14 ms·

Ask HN: Who Is an iPad Pro For?

54 points by cgb223 4y ago

In terms of hardware the iPad Pro is an impressive machine. But for the most part it seems limited to being a daily driver for email, watching videos, web browsing, or other non-process intensive tasks To those who _specifically_ use an iPad Pro for work, what do you do with it that cannot be done on a regular iPad or iPad Air? Why does the iPad Pro make your life better than doing the same thing on a MacBook/notebook/Desktop?

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TotoHorner 4y ago
I bought an iPad Pro 3 years ago for school and it's now completely useless. I've reinstalled it several times but the device has gotten so unbelievably slow.
- moistly 4y ago
  Reinstalled what? AFAIK there’s no way to uninstall iPadOS, ergo no way to reinstall it. As long as we’re trading anecdotes, I have an old, refurb 9.7” iPad Pro, so that’s a 2016 release date. Thunderbolt port is a wonky after having dropped it an embarrassing number of times while it was plugged in, so I have to jiggle the plug to get a charging connection. Battery this past few months is starting to show its age, discharging in about two hours of continuous wifi use. It’s otherwise still going strong. Edit: as to OP’s “why?” IIRC, the non-Pro didn’t support the pencil at the time. The current lineup is nonsensical. 11” appears to be nigh identical to the 12”, the Air seems to be about the same price as the Pro, the new non-Pro uses an old, obsolete pencil that it can’t even charge - Apple has lost the plot.
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azalemeth 4y ago
I have a second hand, first gen iPad pro. I use it as a colour pdf reader for academic papers and for carrying a large number of books around for teaching students with the ability to look stuff up on it. It's jailbroken and I enjoy being able to SSH in. The big screen is good for looking at high res images (part of my work) but fundamentally I'd never buy it at full price. I don't find typing on it easy at all and I prefer a real pen for real maths.
IMAYousaf 4y ago
I currently use a latest-gen iPad Air. I used the iPad Pro before the redesign for school. Currently a lot of my friends use the device as a second screen because they're always traveling. Secondly, many content creators use it as a portable workstation because it works really well for certain types of editing. I personally prefer Lightroom on an iPad to the one on the computer. Lastly, it's my favorite media consumption device. I've been thinking of turning in my iPad Air for the newest iPad Pro because I want the improved screen.
LurkinGrue 4y ago
I use a M1 12.9 iPad for mostly work. It is a glorified email machine that I use for the Microsoft suite of business products (Outlook, Teams, Office, etc.). I can either use an iPad to directly work with these apps, or use a laptop to Citrix in and have a Remote Desktop. The iPad is really fast and the display is amazing. But, I would gladly give it up for the small Surface Go that I own personally, but the apps running directly on my hardware are not supported or permitted by my IT group. So I am stuck with the iPad. It is heavier than a M1 or M2 air, and doesn’t have the same full functionality. Again, I would gladly give it up for small, light and convenient. It really isn’t even good as a media consumption machine because of the screen format. But is everything on it a smooth, buttery experience? You bet. But it isn’t worth the money for the beauty of the screen. I bought it as a hope to utilize it as a single device, but the limitations of the device and lock down strategy behind the os limits its true depth of functionality (at least what the hardware would permit) and forces me to keep a mini running as a home server to remotely connect to. I regret the purchase, if you hadn’t guessed.
- vb6sp6 4y ago
  can you use remote desktop on the ipad?
  - Jtsummers 4y ago
    Yes, there are remote desktop clients for iPad.
