iPad Pro Pro M2 vs Air M2 — Same price! Need advice!

[Bromio]

Hi all,

I need your advice. I just bought a brand-new iPad Pro M2 11" 256GB at almost the same price as an iPad Air M2 11" 256GB. Now I've found out I could get the iPad Air M2 for much cheaper thanks to the Back-to-School promotion. Actually, I could go even cheaper if I went for an iPad Air M2 128GB, as I don't think I need 256GB. I have 30 days to return the Pro.

I don't care about the camera position since I use my MacBook Air or iPhone 13 mini for FaceTime. I already have an Apple Pencil 2, which works with the Pro but not the Air, so keeping the Pro would save me money on not having to buy a new Pencil. From the Air M2, I like the idea of the 80% battery limit since I plan to keep the iPad connected to an external monitor using Stage Manager for several hours a day.

Should I keep the iPad Pro M2 or return it and get the iPad Air M2 at the lower price? My main concern is future-proofing. By the way, my use cases are mainly reading and marking up PDFs, browsing, note-taking, and Keynote presentations. I rarely watch videos and never edit photos or videos. Looking forward to your thoughts!

Thanks!

 

[Shirasaki]

Apple silicon has largely made future-proofing obsolete in Apple land I’d argue, with the only exception being the storage. It’s unbelievable but I wish I could get 1TB on my M1 iPad Pro.
I don’t know why somehow iPad Air M2 supports 80% charging but iPad Pro M2 magically just can’t. But, if your usage pattern is highly consistent, then optimised charging works just as well. I’d weight in Apple Pencil 2 support over 80% charging cause it can come in handy.

 

[musicpenguy]

I would stick with the Pro - I would think it will have similar OS support going forward - the extra storage may also come in handy as your iCloud account grows over time and having a bigger cache before stuff is offloaded (photos, iMessages etc.) - all of that stuff will get bigger over time and having more local storage will help the device work better. The screen tech is also a bit better with Pro Motion and 600 nits SDR versus 500 nits and the Apple Pencil will feel more responsive. The 80 percent thing I would not consider a feature worth ditching the pro for; it may help with battery health, but not in a huge huge way.

The Pro has one more GPU core activated, has an ultrawide camera, faceID, Thunderbolt (you mention hooking up to a monitor; as your needs grow maybe using a Thunderbolt dock will be handy - I find them MUCH more reliable than USB-C docks), a much better audio system with 4 speakers instead of 2 and more microphones, and it has LIDAR - just pointing out all the little nice touches the Pro will the over the Air

 

[Aka757]

With your use case it sounds like you don’t really need any of the features that the Pro offers over the Air (ProMotion, quad speakers, etc. In theory the Air M2 should be supported for longer than the Pro M2 since the Air M2 is brand new, but who knows what Apple has planned in terms of support. My thought is that both will be supported for at least another 5 years or so. That being said, since you will be using the Apple Pencil, the price difference between the two might be wiped out if you get the Air M2, since you’ll need to get the Pencil Pro.

My suggestion is just to keep the Pro. If the price difference isn’t crazy when taking into account the Pencil Pro, you might as well keep the Pro and enjoy the extra features over the air, even if it is a bit older. Can’t really go wrong either way though.

 

[Isamilis]

If you can get Pro with affordable price - same with Air, I would get the Pro. The Face ID, speaker and 120hz really give much comfort than the Air.

 

[Bromio]

If you can get Pro with affordable price - same with Air, I would get the Pro. The Face ID, speaker and 120hz really give much comfort than the Air.

Thanks for the input!

Considering the Back-to-School discount, the iPad Air M2 + Apple Pencil Pro would be only $19 cheaper than the iPad Pro M2 without a new Pencil, but I already own an Apple Pencil 2 from my iPad mini 6. Without any discount, the Air + Apple Pencil Pro would be $150 more expensive, so the current deal is certainly attractive.

I used my old iPad Air 2 for 9 years (bought in 2014), and I aim to get similar longevity from this new device. That's why I'm so concerned with lifespan, both in terms of OS updates and battery health. That being said, it’s disappointing that they’re selling iPads at such high prices without 120 Hz displays. I’m quite delighted by ProMotion whenever I try it at the store—even cheaper Xiaomi phones have it.

 

[Bromio]

Apple silicon has largely made future-proofing obsolete in Apple land I’d argue, with the only exception being the storage. It’s unbelievable but I wish I could get 1TB on my M1 iPad Pro.
I don’t know why somehow iPad Air M2 supports 80% charging but iPad Pro M2 magically just can’t. But, if your usage pattern is highly consistent, then optimised charging works just as well. I’d weight in Apple Pencil 2 support over 80% charging cause it can come in handy.

