Just upgraded to 9.7" Pro from Air 1st Gen...WOW

[redman042]

My iPad Air (first generation) hasn't seen much use over the last 9 months. I have the 6s Plus, which gives me a fairly large display in my pocket at all times, and it has performance which puts the Air to shame. I'm spoiled now, and the stutters, occasional app crashes, and reloads of the Air are just annoying to deal with when in comparison my phone absolutely flies through every single task. So I rarely used my iPad anymore. But even a 5.5 inch display is still small for extended reading or productivity, so for some time I've longed for an iPad upgrade.

Last night I treated myself to the 9.7" Pro (128 GB, Silver, Wifi) and Apple Pencil. A Smart Keyboard is on the way.

What a nice upgrade this is! What jumps out right away is the display. You'd think a retina display is a retina display, but this one is seriously a step beyond. Forget OLED - this image is amazing. The True Tone feature really works, and I just find it so much more pleasing to look at. In the past I'd often tinker with the white balance of my PC display to try to reduce eyestrain (but could never quite get it where I wanted it), so this function is a big payoff to me. One thing I notice is that white areas on the screen closely match the tone of the iPad's white bezel no matter what lighting conditions I'm in. That's impressive. There's some serious wizardry going on in the background, because I've heard of no other display that can do this.

True Tone, plus the wider color gamut, bonded display, and low reflectivity make for one amazing screen. I sat outside in the sun and even there it looked pretty great.

Of course, the device's performance is outstanding. Like my phone, I can now do whatever I want, or switch between several things at once, without even thinking about whether the device can handle it.

And that pencil. Drawing on this thing is a revelation.

I'm a happy camper.

 

[capathy21]

Congrats. Both iPad Pro models are impressive. The more I use the 9.7, the more I enjoy true tone and the display overall. If the Smart Keyboard for the 9.7 is half as good as the Smart Keyboard for the 12.9, you are in for a treat.

 

[redman042]

I tried a relative's Smart Keyboard the other day. It's really nice. It takes a little getting used to the condensed spacing between keys, but the feel is otherwise really good.

 

[sflomenb]

Made the same jump as you, very pleased.

 

[frankdogg]

i went from air 1 to 9.7 pro to 12.9 pro. From the air 1 to 9.7 pro you definitely notice the differences in screen, weight, and speed. congrats on your purchase.

 

[baypharm]

Gosh darn it! All these raves reviews since last night about how much nicer the Pro is over the original Air has worn down my resistance. Last month I said on this forum that I was quite pleased with my Air 1 and saw no overwhelming need to upgrade. So on a lunch break about an hour ago I went into a Best Buy and played with the Pro for 10 minutes. WOW! I formally take back all I said about no need to upgrade from the Air 1. I was immediately smitten by the lighter weight, the increased speed of the processor, and oh that gorgeous screen is a sight to behold - makes my Air look bad. After leaving BB, I went out to the car and placed an order with Apple. So looking forward to this purchase!

 

[tgara]

Gosh darn it! All these raves reviews since last night about how much nicer the Pro is over the original Air has worn down my resistance. Last month I said on this forum that I was quite pleased with my Air 1 and saw no overwhelming need to upgrade. So on a lunch break about an hour ago I went into a Best Buy and played with the Pro for 10 minutes. WOW! I formally take back all I said about no need to upgrade from the Air 1. I was immediately smitten by the lighter weight, the increased speed of the processor, and oh that gorgeous screen is a sight to behold - makes my Air look bad. After leaving BB, I went out to the car and placed an order with Apple. So looking forward to this purchase!

So why didn't you just get one at Best Buy?

I made the same upgrade, Air 1 to 9.7 Pro. Couldn't be happier.

Between the screen, increased processor speed, Pencil support, Keyboard support, Split Screen, and Touch ID, it's a heck of an upgrade.

 

[dazey]

So why didn't you just get one at Best Buy?

I made the same upgrade, Air 1 to 9.7 Pro. Couldn't be happier.

Between the screen, increased processor speed, Pencil support, Keyboard support, Split Screen, and Touch ID, it's a heck of an upgrade.

I did the same as well. The touch ID is a major for me, I was tending to leave my ipad Air1 unsecured a lot which bothered me. Speed is a big step up (and the lack of crashing- especially autocad which has memory issues). The pencil is awesome, marking up pdfs is so much easier than on a laptop.

 

[baypharm]

Nothing against BB. I just like ordering directly from Apple. I like the anticipation of knowing something is coming in the mail as opposed to instant gratification! Anyway, I went completely crazy just now. I also ordered a 12" Pro AND an iPhone 6s Plus. Everything should be here by tomorrow or Thursday. Whew!!