  - LurkinGrue 4y ago
    Yes and I sometimes do. But once again paying for a premium device just to use email and Remote Desktop isn’t exactly returning value. If one can use the depth of specialized features for the Pro and is comfortable working within the iPadOS environment, then it is an awesome device. I just don’t consider the 12.9 Pro to be particularly good as a media consumption device, nor a particularly good overall device for my use. I am considering downgrading to the 11 Pro or one of the consumer grade 11 models. Just haven’t decided that yet.
daggersandscars 4y ago
> Why does the iPad Pro make your life better than doing the same thing on a MacBook/notebook/Desktop? Editing photos on an iPad Pro 12.9" with Lightroom and the second-gen Apple Pencil is the best experience I've found. For me, editing flows better than using a laptop/desktop, Mac or PC.
comfypotato 4y ago
My anecdotal evidence may be out of date, and my information comes from casual conversation with a graphic designer that frequented the same Yoga studio I did. That being said: 3 years ago the ecosystem for graphic design on an iPad Pro was good enough to replace a Wacom Cintiq Pro. There were tradeoffs between the two. I'd imagine situation is relatively similar nowadays.
rasz 4y ago
Its for someone willing to pay >$1K for a tablet
- ev1 4y ago
  128GB M1 Pro is currently $625 at Costco, at least.
kylehotchkiss 4y ago
Not work, but a good purpose is long-lived general computing device. An iPad pro purchased today, put in a case/screen protector, and (optionally) covered with AppleCare should give you 7 years of use. It's really nice to have one for working while traveling, just in case an emergency comes up. If you just work on a git branch workflow like nextjs/vercel, you could make github.dev work as editor. It'd be super annoying to actually have to use it, but beats carrying around a laptop sometimes.
- pridkett 4y ago
  Maybe. I’m rocking a 2017 iPad Pro with LTE as my “second” device. After five years the keyboard is getting increasingly flunky - the fabric on the keys are starting to wear off and it just always looks a little dirty. I’m on my second case - as my first one, which was a nice one that holds the Apple Pencil while also working with the keyboard, stated to spontaneously disintegrate. You can still find replacement pieces for these, but it’s getting harder - I couldn’t find the same nice case anymore and the keyboards can take a little while longer to replace. Remote Desktop and Blink mean I can connect to most systems. Although, the keyboard is weird - and the fact that it is missing an escape key and function keys can be really annoying, especially in vim. But, far and away, the biggest problem is battery life. It’s down to the point where I only get about 5-6 hours on it. I used to get all day and then some. Turning on a VPN makes it drop quickly. Battery replacement on these devices is quite hard. All that being said, it’s a wonderful device. Especially with LTE. Just open it up and internet everywhere. It’s really game changing if you’ve never had an iPad with it. I just hope the battery makes it another few years.
  - factsarelolz 4y ago
    Apple charges $99-179 for a battery replacement in the US. Do you think that is too much to extend the life of your iPad for another few years or do you think that you wouldn’t get the extra value out of the extended life due to the chance that apple stops supporting it iOS wise?
    - gumby 4y ago
garrickvanburen 4y ago
An iPad Pro has been my primary work machine for 4 years. For video calls, and Office-like use cases it’s great. I’ve tried some lower power tablets - not iPads - and latency became unbearable. If you can successfully fulfill your work within a Microsoft Office like suite - try an iPad for 3months - you might be pleasantly surprised. By comparison I’ve found a normal laptop is probably too much and too heavy - also doesn’t have a persistent cellular connection to work outside of WiFi
- diebeforei485 4y ago
  Does the camera position bother you? Or do you have it set up vertically during video calls?
  - garrickvanburen 4y ago
    Doesn’t bother me. Sometimes for calls I’ve put it in a stand at eye level
hazelnut-tree 4y ago
The iPad and Apple Pencil are hugely popular for artists and designers. The leading iPad app for digital painting is Procreate. (Adobe are late to the game with their own painting app called Fresco. However, Adobe has failed to dent the popularity of Procreate.) There is also a wide variety of design apps for the iPad (e.g. Clip Paint Studio, Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo). The Apple Pencil offers superb pressure sensitivity - why the iPad is so popular for artists, illustrators and designers.
