iPad Pro 12.9" first impressions

Yesterday, a very large tablet landed on my doorstep, the iPad Pro 12.9". A somewhat unusual purchase, so in this post I want to share my use cases as well as first hands-on experiences.

Why an iPad, and why an iPad Pro?

I used to own an iPad 1. Due to it being a 1st generation device, it quite quickly became obsolete, after about 2 years. After selling it, and at the same time adding my first iPhone, I found out that I could shift a lot of my iPad tasks to the iPhone. I carried on like that for a long while, not really missing a tablet.

Yet the itch to get one again returned, for a few reasons:

• I have a lot of screen time in a typical day, even after a full day at the office. To save my back, I’d like to offload a portion of those tasks to a tablet so that I can do them in more comfort.
• For work and education, this year I’m expected to view a few hundred hours of educational videos, which only adds to the above.
• To test my web creations
• To digitize my note taking and paper-based design scribbles.

There’s a ton of smaller use cases I could add, but those are the main ones. The second question is, why the iPad Pro, and why specifically the 12.9" one, which is giant?

The short answer is that I’m weird. I love big screens. I love big cameras. I love big laptops. I chose power over portability every time. Screen real estate in my belief is the largest computing benefit one can invest in. Plus, I have limited portability needs. In other words, if there would be a 14" iPad, I’d probably buy it, because that’s just me.

Onward to the first impressions, I’ll briefly describe my first experiences with this monster tablet.

Price

Let’s get the nasty bit out of the way, it’s very expensive. If you’re looking to maximize value for money, you’re much better of buying an iPad Air or the 10" Pro model even. The price is only justified if the larger size gives you a specific benefit that you value a lot, personally or professionally.

Setup

Nothing out of the ordinary here, it’s the same as any other iOS device. I signed in with my Apple ID, set up touch ID, and selected which apps I purchased on other devices I wanted to be available here. Next, I set up some email accounts, and updated to the latest iOS.

Handling

The tablet is absolutely huge, probably larger than you expected. Still it is extremely thin and not heavy at all. It has smaller bevels than a normal-sized iPad.

Comfort in handling depends on what you’re doing with it. If you’re just reading and browsing in landscape mode, I don’t find it more difficult to handle than any other tablet. In portrait mode, it may depend on the size of your hands, the larger size definitely is more difficult to handle in that orientation, but still manageable to me.

If you’re drawing, you definitely want to put it down on a surface. Flat works, but a slight angle will be more comfortable. This can be achieved by just placing something below the iPad, getting a foldable cover, or a mount or stand. I’ve ordered this one (a Parcslope):

For in my home office, I’m also considering getting a free moving arm that holds the device, to function as a 3rd screen.

The final handling topic is typing. I did not order the keyboard nor do I plan to. I did not buy it for reasons of being a possible laptop replacement.

Screen

The screen, as is to be expected, is beautiful. It’s a very large Retina screen basically. Some reviews complain about the limited brightness, but that may be a problem you’ll experience outdoors only.

With the screen quality being excellent, the question mainly becomes which benefits the size of it delivers. I’ve found there to be quite a few, starting with web browsing.

Even when you browse the web in portrait mode, the width is still enough to render most websites in desktop/landscape mode. So you will get a ton of information on your screen since you’ll now have desktop width and a giant height at the same time. Usually it is one of the two, here we get both. This leads to very comfortable browsing where you see a lot and scroll only a little.

And as the size is so large, I will repeat an Apple marketing cliche: it does kind of feel like you are physically interacting with a website. All in all, I find web browsing to be one of the key advantages of this large iPad.

Similar to how browsing is better, reading is also better (for example in iBooks). It will not include more pages on screen, rather the text will be bigger, causing less strain on the eyes. That said, I’m not sure how actually reading a book for hours in a row will be like on such a large tablet.

And then there’s apps. From a first testing round, I can conclude that a lot of apps are not optimized for this size yet. This means that they look stretched. This is not a major problem as it makes the text larger and more readable. Still though, the true advantage shines through for those apps that do use the extra space. Spotify, for example, is incredible. Just like with web browsing, it is mind blowing how much information you see on screen at a glance. The same is true for the App Store itself. And Netflix. Yet an app like Facebook is not optimized. It’s a mixed world for now.

