All iPads What do you use your 12.9/13-inch iPad (Pro or Air) for?

[Yebubbleman]

I remember reading a poll somewhere in the last couple of months (the poll itself was conducted before last month's M2 iPad Air and M4 iPad Pro announcements) that suggested that 50% of all iPad sales in the year prior were for 12.9-inch iPad Pros. I would imagine that we have the "13-inch" iPad Air as a direct result. Read that however you want, but the takeaway here is that the largest iPad size is the most popular.

Considering this is a significant portion of the iPad platform, I am legitimately curious about the following things. For those that have them:

(1) What do you use your 12.9/13-inch iPad for?

(2) Do you also have a 13-inch MacBook Air and/or 13/14-inch MacBook Pro and, if so, what's the usage breakdown between each?

(3) Do you use an Apple Pencil with it?

(4) Do you use a keyboard attachment with it (be that a Magic Keyboard or a Smart Keyboard Folio)?

(5) How do you feel about the experience of using iPadOS on it as it stands today? (e.g. Do you think it's perfect as is or do you wish it had other features/functions/apps/etc.)

 

[Momof9]

1 - I use it for art - drawing, graphic design; in the evening, I play games on it while watching TV with my husband. When he goes to sleep really early, I watch something on my older 12.9". I have also used it for crafts - ie craft patterns.

2 - I have a 14" MBP.... right now, I mostly use it during the daytime, more than the iPad right now. But I am not creating things at the moment. Trying to get some "spring" cleaning type things done.

3 - I have iPads for the Apple Pencil. My newest iPad is the M1 - I so want the pencil pro.... But I want the 11" for drawing - so waiting until I have more time to draw before making that decision..... I will still keep at least 1 of the 12.9"

4 - NO keyboard.... I do have 2 bluetooth keyboards, but rarely use them....

5- iPad OS??? I am ok with it - I just wish that these power house of devices were utilized more....

 

[Isengardtom]

1 - I use it for web browsing, youtube / streaming services media consumption, some social media, occasional games, banking apps, mail (private), MS Teams / Outlook communication (work), SharePoint / pdf reading (work), note taking / document signing (work), occasionally music / podcast listening

2 - no apple laptop for me as I don’t have any use for it. I do have an M1 iMac which is a companion device to my iPad Pro (they work together with Universal control. I’d say it’s 85% iPad pro / 15% iMac use.

3 - yes mostly for signing documents and note taking. Sometimes for gaming too

4 - yes, the Magic Keyboard but since I got the slim folio cover it’s being used less as I prefer to use the iMacs keyboard with numberpad (I’m an accountant), via Universal Control. The Magic Keyboard will still be used on trips and such, but less so at home

5 - iPadOS: nothing is perfect but it’s my preferred OS. Followed by Windows and than MacOS. I would love to see more “AAA” games ported over, but other than that for me the current app selection is great.

 

[rui no onna]

(1) Email, messaging, web browsing, notes, PDF annotation, Zoom/Google Meet, etc.

(2) 13" M1 MacBook Air. I've forgotten when I last used the MBA. Definitely haven't used it this year though. I'm 80-90% Windows desktop / 10-20% iPad at work though. At home, it's like 90-95% iPad / 5-10% Windows (Mini PC, ThinkPad E15 or X1 Nano).

(3) Not the Apple Pencil per se but a $20 clone. Works well enough for annotating PDFs.

(4) Keyboard attachment, no. Multi-device bluetooth keyboard/dock that I also use for the Windows desktop, yes.

(5) It could use some improvements but I can live with its quirks for the touch optimized UI/UX.

 

[sk1985]

My second phone…my luxury web surfing device. Watching movies etc.

 

[Night Spring]

(1) What do you use your 12.9/13-inch iPad for?

Mostly reading ebooks and websites. Also watching YouTube videos.

(2) Do you also have a 13-inch MacBook Air and/or 13/14-inch MacBook Pro and, if so, what's the usage breakdown between each?

Not anymore. Used to have a 13 inch MBA before the 12.9 inch iPads came out. I must have stopped using the MBA around then, but I also stopped commuting to work around the same time, so hard to say which was the reason for my not using the MBA any more. I definitely prefer the iPad for reading / watching videos in bed / on sofa.

(3) Do you use an Apple Pencil with it?

no

(4) Do you use a keyboard attachment with it (be that a Magic Keyboard or a Smart Keyboard Folio)?

no

(5) How do you feel about the experience of using iPadOS on it as it stands today? (e.g. Do you think it's perfect as is or do you wish it had other features/functions/apps/etc.)

I wish there was an app for the iPad I could use to edit epubs. Selecting text on the iPad with touch alone can definitely be tricky. And I wish Pages had all the functions of the Mac version. Overall, I'm happy with my iPad for what it is, I just don't understand why Apple puts M chips in the iPad Pros without doing anything about making things more compatible with the Mac. Right now there's no reason for me to get the iPad Pro, especially since now the Air is available in 13 inch.

 

[meDANOcine]

(1) I use my iPad for note taking, reading, and Remote Desktop since we use a number of archaic systems at work that are only accessible via internal servers. I also use it for watching videos when traveling and light photo editing.

(2) I have a 16” MBP (not part of the original list) that I mostly use for heavier photo editing. I’m generally leaving the MBP at home on trips now though.

(3) Yes, I definitely use the Apple Pencil

(4) Yes, I use the keyboard case. Also have the standard Smart Folio that I use the majority of the time.

(5) iPadOS is fine. Stage Manager is actually not bad on the 13”. I would much rather use iPadOS than a Surface tablet. However, I wish it included Terminal, virtualization support, and the ability to run MacOS apps. Plus, I wish developers would better optimize their apps for the bigger screen of the 13” iPad and bring closer feature parity between tablet and desktop (MS and Adobe in particular)

 

[h2ofun]

Going to use for live streaming sporting events of my grandkids via twitch, and recording in 4K at the same time

 

[cardfan]

Comics. A few games. That’s about it.

 

[familychoice]

I remember reading a poll somewhere in the last couple of months (the poll itself was conducted before last month's M2 iPad Air and M4 iPad Pro announcements) that suggested that 50% of all iPad sales in the year prior were for 12.9-inch iPad Pros. I would imagine that we have the "13-inch" iPad Air as a direct result. Read that however you want, but the takeaway here is that the largest iPad size is the most popular.

Considering this is a significant portion of the iPad platform, I am legitimately curious about the following things. For those that have them:

(1) What do you use your 12.9/13-inch iPad for?

(2) Do you also have a 13-inch MacBook Air and/or 13/14-inch MacBook Pro and, if so, what's the usage breakdown between each?

(3) Do you use an Apple Pencil with it?

(4) Do you use a keyboard attachment with it (be that a Magic Keyboard or a Smart Keyboard Folio)?

(5) How do you feel about the experience of using iPadOS on it as it stands today? (e.g. Do you think it's perfect as is or do you wish it had other features/functions/apps/etc.)

(1) Logic Pro - I pretty much bought the 13” Air for that purpose, as it’s not really feasible on my Air 4 11”.

(2) I’ve got a 16” MBP (Intel), but that’s for work use.

(3) My Apple Pencil 2 doesn’t work with the 13” Air, which is annoying, as I’d like to use it with graphics apps. Will probably pick up the new one later in the year.

(4) No.

(5) The Files app is pretty crap, but overall despite the limitations, a touch screen has some advantages over my desktop/mouse Mini workflow.