- brundolf 4y ago
  The iPad Air fully supports the second-gen pencil and Procreate. Only difference is the screen isn't as big
  - Cmortoc 4y ago
  - adastra22 4y ago
    The difference in refresh rate is VERY noticeable for Apple Pencil users. There is noticeable lag on the Air.
    - brundolf 4y ago
      I haven't used a Pro so I guess I can't properly compare them, but I've used the pencil quite a bit on my Air and I don't feel any latency at all
      - CharlesW 4y ago
        The latency on the Air is quite low, but it's half that again on an iPad Pro. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pl_vIkMgtI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pl_vIkMgtI
      - adastra22 4y ago
        The Air is better than any other tablet out there so it feels like it ought to be the best. Then you try the Pro and realize there’s a whole ‘nother level you didn’t know existed. Lag on the Air is noticeable. I don’t mean inconveniently so. The Air is extremely good. But I mean you can literally notice a delay between movement and registration of that motion on the app. The Pro on the other hand is so fast you can’t even tell there’s a delay. It’s like the difference between 60fps and 144fps in VR. It crosses the uncanny valley from being a human computer interface and knowing that it is, to just feeling like it is a pen writing on a glassy surface.
rcarr 4y ago
Music making on the iPad is getting more popular and refined every year and I imagine both the extra screen real estate and processing power could be useful for power users. Now that it’s got stabilisation, can run DaVinci, and shoots ProRes, I can see the Pro becoming more and more popular with low budget filmmakers and YouTubers. Some people use the iPad as a portable second monitor and I think the bigger size of the pro is probably better there. People may prefer the bigger screen size if they’re using the iPad primarily for maps e.g sailors, pilots etc. That’s all I can think of off the top of my head that hasn’t been mentioned already. I’ll add any more if they come to me.
wilde 4y ago
Until recently the 12.9 was the only portable TV with good HDR and strong battery life.
runjake 4y ago
I use an iPad for work sometimes and the one killer feature for me is built-in cellular. I can just rip the iPad out of my bag and go, anywhere I may be.
adastra22 4y ago
Anything involving Apple Pencil interaction. The higher refresh rate makes all the difference, to the point where it actually feels like writing with a pen on paper.
_smmt 4y ago
I use it every single day and it is the only reason I'm able to get anything done. I've taken paper notes my entire life, never referenced them once, I have 10's of notebooks all filled to the brim with unintelligible nonsense. Impossible and exhausting. On the iPad, I can fluidly take notes much quicker due to how fast I can edit, switch colors, erase, etc. And I don't end up with a monster stack of crappy notes. One of my main problems is I get ideas when I'm going to sleep, and so many times I've fumbled because I had the wrong notebook or no light or crap pencil etc. iPad I flick it open, click my shortcut to most recent note, sketch away, put it away. I use ProCreate, Goodnotes, Concepts (hate the subscription aspect) and Numbers daily. I've done more studying and better work in the past 2 months than I have in my entire life. For the first time I'm able to make meaningful progress in math. For the first time all of my finances and files and emails and communications are sorted and in order, and not only that, but they are pleasurable experiences now too because the UX is great. When I share ideas with people I can open Quicktime and pipe my iPad output to it and quickly illustrate ideas on the fly, use it as a wireless second monitor, etc. I see it as a replacement of the traditional assistant, previously secretary. Siri manages my meetings and emails and reminders, and the rest is just for supercharging my note-taking abilities. I'm not an apple guy at all, I'm a "don't want to spend 1 second on setup/messing with it" guy and don't care about much else. If Google came out with a suite that functioned better I'd switch yesterday. I've tried every note taking system under the sun. I spent 3 months in a basement inhaling org-mode. Nothing stuck. But I will say there was my life before the iPad, and my life after the iPad. It's a brilliant device. It saves me so, so much time.' There's really not much else to it besides it being a smooth and fast device that makes even the most mundane tasks like logging transactions somewhat fun.
