2018 iPad long term review

[gdeusthewhizkid]

I was debating on getting one myself i just paid off the 10.5 iPad Pro. And wanted another iPad that i could leave on the car on slow uber days and watch movies.. plus I’m not a fan of Face ID or the fact that i would have to buy another keyboard and Apple Pencil again for the latest iPad Pro....

 

[gsucyclist]

I went with this arteck one, lots of good reviews and very thin and portable.

Arteck HB030B Universal Slim Portable Wireless Bluetooth 3.0 7-Colors Backlit Keyboard with Built in Rechargeable Battery, Black
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00X5P8BJO/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_uyh7BbG403HH2

Thank you, I was actually just looking at this one one earlier today! Does it work well for lap typing? I do like the fact that its backlit

 

[zhenya]

The app that crashes the most is the Apple native Notes app. That thing crashes every 2/3 days if I use it. Killing the app does not help. You have to restart the iPad. If you restart the iPad, you have to pair again the pencil. This is basically why I am so annoyed. Just me having to go through this process every 2 or 3 days annoys me big time. I just stopped using the Notes app, but then it's really difficult for me to find an app replacement. The biggest reason I bought this iPad was to take notes and being able store all of them digitally. The fact that the Apple app is not working properly and the fact that I cannot find good replacement and thus change my Notes app every week does not make me happy. Like not at all.

The iPad was bought just a month ago so I won't be happy if I have to reinstall the iOS. I am sorry but that's unacceptable to me. The device is new and should work as expected.

I’ve never personally had the Notes app crash on me but I’m not a heavy user of that app because there are so many other great options out there. Honestly if you bought the iPad to take notes, and you haven’t looked beyond the native app, you are missing out. This is one of the major features of the iPad and of iOS. Apple has a huge lead in this area over the competition.

Your refreshing Safari tabs is simply the way it is with iOS and running low on RAM. It’s much better on the newer devices with 4GB, but it still happens because it’s part of how iOS is designed - no page file. The iPad needs 3 things to become a real power-house IMO - a real file manager, optional mouse support, and a page file so that you don’t ever have to worry about your work being lost (it’s ridiculous I even have to say this in 2018 about a device as powerful as the new iPP...)

 

[Act3]

would like to see an "in between model" with the speakers and the laminated screen. could care less about a pencil that I'll never buy or use for a media device

 

[zhenya]

would like to see an "in between model" with the speakers and the laminated screen. could care less about a pencil that I'll never buy or use for a media device

10.5” Pro?

9.7” Pro?

Honestly the fact that they are including Pencil support on the new $329 model means it is adding essentially zero cost to the new top-end models.

 

[Act3]

10.5” Pro?

9.7” Pro?

Honestly the fact that they are including Pencil support on the new $329 model means it is adding essentially zero cost to the new top-end models.

true, so the upper model just has a faster processor and better bigger screen for double the price? What gives it the Pro tag?

 

[zhenya]

true, so the upper model just has a faster processor and better bigger screen for double the price? What gives it the Pro tag?

Plus the keyboard connector. Basically it just has all of the top-end features.

 

[1BadManVan]

Thank you, I was actually just looking at this one one earlier today! Does it work well for lap typing? I do like the fact that its backlit

Works great, nice and flat and thin on the bottom, has a bit of flex to it being mostly plastic but still more than rigid enough. Has decent key travel as well, so far very pleased with it

 

[secretk]

I’ve never personally had the Notes app crash on me but I’m not a heavy user of that app because there are so many other great options out there. Honestly if you bought the iPad to take notes, and you haven’t looked beyond the native app, you are missing out. This is one of the major features of the iPad and of iOS. Apple has a huge lead in this area over the competition.

I use OneNote for meeting notes. I have Windows computer and Android phone so for me it makes the most sense to use OneNote for meeting notes because then they are available on my computer and phone as well.

I needed the Notes app for general doodling, brainstorming etc. I keep those kind of notes and scribbles separately from my work related notebooks in OneNote. There are indeed other apps, but they either offer a lot more than what I need for a price or they don't offer everything I need for free. The Notes app has a good balance of not offering a lot, but just enough for my needs.

Your refreshing Safari tabs is simply the way it is with iOS and running low on RAM. It’s much better on the newer devices with 4GB, but it still happens because it’s part of how iOS is designed - no page file. The iPad needs 3 things to become a real power-house IMO - a real file manager, optional mouse support, and a page file so that you don’t ever have to worry about your work being lost (it’s ridiculous I even have to say this in 2018 about a device as powerful as the new iPP...)

