(Fellow college students), does the 12.9" help you with tasks?

[drewjonn]

For students who bought the 12.9", does it really help you with your school workshops or tasks regardless your major being related to art or design? Or does it serve more as your overpowered fancy Netflix gadget?

I took a semester break and am coming back to college this fall, I'm a finance major and I don't know if it's going to involve a lot of note-taking or Excel works.

but the question is, does it serve you well as a more portable Macbook for your works? I'm talking about Word, Excel, and PPT. Apps like Evernote or Notability catch my interest, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to optimize it enough to justify the price of a $1000 gadget. Since I've never used a tablet for school, I can't really tell and might need some feedbacks and reviews to at least have a bit of an idea

Note: I have the latest 15" rMBP but I find it too heavy to carry everywhere, it's kinda big as well so I'm thinking about carrying a productive iPad with me to class or coffee shops.

 

[jamesrick80]

For college, I think it's much better to get a actual laptop or macbook....there are some things such as software based exams and full use of Excel that's quite difficult to do efficiently on the iPad pro especially if you are a finance major.

 

[TheRealAlex]

For students who bought the 12.9", does it really help you with your school workshops or tasks regardless your major being related to art or design? Or does it serve more as your overpowered fancy Netflix gadget?

I took a semester break and am coming back to college this fall, I'm a finance major and I don't know if it's going to involve a lot of note-taking or Excel works.

but the question is, does it serve you well as a more portable Macbook for your works? I'm talking about Word, Excel, and PPT. Apps like Evernote or Notability catch my interest, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to optimize it enough to justify the price of a $1000 gadget. Since I've never used a tablet for school, I can't really tell and might need some feedbacks and reviews to at least have a bit of an idea.

College Students need a full device capable of doing everything a New MacBook the one with the Butterfly keyboard is best its lighter than a 12.9 iPad

and a MacBook Air also just so Your kid does not Stick out like a jerk with a $400 Best Buy PC Laptop

I had jerk professors who only used Macs and made fun of PC users I was like one of 3 PC users in 2 months time I had to get a MacBook just to fit in.

 

[Shirasaki]

My opinion: for me, an engineering student, I still cannot find a killer feature enough to persuade me to buy this huge iPad. All pens and pencils and notebooks I can ever buy in three years, their price sum would still be way lower than $1500 AUD.
So, I need a killing feature, unique for iPad Pro, yet I still fail to find one. Laptop can complete almost every single task I want to complete.

 

[jgelin]

I use mine as my textbook, since e-books are much cheaper and can sometimes be found through other means ... My major is not art, it is Computer Programming and also getting my AA at the same time.
I use it to take every bit of notes, notability I use in the classroom especially, because it can record the audio at the same time as me writing, which is invaluable in classes where you are doing math, or are taking an anatomy course, labeling the diagram with the audio preserved was a godsend. For my own personal note taking I use GoodNotes because I prefer its pen and the ability to search back through the notes as if they were text.
As far as it replacing my computers, it won’t, and it hasn’t. The major replacement in this area has been, web browsing. I have written and edited two papers on the Pages app, and then one on the Word App, since my school gives us a subscription. Each was more than pleasant a workflow, and something I totally can see being used daily. I have NO clue how to use Excel, so I cannot tell you how well that works on the iPad as opposed to on a fully featured version on Windows/Mac.

there are some things such as software based exams and full use of Excel that's quite difficult to do efficiently on the iPad pro especially if you are a finance major.

I also agree with this, there is no way I could program on my iPad Pro no matter how much I love it.

 

[Shirasaki]

I use mine as my textbook, since e-books are much cheaper and can sometimes be found through other means ... My major is not art, it is Computer Programming and also getting my AA at the same time.
I use it to take every bit of notes, notability I use in the classroom especially, because it can record the audio at the same time as me writing, which is invaluable in classes where you are doing math, or are taking an anatomy course, labeling the diagram with the audio preserved was a godsend.

You have inspired me this use: record lecture audio while take notes on lecture slides. I didn't think about this usage!
Thanks a lot! I will consider it.

 

[mrex]

and a MacBook Air also just so Your kid does not Stick out like a jerk with a $400 Best Buy PC Laptop

what? i hope you were joking...

I had jerk professors who only used Macs and made fun of PC users I was like one of 3 PC users in 2 months time I had to get a MacBook just to fit in.

*speechless*

i think there was a place to where they dumped their worst teachers...

 

[akash.nu]

and a MacBook Air also just so Your kid does not Stick out like a jerk with a $400 Best Buy PC Laptop

I had jerk professors who only used Macs and made fun of PC users I was like one of 3 PC users in 2 months time I had to get a MacBook just to fit in.

This is the most stupid reason I've ever heard. Which dodgy school / college did you go to?

 

[Frisco]

I've heard the opposite. You will need a Windows computer for this course. No Macs! Of course that was before Apple's resurrection.

 

[bensisko]

Since you have a MacBook (and I would hope have no plans of getting rid of it) the iPad can be an amazing mobile companion for you, leaving your MacBook to become basically a "heavy task" computer.