To conclude this section, a word on multi tasking. I’m not a huge multi tasker on a tablet (yet), but the basic premise is this: in landscape mode, you have so much screen real estate that you basically have two portrait mode iPads next to each other. It is very easy to open up a second tab and determine the space it will get on screen, so this feature works great.

Charging and battery life

Too soon to tell, but the first impression is that charging takes quite a long time (reviews mention it takes 5 hours for a full charge) and that battery life is excellent (about 10 hours). My early impressions confirm both statements.

Another small but noteworthy thing to mention is that the charger has an unusually long cable. I’m not sure why, maybe it is a professional need, but I like it.

Sound

I’ve read in reviews that the sound quality and volume of this iPad is excellent. I’d say that is an understatement, I was shocked when I heard it. It has volume, it is deep, rich sound. It maintains its quality level up to 75% volume, after that it starts to break down.

One of my daily routines is to take my iPhone to the bathroom when I shower. I then put it there at a towel and play music at its maximum volume whilst I shower. Yet I can still barely hear it.

This iPad, however, fills the entire room easily with rich sound. And, its speakers are not blocked when placed on a surface.

If you combine this fact with the large screen, it makes for a most excellent portable TV. Yes, this is true for all tablets in a way, it’s just that this one is far better. Whether it is your bedroom, bath room, garden or kitchen, if you’d invest in a good mounting system, this is a great TV. And unlike real TVs, it actually is smart and usable.

Camera

No comment on the camera. I haven’t even tried it and have no interest in it.

Speed

This tablet packs a lot of power and is confirmed by reviews to be one of the fastest tablets out there. I can confirm it is speedy. There is no lag to be discovered other than the network lag of my own Wifi. You can throw anything at it (so far) without issue. I’m hopeful that it has enough power to last a few generations.

A good real-world performance test is the game Skylanders SuperChargers.

Drawing

Yes, I did also purchase the Apple Pen. Drawing is one of the unique and most fun use cases of this tablet. As it comes to drawing with a pen on a tablet, two things are important:

• Input lag
• Precision

My earlier “drawing” experiences on a touch device consisted of finger-based input. It largely sucked, because it is slow (lag) and very imprecise. Some people still manage to make beautiful digital art this way, yet this is due to their skill and patience, not due to the input method being so good.

This tablet changes that. Compared to real world paper, there is still some input lag, but it is far less than before. It comes close, it’s a giant step towards the real experience.

Even more impressive is the precision of the pen though. It is obviously smaller than a finger. If you combine that with a thin line tool in a drawing app, you can get quite precise, nearing the precision of paper. But wait, unlike paper, you can infinitely zoom into your drawing, thus actually being even more precise than paper in the end. And, unlike finger-based painting, the pen has pressure sensitivity and tilt taking into account to render the stroke of your pen.

It is, quite frankly, awesome. It is a giant step towards real drawing. Yet it also surpassed it due to being able to undo things, working in layers, selecting thousands of brushes, importing reference material, and all the software-only benefits that paper lacks.

App support is excellent, having tried out a few drawing apps. Procreate is the gold standard for digital painting on this device, a true must-have app. Evernote is also awesome in particular because you can very easily draw diagrams and page designs, where the app will snap your lines into clean geometric shapes.

I will be spending more time to master this, but I definitely believe that this input method is capable of replacing my paper needs.

Laptop replacement?

As mentioned earlier, I did not buy this to replace a laptop or PC. I often see it reviewed and compared as such, so I just want to add my two cents to that popular comparison.

I agree with the general sentiment that this for most people is not a full laptop replacement. There may be a group with limited computing/productivity needs who can do all their tasks on a tablet, yet for that they don’t specifically need this Pro edition.

Rather it is more likely an addition, instead of a replacement. I can be used for what it is good for, and it can be used in portable ways whilst still having a PC. There may be a small group of designers who are super skilled in being productive on this device for which the need of a PC is almost gone, but I believe that to be the exception, not the rule.

Final words

I think it is clear by now that I fancy this product. Pricey and not for everyone, but if it is for you, it will blow your mind. The large screen delivers a range of benefits in browsing, reading, video, gaming. The sound is excellent, which makes possible new use cases. It is fast, powerful, thin and still manages to have an excellent battery life. The unique drawing features complete the package.

As downsides, charging is somewhat slow, you need to think about handling, not all apps are optimized for the screen, and did I say it is expensive yet?