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I've ditched every iPad I've ever owned within six months.
- Thread starter sunapple
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Just graduated a couple of weeks ago and the iPad really was a tremendous help with sketching that last few months of my graduation project. It’s a brilliant device for that.
I’m now kind of in a weird time where I’m not sure what my needs are going to be like for iPad in the next couple of months. Looking for a job and all. For now it serves as a very expensive gadget that’s not being used as much as it should. If I needed the money I would’ve sold it for the time being (I’m comfortable selling and reselling on the second hand market whenever I feel like it).
Still very much about having the right tool for the right job.
It took you 9 years to finally realize that the ipad is just an expensive toy for 99.99% of the people?
I’m just the opposite from the OP. I use my iPad Pro for everything, all the time. The only time I reach for a laptop is if I need to do some heavy Spreadsheet work and need an additional monitor. Then, I’m sitting at my desk.
I take the iPad Pro with me in a zippered case along with the ASK and Pencil. All fit very nice and in a medium purse.
I take the iPad Pro with me in a zippered case along with the ASK and Pencil. All fit very nice and in a medium purse.
No and it’s not. I already own a MacBook Pro that I use for everything, but there’s plenty of people who can live with just an iPad for most of the work or even all of it. I’m just saying what it is to me right now.
If you don't mind me asking how do you use it at work?
I actually leave my work laptop and my iPad (personal one) at work every Monday and get them back on Friday with me during the weekend. I try to minimize the time I spend in working outside of the working hours
.Anyway back to my point. I use the iPad as a digital notebook at work. For now I use GoodNotes (still wonder how it is compared Notability) to either do some brainstorming and preparation before meetings or to take notes during webex meetings (as at that point my laptop is used for the webex connection and video).
You graduated?! Congrats!!! My wife is on her third quarter of her PhD (almost 1 year done of 5). Graduation seems so far off but she's going strong. Best wishes finding a job.
Agreed about right tool for the job (I'm a C# programmer (Visual Studio 2019 Pro with Windows 10)).
Your post interested me because I found a lot of similarities. I too have not kept my iPads for more than 6 months. My history with iPads = iPad 3, Mini 2, Mini 4, Air 2, 2017, 2018, 2018, and iPad Pro 10.5.
I kept my iPad 3 the longest but it never really found a home with me. Sold it off to a coworker. My mini 2 gave to my mother in law, the mini 4 was given to my wife. My 2017 was given to my mother in law after the mini 2 got too slow. Sold my 2018 to my little brother who wanted it for college. Traded in my 2018 I bought this year for a super deal on the 10.5.
I'm definitely a keyboard / laptop guy. I enjoy reading on an iPad a lot more than a computer monitor and the Apple Pencil has replaced paper for me (in class, work, and home). So I think I'll be keeping this 10.5 Pro.
The mistake, I believe, people make with the iPad is to think of it as a laptop replacement. It complements a laptop really well. It makes a great reading / consumption device - and with the Apple Pencil, it makes a great college notebook (I use it for this). It makes a great note taking tool at work (Notability (Audio + Apple Notes sketching)). But it is not a primary device.
I use it at work with a Logitech K811 so I can talk with my wife via iMessage and work on a Windows machine with one keyboard (the K811 can switch devices with a keypress). This means I don't have to lug my work windows laptop + my MacBook Pro in the same backpack. I also use it to do Slack calls with our other office - makes an AMAZING mobile conference phone.
But like you, up until now, I've never kept an iPad for very long. I do feel that I will keep this 10.5 for years. Unlike past iPads, this iPad is finding more use in my workflow/daily usage so it is a lot less likely to be sold.
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If you don't mind me asking how do you use it at work?
I actually leave my work laptop and my iPad (personal one) at work every Monday and get them back on Friday with me during the weekend. I try to minimize the time I spend in working outside of the working hours
Anyway back to my point. I use the iPad as a digital notebook at work. For now I use GoodNotes (still wonder how it is compared Notability) to either do some brainstorming and preparation before meetings or to take notes during webex meetings (as at that point my laptop is used for the webex connection and video).
I use my iPad 100% for college and I use it quite a bit at work with Notability. My wife is a huge GoodNotes fan. I find the Apple Pencil and I prefer Notability over Good Notes - and I need it on my computer (MacBook at home). Wish GoodNotes 5 would hurry up with their Mac OS version.
Above you'll see how I use my iPad at work. Makes a GREAT whiteboard scanner with Scanner Pro (Readdle), Slack conference call device (speakerphone), note taker with audio (Notability), and a PDF signing with PDF Expert (Readdle). I use Voice Record Pro (by Dayana Networks Ltd) for recording conference calls when I don't need to take notes at the same time.
