Have had every vintage iPad from the beginning. Had gotten to the point that I could for the most part replace my corporate laptop (Windows based...yuk), using the iPad Air 2 with a Belkin keyboard. Portability at the time was key as I was in the air over 100K miles a year. When the rMB 12 inch came out, I replaced the iPad and just loved it. This year I retired and the rMB is now on the block for sale and I have moved back to the iPad Pro. Really missed the ability to read magazines properly and was very intrigued with the Apple Pencil for photography and art work. Zinnio on a laptop just doesn't do it. So I bought the 9.7 iPad Pro. Loved the screen as has been referenced many times. It was a companion to my iMac 5K machine where I did most of my photography work. Liked the portability, but found it confining after working on a 12 inch laptop for some time. Also found that the keyboard was a bit cramped and when putting up Safari with bookmarks, part of the screen was truncated. Returned the 9.7 and got a 12.9. Love this machine. Keyboard is very similar to my rMB and the extra real estate is wonderful. Magazines and Safari are much more readable. Finally the USB3 connection is way faster even with the old SD card adaptor. Never going back. Problem with these forums is that everyone's use case is different. For example a potential buyer for my rMB asked if he could hook up the machine to an Apple Thunderbolt monitor. I never hooked the rMB to anything except a charger and sometimes an SD card adapter or the Multi-port HDMI to display on a PC projector or TV. Even though retired still think I need a desktop that doesn't move, a companion device with some real estate that is mobile and a large cellphone. Might live with the 9.7 if I was still traveling, but as a companion to the iMac, the 12.9 excels and together with my iPhone 6S plus fills in all the gaps. Fortunately Apple has a 14 day return policy and you can try out whatever device and then trade up or down. BTW, find I am using my iMac less and less. This machine rocks.