True, it is clear that is low on RAM. Especially for my sort of usage. Luckily I never intended to do anything super powerful and unique with it. I wanted to take notes and this is the original reason I bought it. I notice the RAM issue more because in the meantime I always play in Procreate and have installed Swift Playground (it's for learning Swift and programming but painted as a game). And because I tend to open a lot of tabs in my browsers when I do any sort of research and I don't have the habit of closing the tabs.

 

[Mabus51]

I have

played with both models every time I go to Costco and very much love that 10.5 model just for the display alone, I haven’t played with them in depth to know the performance difference

I just hope I won’t regret spending this much on last years iPad. The only reason I’m considering it is because it’s specs were overkill for last year and still seems to run great a year later. Even though it’s older than the 6th gen iPad, it’s specs make it more future proof

The new pros don’t really entice me much, I like a headphone jack for one on my tablets, plus the price is way way out there in Canada

The 10.5 iPad Pros are great devices. There is nothing wrong picking one up now. Apple supports their devices with OS updates for 5 years. Your battery won’t last that long. Batteries have a 2.5 to 3 year lifespan. So expect to buy a new device in 3 years. At that time anyway you’ll want the latest and greatest so it won’t be worth having the battery replaced.

 

[1BadManVan]

The 10.5 iPad Pros are great devices. There is nothing wrong picking one up now. Apple supports their devices with OS updates for 5 years. Your battery won’t last that long. Batteries have a 2.5 to 3 year lifespan. So expect to buy a new device in 3 years. At that time anyway you’ll want the latest and greatest so it won’t be worth having the battery replaced.

I end up picking up the 6th gen for a really good price, still no 10.5 sales so no regrets here

 

[zhenya]

I use OneNote for meeting notes. I have Windows computer and Android phone so for me it makes the most sense to use OneNote for meeting notes because then they are available on my computer and phone as well.

I needed the Notes app for general doodling, brainstorming etc. I keep those kind of notes and scribbles separately from my work related notebooks in OneNote. There are indeed other apps, but they either offer a lot more than what I need for a price or they don't offer everything I need for free. The Notes app has a good balance of not offering a lot, but just enough for my needs.

OneNote is good because of its cross-platform compatibility and the infinite sheet of paper philosophy. I’ve used it extensively for around a decade.

I would try GoodNotes and/or Notability as potential replacements for Apple Notes. The only thing I think Apple Notes does better than these apps is the pencil sketching experience. For regular note taking, these apps are like using a piece of digital paper with just the right amount of extras. It seems silly to have an entire iPad Pro setup and balk at the cost of a $5-10 app.

 

[Mabus51]

I end up picking up the 6th gen for a really good price, still no 10.5 sales so no regrets here

6th gen iPad is a good device too. Enjoy!

 

[secretk]

OneNote is good because of its cross-platform compatibility and the infinite sheet of paper philosophy. I’ve used it extensively for around a decade.

Exactly! And this is great for me as I have Windows computer, Android phone and iPad. In this sense OneNote is perfect because I can access it on all devices.

I would try GoodNotes and/or Notability as potential replacements for Apple Notes. The only thing I think Apple Notes does better than these apps is the pencil sketching experience. For regular note taking, these apps are like using a piece of digital paper with just the right amount of extras. It seems silly to have an entire iPad Pro setup and balk at the cost of a $5-10 app.

For me to be honest it's not so much about the money itself (you are right that 5-10 is not a lot), it's the principle. I am willing to pay if I need the functionality it provides and will use it. If that's not the case then I am not willing to pay. Both Notability and GoodNotes are more like replacement for OneNote and this is not what I need. I need a simple app to scribble stuff.

Anyway this is not the point anyway. For me it's not about what app I can find or not. It's about the principle. Apple should make sure that their own apps do not crash. That's all.

 

[Dammit Cubs]

I think good notes is a pretty good notes app if you want it organize, if you just want to scribble, i think the default notes is the best option but i think that app needs to be upgraded significantly.

I also wish i can take notes from the notes app and transfer scribble data to Good Notes or notability instead of creating a image and pasting it...

 

[1BadManVan]

Not sure if I will ever use an Apple Pencil with mine, I went for the 6th gen over the 5th because it was actually cheaper on sale and the A10 quad core making it more future proof.