- deleted 4y ago
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- bergenty 4y ago
  - MarcelOlsz 4y ago
    Damn, got me, I was sent by Big iPad! I took notes my whole life because I went to school a majority of my life - they just always sucked so I did poorly :) Notes help in understanding things but the part where I failed was not rewriting them combined with the fact that I have horrible chicken scratch.
makeitdouble 4y ago
The 12.9 pro is my main machine for anything non work related (including taxes, legal procedures, amateur video editing etc.) For me it’s the screen. It’s the only iPad with a 12.9” screen, and it really makes a difference: - Having two apps side by side, each at roughly the same size as they would be full-screen on an iPad mini. - Reading manga with the right + left panel both visible, “as intended by the author”. Even for novels I find it more comfortable. - the screen being roughly A4 size, PDFs are displayed almost at the standard print size, so size adjustments, zooming in and out etc. are rarely needed. I’d often ”scan” the instructions at the administrations and keep them displayed on the iPad while filling the paperwork, and it’s perfect. - Pixel peeping photos is great, editing with the pencil makes it better, as a photo viewing/editing device it’s perfect. If tomorrow the Air got a 12.9” or bigger screen I might switch (I love the additional ‘Pro’ features , but that wouldn’t justify the cost compared to the other models in my use case). I actually eyed at 14” chromebooks as a replacement, and might actually do the jump if the ecosystem improves enough when the Pixel tablet arrives.
makeitdouble 4y ago
> Why does the iPad Pro make your life better than doing the same thing on a MacBook/notebook/Desktop? IME in comes down to two questions most of the time: - do you live alone ? (including pets like cats or ferrets) - do you like sitting at desks/tables outside of work ? If you answered no to both, a laptop is viable, but an iPad will make your life much much easier. Scrolling with the trackpad while your cat comes to sit on the keyboard is not great. Having a laptop open while you lay down next to a toddler is a death wish for the laptop. Even sitting next to someone in a sofa: the iPad is a mostly rounded, pretty rugged and overall smallish device, a macbook is bigger in volume as it’s unfolded, more angular and way more fragile. Also you can pass the device around, it’s great when making plans. Then using an iPad in weird positions is fine, a laptop not so much.
- eyelidlessness 4y ago
  I sit for a few hours on the couch next to my pup with my 16” MBP every day and it’s never been an issue. Granted she’s not cat- or ferret-like at least in this regard, our biggest daily disruptions usually involve her standing up with her front paws on the back of the couch and licking my head. Which I don’t think an iPad would address other than being convenient to snap some photos of the adorableness without a bigger reach.
TheRealNGenius 4y ago
galleywest200 4y ago
I like to segment my workflows, so I keep a tablet for certain things. Any social application is kept on the phone. Any application for reading books or taking notes in kept on the tablet. Also used for light internetting. Any application for doing "real work" is kept on the laptop. --- That being said I will be upgrading to the Pro from my 5th Generation Mini come the next year, specifically for note-taking/drawing space. (As well as stage manager).
scyzoryk_xyz 4y ago
I have a colleague designer and UX researcher who uses her iPad Pro with the pencil to generate beautiful sketches and collections of materials and thoughts. They quickly become the centerpiece of our conversations because an iPad laying flat on the table is much less invasive than a screen with webpages, keyboard, presentations etc. My spouse on the other hand is a more traditional graphic and type designer. She uses a iPadPro/Pencil/MacMini combination to effortlessly go from simple sketches to illustrator sort of drawings. The quality and speed of her work just increased radically with that combination, and she’s not very technical. My dad, who is a very very old retired design professor has always accumulated incomprehensible piles of sketches on pieces of paper. He is one of those guys who was always an early adopter for styluses with PalmPilots and whatnot. But based on those experiences he was firmly against any sort of stylus. But when he saw how well this one works, his iPad basically replaced his computer and all those pieces of paper. He taught drawing for design classes for half his career and doesn’t stop talking about how great it is. I guess there is a common denominator here - it’s a really really sleek tool for anyone who uses the hand for drawing visual shapes. It’s especially attractive to the kinds of users that need focus on just one thing at a time. And it’s just a super friendly sort of device. Personally however, I can’t imagine not using my laptop for everything. I owned an iPad at one point but not drawing anything I don’t see the point.
