[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Who Is an iPad Pro For?
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Ask HN: Who Is an iPad Pro For?
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?
Author : cgb223
Score : 16 points
Date : 2022-10-21 19:51 UTC (3 hours ago)
| rasz wrote:
| Its for someone willing to pay >$1K for a tablet
| ev1 wrote:
| 128GB M1 Pro is currently $625 at Costco, at least.
| kylehotchkiss wrote:
| 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.
| rcarr wrote:
| 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.
| garrickvanburen wrote:
| 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
| MarcelOlsz wrote:
| 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
| references them once. Impossible and exhausting. On the iPad, I
| can fluidly take notes much quicker due to how fast I can edit,
| switch colors, erase, etc. 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.
|
| When I share ideas with people I can open Quicktime and pipe my
| iPad output to it and quickly illustrate ideas on the fly.
|
| 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.
|
| It's a brilliant device.
| IMAYousaf wrote:
| 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.
| azalemeth wrote:
| 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.
| TotoHorner wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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.
| LurkinGrue wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| can you use remote desktop on the ipad?
| Jtsummers wrote:
| Yes, there are remote desktop clients for iPad.
| hazelnut-tree wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| The iPad Air fully supports the second-gen pencil and
| Procreate. Only difference is the screen isn't as big
| LegitShady wrote:
| I sold my 11" iPad pro for the 12.x version specifically
| because drawing in the smaller screen wasn't as good. But
| it's a 2018 model so less relevant.
|
| Overall I use it for painting and a kitchen computer for
| recipes/YouTube while I'm cooking.
|
| Probably not a pro use case.
|
| I have a bunch of audio production apps on it but tbh the
| iPad audio workflow sucked so hard compared to desktop I just
| stopped using it for that. There are some cool apps (koala
| sampler, fugue machine, etc etc) but the lack of audio out
| and routing audio between apps kind of sucks.
| Cmortoc wrote:
| adastra22 wrote:
| The difference in refresh rate is VERY noticeable for Apple
| Pencil users. There is noticeable lag on the Air.
| [deleted]
| daggersandscars wrote:
| > 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 wrote:
| 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.
| adastra22 wrote:
| 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.
| wilde wrote:
| Until recently the 12.9 was the only portable TV with good HDR
| and strong battery life.
| runjake wrote:
| 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.
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