All iPads Anyone else planning to downgrade from Pro to Air? Why?

[darthbane2k]

So new iPads are imminent.
I am still usinga 2018 iPad Pro which is now a bit long in the tooth and sluggish. It’s time to upgrade. However as a MacBook Pro user , Apple have done nothing in that time to convince me that the iPad Pro can be used as a serious computer nor worth the premium. Therefore when the new models are announced I’ll be opting for an Air.
Anyone else in the same boat, or think otherwise? What are your thoughts?

 

[nj-morris]

I'm not a current iPad Pro user but I've been intending for a long time to get one, and now that I'm ready I'm strongly considering the Air instead, purely because they're bringing out a 13-inch model. Weight, OLED and landscape camera will make an impact on my decision though.

 

[O.N.Y.X]

I agree with your post 100%. In my opinion Apple is clearly headed in the wrong direction here. While they have built a very solid and highly capable hardware platform on the one hand, they are doing everything to make this platform less attractive on the other hand. iPadOS is an Apple walled garden that seriously limits what one can do with an iPad. On top of this, there is a very strong tendency to go paid subscription only on iPadOS. And being locked into subscriptions Apple essentially decides when to declare your device "obsolete" or "not compatible any longer". To me this not the best motivation to purchase a device (iPad Pro) that is very expensive to begin with.

I was going to use Logic and Final Cut versions on my M1 Pro- but I'm not willing to subscribe. So I had to find alternatives (I did).

My current iPad Pro is the first and will also be my last iPad Pro, unless things change (which is highly unlikely).

 

[cardfan]

So new iPads are imminent.
I am still usinga 2018 iPad Pro which is now a bit long in the tooth and sluggish. It’s time to upgrade. However as a MacBook Pro user , Apple have done nothing in that time to convince me that the iPad Pro can be used as a serious computer nor worth the premium. Therefore when the new models are announced I’ll be opting for an Air.
Anyone else in the same boat, or think otherwise? What are your thoughts?

Nope. If you’re going to buy an iPad you’d be an idiot for not getting the oled one. It’s useless to discus whether it’s worth buying one period. Only you know that. I feel like it’s finally the iPad we’ve been demanding screen wise. If one needs to be the last you’ll ever buy then it’s this one.

 

[zkap]

I am still using my 10.5 Pro and this July it will have been half a decade since I bought it. I love ProMotion and quad speakers, so I would prefer to replace it with an iPad Pro, but I think the price is exorbitant. The Pro iPad has always been less expensive than the Pro iPhone, because the iPhone is needed more, people usually use their mobile phones far more than their tablets and Apple priced it accordingly, knowing they can't charge the same amount for devices than do not have the same use case. Now they will apparently change this and charge for the iPad Pro more money than for the iPhone Pro, which to me is not acceptable as my use case is such that the iPad doesn't do nearly enough for me to warrant this kind of price.
Right now in my country (in the EU), due to some currency changes over the last couple of years, the iPhone is more affordable than ever. Buying a top-tier iPhone has never been cheaper, and for the iPad Pro it's going to be the exact opposite, which makes no sense considering the changes implemented in the iPad Pro since the redesign in 2018 are not at all substantial enough to deserve a price hike. The iPad has had ProMotion since 2017 and USB-C since 2018. It has been overpowered since 2018. It has had the same design since 2018. Other than miniLED / OLED, what has happened to the iPad Pro to warrant the price going up for the last few years? In my opinion (and for my use case for sure), nothing.

If they release the 11 Pro with an increased price, my first step will be to replace the battery in my 10.5 inch, to see how the tablet handles iPadOS 17 with new juice. If it does well enough, my next iPad purchase will be two or three years from now, if I don't buy a Pro Max in the meantime. The only change to this plan could happen if by some miracle the Supply Chain CEO decides to put ProMotion into the iPad Air, in that case I will buy it.

 

[nj-morris]

Nope. If you’re going to buy an iPad you’d be an idiot for not getting the oled one. It’s useless to discus whether it’s worth buying one period. Only you know that. I feel like it’s finally the iPad we’ve been demanding screen wise. If one needs to be the last you’ll ever buy then it’s this one.

They'd be an idiot for not wanting to spend an extra ~$400 for OLED? Come on. I love OLED and I'd personally pay a lot extra for it, but it's not difficult to see how somebody might prefer to buy the Air.