- achow 4y ago
  Sketching and drawing can be easily done on iPad or iPad Air. OP specifically wanted to know what 'Pro' can do which other types of iPad can't.
  - iancmceachern 4y ago
    In don't personally know but others have commented here that the lag on those devices when using the pencil is noticeable as compared to the pro
  - scyzoryk_xyz 4y ago
    Oh that's a fair point. I'm not exactly sure, but doesn't the Pro lineup have a much thinner distance between the tip of the pencil and the surface of the screen? The difference in quality was big enough with the 1st gen pencil that it broke the illusion that you're drawing on the surface.
0x38B 4y ago
The 12.9” is a huge, quality canvas for drawing or viewing photos and videos. It’s great for entertaining kids: make a drawing together, look through photos, or open a children’s book. Yet for its size it is agile and light, easy to carry. My laptop is far less agile. Edit to add: it was also my only computer at university. I typed up papers with a magic keyboard sitting on my lap - a comfortable setup for long sessions.
octokatt 4y ago
Dear ye gods, for creative shenanigans the iPad Pro is perfect. Drawing with ProCreate, graphic design with Canva or similar, and works well with Ulysses and GoodNotes for writing. Then, when you need to publish, it's a second screen for your MacBook or iMac. Or I can take notes on the iPad while my main screen has Zoom or Coursera up. The amount of the power in an iPad Pro is probably overkill, but I don't want ProCreate to stutter -- it's a joy to use, I can enter flow easily, and paying a premium so I can create faster and more freely is a premium I'll happily pay.
nunez 4y ago
I use it heavily for note taking and drawing notes interactively in meetings. I _want_ to use it as my primary machine, but iPadOS is limited, as you mentioned. The Pro is the only iPad with a 120Hz screen, which is just visually pleasing.
benzesandbetter 4y ago
I primarily use mine for content creation, reading/learning, and as a machine I can take with me when I'm out-and-about for those times when I need jump online and fix an issue. On the content creation side, I'm using Scrviner for writing, Snapseed and Lightroom for photo editing and LumaFusion for video production. I watch a lot of online courses on it and use it as my primary kindle reader. For those times when I'm out in the city, I keep it with me in case I need to jump online and troubleshoot an issue, do code reviews, etc. I'm using Terminus and Shelly for SSH, Github and Jira/Confluence apps, and of course, the AWS management console. A couple weeks ago I picked up a Surface Go2 and put Debian on it. So far, I'm finding that to be a better machine for taking with me while I'm out in the city. Being able to run VS Code and Linux CLI apps on a portable device is an big advantage over the iPad Pro. Also, as a lower cost machine, I'm less worried about it getting stolen or damaged relative to the iPad. I never would have imagined that one of my all-time favorite Linux devices would be made by M$... On my MacBook Pro, I have rules in my /etc/hosts that remap Facebook and Insta to a local page that reminds me to get back to work. So, I do all my social media from the iPad and prevent time-wasting and doomscrolling from my workhorse machine.
egberts1 4y ago
Landscapers, home contractors, pool designers, door-to-door salesmen, inventory takers, pollsters, remote medical caretakers, architects, civil engineers and students. Those are off of the top of head.
tomcam 4y ago
Only option IMHO for reading sheet music, and also good for reading ebooks and PDFs of all kinds.
ss48 4y ago
Primarily the bigger screen (12.9 inch). I can take handwritten notes with pictures using the camera or access electronic procedures to be used in the workplace, and everyone has access to the same procedure. Anything I write can also be projected to an Airplay-supported TV, so it can work like a whiteboard. It's also great for presenting documents or CAD models in one-on-one meetings, and for showing information about products at a trade show to attendees. Finally, split screen on a 12.9 inch iPad is much better than it is in smaller screen sizes, and improves workflows for dragging and dropping of files and content from one app to the other.