Most of my work logs are on OneNote so I can use my iPad to do notes there if I feel I'll need them on my work machine.
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Interesting that you’re viewing the 10.5” Pro more favourably than previous iPads, @BigMcGuire . I’m also considering this model, mainly for my mum as she uses an ancient and barely functioning iPad 2 a lot (and deserves better), but I’ll likely want to borrow it sometimes or use it when I visit her, so I’m at least partly considering my needs and wants also!
I’m not expecting it to be put to professional use at all, so you could say my expectations are very moderate. I’m mainly attracted to the screen and sound quality for games, and general web surfing, email, messaging and the like. I may also put a movie library on it locally. A 9.7” Pro would be enough, but I can’t help but feel the 10.5” is far more future-proof with its 4 GB RAM, vs 2 GB on the previous model.
I do have one productivity question however. For those with the 10.5 or 11” Pro, can you tell me about the current state of Microsoft Office apps regarding their capability without subscription? I don’t want to buy an Office 365 subscription just for very occasional and light use. Will I be able to edit an existing document at all or just open and view them (ie read only)?
I can’t see anyone doing major professional Office work on an iPad considering it lacks mouse and local (external) storage support, so there’s no way I want to pay just to make occasional minor edits in an Excel spreadsheet or Word document. Then again, I can do that on my phone if I really need to so it’s not a make or break thing either way.
I’m not expecting it to be put to professional use at all, so you could say my expectations are very moderate. I’m mainly attracted to the screen and sound quality for games, and general web surfing, email, messaging and the like. I may also put a movie library on it locally. A 9.7” Pro would be enough, but I can’t help but feel the 10.5” is far more future-proof with its 4 GB RAM, vs 2 GB on the previous model.
I do have one productivity question however. For those with the 10.5 or 11” Pro, can you tell me about the current state of Microsoft Office apps regarding their capability without subscription? I don’t want to buy an Office 365 subscription just for very occasional and light use. Will I be able to edit an existing document at all or just open and view them (ie read only)?
I can’t see anyone doing major professional Office work on an iPad considering it lacks mouse and local (external) storage support, so there’s no way I want to pay just to make occasional minor edits in an Excel spreadsheet or Word document. Then again, I can do that on my phone if I really need to so it’s not a make or break thing either way.
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Oh yeah, the 10.5 Pro is by far the best iPad I've ever owned. Because of its faster response times, better reading with the screen, and how it interacts with the Apple Pencil better (120Hz) - I find I'm using it a lot more than any previous iPad.
Not sure if I will be any help with the Office applications - I've had a 365 subscription since the dawn of time (my wife included) - we've both needed it for work/school.
That said I've used the Office apps on my iPad in the past - Powerpoint and Excel. Word has a nice mobile input mode to make typing more pleasant. But I've always used them with the subscription so I've had them fully featured. For $99/year for my wife and I, it isn't too bad.
Agreed, doing graphs, calculations, multiple sheets, dealing with excessively large data sets - you'd need / want a laptop for that. That said, Excel / Powerpoint on iOS is very comparable feature wise to the Windows / Mac OS version.
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I've shared Word / Excel documents with people who do not have Office subscriptions - they're able to edit my documents. I do think it is a limited feature set, however (drop down menu doesn't have nearly all the features).
I’m an associate professor at a major university and medical school. For my academic work, I can get about 75% of it done on an iPad. Light word processing, reviewing PowerPoints, tons of reading and annotating PDF articles and other people’s written work, email, completing web-based forms, taking notes in meetings (OneNote). Plus recreational web browsing at home.
The other 25% requires a performance laptop - beginning new, image-heavy PowerPoint files, 30+ page Word files with multi-user change/edit tracking, 3D medical image rendering.
This means that 75% of my time I can carry just the 1.2 lb iPad Pro 11” and Pencil. The other 25% I either carry my 13.5” Surface Book 2 (with dedicated GPU) or use my three-monitor work desktop (one 30” and two 24” displays).
I actually hadn’t planned on buying a new iPad. The battery on my gen. 1 iPad Pro 12.9” was fairly degraded from heavy use and I had just bought the Surface Book 2, so I was going to skip this generation of iPads because of the price and stick with the SB2. But my dear wife knew I missed the iPad and bought me the 11” Pro.
So while I doubt that graphic designers or professional programmers could make an iPad fit well in their workflow, since my workflow is mostly Office-type work, I’m able to integrate the iPad to a significant degree.