But at least the option is there if I ever pass it down to the kids or wife takes it over, they all like to draw.

 

[DinkThifferent]

I bought the iPad 2018 128 GB model at Best Buy when I was on holiday in the US last week. They had a pre-Black Friday sale and i bought the 128GB model for 329 dollars (+/- 350 including sales tax)! Even though Target will go even lower during the actual Black Friday sale, compared to Dutch prices this was a STEAL! (Same model iPad I now have is here 508 dollars!) For comparison, the iPad mini 4 still costs 500 dollars here in The Netherlands! So I am really happy with it. I downloaded all the House Of Cards season 6 episodes in HD and had a great flight home with my own inflight entertainment system. The only trouble I had was finding a duckhead adaptor for the 12 volt carger, since here in the EU we have different power sockets. But a quick Google search got me one for 6 euros (in stead of Apple forcing me to buy a new 12 volt charger for 25 euros! They refused to help me at my local Apple Store...) But finding a case for this iPad is SUPER difficult, if you don't want to spend a fortune. That really took me by surprise. I ran like a zombie through manhattan searching for an affordable case, with no result. Same here in The Netherlands. I hope that during Black Friday they will lower the prices of some good cases/covers. But i used the box + little box that holds the information booklets and turned it into a self made iPad stand 😀 I felt so smart ^^. The screen is slightly less color acurate if you hold an iPad mini 4 (or iPad pro of course) directly next to it, but i don't notice it anymore with day to day usage. Only the RAM management is a little disappointing, quite a few reloads when switching back and forth between apps. I haven't updated my iPad to iOS 12 yet cause from what I've read the battery is worse with iOS12 compared to iOS11. Does anyone know if the RAM management is better under iOS 12?

 

[1BadManVan]

iOS 12 is quite a bit more optimized all the way around than iOS 11, I definitely recommend moving over to it

For cases, do you have amazon that ships out there? Tons of nice and cheap cases on there.

 

[DinkThifferent]

iOS 12 is quite a bit more optimized all the way around than iOS 11, I definitely recommend moving over to it

For cases, do you have amazon that ships out there? Tons of nice and cheap cases on there.

Thanks for the advice! The only thing I really hate about iOS 12 for iPads is the fact that they went iPhone X with their gestures to open the Notification Center and the Control Center (swiping down from the upper left or upper right corner). That doesn’t make sense since my iPad (or any iPad) doesn’t have a notch. And I have an iPhone 8 Plus myself, so I am used to swiping up to go to control center.

Amazon has a weird relationship with my country. Officially they only sell kindle e-readers and books here, but you can order through their ridiculously bad to Dutch translated German counterpart and let stuff deliver to your home. But they don’t support their Alexa products here and also their Fire tablets are unavailable. Amazon Prime music and Video on the other hand is available... (make up your mind Bezos!) And shipping takes a couple of days as opposed to our very fast shipping we are used to from local major retailers (sometimes as quick as ordering it before 11:59 PM and you have it delivered to your home the following day. My personal record is ordering a DVD box of one of my favorite tv shows at 11:45 at night and the delivery guy rang my doorbell at 8 am). I have found through our local eBay some cheap covers for 15 euro ($17), i might buy one of those to give it a try.

 

[1BadManVan]

Moko cases are cheap but good quality if you can find them

And yea gestures were weird but I got used to them very quick, I also have an iPhone 8 Plus, iOS 12 is still a good upgrade on the iPad though

 

[lugolo]

A

So you bought it? It seems that it is providing you with all you need! That's awesome! Yeah not surprised that you would like the speakers of the Pro a little bit more. But hey if you have Bluetooth speakers you might use them to boost the audio. I have portable ones and they can get paired up together to provide stereo sound. I do use them to compensate for the devices.



The app that crashes the most is the Apple native Notes app. That thing crashes every 2/3 days if I use it. Killing the app does not help. You have to restart the iPad. If you restart the iPad, you have to pair again the pencil. This is basically why I am so annoyed. Just me having to go through this process every 2 or 3 days annoys me big time. I just stopped using the Notes app, but then it's really difficult for me to find an app replacement. The biggest reason I bought this iPad was to take notes and being able store all of them digitally. The fact that the Apple app is not working properly and the fact that I cannot find good replacement and thus change my Notes app every week does not make me happy. Like not at all.