gernb 4y ago

That it works for you is great but I don't understand how it works for you. For me, I can't input fast on a tablet. Fighting with the on screen keyboard or using the (IMO, crappy magic keyboard) just doesn't compare speed wize to my MBP or MBA. I can open those and just as quickly be taking a note but I'll be done in a 1/10th the time and with zero frustration. Cut/Copy/Paste just work. If you saw a video how often that doesn't work for me on tablet you'd probably feel like the UX designers should be in prison for all the suffering they've put people through. I see that you use sketching apps, but you said below "I have horrible chicken scratch.", has iPad changed that? For my notes, I want to be able to search. I don't actually take many notes though. It mostly add to "todo" lists but not a ton (less than 1 time day) I've owned 3 iPads, most recently got one last January, with keyboard and pencil, but I probably used it less than 12hrs total. After it sat unused for 6+ months I ended up giving to my mom as an upgrade to her 2015 Air. She loves them but she's not trying to be productive. Just as another example, when someone messages me, if I'm near one of my computers, I reply on the computer because it has a keyboard. So much faster and less frustrating for me than trying to reply on a touch device.

birdyrooster 4y ago
Adobe Procreate is great on iPad.
- switch007 4y ago
  Procreate isn’t Adobe just fyi
  - birdyrooster 4y ago
    lmao oops
MarcelOlsz 4y ago
>For me, I can't input fast on a tablet. Fighting with the on screen keyboard or using the (IMO, crappy magic keyboard) just doesn't compare speed wize to my MBP or MBA. I can open those and just as quickly be taking a note but I'll be done in a 1/10th the time and with zero frustration. I don't do anything on it that really requires the onscreen keyboard. If I use a keyboard on it, I do it pretty much only through "link mouse and keyboard" which works brilliantly. Because the keyboard sucks, how did it not come with split keyboard? >I can open those and just as quickly be taking a note but I'll be done in a 1/10th the time and with zero frustration. Right but text doesn't work for me at all. I get lost in a sea of indentation and end up 100 commits deep in a tool that will "finally indent everything for me correctly!!!" that of course I never use nor release. >Cut/Copy/Paste just work. If you saw a video how often that doesn't work for me on tablet you'd probably feel like the UX designers should be in prison for all the suffering they've put people through. I feel you there, luckily copy/paste between my Mac and iPad works perfectly, as I pretty much use it as a glorified note taking device rather than a computer. >I see that you use sketching apps, but you said below "I have horrible chicken scratch.", has iPad changed that? Yes. Not with the default screen. What changed it all was a matte screen protector. I find when I am zoomed in and using the right pencil, my natural writing is quicker than paper and much more legible. Maybe if I found the right gel-pen I'd get the same effect on paper? >For my notes, I want to be able to search. I don't actually take many notes though. It mostly add to "todo" lists but not a ton (less than 1 time day) What kind of stuff do you search? My notes mainly look like this [0] and I'm in goodnotes 99% of the time. If I need to more "free form" get ideas down I use concepts for its infinite canvas then bring it into goodnotes, or ProCreate. It truly is just a glorified note taker for me. Paper, but editable. Sits on my work desk most of the time, rarely used standalone so I agree with everything else that's wrong with it. The keyboard is garbage and it sucks as a computing device and theres roughly 100 other things I wish it did better, but it's so good at notes it's the easiest $1k I've ever spent after using my friends for 5 seconds. [0] https://i.imgur.com/mLdq6mf.jpg https://i.imgur.com/mLdq6mf.jpg (the writing is still quite terrible, so you can imagine what my paper notes look like)