Yet another 11 vs. 12.9 thing (bear with me)

[rickeames]

Okay, I'm going to catalog my findings/experiences on this in the hopes that it helps others.

Situation: I currently own a 10.5/512 that isn't even a year old. It works great, there are zero problems with it and it's a good friend. I cheated on the 10.5 by getting an 11" on launch day.

11" good vs. 10.5: "cooler", screen is bigger, pencil charges off to the side instead of the weird plugin model, it's specs are way better.

11" meh vs. 10.5: the pencil comes off in my bag no matter what. The 10.5 has a 12south magnetic case that attaches to the folio case -- it never comes off. The Smart Keyboard on the 10.5" folds away better and is more versatile.

Verdict: the 11 isn't as big of an upgrade against the 10.5 to warrant it other than "it's newer." The leap isn't huge.

So, 11 is going back. Now, as a further experiment, I'm putting the 10.5" up against the new 12.9". That's the real leap. It's a leap in size, it's a leap overall. So far, my impressions are that it's HUGE, but I felt that about my 8+ too when I got it and now it seems normal. I'm going to give it a few days and see where we are at. I could not get a keyboard for it as they were sold out, so I had to get the normal smart folio. I will use an external keyboard when/if I did it. 90% of my time with the iPad is using the pencil, even for notes. I'm so far slightly disappointed that my favorite note apps do not give me more space to write, they just make the page bigger. I'd rather more space, but that's just me.

Where the 12.9" intrigues me is being able to have a book or PDF to one side and notes to the other and the experience is like having two iPad mini's side by side. That, so far, is a game changer. We will see how much I actually use it. On the 10.5 I've used it a touch, but the writing is a bit cramped. It's great for doing 70/30 with keeping things off to the side, though.

So I'll keep this thread updated. I have 14 days to decide on this one, or it too goes back and I keep the 10.5 until the next generation. As long as I can read on it, take notes, and edit things, I'm good.

 

[MCube74]

If you have a 10.5” iPad Pro 512gb, why don’t you continue using it and upgrade next year?

The 10.5” iPad Pro is a great device too.

If you had the iPad Pro first gen then I would suggest to upgrade.

It is your choice though.

However getting the 11” will be a very minimal upgrade for you unless you get the 1TB model.

If you do want to get the new iPad then I suggest the 12.9” model. It will be an upgrade compared to the 10.5”.


Still I do feel you can just wait for something better.

 

[Porterhouse]

So, 11 is going back. Now, as a further experiment, I'm putting the 10.5" up against the new 12.9". That's the real leap. It's a leap in size, it's a leap overall. So far, my impressions are that it's HUGE, but I felt that about my 8+ too when I got it and now it seems normal. I'm going to give it a few days and see where we are at. I could not get a keyboard for it as they were sold out, so I had to get the normal smart folio. I will use an external keyboard when/if I did it. 90% of my time with the iPad is using the pencil, even for notes. I'm so far slightly disappointed that my favorite note apps do not give me more space to write, they just make the page bigger. I'd rather more space, but that's just me.

I returned my 11 today and got the 12.9. Now that I'm home and have setup the new iPP, my first thoughts are exactly as yours--this feels huge! My area is out of ASKs too; I ordered one through Best Buy to get here next week.

I'm going to give it a week or two and see if the size grows on me.

 

[va1984]

Where the 12.9" intrigues me is being able to have a book or PDF to one side and notes to the other and the experience is like having two iPad mini's side by side. That, so far, is a game changer. We will see how much I actually use it. On the 10.5 I've used it a touch, but the writing is a bit cramped. It's great for doing 70/30 with keeping things off to the side, though.

I do academic research in the humanities and the pdf/notes 50/50 or 2-page up pdf arrangements are the reason why the 12.9” makes the most sense for me. I’d like to keep both, and at the least I’ll keep the new 12.9 as a main computer and the old 9.7 pro as sidekick for around home. It in truth for me the 12.9 and the 11” are very different devices and I like both. I use the 11” mostly in portrait and it excels at note taking and reading some things. I use the 12.9 with SKF to do academic writing and research and in portrait to grade student papers. The 11” is poor at multitasking, whereas on the 12.9 I almost always have 2 apps at once. Ultimately the 11” is a more focused device. The 12.9 is more focused than a macOS laptop, but not as singleminded as te 11” - in m usage at least.

 

[digitalcuriosity]

Very good article it makes me very happy i just bought the 2017 iPadPro even before the 2018s hit the stores.
As you have a lot more uses for the iPads then i, hope the larger iPadPro works for you.

 

[rickeames]

Update: Still feel this thing is huge. They didn’t have the keyboard for the 12.9, so I got the otterbox case and picked up a Logitech Bluetooth keyboard that handles three devices. I like it better. It’s a nice keyboard (I got the smaller one) and runs off of 2 AAA batteries forever...makes me wonder why they charge so much for the Apple keyboard of the same size. It’s not twice as better and has less features. But I digress...

I find that I am using the 12.9” in landscape mode 90% of the time. Landscape is really, really huge and feels imbalanced when I’m trying to read either Pocket or Reeder, Queue, Kindle, etc. That, to me, is where my 10.5 excels. So I need to see how often I use this. I have a 13” MBP, and it’s sitting as if it’s a mini with a screen connected to an LG 4K monitor via the Blackmagic eGPU. So I use that laptop as a computer, and my iPad for most other things. MBP is better at photo management, video, and of course, development.

Will keep this going and see how the next 4 days go until I take it full time into the work environment where I use my 10.5 to take notes by hand all day long.

 

[donster28]

I bought the original 12.9...then the new one. But I also liked how the 11” feels well balanced in terms of screen size and weight when I tried it at the store.

After giving it a thought and after having used a 12.9 for three years, I needed a change so I exchanged my 12.9 to an 11. I admit, there’s a bit of getting used to especially the keyboard, and how some websites are formatted slightly different, but the size and weight is what drew me to the 11. To me, it’s what a tablet is supposed to feel like...weightless, effortless, perfect for consumption.

 

[rickeames]

Final update: today the 12.9 went back and I picked up an 11. All done screwing around with it. The 12.9, while beautiful, was just unwieldy to keep in portrait when reading, which in my case is a 85%+ use case. The 12.9 almost mocked me to use it landscape, and I gave it a good try, even doing multitasking a lot this past week — wasn’t worth it to me. I felt robbed during the 85% case. If I needed it more to do photo editing, I would 100% land on a 12.9 to do on iPad editing. The screen is a marvel.

 

[subjonas]

Final update: today the 12.9 went back and I picked up an 11. All done screwing around with it. The 12.9, while beautiful, was just unwieldy to keep in portrait when reading, which in my case is a 85%+ use case. The 12.9 almost mocked me to use it landscape, and I gave it a good try, even doing multitasking a lot this past week — wasn’t worth it to me. I felt robbed during the 85% case. If I needed it more to do photo editing, I would 100% land on a 12.9 to do on iPad editing. The screen is a marvel.

I thought you decided the upgrade from 10.5 to 11 wasn’t warranted haha