the difference. That’s a long time to keep one iPad though since 2014? Wow. 5 years long enough!
I did the same thing. Same iPad Air 2 since 2014. The thing has 2 GB RAM and triple-core A8X, which is as fast as A9. I don't think I would have lasted with the iPad Air though, since that has 1 GB RAM and dual-core A7.
Honestly, I’d rather take the risk on a iPad Pro 2nd gen hoping that I win the panel lottery lol. But, that’s just me. People have different needs.
I personally love a promotion display, the 4 speakers cannot be described you’ve just gotta experience them. And, the 12MP camera with a flash plus optical stabilization. I really don’t think an A12 offers much over the A10X in real world performance. Accept newness maybe? The A12 is about a year newer then the A10X.
The iPad Pro 2nd gen is not old technology either. The A10X processor is manufactured on 10nm silicon, this is pretty darn modern technology.
It is unfortunate about what happen to you, but these things happen no matter what you buy! I bought the latest and greatest 3rd gen iPad Pro. Well, I ended up going through 3 of them due to touch issues while not using a screen protector at all. And none of them were refurbished.
A lot of people are buying a 2nd gen iPad Pro over the iPad Air 3 right now. The ram difference is a hard argument to beat, and a lot of people want 4GB of ram in there iPad.
Either way, hopefully you get a better one. It isn’t fun dealing with things like this. In my case, I kept trying and it worked out in the end. And I couldn’t be happier with my 3rd gen Pro, but to be totally honest, there were times when I was ready to throw it in the trash and walk away lol.
Good luck.
Yes, in terms of specs the 10.5 Pro is pretty much a no-brainer vis-à-vis the new Air, but there is risk attached in the shape of the bright spot issue. The thing is we simply cannot ascertain the size of that risk. In light of that, I think most people would probably be happier with the Air. Yes, you can buy an extended warranty from Apple, but leaving aside the inevitable hassle that would ensue if such a problem were to arise, you still only get two years protection.
Thanks to all of your comments, I just ordered a pair of iPad Pro 10.5", 256GB, LTE, one for my wife and one for me. From B&H... $799 with free FedEx 3-day shipping and no sales tax. BestBuy was $779 for the same, but with sales tax, would have been a lot more costly than going with B&H and no sales tax. I've been buying camera gear from B&H for about 44 years now and always treated very well with good pricing.
We're upgrading from 2014 iPad Airs with 1GB ram and 64GB, so I think we're going to be REALLY thrilled with the bump in specs!
Can't WAIT to be rid of our old iPad Airs... they have become unbelievably bogged-down and sluggish - especially in the last month or so. I think Apple has been messing with them somehow, through software updates, to guarantee that we dump our old Airs and buy new iPads.
Thanks to all of your comments, I just ordered a pair of iPad Pro 10.5", 256GB, LTE, one for my wife and one for me. From B&H... $799 with free FedEx 3-day shipping and no sales tax. BestBuy was $779 for the same, but with sales tax, would have been a lot more costly than going with B&H and no sales tax. I've been buying camera gear from B&H for about 44 years now and always treated very well with good pricing.
We're upgrading from 2014 iPad Airs with 1GB ram and 64GB, so I think we're going to be REALLY thrilled with the bump in specs!
Can't WAIT to be rid of our old iPad Airs... they have become unbelievably bogged-down and sluggish - especially in the last month or so. I think Apple has been messing with them somehow, through software updates, to guarantee that we dump our old Airs and buy new iPads.
This brings up a good point and question.
The difference between the refurb from Apple $464 plus tax (with no credit card warranty) and B&H new (credit card warranty) $597 no tax is $88.
Note the iPad Pro was listed at $549 on Apple site. So B&H is $48 higher.
Applecare on the refurb is $129. A savings on 2 years of warranty of $41 (or cost of $88).
The inventory from B&H could be older build units, as the ones coming out of the refurb are 02/2019, possibly not having the white spot problem.
What would you folks do in this case? Refub, save some money, take the chance on no problems or B&H pay $88 more, get the CC warranty?
My iPad Mini 2 is 5 years old, and still banging away.
Current thinking is refurb, save the money, sell it in one year or trade in (although Apple probably does not accept refurbs on trade in).
I picked up an Air 3 yesterday after playing with and returning the new Mini. I had originally disregarded the Air 3 as we have a 10.5 Pro here and I had thought it would be too much the same. After using it for a bit there is enough distinction for me to be impressed.