 

[Digitalguy]

Pro in iPad does not mean professional, but premium. Premium for contect consumption thanks to quad speakers, promotion and now oled. The power difference with the air is irrelevant. But you also get more storage with the base pro, as well as more storage options. And maybe the new pro will also have a landscape camera.
It's just a matter of priorities, do any of those premium features matter to you enough or not?
I for one don't care about OLED (I have it on 2 of my Samsung tablets) but do care about quad speakers.
And I will not buy a 64GB device again. Even the 128GB on my M1 iPad pro feels tight.
Promotion is a nice bonus, but like OLED, not a big deal to me.
Speakers and storage for me are worth the price difference. But I wouldn't spend the additional money for oled in the new pro. If I wanted a new iPad I would get a M1 or M2 pro

 

[Abazigal]

So new iPads are imminent.
I am still usinga 2018 iPad Pro which is now a bit long in the tooth and sluggish. It’s time to upgrade. However as a MacBook Pro user , Apple have done nothing in that time to convince me that the iPad Pro can be used as a serious computer nor worth the premium. Therefore when the new models are announced I’ll be opting for an Air.
Anyone else in the same boat, or think otherwise? What are your thoughts?

I am guessing the main factor might be price and convenience.

I don't need more than 256gb of storage, and it's a real possibility that the OLED screen may push the price of the iPad Pro way higher than what I am willing to fork out. While I do use an iPad daily for work and leisure, it's also true that my needs have more or less stagnated. I probably won't see much of a performance boost between an M2 or M3 chip (both support stage manager) in terms of what I do.

It's also possible that the iPad Air simply reuses the current air form factor with an M2 chip, in which case I can continue using my Apple Pencil as well. Honestly, I am still not sold on the idea of a front-facing webcam in landscape iPad mode or what it means for the magnetic charging pencil feature.

I guess we will have to see what kind of radical redesign 5+ years brings.

 

[dborja]

I made that jump (or fall?) last month. I had a 2017 10.5” iPad Pro that I brought to meetings but, nowadays, I work remotely so I’m always in front of my desktop Mac and my iPP became more of an entertainment and social media device when I’m in the backyard on weekends. The battery was not holding charge as well as it used to and I heard that the new iPads were coming so I traded for a Best Buy gift card while it still had a decent trade-in price. After looking at what I’m using an iPad for, I decided that the current 5th Gen iPad Air meets my needs so I went for it. I figure it will be supported for another 5-6 years and I save at least $250 vice getting the imminent shiny new iPad Pro/Air

 

[darthbane2k]

Pro in iPad does not mean professional, but premium. Premium for contect consumption thanks to quad speakers, promotion and now oled. The power difference with the air is irrelevant. But you also get more storage with the base pro, as well as more storage options. And maybe the new pro will also have a landscape camera.
It's just a matter of priorities, do any of those premium features matter to you enough or not?
I for one don't care about OLED (I have it on 2 of my Samsung tablets) but do care about quad speakers.
And I will not buy a 64GB device again. Even the 128GB on my M1 iPad pro feels tight.
Promotion is a nice bonus, but like OLED, not a big deal to me.
Speakers and storage for me are worth the price difference. But I wouldn't spend the additional money for oled in the new pro. If I wanted a new iPad I would get a M1 or M2 pro

No offence but I don’t buy this at all. Apple have been promoting it as a computer replacement for ages now but in all my years with the Pro it hasn’t lived up to the claim. Also quad speakers should not be a £400 premium

 

[Allen_Wentz]

So new iPads are imminent.
I am still usinga 2018 iPad Pro which is now a bit long in the tooth and sluggish. It’s time to upgrade. However as a MacBook Pro user , Apple have done nothing in that time to convince me that the iPad Pro can be used as a serious computer nor worth the premium. Therefore when the new models are announced I’ll be opting for an Air.
Anyone else in the same boat, or think otherwise? What are your thoughts?

My thoughts are that we need to wait and see what the new iPads are. Speculating is a waste of bandwidth.

I tested a latest iPad Pro against a latest iPad Mini for weeks, intending to keep one or both to replace my old iPad Air. Although both were spiffy and fast, neither one did quite enough for me to upgrade - - even though I need a new tablet; both were returned (but I kept the currently useless Apple Pencil 2 and a currently useless case). IMO the devil is in the details, so we need to wait and see said details.

 

[rui no onna]

So new iPads are imminent.
I am still usinga 2018 iPad Pro which is now a bit long in the tooth and sluggish. It’s time to upgrade. However as a MacBook Pro user , Apple have done nothing in that time to convince me that the iPad Pro can be used as a serious computer nor worth the premium. Therefore when the new models are announced I’ll be opting for an Air.
Anyone else in the same boat, or think otherwise? What are your thoughts?

I prefer using iPads for personal stuff 90+% of the time so I can (grudgingly) tolerate the cost.

Work is done on employer issued Windows desktops.

With that said, I don't see a need to upgrade anytime soon from my M1 iPad Pro. Frankly, OLED with PWM is a no-go for me (migraines) so OLED on the Pro might be what ends up pushing me to regular or Air once the M1 bites the dust.