The other 25% requires a performance laptop - beginning new, image-heavy PowerPoint files, 30+ page Word files with multi-user change/edit tracking, 3D medical image rendering.
This means that 75% of my time I can carry just the 1.2 lb iPad Pro 11” and Pencil. The other 25% I either carry my 13.5” Surface Book 2 (with dedicated GPU) or use my three-monitor work desktop (one 30” and two 24” displays).
I actually hadn’t planned on buying a new iPad. The battery on my gen. 1 iPad Pro 12.9” was fairly degraded from heavy use and I had just bought the Surface Book 2, so I was going to skip this generation of iPads because of the price and stick with the SB2. But my dear wife knew I missed the iPad and bought me the 11” Pro.
So while I doubt that graphic designers or professional programmers could make an iPad fit well in their workflow, since my workflow is mostly Office-type work, I’m able to integrate the iPad to a significant degree.
To be fair it's how Apple advertises it too
. Like you I am keyboard/laptop girl though so I would not use the iPad as a laptop replacement. It would not work for me.I would not sell mine either but to be honest I definitely do not have the screen time most people have. Average screen time for me is like 1 hour and a half, top 2. If there is a task that I can do both on the laptop and the iPad I choose the laptop (as long as I have both with me). For some reason I gravitate far more to laptops than iPads. My company laptop is 14 inch so it's portable enough and it has touch screen so that definitely helps. I am team lead of a Software team that and we use Eclipse or IntelliJ and we write Java code. So Windows is definitely our way to go at work.
Makes sense. I use Windows both at work and at home so I am screwed either way :lol: .
Thanks for recomending an app for recording conference calls. I was just thinking about this
.I use OneNote for notes typing too. I definitely like the fact that I can access them afterwards on my iPad or my home laptop. It's only a matter of having your account credentials.
I'm on the opposite end. Not wanting to criticize as your needs may be different. But I hold onto my iPads as long as they're usable and performance is good. I don't look for the latest technical enticements to get me to upgrade since my needs are basic functionality. I'm also not wanting to contribute to e-waste and try to avoid too much material consumption (which is tempting).
Industrial design student can't find use for ipad? Maybe you are underthinking this.
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I love my ipad for art but when it comes to mobile productivity, give me a laptop. I don't need a
"productivity" device on which it is so hard to cut and paste--disaster. And yes--give me a mouse too.
I also use ipad pro for drawing complicated diagrams in sketchbook and then bring over via
icloud. Works great because ios sketch saves directly to icloud. So, my pc and ios sketchbook
softwares are locked to the same folder. Very productive.
I’ve rarely kept mine, because of non-use, upgrade attempts or sadly constant returns due to hardware failure (touch disease, irresponsiveness).
I loved the Mini 5. Wanted to keep it, but it developed touch disease too.
Mom is loaning me her 2018 iPad since I traded mine in for the dud Mini, but I am not using it for art. So disgusted that these keep having issues.
I am just going to try draw traditionally.
I am not sure if I’ll even get a new iMac given my constant burns with iPads/iPad Pros.
I loved the Mini 5. Wanted to keep it, but it developed touch disease too.
Mom is loaning me her 2018 iPad since I traded mine in for the dud Mini, but I am not using it for art. So disgusted that these keep having issues.
I am just going to try draw traditionally.
I am not sure if I’ll even get a new iMac given my constant burns with iPads/iPad Pros.
Good on you for graduating! That is so awesome. What was your major?
I use my iPad Pro 10.5 daily. It has replaced my MBA. Much more convenient to carry around, light and the Smart Cover includes a spot to hold the Apple Pencil. Plus has free LTE data if needed. That’s a good bonus for me. But everyone has different needs. Thanks OP for your feedback. Might help someone else who’s on the fence with getting an iPad.
The iPads suffer from touch disease? When did this issue appear? This is complete news to me, but I don't read a whole lot about iPads
For me, I use the iPad for note taking, presentations and planning (use the Franklin Covey style digitized planner in Notability).If you don't mind me asking how do you use it at work?
I actually leave my work laptop and my iPad (personal one) at work every Monday and get them back on Friday with me during the weekend. I try to minimize the time I spend in working outside of the working hours
Anyway back to my point. I use the iPad as a digital notebook at work. For now I use GoodNotes (still wonder how it is compared Notability) to either do some brainstorming and preparation before meetings or to take notes during webex meetings (as at that point my laptop is used for the webex connection and video).