 

[tom504]

I hated the original air because of the hollow sound when I tapped the screen.

 

[frankdogg]

Nothing against BB. I just like ordering directly from Apple. I like the anticipation of knowing something is coming in the mail as opposed to instant gratification! Anyway, I went completely crazy just now. I also ordered a 12" Pro AND an iPhone 6s Plus. Everything should be here by tomorrow or Thursday. Whew!!

...but you could have ordered through the best buy website and if you're a rewards member, could have gotten some sweet rewards money to use toward other products.

 

[tgara]

I did the same as well. The touch ID is a major for me, I was tending to leave my ipad Air1 unsecured a lot which bothered me. Speed is a big step up (and the lack of crashing- especially autocad which has memory issues). The pencil is awesome, marking up pdfs is so much easier than on a laptop.

Nice! I have the Pencil as well and like it a lot.

How are you annotating your PDFs? My file system at the moment is basically Dropbox, which can link to Adobe Acrobat. I can access a PDF file in Dropbox, open it in Acrobat, do the annotations, then save it back to Dropbox. From there, I can email the annotated document to my secretary, a colleague, or whoever.

 

[ukpetey]

I'm so excited! Today I ordered myself a 9.7 iPad Pro, it comes tomorrow. I ordered a pencil too. The Smart Keyboard will have to wait, I couldn't afford that as well.

I'm moving on up from an iPad Air 1. Sounds like I'm in for quite a treat

 

[redman042]

My keyboard arrived yesterday. It is really nice. I'm very quickly adjusting to the tighter key layout. The feel is terrific.

Last night I had to bring office work home with me (I often do). Instead of booting up my company-issued Surface Pro 4 (a nice machine for sure, but a little glitchy at times, awkward on the lap, and it's still Windows), I made an attempt to do all my work on my Pro. I used to do this with my Air back when I first purchased it, but quickly found that it was frustrating because "multitasking" was hardly effective when the apps I was switching between frequently had to reload, or there was significant lag during switching. This time, no such thing! The Pro handles everything I throw at it, instantly. Switching apps is absolutely instant, and reloads never seem to happen. I can jump between email, OneNote, Todoist, Word, Excel, PDF, etc. at the blink of an eye. It's really really smooth. Plus, that screen makes hours of work easier on the eyes. The Surface Pro 4 display is no slouch, but True Tone takes it to another level. And it's just nice after 8 hours with a keyboard and mouse to at least be able to switch to something different and more "casual" to get the rest of my work done.

The added horsepower under the hood of this machine makes all the difference in the world. And the Pencil makes this a class-leading option for marking up PDFs and taking handwritten notes. My Surface is good at this, but the iPad is better.

While I still can't do everything I need to productivity-wise in iOS, the iPad has come a long way for me.

 

[augustya]

I thought the true tone most of the times made the screen invariably look a bit yellower and no I am not talking about night mode, even true tone for me made the screen look dull and yellowish. I prefer the bright, bluish white that the iPad normally had.

 

[ukpetey]

My 9.7" Pro arrived a couple of hours ago. I have to say, my initial reaction is - I'm blown away. Screen looks amazing, it's so much snappier. Typing on the on screen keyboard is much more accurate and less error prone than on my Air 1. I guess it's because it's so much snappier. Typing on the Air 1 had become a chore, I feel like I had a few months at the front of Mavis Beacon's class!

As for the pencil, i have experimented with just Notability so far. It's awesome! I can't wait until I can afford the keyboard cover.

Wow. Just wow!

 

[ColdShadow]

Ofcource Pro is significantly better in every way than the ancient Air 1..
the real question is if if is actually better than the Air 2..in real life not on paper and considering the price..
many believe Air 2 and Pro 9.7 are very very close.

 

[Channan]

Nothing against BB. I just like ordering directly from Apple. I like the anticipation of knowing something is coming in the mail as opposed to instant gratification!

I like instant gratification because it's instant.

 

[SestoElemento]

My 9.7" Pro arrived a couple of hours ago. I have to say, my initial reaction is - I'm blown away. Screen looks amazing, it's so much snappier. Typing on the on screen keyboard is much more accurate and less error prone than on my Air 1. I guess it's because it's so much snappier. Typing on the Air 1 had become a chore, I feel like I had a few months at the front of Mavis Beacon's class!

As for the pencil, i have experimented with just Notability so far. It's awesome! I can't wait until I can afford the keyboard cover.

Wow. Just wow!

How well is the apple pencil performing?