I decided to upgrade from the iPad Air 2 to the iPad Pro 9.7. My thoughts:

[kidtachyon]

I loved my iPad Air 2 and was using its more and more so I decided to upgrade. I was a little worried that the 9.7" iPad Pro wouldn't be much of a difference. After 2 days of heavily using my new iPad Pro, here are my thoughts on upgrading:

1. The Apple Pencil is fantastic and is a game changer for me. In my job as a lawyer, I take notes at a lot of meetings and I review/annotate a lot of documents. The Apple Pencil is a fantastic tool for my non-artistic, business related use.

2. The Smart Keyboard is great so far. At this point, I'm still getting used to the smaller keyboard size. I type about 100 wpm, and I am slowed a bit by this new keyboard. However, I'm getting used to it and my typing speeds are getting faster and faster. The 2 best things about the Smart Keyboard:
--No messing around with Bluetooth. No pairing, no lag, no waiting for it to connect, no worry about whether it is connected or not. Because the keyboard is directly connected without Bluetooth, it's a rock solid connection that works 100-percent of the time. (And no batteries)
--The keyboard is light and small. I have never liked carrying around an extra keyboard and I hate bulky keyboard cases. This keyboard feels almost like a regular Smart Cover. It's exactly what I want in a keyboard - small, light, and mostly stays out of the way when I'm not using it. I mainly used my iPad Air 2 without a keyboard and without a case because I like it small and light. I would only hook up the keyboard when I was doing serious typing. With the Smart Keyboard on the iPad Pro, I will probably choose to keep the keyboard connected most of the time because it's light, provides a cover for the screen, and is easy to hold on my lap sitting down or on my stomach in bed.

3. Always on "Hey Siri". This is a nice feature to set alarms, open apps, and to make some other simple Siri commands.

4. Screen - The bright, anti-reflective coating and brighter screen is a nice little upgrade over the Air 2.

5. Speakers - for non-work related stuff, mostly music and video streaming - the 4 speakers are FANTASTIC. They really blew me away. I wouldn't upgrade solely for better sound, but these speakers are a HUGE difference from the Air 2.

6. Speed - the speed bump is nice. Opening apps, Siri, switching apps, etc are all a tiny bit better.

7. And finally - Rose Gold. Yes, it's a silly thing, but it's nice to have a shiny new color that makes me happy when I see it.

CONCLUSION: The Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard accessories make the upgrade well worth it to me. The remaining factors (Hey Siri, Screen, and Speakers) are a pleasant surprise. Especially the speakers. And the Rose Gold color adds an element of fun for me.

It takes a chunk of money to upgrade the Air 2 to a 9.7" iPad Pro. But for me, I'm very happy I sold my iPad Air 2 and did the upgrade.

 

[Booji]

Pretty much my same thoughts. The pencil brings a totally new use case, and the keyboard is truly a piece of design art. No reason to leave this keyboard behind as it is so small and light and is so well integrated making use seamless.

The extra speed and better audio are a bonus over the Air 2, but not transformational like the keyboard and Pencil.

 

[Abazigal]

I love the idea of the smart keyboard, but it's just too crazy expensive for me. Picked up a Keys to Go keyboard on the cheap from Amazon for my typing needs instead.

 

[DougFNJ]

I am enjoying the same experience with this upgrade, pricier but definitely worth it.

I will throw this out there to you, AT&T is currently running a buy 3 accessories, get 20% off sale. So if you add the Apple Pencil, Keyboard, and a cable, it will automatically deduct the 20%. I purchased my iPad Pro 9.7 on launch day along with all the accessories and found out about this less than 2 weeks later. I called the Apple Store to price match, they gave me a bit of a hard time, but in the end refunded me $50.

The experience only gets better as you find more uses for the Pencil. What note taking app are you using? I am loving Goodreads primarily for the organization in letting you create individual notebooks.

 

[MCAsan]

We are migrating from iPad Air 2 and Retina MacBooks to iPad Pro 12 (for field work) and iMacs at home. Less size and weight in the field is what we want. We will do the the heavy lifting on the iMacs.

 

[npolly0212]

I am enjoying the same experience with this upgrade, pricier but definitely worth it.

I will throw this out there to you, AT&T is currently running a buy 3 accessories, get 20% off sale. So if you add the Apple Pencil, Keyboard, and a cable, it will automatically deduct the 20%. I purchased my iPad Pro 9.7 on launch day along with all the accessories and found out about this less than 2 weeks later. I called the Apple Store to price match, they gave me a bit of a hard time, but in the end refunded me $50.

The experience only gets better as you find more uses for the Pencil. What note taking app are you using? I am loving Goodreads primarily for the organization in letting you create individual notebooks.

I saw this by it wouldn't give me a discount and when I chatted he lady so no Apple accessories.. Weird

 

[spiderman0616]

I am experiencing the same. If you look back through my post history, I was incredibly skeptical of the iPad Pro for a long time. But here I am, using the iPad Pro as my main computer, and no longer a Mac owner. The iPad Pro has so quickly and convincingly taken over as my main driver, I have decided I will never own a laptop again, other than the ones I am required to use for work.

1. Software has come a very long way since I last tried to use an iPad as a laptop replacement. Not only has iOS improved, but there are new apps out there that have filled in literally ALL of the gaping holes I used to have in my iOS workflow. iOS still needs to do more, but that will come with time, and I think iOS 10 is going to be a big step forward.

2. The hardware speaks for itself. Once you see that screen and hear the quad speakers, there's no going back.

3. The accessories. I am using Apple Pencil nightly for drawing and sketching, which is something I haven't done since high school. And I have taken very well to the Apple Smart Keyboard. I fly along on this keyboard just as well as any of the other keyboards I use. It's slightly more cramped, but my brain and fingers have adjusted nicely. I think the Smart Connector and Pencil have changed the iPad line permanently.

4. The surprises. When I stop trying to do things the old way on my iPad Pro (as in, the way I do them on a laptop) I sometimes find that the new way is easier and quicker. This is no fluke--I've had it happen a number of times. And when I'm not always worried about saving or managing windows and files, things just seem a lot more fluid. I was also surprised to discover that most of the time I used Finder in OS X, it was to access the iCloud Drive or Dropbox folders. I almost never put anything in any other folder. There is deep integration for both in iOS, so I don't miss the Finder at all.

At this point, when I go back to OS X or Windows, it feels like "the old way". I have adjusted really nicely to this machine as my main machine, and I am doing some really high end content CREATION on it, not just emailing and browsing the web. It has turned out to be a very powerful audio/video editor, digital sketch pad, mixing board, etc. This thing keeps up with or beats my rMBP in every task, and often times with a much easier UI.

No regrets here.