iPad It's Christmas shopping time! iPad air or Pro?

[africano]

My wife wants to replace her VERY old MacBook pro and she has said she wants an iPad with pencil and keyboard. She reckons that she doesn't need another laptop and can make do with an ipad.

So the question, before I shop online, is....iPad Pro + Magic board + pencil OR iPad air + Magic Keyboard + pencil?

Thanks for your suggestions. ALSO, Im in Thailand and will buy online from the Apple store, how do I apply an education discount shopping online and also do they still give a free pair of airpods?

OH! And do I also need a case? Or does the smart keyboard serve as a case as well?? That would be adding ANOTHER thing to the list....

Thank you!

 

[Apple_Robert]

I vote for the iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard and Appler Pencil 2. Great set up. The keyboard serves as a case. If you want a protective case for travel, get a sleeve for a 12” MacBook etc.

 

[Deliro]

With that MK and pencil setup on the iPad Pro you can just get a MacBook Air and 8th gen iPad for about the same cost.

The pencil is more gimmick for me. For input, even with Scribble, it’s slower than my swipe onscreen keyboard. I don’t take notes, draw, or really use the pencil for anything now. In theory it looks great, but for my use cases it’s not used much.

The MK works well. It has really flimsy and cheap shell material that I’m afraid will peel eventually. I feel it’s overpriced but if you got the cash, it’s a solid companion to the iPad if you’re looking to do a hybrid setup.

There’s really a lot of variables here and I don’t know her use cases. Does she work on the MacBook? Or casual usage with occasionally productivity?

Any type of work I’d say get a MacBook Air. Casual either will work. It also comes down to the value of a touch screen. Dead set on an iPad to mix things up, MK and iPad Air.

I lived in Thailand for work a few years back and apple educational discounts won’t ship there. Bangkok now has two stores, you may want to see what options they have. Good luck.

edit - and to qualify my statements I sold my MacBook Pro 2019 for the 2020 mk and 12.9 pro setup. Regrets? A bit. It does most things fine I just miss a floating window OS.

 

[ericwn]

I’d go for the Pro. I also recommend you browse this forum for longer as the topic is discussed rather often.

 

[ericwn]

With that MK and pencil setup on the iPad Pro you can just get a MacBook Air and 8th gen iPad for about the same cost.

The pencil is more gimmick for me. For input, even with Scribble, it’s slower than my swipe onscreen keyboard. I don’t take notes, draw, or really use the pencil for anything now. In theory it looks great, but for my use cases it’s not used much.

The MK works well. It has really flimsy and cheap shell material that I’m afraid will peel eventually. I feel it’s overpriced but if you got the cash, it’s a solid companion to the iPad if you’re looking to do a hybrid setup.

There’s really a lot of variables here and I don’t know her use cases. Does she work on the MacBook? Or casual usage with occasionally productivity?

Any type of work I’d say get a MacBook Air. Casual either will work. It also comes down to the value of a touch screen. Dead set on an iPad to mix things up, MK and iPad Air.

I lived in Thailand for work a few years back and apple educational discounts won’t ship there. Bangkok now has two stores, you may want to see what options they have. Good luck.

edit - and to qualify my statements I sold my MacBook Pro 2019 for the 2020 mk and 12.9 pro setup. Regrets? A bit. It does most things fine I just miss a floating window OS.

For what it’s worth, I felt similar about Scribble and Text entry with the pencil. As a recommendation, check out the Nebo notes app, its handwriting recognition is a positive surprise. Fast and powerful and supports different languages.

 

[AutomaticApple]

do they still give a free pair of airpods?

As far as I'm concerned, nope.

 

[Marlon DLTH :)]

My wife wants to replace her VERY old MacBook pro and she has said she wants an iPad with pencil and keyboard. She reckons that she doesn't need another laptop and can make do with an ipad.

So the question, before I shop online, is....iPad Pro + Magic board + pencil OR iPad air + Magic Keyboard + pencil?

Thanks for your suggestions. ALSO, Im in Thailand and will buy online from the Apple store, how do I apply an education discount shopping online and also do they still give a free pair of airpods?

OH! And do I also need a case? Or does the smart keyboard serve as a case as well?? That would be adding ANOTHER thing to the list....

Thank you!

How much storage do you think she will need? If 64gb is more than enough, get the Air. If not, I’d buy the Pro.

 

[Hadron]

The pencil is more gimmick for me. For input, even with Scribble, it’s slower than my swipe onscreen keyboard. I don’t take notes, draw, or really use the pencil for anything now. In theory it looks great, but for my use cases it’s not used much.

The key thing here is the use case. My primary use cases for a tablet involve writing, so for me it's an essential (my first tablet was a Samsung because back then Apple's position was still that nobody wanted a stylus).

For education discounts, what you have to do probably depends on the country. I'd suggest going to the Apple store website, looking for the education store link (down the bottom of the page) and seeing what it asks you to do to gain access.

As for Air vs Pro, I'd say it's mainly a matter of storage needs and budget. If I'd been sure that 64GB was enough for me for the expected lifetime of the device I'd have bought the Air when it came out. But as everyone notes, the 256GB Air is not very much cheaper than the 128GB Pro, which has a few extras with it. But it's still significantly cheaper than the 256GB Pro (and if she needs more than 256GB then it has to be the Pro).

 

[spiderman0616]

For me, it comes down to screen size. Can she get by with an 11" screen on the iPad Air if she's using this thing as a laptop? Because I found the 11" models to be adequate laptop replacements but not GREAT laptop replacements. And then the 12.9" iPad Pro was such a great laptop replacement that I stopped using it as an iPad at all.

 

[The Game 161]

depends I think you could get buy with an air with MK which will still be cheaper than a pro...guess depends how badly she would need a pro model.