The display on my Air 3 is considerably better than the IPP 10.5. In fact it's really outstanding. I never liked the display on the 10.5 IPP as it had a bit of an opalescent transparent look to it. The colors and color contrast on the Air 3 are better to my eye. In fact as far as that "touching the content" feel the Air 3 is the best iPad that I have used yet. Even better than the big 12.9 Gen 3 IPP. I'm really impressed with the display legibility and as this is about 90% of what I value in an iPad I am happy.
Yeah no promotion but this is not a big deal for me. The only time you can see a really big difference is in Maps and scrolling around quickly. Legibility is more important to me than this so no issue. Same with the back cameras, don't use them couldn't care. Front camera seems the same. In hand performance is about the same with the Air 3 sometimes having the edge with Safari load times. Don't use pencil.
For me if the IPP and Air 3 were the same price I would go with the Air 3. It would have to be a very substantial savings on the IPP 10.5. YMMV.
The display on my Air 3 is considerably better than the IPP 10.5. In fact it's really outstanding. I never liked the display on the 10.5 IPP as it had a bit of an opalescent transparent look to it. The colors and color contrast on the Air 3 are better to my eye. In fact as far as that "touching the content" feel the Air 3 is the best iPad that I have used yet. Even better than the big 12.9 Gen 3 IPP. I'm really impressed with the display legibility and as this is about 90% of what I value in an iPad I am happy.
Yeah no promotion but this is not a big deal for me. The only time you can see a really big difference is in Maps and scrolling around quickly. Legibility is more important to me than this so no issue. Same with the back cameras, don't use them couldn't care. Front camera seems the same. In hand performance is about the same with the Air 3 sometimes having the edge with Safari load times. Don't use pencil.
For me if the IPP and Air 3 were the same price I would go with the Air 3. It would have to be a very substantial savings on the IPP 10.5. YMMV.
Strange. I went to the Apple Store on the weekend, and brought my 10.5" Pro to compare against the Air. The Air and Pro screens looked basically identical to me. But then again I have a brand new 10.5" Pro, which I was comparing to a brand new 10.5" Air, so perhaps that might be a reason.
Wipe the screen of your iPad Pro clean! Although seriously it also sounds like you might have used a cleaning agent that damaged the screen if it’s opalescent.
Old 10.5” iPad Pro screen brightness is 600 nits compared to the 2019 Air’s 500 nits, so the Air’s screen is a bit dimmer.
I don't mean the external glass but rather the solidity of the colors of the display. The IPP is a bit like you are looking through a photographic slide transparency and has a slight metallic/mother of pearl look, and the Air 3 has a bit more of a glazed on the glass solidity to the color and content. It's really nice.
I gather this opinion may be difficult to describe. Also panel lottery and indeed our 10.5 IPP is a release day device. YMMV etc. Also this: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/bright-spot-issue-air-3-and-pro-10-5-comparison.2176337/
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Yes. Newly purchased refurb from Apple. You are correct. Anyhow it looked identical to the Air in terms of colours etc. Both looked much superior to my Air 2.
BTW I didnt run them at full brightness. Just what was comfortable to me, which may be slightly dimmer than average.
The only obvious difference was ProMotion.
I have also compared them side by side. Can't see any difference either.
I went with a brand new 10.5 Pro I found at the Apple Store and so far haven’t had any regrets, it’s awesome. No way could I do without the pro motion alone so I’m happy I chose this over the Air. The display looks fantastic to my eyes although I have not compared it next to an Air yet in the store. I got mine for $494 with price match (I could have gotten a refurbished 256 GB instead) but the 64 GB is more than sufficient.
Sure the Air is a great device, but the compromises didn’t work for me ( I also love the quad speakers and do use the camera a lot). Using the ASK and AP on this has been a breeze too. I would have loved the functionality of AP2 but wasn’t willing to spend almost $800 plus including my gift cards.
It’s official, I simply won’t purchase another iPad without pro motion again, but respect to others who don’t need it and love their Airs. All a matter of personal opinion. For me, snag a 10.5 Pro if you can while they last...
Sure the Air is a great device, but the compromises didn’t work for me ( I also love the quad speakers and do use the camera a lot). Using the ASK and AP on this has been a breeze too. I would have loved the functionality of AP2 but wasn’t willing to spend almost $800 plus including my gift cards.
It’s official, I simply won’t purchase another iPad without pro motion again, but respect to others who don’t need it and love their Airs. All a matter of personal opinion. For me, snag a 10.5 Pro if you can while they last...