iPad iPad Pro 2017 10.5" vs iPad 8 mostly just for sheet music

[Charlie Bonesx]

I'm looking at two used iPads:

iPad Pro 2017 10.5"

iPad 8

use will be almost solely for sheet music sitting on a keyboard, might grab it to read the news from time to time

both are $175 CAD (about $125 USD)

wondering whether people would prioritize the nicer larger screen of the pro or the more recent (and still supported) iPad 8

there is also an iPad Air 4 for $300, but that feels like over kill for basically an e-reader?



thanks in advance for any thoughts

 

[rui no onna]

The 2017 iPad Pro 10.5 (and 10.5" Air 3) has a known white spot issue so I would avoid that. We have 10.2" and 10.5" iPads at home and the size difference isn't noticeable at all.

How much storage is on the iPad 8? If it's the 32GB base, then that's way too tight. You'd probably have to delete all apps and contents every time there's a firmware update.

Is there an iPad 9 or iPad 10 available? How much are those?

 

[okkibs]

Why not get a cheap Android tablet instead? The OS and the performance don't matter if all you're doing is display pdf files. You can buy a brand new entry level Samsung Galaxy Tab A series with 11" for like 200 bucks at best buy and it even comes with the full warranty and the latest Android: https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_tab_a11+-14192.php

I would rather take that than a very sluggish iPad 8 that's nearly useless with the 32GB storage as was already mentioned here. I also wouldn't want to go back to Lightning, I only just got rid of the last device using Lightning and finally everything works through USB-C.

11" is also what I'd consider the minimum for sheet music and that's if you're playing the piano where you are very close to the display. If I were to buy a tablet exclusively for sheet music I'd look for a 13" tablet. I have a 11" iPad Pro and unless I want to squint it's impossible to fit an entire page meaning you have to scroll on each page instead of merely flipping from page to page.

 

[Charlie Bonesx]

The 2017 iPad Pro 10.5 (and 10.5" Air 3) has a known white spot issue so I would avoid that. We have 10.2" and 10.5" iPads at home and the size difference isn't noticeable at all.

How much storage is on the iPad 8? If it's the 32GB base, then that's way too tight. You'd probably have to delete all apps and contents every time there's a firmware update.

Is there an iPad 9 or iPad 10 available? How much are those?

any iPad 9 or 10 I found were much more expensive

thanks for pointing that out about the white spot issue, interestingly there are also a couple 11" 2018 iPad pros available here all pretty cheap because they have white spots and broken Touch ID

 

[01cowherd]

more recent (and still supported) iPad 8

The iPad 8 is borderline for support. It has the same A12 chip as the iPhone XS which lost support last year (stuck on iOS 18). If it doesn’t lose support this year, it’ll almost certainly lose it next year, at 7 years from release. (If you only use it for sheet music, maybe this doesn’t matter to you.)

Also, if you plan to use a stylus to mark up the music, keep in mind that not all iPads are compatible with the same styluses.

use will be almost solely for sheet music sitting on a keyboard

Personally, I don’t like reading sheet music on smaller sizes, so I’d only go for a 13” (and ideally there is a 14” or 14.5” for a more typical full size music sheet dimension). So I’d get the largest you are able/willing to buy. Though, most of the specialized sheet music software has options to improve the experience on smaller displays. That said, if you’re using it for keyboard or piano, that leaves you even fewer lines at once on the smaller displays.
If you haven’t already, I would simulate the different display sizes (either on your computer or printing out sheets) to see which sizes you’re comfortable reading from.

11" is also what I'd consider the minimum for sheet music and that's if you're playing the piano where you are very close to the display. If I were to buy a tablet exclusively for sheet music I'd look for a 13" tablet. I have a 11" iPad Pro and unless I want to squint it's impossible to fit an entire page meaning you have to scroll on each page instead of merely flipping from page to page.

I always preferred the nice 9”x12” paper, which would be a 15” diagonal. If you cut off the margins, it can get close to 14”. It’s too bad the rumors of an even larger iPad never materialized, though I shudder at the thought of what Apple would price it at.

 

[Homme]

iPad 9, forget the 8

 

[underthere]

I have the 2017 10.5" Pro and I like it. No white spot issue in my case, and the ProMotion screen is nice, thought that's probably less important for your case.

 

[Devvy]

I own an iPad 9, M1 11" pro and also an iPad 8 which I bought for some niche things - one of them being sheet music.
32 GB is tight, I am still running iPadOS 18 on it and there is not enough space for upgrading to iPadOS 26. However, apart from this "problem" (I don't want to upgrade anyway), the storage is more than sufficient. Sheet music files are tiny. And I am running ProCreate, Garageband and NanoStudio on it as well, which are large apps.
Performance-wise there isn't much between the 8th and the 9th, both have 3GB ram which is the main limiting factor.