I’ve tried Good Notes and Notability. The only thing that I think that Good Notes does better is highlighting. The highlight features brings the words to the top and more noticeable whereas in Notability it just highlights over the top.
thankfully my older iPad Pro hasn’t developed touch disease. The threads regarding this issue have made me hold off on an upgrade.
How? If I knew that I would immediately fire off letters to any and everyone in Apple brass to try and fix it.
That said, I do suspect it's heat because while I was in the Apple store I was downloading several movies to the iPad Mini 5, it became extremely hot (which was the case with every iPad Pro I had which showed up with touch disease. Might be a coincidence, might not).
Re: Mini 5: Both touch and the pencil stopped responding multiple times in Procreate while in split screen with Photos open, and playing music in the background (Not streaming, songs were downloaded on the Mini). I stopped playing music and it still happened.
This has been a constant with me with every single iPad Pro I've owned (or tried to own), and now the Mini 5 too.
Yes, primarily since 2017 (although some 2015 iPad Pro owners have experienced it now as well). There are multiple threads here in the iPad forum unfortunately (Most under the term irresponsiveness). Mostly iPad Pros, but my Mini 5 experienced it too. So back it went.
I suspect the iPads being so thin now and becoming so unusually hot fried the components that respond to touch. I cannot prove that, but whenever the overheating happened (and in three cases within 24 hours of ownership), I've had this issue.
So I've stopped buying Pads as much as that pains my budding, inner artist who loves them for drawing.
I absolutely adore the Mini 5 and am gutted mine came up with this deal-breaker issue.
I will try to connect with the guy who bluescreened 6 consecutive surface pros. Not saying
your wrong, just saying it's HIGHLY improbable
I always felt that the iPad has great potential and is only being let down by the limitations of iOS, but since the multitasking has been improved, with pop up apps and side by side apps, I feel that the iPad has a right to exist in my life. Of course there is room for improvement, but in its current state the iPad is great for media consumption and general usage. I am not an artist and don’t draw, so for my line of work the iPad is not as versatile as a laptop, so it cannot replace macOS for me.
If that was the case, I'd still be using one of those iPad Pros or the Mini 5 I had to return for that issue.
So basically, I like new things too much.
I got my first gen iPad in the same week it launched in 2010. It seemed so great to be able to do everything I did on my iPod touch on a bigger screen and it was! But it felt kinda bulky and I ended up buying a MacBook Air 11" which could do a lot more.
Skipped the 2, got the New iPad (3rd gen) on launch day in 2012. I was still using an iPod touch back then and according to my records I had a Mac Mini this time around. Was hoping to, again, use it for school purposes but after a few months it just felt unnecessary. I did, however, read the Steve Jobs biography on it on vacation which was great.
Skipped the New New iPad, got the Air in 2013. Wow, this thing was thin and light! Still, after a few months the thing wasn't moving as much as I'd hoped. Honestly, I thought it would be great for everything school and portable and I really was trying to get it to work. Sold it within 6 months.
At this point I knew that the iPad would never work for me, no matter what other devices I had or what features the iPad could get.
2015: 12.9 freaking inch iPad PRO with PENCIL!
As a student Industrial Product Design (second year), the iPad Pro seemed like just the device for me. Imagine sketching wherever you are on a digital canvas, being able to use it as a drawing tablet with AstroPad and just use it instead of my 15" rMBP for all light computer needs on-the-go! Perfect!
Following my incredibly predictable pattern, I bought it on launch day and I'm trying to get rid of it just shy of 6 months later (what's up with the 6 months?!).
I need a phone, so I have an iPhone 6 Plus. I need a powerful computer that's portable, so I have the 15" MacBook Pro. I need to draw every now and then... But not that much and not for 1200$. It's just not justifiable.
I ended up bringing my 15" MBP with me every day of the week to school because it runs Illustrator, Photoshop and even SolidWorks. An iPad would just be too much of a compromise, like it's always been for me. It cannot replace my laptop or my phone, but it needs to for it to become more than just a gadget.
That's it, I'm done. Anyone recognizes the iPad ending up in a drawer every time? No? Okay. Am I overthinking this? If I had lots of money, then yes, definitely.
Cool story, if it doesn’t work for you. It doesn’t work for you.
My only computer is a iPad Pro 11” 1TB cellular model. I bring it with me everywhere, editing videos, creating a lot of cool ideas on my iPad is a normal thing. Gaming, movies, and watching videos on top of all that! It is my main device, I even use it as my phone some days. It is drained to nearly 0% every night, and charged backup to 100% by morning every single day!
I’m so use to using a iPad Pro, I wouldn’t know what to do without one.