Thinking of getting an iPad - All iPad Reviews Suck!

[kasakka]

Essentially, tablets are an answer looking for a question.

The mobile tech industry has a problem: the perfect form factor was invented in the early nineties.
Although the first laptops were super bulky and not very usable, it was clear from the beginning that the clam shell was a perfect form factor.

It cuts the area of the device in half, gives you a perfect input device right off the bat (with supplementary input methods like trackpads, trackpoints and touch screens coming later) and it's small and light enough to take everywhere.

Then Apple popularized the smartphone, and used the same technology to make a larger smartphone that couldn't make calls. People bought it like crazy, but the problem remained: iPads (singling out iPads here because other tablets are pretty much irrelevant) can't do anything a laptop can't do better, except in extreme edge cases.

You find people here being so enamored with their iPads that they use all kinds of crazy workarounds to make iPads their main computers, like buying Apple's terrible keyboard, without realizing that once they added all those fancy accessories, their iPads are as heavy and as expensive as a laptop.

And then, congratulations, you just spent a thousand dollars on a laptop that runs a phone OS, can't be used on the lap, can't be used with one hand, needs help standing upright, has a bad aspect ratio for the one thing people say the iPad works well for (watching videos), is slower for any productivity task and doesn't fit into your pocket.

I would argue that laptops are at this point less useful for me. I work with a 2016 MBP and I wish Apple released a tablet version of it so I didn't have to deal with that **** tier keyboard since I carry a 60% size mechanical keyboard with me to get around that issue. A Surface Pro type device capable of running OSX would be ideal for me. In fact if Apple doesn't fix the various issues with the current MBP by the time I am due for an upgrade, I might just get a Surface Pro and use that. A lot of laptops suffer from issues like crap keyboards and trackpads and many cheaper non-Apple ones have gobsmackingly **** displays.

For travel abroad I like carrying an iPad instead because it's lighter and takes less space. So far it has done everything I previously used my laptop to do. I just use the virtual keyboard now but used a keyboard case with my Air 2. My gf uses it to take notes at school, again doing nice double duty as a laptop replacement and something you can fold and use as a media consumption device.

I don't want a laptop at home. It's not convenient to use on the sofa whereas I can just grab my iPad Pro and lounge around with it wherever I want better than I could with a similar size laptop. For heavy lifting I have a desktop PC. Two-in one type devices like the Surface Book are probably the ideal marriage of laptop and tablet but few manufacturers make them.

 

[partsofspeech]

iPad Pro is a great tool for quick music practice and composition. On the other hand, it’s toy-like when used for any post production tasks.

 

[Newtons Apple]

If all iPad reviews sucked, I doubt I would ever get an iPad.

I am lucky that I do not read reviews and find my 10.5 to be AWESOME!

 

[desktop]

I was an Android user all the way, but then one day I saw an ad for the new iPad Pro 12.9 and an idea came to me. My mom is in a nursing home and she has a couple boxes of physical photos. Unfortunately her eyesight is bad and when she looks through her pictures she has to hold them right up to her face. I hated seeing her do this even though she enjoyed looking at the photos, but I thought what if I could take those photos and put them on a larger screen where she could actually see them? Enter, the iPad Pro 12.9

So I went and bought one (2nd gen/256GB) and I took pictures of all her physical photos and now we can sit and swipe through them together and she "oohs" and "ahhs" over them. Yeah, it was worth the money just to see her enjoying the larger images of her photos.

As for other things.....

I have a Logitech K810 bluetooth keyboard and I use that all the time with the iPad. It works great with the Targus VersaVu case I bought for it. Now it isn't a replacement for my desktop PC because it can't run any graphics programs (like Photoshop and Illustrator), but it comes in handy for simple tasks, like surfing the Web, playing movies (can AirPlay to my ATV which is nice), and working with the photos.

My own personal experience with this device impressed me so much that when I finally decided to upgrade my phone (a beloved Note 5) I went with the iPhone 8+. Now I have all these Apple devices and people think I'm rich or something. I'm like, nope, not rich, just want tech devices that work.

