I work from home and have a iMac in my office, 11” is perfect for around the house and in bed use. I did have a 13” for a year but found I didn’t use it as much.
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iPad M4 iPad Pro 11 inch or 13 inch?
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I jumped on the 12.9” bandwagon in 2020, having used 9.7s, 10.5 & 11 prior to that. The current M4 13 “ is my 3rd big iPad. I mainly use the iPad as a tablet, and the size compliments my 24” iMac .
For intense typing purposes, I’d recommend the larger iPad, also if the iPad is your primary device. Albeit not a fan of the MKB, I use a mechanical keyboard if needed. I would imagine the 11” combined with the MKB will feel a bit cramped.
I can’t think of a more suitable travel companion for content consumption than the iPad . At home I use it as a 2nd screen to the iMac i.e Sidecar & Universal Control features. Thankfully, as the 13” is thinner and lighter, I am able to handle for a few hours with the pencil when not mounted on a stand. With all that being said, be sure to protect with the Smart Folio to maintain the thin outlook.
For intense typing purposes, I’d recommend the larger iPad, also if the iPad is your primary device. Albeit not a fan of the MKB, I use a mechanical keyboard if needed. I would imagine the 11” combined with the MKB will feel a bit cramped.
I can’t think of a more suitable travel companion for content consumption than the iPad . At home I use it as a 2nd screen to the iMac i.e Sidecar & Universal Control features. Thankfully, as the 13” is thinner and lighter, I am able to handle for a few hours with the pencil when not mounted on a stand. With all that being said, be sure to protect with the Smart Folio to maintain the thin outlook.
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I’ve had the larger and the smaller sizes multiple times but I always think the 11” is too large and heavy to be a really nice portable tablet and too small to be a laptop replacement. My sweet spots are the 13” for laptop replacement and iPad Mini for hand held, do wish the Mini came with a better screen though.
Using the on-screen keyboard (especially in landscape mode) while holding the iPad is a bad experience on both the 11" and 13" models. It's either a full width keyboard that's difficult to reach or typing with a single thumb on the small keyboard. Both are terrible when compared to an iPhone or iPad Mini.
I’ve bounced back and forth between every form factor of iPad.
I currently think of the 11” as a device where the form factor is more important than the absolute amount of productivity increase I get out of it. It’s important that it be as small as possible while still having all the tools and features to really boost my productivity and adapt to the situation … keyboard, cellular connection, etc. I guess you could say that just having it with me is one of its key features … sort of like being on call. I may not even use it on an outing, but it just being there is a “safety net”. I put a matte screen protector on this because the focus of the device for me is being flexible in as many situations as possible.
The 13 inch is on the other end of the spectrum … it’s something I typically “set up” with in fixed locations. It gets used more around the house, which means it actually gets more use overall than the 11 inch … primarily in bed or on the couch watching TV. It’s obviously more productive and has a full size keyboard and laptop sized screen, but it’s not a “secret productivity Swiss Army knife” that I’m going to have on me when I’m out and about and something comes up.
I currently think of the 11” as a device where the form factor is more important than the absolute amount of productivity increase I get out of it. It’s important that it be as small as possible while still having all the tools and features to really boost my productivity and adapt to the situation … keyboard, cellular connection, etc. I guess you could say that just having it with me is one of its key features … sort of like being on call. I may not even use it on an outing, but it just being there is a “safety net”. I put a matte screen protector on this because the focus of the device for me is being flexible in as many situations as possible.
The 13 inch is on the other end of the spectrum … it’s something I typically “set up” with in fixed locations. It gets used more around the house, which means it actually gets more use overall than the 11 inch … primarily in bed or on the couch watching TV. It’s obviously more productive and has a full size keyboard and laptop sized screen, but it’s not a “secret productivity Swiss Army knife” that I’m going to have on me when I’m out and about and something comes up.
You could consider keeping the 13" since you like it for most of your tasks, and buy something like a zugo case for when you are on the couch or in bed. The zugo case adjust to numerous heights and may solve your couch and bedtime usage issues.
I ended up going the 11" route because most of my usage was the couch and bedtime scenarios. The zugo case does add weight and I found myself swapping cases more than I wanted. But, the zugo type case is worth considering for your use case.
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This. It’s exactly why the MKB (or SKF for older models) is a game changer for the iPad (IMO). I can’t stand typing on the iPad by itself. So much so that I prefer to use the pencil to scribble in the url for a website rather than bring up the on-screen keyboard.
This was not true on my 10.5 iPad Pro with split keyboard. No clue why Apple no longer offers this option.
Like many others on here, I have had varying sizes of iPads and have had 12.9” iPad Pros. I also have a Mini and liked it but everything is too scaled down on it.