An iPad Pro (be it medium or big) is amazing for notes, textbooks, reading/researching, writing papers, etc. OneNote, Word, and PowerPoint are absolutely fantastic on the iPad Pro (esp. With the ability to hand-correct / annotate docs, presentations). I would say that Excel on the iPad Pro is not the best experience - more like "I'm glad I still have Excel and can work on Spreadsheets, but it won't be where I'll be doing a lot of work". Think of it more as building on your MacBook, then being able to view and make edits on the iPad (vs. Word and PPT where you can most certainly create - I think PowerPoint is more enjoyable on the iPad vs. the desktop).

 

[Osty]

made fun of PC users I was like one of 3 PC users in 2 months time I had to get a MacBook just to fit in.

Gotta love peer and institutional pressure. I got my first Mac because my lecturers smuggly stated all publishers and graphic design shops used Apple. In 12 years of professional writing I've never encountered a business (including publishers and graphic design houses) in Australia or the UK that uses OS X as their official platform. Freelancers, sure, but not a single company I've dealt with in 12 years.

 

[akash.nu]

Gotta love peer and institutional pressure. I got my first Mac because my lecturers smuggly stated all publishers and graphic design shops used Apple. In 12 years of professional writing I've never encountered a business (including publishers and graphic design houses) in Australia or the UK that uses OS X as their official platform. Freelancers, sure, but not a single company I've dealt with in 12 years.

Simply because macs are way more expensive and I don't know about Australia but in the UK designers generally work on Mac. At least in my experience over the last 12-15 years that I've been in the industry.

 

[Osty]

Simply because macs are way more expensive and I don't know about Australia but in the UK designers generally work on Mac. At least in my experience over the last 12-15 years that I've been in the industry.

Yeah, I used to work in the UK too and noticed adoption among designers (small shops and freelancers) was higher. I've mostly worked in corporate/enterprise though and PCs rule the roost. Sometimes the graphics people or those of us who prefer the Mac bring in their own gear but more often I see them putting up with Windows and only grumbling occasionally. After all, Photoshop et al are basically the same on both platforms.

Enterprise here in Aus is dominated by Windows; mostly because of costs and perceived difficulty working in Active Directory and Exchange based environments. This is of course nonsense because I've used my Macs plenty of times in such setups.

I use and prefer Mac, I was just pointing out that a University department's claims about what goes on in the industry doesn't amount to a hill of beans especially if you work in a company that's not a design shop.

Professionally, I've had more contact with Linux than I have OS X. Thinking back to when I did my masters degree, I doubt any of my lecturers would have expected that.

 

[akash.nu]

Yeah, I used to work in the UK too and noticed adoption among designers (small shops and freelancers) was higher. I've mostly worked in corporate/enterprise though and PCs rule the roost. Sometimes the graphics people or those of us who prefer the Mac bring in their own gear but more often I see them putting up with Windows and only grumbling occasionally. After all, Photoshop et al are basically the same on both platforms.

Enterprise here in Aus is dominated by Windows; mostly because of costs and perceived difficulty working in Active Directory and Exchange based environments. This is of course nonsense because I've used my Macs plenty of times in such setups.

I use and prefer Mac, I was just pointing out that a University department's claims about what goes on in the industry doesn't amount to a hill of beans especially if you work in a company that's not a design shop.

Professionally, I've had more contact with Linux than I have OS X. Thinking back to when I did my masters degree, I doubt any of my lecturers would have expected that.

Yes I agree with you on that. Although I find universities are vastly off course in connection with what the industry standard is. Software development and design is such an ever changing field that universities can't really keep up.

 

[DaniJoy]

Use mine for books and sketching occasionally. I'm studying illustration and design, iPad Pro does not have good enough software for most of my projects. It can fit into the workflow, but only as a supplemental device (sketching or light duty painting)

Tried note taking and paper writing on the pro, but I prefer paper and pen for that. It's just easier for me to type on a full sized keyboard with a mouse for papers.

 

[David58117]

I'm a comp sci student - and the 12.9 pro helps immensely.

Mostly for note taking, audio recording of lectures, and reading textbooks. Splitscreen is great too - I can watch a video on one side, and take notes on the other side of the screen. If you're taking a lot of math classes, the endless paper/notebooks, and having all your notes sync to other devices, can't be beat..

Hell, I can even practice Python on the go with Pythonista.

 

[Xenden]

I do all of my notes with notability on the Pro. I got so used to doing all my school work on the iPad, that I accidentally forgot to bring a pencil to a test last semester.

 

[Badrottie]

I think you will need BOTH RMB or MBA and iPad because they can work together. You take iPad to the class and save all stuff to cloud service then you will able to work on your rMB at your dorm. That is what I did at my school few years ago.

 

[RickTaylor]

I'm a math instructor rather than a student, but thought I'd chime in anyway. In class I connect my iPad pro to a projector, and use it as a virtual whiteboard. It is wonderful for this purpose. My students find it more readable, and I can save the results and e-mail them as pdfs. I also use it as a notebook for math.