Three Months using the iPad Pro. Has it lived up to the hype?
Let me get real with you for a moment. This is not my daily driver,
I don't use it as my main machine. Even if I wanted to, the iPad Pro is
not able to perform all the tasks that I need throughout my day.
But it comes pretty damn close!
Yes, the iPad Pro is an incredible piece of hardware. I think I am not alone when I say
that nothing in this space comes anywhere near it. In this video I wanted to share with you what's
been like for me, using this tablet for the last 3 months,
but also what's been like for my fellow creators who also have different jobs during the day
But let's be honest, it's natural for consumers to try and justify their investment, right?
And for reviewers like me, it's no different. I naturally want to tell you how great this
is and maybe gloss over its flaws a bit and not focus so much on them.
But I am consumer too and when I am looking at reviews,
I want more than just the positives, so I can then take that information into my research
and make my own decision. Here's what my fellow creators have to say.
hi everyone fernando silva here and big shout out to alex for having me on this video collab
because there are so many great creators so just to quickly introduce myself if you guys
don't know who i am i run a tech youtube channel that is 99.999 focused on turning your ipad pro
into your main computer not your only one but your main computer so when alex reached out to me
i had to take this opportunity to kind of talk to you guys about my ipad pro so just to talk about
which ipad i have i'm currently rocking the new 2021 m1 ipad pro the 12.9 inch so i do have that
mini led display which is nice but i am rocking the baseline model so 128 gigs no cellular data
and i bought that route because i didn't think i needed cellular data since i'm around wi-fi
all the time and before that i was actually coming from the 2018 ipad pro which i used for about two
two and a half years at this point so the first thing i do want to mention is that the number one
like standout feature about these ipad pros is just the longevity you know my dad still has a
2015 ipad pro it still runs smoothly it's still going to get ipad os 15. my 2018 ipad pro had
zero issues at all and the only real reason i want the m1 ipad pro is because i thought i needed a
little bit of an upgrade and also my channel is ipad pro focus so i thought i needed to get the
latest and greatest but i very easily could have saved the 2018 i've had chrome been completely
happy because the experience is 95 there if you have a 2018 ipad pro compared to the new
2021 ipad pros so i use my ipad pro for literally everything right my workflow is very very simple
i use it to run this channel and my workflow goes like this i record on my iphone 11 pro max i then
air drop all the footage to my ipad pro edit it via lumafusion get everything done then i go into
affinity photo maybe take some pictures edit some photos for thumbnail ideas and things like that
once that's all done i go to the youtube app i upload that footage upload the thumbnail get all
my administrative stuff done like the description the title the tags and all that good stuff
and then i send it live and then even after that on the ipad pro i answer comments i manage to
finance the youtube channel check out all the analytics making sure that everything is good
to go and again that is literally all done on the ipad pro with my iphone as my main and only camera
and then there are situations where i do have to pull up my macbook air when i'm kind of dealing
with five or six or seven different powerpoint presentations but even then i grab my ipad
sidecar my ipad especially if i'm in a mobile situation and now i have two screens
so the way i look at it a lot of people say that the ipad pro is a great supplemental computer
it's for me it's the other way around my ipad pro is my main computer and then i use my macbook air
to supplement my ipad pro for those like one to two percent of tasks that i can't use my ipad pro
quite yet but that's a brief little description of what i use my ipad pro for if you guys want
to check out the channel alex will link it down below thanks so much alex for having me on this
video and on to the next one unless on the last one but how to let you guys know thanks
He's a good looking fella isn't he? And you lucked out today,
it's not just my ugly mug. We've got Patrick next!
hey what's up alex thank you so much for having me in your collab and if i look and
sound a bit sick that's because i am but that doesn't mean we can't appreciate the ipad pro
so here's a few things i like about it probably the most obvious thing is the liquid retina xdr
display we were all looking forward to this mini led technology being implemented into the ipad
and it did not disappoint vibrant colors fantastic brightness and just an overall
beautiful looking image the second big change is one we definitely did not see coming at first
and that is of course the m1 chip and this has also been absolutely fantastic the ipad
is noticeably snappier it responds really fast and in combination with the 16 gigs of ram
you can leave all your apps running and it still won't choke or close any apps yes i did spring
for the 16 gig version and what bothers me is that apple makes you purchase a minimum of one
terabyte internal storage or you can't get the 16 gigs so i'm a little bit salty about that
i could have done with 512gb and still have space left but anyway let's focus on the positives the
speakers are amazing center stage has really improved the video conferencing experience
and what about that thunderbolt port that to me is game changing we can hook up pretty much
anything to the ipad right now and enjoy full data transfer capabilities combine that with a good
thunderbolt hub and you've got yourself a real powerhouse now all we need is for ipad os and some
of the app developers to catch up with all that amazing hardware so we can really see it at work
Thank you so much guys, and if you haven't already make sure to checkout
their channels at the end. I will leave links down below to all their channels.
So as you can see guys, it depends. It depends on who is using it but also how it's being used.
Sometimes even an accessory will make a big difference to how a device is used.
But as I discovered (the hard way) when it comes to cost benefit,
it also depends on the specs that you choose!
So let's break it down.
So how do I use the M1 iPad Pro? As you saw from the guys earlier,
you can be a content creator, a musician, a student, a photographer, an office worker,
AND MORE! Without really having to change devices.
I'm not ignoring how Apple really wants us to buy other devices to go with the iPad
but some of the accessories alone can really bring this device to life.