I too have been back and forth to the Apple Store trying to decide on whether to go with the 13” iPad Pro or the 11”. I’m close to a decision and leaning toward the 11”. Here is the summary of my review of both.
This is why I am leaning toward the 11”.
I too have been back and forth to the Apple Store trying to decide on whether to go with the 13” iPad Pro or the 11”. I’m close to a decision and leaning toward the 11”. Here is the summary of my review of both.
- The 11” feels way better in the hands and is much easier to hold and use as a tablet. The 13”, as it has always been for me, is awkward as all hell to hold: it’s unwieldy with how physically large and boxy it is. And UI elements on the 11” are always closer to your hands so you don’t have to keep reaching to touch UI elements all the time: the 11” is just more efficient.
- The typing experience on the 13” with the MKB vs. the 11” is better. The keyboard is larger with palmrests large enough to rest your palms. The 11” typing experience is more cramped with smaller palmrests. But still decent because the new MKB is quite good.
- Actually viewing varying content on both devices: the 13” doesn’t offer much of an advantage. This includes reading PDFs, reading news sites, looking at photos, checking Emails, using Numbers and Pages, using some Adobe apps and several other things I tested between the two. Yes, the 13” is overall better for fitting more content on the screen but the 11” is still a good size and is big enough to fit a lot of content on the screen. Watching movies, there is so much black banding on the 13” that it doesn’t seem much better.
- The 11” is so much more compact when folded up in a smart cover or the MKB compared to the 13” and I like that much better. Much more portable and easy to handle.
This is why I am leaning toward the 11”.
Nicely put, you summarized my thoughts exactly. I got both to try and decide which size I want to keep, and have packed up the 13” ready to return for the exact reasons you shared. I really do love how thin / light the 13” feels this go around, but it’s just so physically big that it isn’t really a pleasant tablet-first experience. And coming from a 12.9” M1, the 11” just screams to be picked up all the time!
Just returned the 11 today decided to keep the 13. It just feels more magical to me.
The 11” screams to be picked up! Yes exactly. Box up the boxy 13” and ditch it. You’ve got the 11” tablet first experience now! No looking back.
13 is much better at reading pdf magazines for me. 11 inch was becoming eye contrain when opening on a full page. On 13 i can read comfortably the hole page.
The 13 is like two Minis, side by side, for things like running dual apps.
The iPad Pro 10.5/11” in landscape is actually like 2x 7.9” mini side by side. The long edge of the mini display is the same length as the short edge on the 10.5/11” display.
The taller 8.3” mini seems like it’s halfway between the 10.5/11” and the 12.9”.
Mind, the 12.9” is like 2x 9.7” side by side. The long edge of the 9.7” display is the same length as the short edge on the 12.9” display.
I've basically stopped using any iPad Pro as a standalone tablet at this point. I guess the keyboard just really makes a lot of difference to me. The iPad Pro 11 does get dropped into a headrest tablet mount for TV watching in the car, however.
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I feel like the 13" screen size is actually significant. I run messages or youtube next to safari, and you just get a really good amount of web page viewport on the 13 inch. I find multitasking a bit cramped on the 11".
But with all that aside, one of the key insights for me is that for keyboard usage, the 11 inch is the best iPad to *carry*, and the 13 inch is the best iPad to *use*. But I can't use something that I'm not willing to carry with me!
So the 11" wins for traveling. It threads the needle the best that I think any device can. It has the smallest possible keyboard that is still reasonably comfortable, and the screen size is just on the edge of acceptable as well. It's the smallest that it can be wherein the jump in productivity you get from using it vs a phone is still very large.
Game changer for getting more content on the 11" screen:
Change the Resolution of your iPad to Maximise Screen Space
That is still just getting it close to the default on the 13”, which is a lot less than more space is on the 13”. I wouldn’t be happy with a laptop replacement that has the default scaling of the 13”.
Multitasking on the 11” is quite cramped in comparison.
The first sentence isn’t right, because both screens are 4:3, but two 4:3 screens would combine to 4:6 => 3:2. The 12.9" thus only fits 1.78 of those two 9.7" side by side.
my next macbook pro is going to be 16 m4 max from m2 max, i think 14 is too small for me already.
That said I prefer
This Is a joke right?
I will say having purchased both…
Was trying to do some extended work on my 11” last night sitting on the sofa with it on my lap. I have fairly good vision (rx of -0.25) but after 20 minutes I was feeling strain so I switched to the 13” and breathed a sigh of relief immediately.
I have a 14” MBP but my work’s software is actually iPad first
Was trying to do some extended work on my 11” last night sitting on the sofa with it on my lap. I have fairly good vision (rx of -0.25) but after 20 minutes I was feeling strain so I switched to the 13” and breathed a sigh of relief immediately.
I have a 14” MBP but my work’s software is actually iPad first