Of course, if Apple does DC dimming OLED on Pro and PWM OLED on Air/regular, I'm sticking to the Pro.

 

[great high wolf]

I prefer using iPads for personal stuff 90+% of the time so I can (grudgingly) tolerate the cost.

Work is done on employer issued Windows desktops.

With that said, I don't see a need to upgrade anytime soon from my M1 iPad Pro. Frankly, OLED with PWM is a no-go for me (migraines) so OLED on the Pro might be what ends up pushing me to regular or Air once the M1 bites the dust.

Of course, if Apple does DC dimming OLED on Pro and PWM OLED on Air/regular, I'm sticking to the Pro.

This is my exact worry about the upcoming switch to OLED screens across Apple's product lines. I had no idea I had problems with them, my iPhone 13 has been fine and my LG OLED TV has been fine, but then I bought an iPhone 15 Pro and discovered the absolute hell that is PWM sensitivity with a broken vestibular system (had an episode of neuronitis at the end of 2022). Immediately had migraines, balance problems, nausea, the works. Took me a few days to work it out and then the 15 Pro was straight back to Apple for a refund, thank goodness I didn't trade in my 13.

I'll run the 13 (and any subsequent AppleCare+ replacements) until it's out of software support and I'm planning to keep my M1 iPad Pro and M1 Pro MacBook running until they lose updates as well. That's probably all in the 2027-2030 timeframe, by which time hopefully there will be a better picture of how the OLED screens are operating. Hopefully DC dimming starts to come in more widely.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

This is my exact worry about the upcoming switch to OLED screens across Apple's product lines. I had no idea I had problems with them, my iPhone 13 has been fine and my LG OLED TV has been fine, but then I bought an iPhone 15 Pro and discovered the absolute hell that is PWM sensitivity with a broken vestibular system (had an episode of neuronitis at the end of 2022). Immediately had migraines, balance problems, nausea, the works. Took me a few days to work it out and then the 15 Pro was straight back to Apple for a refund, thank goodness I didn't trade in my 13.

I'll run the 13 (and any subsequent AppleCare+ replacements) until it's out of software support and I'm planning to keep my M1 iPad Pro and M1 Pro MacBook running until they lose updates as well. That's probably all in the 2027-2030 timeframe, by which time hopefully there will be a better picture of how the OLED screens are operating. Hopefully DC dimming starts to come in more widely.

Wow, that is awful. You are at least fortunate that you have non-offending devices that are modern enough to likely work well until display tech hopefully improves.

FYI my 2016 MBP still runs everything just fine despite Monterey being its last available OS; that is seven years now. Monterey has still been getting security updates, now at 12.7.3. Its utility is limited by RAM and by the sucky keyboard, but every app still runs perfectly as long as I do not multi-task too much.

Edit: But unfortunately multi-tasking is what I use a computer for, so I upgraded to an M2 MBP Max.

 

[great high wolf]

Wow, that is awful. You are at least fortunate that you have non-offending devices that are modern enough to likely work well until display tech hopefully improves.

FYI my 2016 MBP still runs everything just fine despite Monterey being its last available OS; that is seven years now. Monterey has still been getting security updates, now at 12.7.3. Its utility is limited by RAM and by the sucky keyboard, but every app still runs perfectly as long as I do not multi-task too much.

Edit: But unfortunately multi-tasking is what I use a computer for, so I upgraded to an M2 MBP Max.

You're going to love the M2 Max, the 14" M1 Pro I got was just everything I had been desperate for Apple to do with the MacBook line for years. For me, if the worst comes to the worst I will buy a desktop Mac to plug in to my Studio Display, but yes I am lucky to be able to punt that decision a very long way down the road.

 

[fatTribble]

Personally I’d go Pro for the OLED alone, but I like to look at pretty pictures 🤓

 

[Digitalguy]

No offence but I don’t buy this at all. Apple have been promoting it as a computer replacement for ages now but in all my years with the Pro it hasn’t lived up to the claim. Also quad speakers should not be a £400 premium

I don't know in the UK but in the US it's a $200 premium for more than just speakers, also double the storage and promotion (let alone other things like the slightly better SOC and screen). With OLED it should increase to $400 but that's fair for those who want OLED. And they'll probably get other perks too. Those who don't care can get a M2 pro for much less. As I said it's just a matter of priorities.