And I think that's the beauty of it.
If you never used a computer before and you were given the iPad Pro
and someone said to you, that's all you got, get to work. There's not many things you couldn't do.
I really think that for many professionals this could really be their only device. But
currently... That's not what Apple wants. Apple still want us to buy multiple of their
products. And initially, I am not gonna lie, I was extremely pissed about that.
One on hand Apple are saying, here... You want a computer? Nah,
take this instead, THIS is your next computer!
- This iPad is my next computer? - Are you sure about that?
- Of course! Here, we are giving you the M1 chip, here's 16 GB RAM as well.
- - I can really
use this now right? For everything! - Oh you wanted to really use it?
- Is that a Magpie? - Here's the new MacBook Pro!
On a serious note, When I AM creating videos, the iPad Pro
is very much part of the process but I can't really do EVERYTHING on it.
I'd say it accounts for about 40% to 50% of my workflow.
For me it's a lot faster to use my MacBook Pro
with a more capable Video Editing software like Premiere Pro.
But here's the thing guys. I am cool with that! Once I understood how Apple is positioning
the iPad and how it can work ALONGSIDE my MacBook Pro... I kinda came to peace with it.
And I learned my lesson there which is don't
buy something based on a promise of what it can do in the future.
I should have gone with the 8GB RAM that's all.
And guys if you are getting value from this long term review
please give this video a thumbs up, it helps YouTube push this content to more people
which in turn supports the channel to grow … which will result in even better videos for you.
It’s a win win!
And don’t forget the bell!
Let's talk about my favourite thing about this new iPad. Which is the LIQUID RETINA XDR display.
And maybe that's because I come from an iPad Pro 2015, or maybe it's because this display
is truly mind blowing. I won’t bore you with nits, brightness levels and contrast ratio numbers.
Instead I will try to show you here on YouTube, but what I would recommend is to go to an Apple
Store if you are able to and really have a good look at this display. It is pretty special!
One feature that not many people talk about is the anti-reflective coating. You don’t need
to be outside to experience how good it is! Even if you are just working near a window,
I found that I don’t need to pull the blinders down.
A combination of that brightness and the fact there’s very little glare on the screen means
you can really work outdoors without having to strain your eyes.
Shot of me working outside It really blows my mind!
OK Thunderbolt
This was one of key selling points for the iPad Pro for me. so despite the
amazing marketing at Apple the M1 processing power wasn’t really a major deal breaker,
a lot of apps are now running faster than before. But performance was already good anyway!
But the ability to use Thunderbolt Accessories, really was a major selling point for me.
And whilst iPadOS 14 didn't really have a good Thunderbolt performance...
The good news is I’ve been testing the Beta preview version of iPadOS15
and I am happy to say that the Thunderbolt speeds are now much more in line with what you’d expect.
On the storage front that’s fantastic news!
And you can see people like LumaFusion taking full advantage of that now
and letting us edit videos from and external SSD.
That is Brilliant! Finally!
Right, external displays! When it comes to external
displays…How do I put this… It’s a bloody disgrace!! It really is.
there’s not much else to say about this one. In April this year when they were announcing
the iPad Pro, they showed us how Thunderbolt would enable us to work with external displays.
And technically, what they showed is possible
in a couple of ways. It's very cheeky in the way that showed it.
But that’s not what most people who care about this feature want. You know,
we want proper external display support!
There is a way around it with an app which I am still testing,
Nando actually had a good go at it so stay tuned for that. But I know
a lot of you don’t actually care about this and use the iPad Pro just as it is.
For me, I would really use the iPad Pro even more if I could really hook it up to my monitor.
We live and hope… Come on Apple, we will buying your MacBooks,
just give us a bit more on the iPad. Please.
As I mentioned at the beginning of the video,
sometimes the accessories is what makes the device experience even better.
I gotta say, coming from an older iPad, I was looking forward to using the Magic keyboard
much more than the iPad itself! Seriously. Seriklee (you gotta check that TikTok)
I know it’s “eye-watering” expensive, but boy does it deliver! The keys are
really pleasant to work with, even for those longer writing sessions.
And coupled with the Apple Pencil,
these two accessories for me are what really completes the iPad Pro experience.
But that’s not where it stops. There are many accessories that
really make the iPad Pro a more powerful tool for me.
These external SSD drives, are a great way of keeping your data secure
but also not rely so much on Apple internal storage. I know it’s not as convenient as
having internal storage but the cost is much lower, they will work really well
when it comes to backing up your work too, so definitely worth an investment there.
And with more apps supporting SSDs as the main storage, these will become even more important.
Can’t recommend them enough. I use the Samsung ones and also the Sandisk ones.
The display really comes to its own on this
size and what you lose in terms of weight and portability, you gain in sheer pleasure.
Blooming? It’s a non-issue for me. It actually could never really be considered an issue because
that is something you get with this type of display. It’s widely known in the display world.
I am not denying that it’s there.
I still think this is THE best tablet in the market right now
and is likely to remain that way for a long time. I know Samsung are bringing the Tab S8
(Ultra? Plus? Fun Edition? Whatever!) very soon and I am looking forward to that...
But the potential we have here with the M1 iPad Pro is incredible.
There are things that I wish Apple would just give to us and let us
really take advantage of the power we have here.
But even taking this into consideration I would still recommend this device with a
word of caution to make sure you choose the right spec based on what you need right now.
I really enjoy having a chat with you in the comments section so I hope we can do that.
And I will see you and your smiling faces, on the next one!