 

[Mabus51]

I use a base 2017 iPad with keyboard case and inexpensive fine point active pen as my primary device. This setup cost me a little over $400. To answer the OPS question, this is how I use it (With applicable Apps):

• Responding to Emails & Texts (Mail and iMessage)
• Conferencing (FaceTime)
• Calendaring & setting Reminders (Calendar & Reminders)
• Typing and handwriting notes (Notes & Notability)
• Creating, reading, editing and annotating PDFs (Good reader)
• Creating and editing Documents (Pages, Numbers, & Keynote)
• Organizing, editing, and annotating photos (Photos)
• Creating simple videos (iMovie)
• Scanning documents (Notes)
• Sketching diagrams (Notability)
• Tracking Investments (Mint)
• Watching movies, TV, and Videos (Netflix, Direct TV Now, YouTube)
• Web searching (Safari & Wikipanion)
• Reading Books (iBook & Libby)
• Organizing Documents & Files (Files, Dropbox & Yoink)
• Games and Social Media

Along with the above and the TC mentioning sheet music. I would like to add that yes an iPad can display sheet music. I would recommend a pro model though. When it comes to sheet music the bigger the screen the better. There are some remote apps as well for sound engineering. So you can edit music easier with a MacBook and using the iPad as a virtual soundboard. Sadly the Logic remote app is severely outdated and has become boarderline useless at this point if you’re using the latest version of Logic Pro. But there are still some depending which main tool you use for sound engineering. If you’re going for the base model iPad and have sound engineering in mind I’d say get the Switch. The base model iPad isn’t bad, but the screen real estate isn’t going to benefit you for music. Unless you just want something to display on stage like lyrics or sheet music an note taking with the pencil. The other comments in this thread also offer excellent advice. So if you’re on the fence I think you can gather a good case use for the iPad.

 

[Daliman67]

If all iPad reviews sucked, I doubt I would ever get an iPad.

I am lucky that I do not read reviews and find my 10.5 to be AWESOME!

My Ipad Pro 12.5 is the best Apple product that I have ever purchased in a long run...I love it... I have been buying Apple products constantly over the last 10 years. I prefer using the Ipad Pro over my highly specked PC for day to day uses. I had the mini before that I also loved..dont read that crap. try one for youself then make your own mind up.

 

[Newtons Apple]

My Ipad Pro 12.5 is the best Apple product that I have ever purchased in a long run...I love it... I have been buying Apple products constantly over the last 10 years. I prefer using the Ipad Pro over my highly specked PC for day to day uses. I had the mini before that I also loved..dont read that crap. try one for youself then make your own mind up.

Love your Avatar!

I spend a good 1.5 hours in the morning on my iPad, catching up with news and emails before going to work. I bet I spend another hour is the evening. The iPad is very valuable to me, too! My laptop is now only for what the iPad can not do!

An incredible device for sure!

 

[vagos]

The $330 pricepoint has me interested, but for that money I could get a nintendo switch.

Essentially what you’re saying is: “I could buy a 3000$ macbook pro but for that money I could buy a used car.”
The iPad is not a game console and the switch is not a tablet. If you have no idea what a tablet can do then don’t buy it.

 

[JD2015]

So I see plenty of reviews for the latest 2018 iPad, and how it marginally compares to the 2017 iPad, or some marginal difference between an iPad and an iPad Pro, or how iOS 12 adds some unbelievably obscure new feature that needs to be explored to death.

But that's not what I'm looking for. What I want to know, is what a tablet (iPad) can do, and if it's worth it for me. Even apple's website just lists the new things that iOS 12 can do, and what the new iPad brings using some ridiculous marketing terms that vaguely and with lots fo hyperbole describe some feature.


What's it like to use? What can a tablet do for me? What's it like to use e-mail? Can I easily load my own movies onto it from my server via FTP? What about programs (and don't just give me "app store is the best blah blah blah")? I mean, is there tangibly good software out there that performs as well as, or outperforms what's available for mac (stuff like stocks, MS Office, etc.?). What about sheet music on the iPad?

I already have apple products out the whazoo, not because I'm rich, but because I buy used. I have my iMac, a Macbook Pro, an iPhone SE, and an iPhone 6+.
Can a tablet add anything to this? The $330 pricepoint has me interested, but for that money I could get a nintendo switch.

https://www.macstories.net/stories/one-year-of-ipad-pro/

Slightly out of date link as from 2016 but gives you probably a good answer to your questions. The website also has other good articles if you care to browse through it.

 

[jazz1]

Well if the chip upgrade and USB-C port rumors are true then maybe the gap between the iPad Pro and Apple laptops can narrow a little. Yes, people have said Apple will never do this for fear of gutting their laptop line. Heck! I gave my 12 inch Apple laptop because it seemed slow.

The competition from other brands makes it more difficult to ignore the possibility of giving the iPad Pro some more muscle.