Hi everyone it’s KJ the MiTechGuy here with another review.
If you have been watching my vlogs you might have noticed that I use my iPad Pro a lot.
This hasn't always been the case.
I was one of those students that loved taking notes on actual paper with different colored
pens, but the original iPad Pro intrigued me because its screen was almost the size
of an actual piece of paper, and I didn't have to carry around multiple notebooks.
Fast-forward to 2018 with the release of the new iPad Pros, and it just might be my favorite
piece of tech that I own.
In this video, I'm not going to really talk about specs at all, instead, I'm going to
talk about how the iPad Pro changed my entire college experience.
Let's get right into it.
I want to first start this review off by saying that if you just plan on using the iPad Pro
as a glorified media consumption device for Netflix, Hulu and YouTube, there are many
less expensive tablets out there with high quality screens that can do just that.
The iPad Pro excels in being able to do a bunch of the little things extremely well,
which starts to differentiate itself from the other tech products I use.
First off, the iPad Pro has a 120 Hz Pro Motion display.
If you haven't experienced 120 Hz on a mobile device before, you'll definitely notice how
fluid and responsive everything feels.
From scrolling through webpages to multitasking between applications, everything is simply
fluid.
It makes its multitasking features and all animations seem much more fluid than any other
laptop or tablet I've ever used.
And when you match this with the responsiveness of the Apple Pencil, there is virtually no
lag when it comes to writing on the screen when taking notes.
The reason why I had been against taking digital notes in the past was because there was always
a noticeable lag.
And this lag always outweighed any of the other benefits for having digital notes.
Now since there is no lag, and since there are apps out there like Notability that allow
me to organize and interact with my notes in a seamless way, I can't see myself taking
notes any other way at this point.
Being able to download lecture slides, mark them up and add my own notes to them during
class has been great.
Now I know I can go to my iPad and all of my notes will be right there.
And because I also have an iPhone, MacBook Pro and iMac Pro, I am able to pull up all
of my notes on whatever device I am closest to at the moment.
Aside from just the simple note-taking, actually doing and completing assignments on my iPad
has been really convenient, especially when all of my classes use online submissions.
I can just download the problem sets into Notability, mark them up directly, and then
save and upload them to the respective assignment portals.
And little things like being able to copy and paste the actual question details, or
being able to automatically draw straight lines or boxes are things that I really appreciate
and have grown to truly value.
I even use my iPad when I quickly need to visualize a coding concept.
So yeah, for a lot of people, the note taking and assignment writing aspects alone may be
reasons enough to purchase an iPad.
But why go Pro?
What makes the Pro version stand out?
First off the new iPad Pros have this new design with minimal bezels and no true right
orientation.
Apple intended for you to just pick up your iPad and any orientation should feel correct.
Because of this, the bezels are symmetric all around, and FaceID works even if the sensor
is at the bottom.
With those reduced bezels comes the fact that even the 12.9 inch model is not that big anymore.
I'm able to fit the iPad and its keyboard case in a compartment in my backpack that
isn't meant for laptops, so it really doesn't add much bulk at all, and I end up taking
my iPad just about everywhere with me.
The new design also uses USB C and no longer lighting cables.
This has made the experience a lot better because I am able to charge my iPad with my
laptop charger, and I am also able to use my various USB c accessories with the iPad
as well.
Another new and improved feature that they give the pros is this new pencil.
Any of the other Apple Pencil supporting iPads require you to plug it into the iPad whenever
you need to charge.
With the new iPad Pros, you just need to magnetically attach the Apple Pencil to the side of the
iPad and it charges the pencil to the point where I no longer ever run into the situation
where it ever gets discharged.
Also because the pencils are now touch sensitive also, I'm able to quickly switch between the
pen and eraser modes.
I used to have to go to the top and select the eraser tool, which was one of my biggest
gripes with my old iPad.
I use the touch gesture so much that I have found myself double-tapping actual pencils
and pens many times, so take that as you will.
Now with the new iPadOS updates and this Apple keyboard that I have, the iPad is the device
I pick up for a majority of the things that I ever want to do.
If I want to look something up, I'm using the iPad.
If I need to check and respond to some emails, I'm using the iPad.
Something that I have always really liked doing with the iPad Pro is edit pictures,
and now with the iPadOS update, I can import pictures directly to the iPad and just edit
right away.
Previously I had to upload the pictures to my laptop's Lightroom app so that I can edit
them on my iPad.
Now that middle step is taken away and again makes my iPad even more essential to what
I do on a day-to-day basis.
Also, the fact that some Adobe apps like Lightroom are so well-developed for the iPad make editing
pictures such a great experience on the iPad.
The iPad has the horsepower to show me what my edits look like instantly, and exporting
the fully edited RAW images takes little time at all.
At this point, the only things that I find myself absolutely needing my laptop or iMac
to do are editing videos because of Final Cut Pro, and coding, because up until this
point I still feel most comfortable coding on my laptop.
Honestly, the iPad Pros have a lot of power onboard them and I feel as if the only reason
Apple hasn't developed an iPad compatible Final Cut Pro app is because it might cannibalize
MacBook sales.
The iPad Pro is a device that has all of my textbooks and normal books in it so I don't
have to carry around multiple books in my backpack.
It has all of notes in one place so I don't have to carry around multiple notebooks, and
because it is synced with iCloud, it also has my important files at all times.
On a daily basis, I know that if I could only take one device other than my phone, it's
going to be my iPad Pro just about every time because it just does everything it can do
very well.
Yes the iPad is fundamentally limited due to the fact that it cannot run a laptop operating
system like MacOS.
However, the fact that iPadOS is tailored so perfectly for the iPad makes me appreciate
the fact that everything works so smoothly more than I would appreciate the marginal
productivity improvements a full computer operating system would provide.
A lot of manufacturers try to straddle the line of tablet and computer, but by Apple
committing to the fact that the iPad Pro is not a full computer, they are able to make
a device that is so very close to perfect in all of the things it is advertised to do.
But of course the iPad isn't absolutely perfect, there are certain gripes I still have about
it.
First off, Apple needs to do a better job with its official smart cases.
I have the Apple smart keyboard, but it is not that secure at all, and the keyboard is
not that satisfying to type on.
It also costs an outrageous $200.
However, I use it on a daily basis because the convenience of having a keyboard that
always just instantly works without Bluetooth is incredibly valuable to me.
The second gripe is a very minor one because of the fact that it is 120 Hz, but I wish
the iPad Pro had an OLED display.
I will say that the iPad has a very very high quality LCD display with great colors and
clarity.
I just know the types of screens that are possible and would hope that a product that
has the word Pro in its name has the very best hardware.
All this being said, you probably know where I stand with the iPad Pro.
It is a device that I almost always have with me because it does almost everything so well.
As a student, it is my everything device that allows me to access and edit all of my notes,
assignments and textbooks.
The iPad Pro has greatly reduced the things that I have to bring on a daily basis in my
backpack.
Yes, the iPad Pro probably has too much power for most of the things you'd want to do with
it, and yes it costs a lot of money.
But for a device that I use throughout the day almost every day, the cost seems a lot
more justifiable, especially for the fact that everything that you'd want to do on it,
it does very well.
That's all for this video, I hope it helped if you were on the verge of purchasing an
iPad.
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As always, thanks for watching and I will see you in the next video.