I bought the 11 inch to replace my 10.5 based on the reviews and the bigger screen size. However I have decided to return it and keep my 10.5 for the following reasons.
It feels uncomfortable to hold and type on without a Smart Keyboard. The new design which did away with the curved edges has made it slightly more uncomfortable to hold. For those of us who remember switching from the iPhone 3/3gs to the iPhone 4 will understand.
The screen is dimmer than my old 10.5 when on the same auto brightness. Not a major issue but certain videos still pop a little more on the iPad 10.5
Face ID when holding the iPad naturally gets covered up for me. I have to move my hand and it just irritates me. For the price I don’t see why they didn’t place another one for when in use in landscape mode.
Performance. All the games that ran slightly sluggish on my iPad 10.5 still do the same on here. Life is Strange is an example. They need to be optimised not the hardwares fault.
The biggest reason by far. The apps that are not updated to support the full screen. I’ve had to deal with this issue in the past when we switched from the iPhone 4 to the 5 and then again through the following phones. On the iPhone X when I got it on launch day I justified it because the overall phone made the waiting worthwhile. But even then it took almost 9 months before all the apps supported the new format, this includes google inbox and gmail. On this iPad I can’t justify waiting for all the apps to get updated and use them in a limited fashion.
If you are seriously looking to update from the 10.5 to the 11 I would advise you to wait just a little bit for everything to get optimised and then purchase it. This is my own personal opinion. I will be buying this again in a few months when all the apps are optimised. This will also allow give me the option to buy a used one if I want.
My iPad 10.5 256gb only cost me £400 and it has AppleCare till August 2019. I bought it 6 months ago used. I will look for a similar good deal on this in a few months.