The iPad was bought just a month ago so I won't be happy if I have to reinstall the iOS. I am sorry but that's unacceptable to me. The device is new and should work as expected.

As for intensive apps I don't use that many. I do use ibispaint x which is a drawing app with lots of layers and I do have Sketchbook Pro that I use from time to time. I just open lots of tabs in both Safari and Chrome which leads to a lot of tabs reloading. Overall my biggest issue is the Notes app because that was one of the biggest reasons I bought the iPad in the first place.



Most probably I am hard on it because I come from using laptop. I have never had a tablet before so my expectations might be too high. For now it does hold up for the most part, but I am worried that it won't be long term device because of the ram. I feel that in an year 2 GB would just not be enough for it to work properly. However I will think about this once I have reached that point.

At this point time it did not make sense for me to buy something more expensive because I was not sure how much I will use it. So I will use this now to test my needs and usage and once it is no longer working properly I will evaluate my options.

Sorry for your iPad issues, i hve never experience so anoying crashes. But one of the best things about iPad and iOS is that you have, in almost all uses case, plenty of apps fhat can do what you need. Notes is one of the categories where you can find amazing apps that can fills your needs. Try OneNote. It is a great app by Microsoft, for taking notes, hand notes too. Try Notability, or you can do some research in App Store. I’ m sure that you can find better options. Good luck.
[doublepost=1542500646][/doublepost]

Exactly! And this is great for me as I have Windows computer, Android phone and iPad. In this sense OneNote is perfect because I can access it on all devices.



For me to be honest it's not so much about the money itself (you are right that 5-10 is not a lot), it's the principle. I am willing to pay if I need the functionality it provides and will use it. If that's not the case then I am not willing to pay. Both Notability and GoodNotes are more like replacement for OneNote and this is not what I need. I need a simple app to scribble stuff.

Anyway this is not the point anyway. For me it's not about what app I can find or not. It's about the principle. Apple should make sure that their own apps do not crash. That's all.

Notability is not, even close, a Onenote replacement. It is free and it is very similar to native Notes app, but whith more features.
[doublepost=1542500741][/doublepost]

Exactly! And this is great for me as I have Windows computer, Android phone and iPad. In this sense OneNote is perfect because I can access it on all devices.



For me to be honest it's not so much about the money itself (you are right that 5-10 is not a lot), it's the principle. I am willing to pay if I need the functionality it provides and will use it. If that's not the case then I am not willing to pay. Both Notability and GoodNotes are more like replacement for OneNote and this is not what I need. I need a simple app to scribble stuff.

Anyway this is not the point anyway. For me it's not about what app I can find or not. It's about the principle. Apple should make sure that their own apps do not crash. That's all.

I think you might go to Genius Bar, for support. I have had 6 iPads, icludimg 2018 model, and i have never had crash problems with Notes.

 

[1BadManVan]

Yes his issues do seem odd. I can’t remember if he said he’s wiped it and reloaded iOS. Because if he was to take it to the apple store, it’s one of the first things they will ask him to do.

I definitely agree it seems to be an odd issue, unfortunately no company is immune to a defective device or simply a small error within the software that can’t be fixed without a full reinstall. Cheaper model iPad or not, it’s still an over $400 investment once you get a case and the pencil, I would still expect it to be held to the higher quality standards of any other model ipad

Only issue I had on mine was today with the screen brightness acting up a bit, acting like it was overheating and cutting the brightness down and then suddenly back up 5 seconds later. It sorted itself out after a minute but never had this issue before and I just started running the public betas on it instead of my phone so my own fault lol

 

[Jacoblee23]

Moko cases are cheap but good quality if you can find them

And yea gestures were weird but I got used to them very quick, I also have an iPhone 8 Plus, iOS 12 is still a good upgrade on the iPad though

Moko cases are fantastic. The one on my 10.5 is one of my favorite cases ever.

 

[Richard8655]

Moko cases are cheap but good quality if you can find them.

Agree. Moko cases are excellent for general everyday scratch protection. Just don’t drop it on a hard surface (i.e., floor) as the corner(s) will shatter. But then all these inexpensive hard cases will. Moko cases are easily found with plenty in stock from the Moko seller on Amazon.

 

[1BadManVan]

Atleast it’s the case cracking first before the iPad lol. Cheap to replace, have them on all our tablets in the house. Definitely best bang for the buck