As for computer replacement, Apple has promoted it as a new form of computing, not as a laptop (let alone MacBook) replacement. I think people have overinterpreted their ads.
This doesn't mean that iPadOS improvement hasn't been too slow, it has... They made a lot of changes with 13, but 14 to 17 have been underwhelming, unless you take all the changes together, but spread over 4 years the pace has been way too slow compared to what was expected after the launch of iPadOS.
My guess is that other things like the vision pro have been prioritized.
Hopefully some completion will push Apple to accelerate this pace (and it's coming, Qualcomm will be using Nuvia chips for its Snapdragon 8 gen 4, that is coming to the next Samsung flaghips and Samsung is likely to give them 7 years of updates like they did with the S24 series). So now we may have kind of parity in terms of power and updates, which hopefully will push Apple to catch up in terms of OS features (I use both systems and I think Apple is behind in multitasking and file management).

 

[dasjati]

I own an M1 11” iPad Pro and I think it’s an amazing device. The most versatile and flexible computer Apple‘s ever made. And I still won’t get another one when the time comes.

My reason might be a bit different to many others, because I think iPadOS is pretty good by now. But there’s one problem with it: switching costs. iPadOS looks similar to macOS, but works differently in many big and small ways. My mental muscle memory often doesn’t work. That’s also true for the apps if they even exist on the platform.

In the end, it costs met too much time and energy to figure out how to do things on the iPad that I do all the time on the Mac. Therefore, a desktop Mac and a laptop Mac is the better combo for me. Same OS, same apps, same workflows.

I love my iPad for reading, watching etc. And it’s a good computer to use in an emergency. But that’s it for me personally. If I could just use the iPad, I would. I can attach it to my 32” USB-C display at the desk, I can use it like a laptop with the keyboard cover, I can use it handheld just by itself. But to switch back and forth between macOS and iPadOS just doesn’t work for me.

I might even go all the way down to one of the base iPads.

 

[gusping]

I'll first see what the price increase is on the lowest storage 13in iPad Pro model. The M2 iPad Pro 12.9in is currently £1,250 in the UK and this will no doubt increase further for the OLED model. I would likely run my 2018 Pro into the ground instead of buying a non-pro motion iPad Air 12.9in iPad, unless the price is super attractive.

To put that price into context, I can buy the brand new 13in M3 MBA for £1020 from Costco....

 

[sracer]

So new iPads are imminent.
I am still usinga 2018 iPad Pro which is now a bit long in the tooth and sluggish. It’s time to upgrade. However as a MacBook Pro user , Apple have done nothing in that time to convince me that the iPad Pro can be used as a serious computer nor worth the premium. Therefore when the new models are announced I’ll be opting for an Air.
Anyone else in the same boat, or think otherwise? What are your thoughts?

I went from a 12.9 Pro to the 9th gen base iPad. (basically for the same reasons you gave) Even though I had been using my Pro as a netbook for productivity and content creation, I discovered that I was able to perform the very same tasks just as easily on the 9th gen... in a smaller size and at a significantly lower cost.

 

[erikkfi]

All things being equal I'm planning on another Pro. That's what I have now -- a 9.7 from 2016. It was really expensive at the time but I've gotten a lot of good years out of it. I'd expect the same thing again.

A couple of things could lure me to an Air:

• Apple sticking with dull finishes for the Pro (Gray and silver Apple? Seriously?) while doing some interesting colors for the Air. I'm not proud of it but I do care about this and I hate how the Pro has no personality whatsoever.
• Apple majorly hiking the base price of the Pro.

Realistically the only one that'd lure me would be the price but I have a hangup about how beige the iPad Pro is.

 

[Soondae]

I originally started with 9.7" Pro looking for a smaller form factor and Folio keyboard that could handle all my mundane tasks so I could get rid of my Macbook Air 13" as I retired and travel a lot. A few years go bye and I upgraded to the 2018 11" model which I still use but was upset I had to purchase a newer Folio keyboard for the new form factor. Now that Apple has released the Air model that can use my existing Folio keyboard it would be a no brainier to go with the Air except my current 2018 11" is still performing great. I think I will go Air on my next buy as I would look for reduction in weight and maybe a memory upgrade for less money.

 

[Isengardtom]

My 12.9” M1 with mini LED is still great but I might look at an 11” pro but will depend on reviews.

OLED and Quad speakers are important to me. Promotion to a lesser degree as well.

As others mentioned, pro is more a marketing term. Not just for the iPad. I think that goes for the iPhone as well, and to a lesser extent even the Mac.

 

[iPadified]

No offence but I don’t buy this at all. Apple have been promoting it as a computer replacement for ages now but in all my years with the Pro it hasn’t lived up to the claim. Also quad speakers should not be a £400 premium

"Pro" does not mean MacOS replacement if that what you mean with a "computer". The 12.9 Air pricing will be very interesting compared to the iPP 13 inch. I think many who normally was forced to buy a iPP has now a lower cost alternative and yet get the larger screen.

 

[Ubuntu]

I think so. I primarily want the iPad for drawing, which ofc would be great with the Pro's higher refresh rate and better screen technology but it's just far too expensive for that use case so I'll likely get the Air.