Thanks for your insights.

Should I keep the iPad continuously plugged in? With the Air M2 and the Pro M4, it’s a no-brainer, but with this, I'm not so sure. Since I want this device to last for 7-9 years, as my iPad Air 2 did, I'm very concerned about the battery health. Maybe I'm overestimating the benefits of the 80% limit.

My budget was essentially for a 128GB Air, but I extended it a bit to 256GB for this offer, also considering my intended long-term use.

Thanks!

 

[bradman83]

Don't discount the difference ProMotion on the Pro will make. I have a personal iPhone 13 Pro with ProMotion and a work-issued regular iPhone 12 without ProMotion and the difference is striking to me when I use the work phone. Swiping up from my lock screen on the plain 12 looks also jerky compared to the smoothness on the 13 Pro.

 

[Student of Life]

In this case because you already have the pro, just stick with it. The screen is better but not worlds better like the 12.9 pro with its mini led. You get promotion, better speakers, more cameras, a lidar sensor etc. Most importantly it will be cheaper when you factor in time and whatever savings you get with the air will be put toward the new Apple Pencil pro making it almost a moot point.

Also I think the Air has one less core GPU if that makes any difference as previously mentioned above. Face ID, I knew I forgot something, that is just so helpful.

 

[Royksöpp]

The screen on the Pro has better contrast and colors compared to the Air, plus pro motion. There is a significant difference in the speakers as well. As far as the Pencil Pro, the new features are more bells and whistles than useful. If video conferencing is that important to you, you could always attach an external webcam to the Pro. As for performance, the Pro has one more GPU core than the Air. If you can snag a deal on the Pro I would highly recommend it.

 

[azentropy]

I'd personally go with the Pro as the things that it is better at (Promotion, Speakers, FaceID) are much more important to ME than what the Air is better at (Camera position, a couple of obscure features and probably an extra year of support, colors).

 

[Shirasaki]

Thanks for your insights.

Should I keep the iPad continuously plugged in? With the Air M2 and the Pro M4, it’s a no-brainer, but with this, I'm not so sure. Since I want this device to last for 7-9 years, as my iPad Air 2 did, I'm very concerned about the battery health. Maybe I'm overestimating the benefits of the 80% limit.

My budget was essentially for a 128GB Air, but I extended it a bit to 256GB for this offer, also considering my intended long-term use.

Thanks!

There’s nothing wrong with plugging your iPad in continuously. Despite everything, battery tech has come a long way. Absolutely worst scenario, you just visit Apple Store and get the battery replaced when it drops below 80% health. In contrast, iPad Pro has many more features Than iPad Air, some of which you might thank for having them, such as 120Hz display, Apple Pencil 2 support, better speaker and More. 256GB also means if something big needs to be stored on iPad, you probably don’t need to micromanage storage. It’s spending a bit more for a generally better experience and less hassle down the line. To me that’s a More meaningful future proof than worrying about the processor: future proof your experience.

 

[StoneJack]

buy whatever is cheaper. There is not much difference in functionality anyway

 

[Sensamic]

buy whatever is cheaper. There is not much difference in functionality anyway

This. Save money for the next upgrade. Air M2 is more than enough for your usage.

 

[nburwell]

As a owner of the M2 iPad Pro, I’m a bit biased, but I like the Pro Motion display and the four speakers (since I do stream a lot on my iPad during the day). But it’s ultimately up to the OP for which model works best for their specific use cases.

 

[sk1985]

Buy the Air if you need a computer (it's great, I love mine except for the camera which is a potato). I like my iPad for different reasons (the screen and camera are significantly better). The iPad is like owning a second smart phone and more of a luxury device...A nice to have but not really needed item in my life.

 

[Macaholic868]

I’m in a similar boat. I don’t care about the camera. I’ve only got about 30 GB of space on my 128 GB iPad 10th generation without any movies loaded which I’d prefer to have enough space to have. I love Face ID and much prefer it over Touch ID but my concern is the age of the device. It’s from 2022 and I can see Apple forcing it to be obsolete earlier than the M2 Air for some BS reason even though the specs are similar.

That’s basically the only reason I’m still thinking about getting a 2024 M2 Air versus the 2022 M2 Pro. I had a 9.7” iPad Pro that I held onto until last year and decided to go with a low cost iPad because I knew I’d be replacing my 2020 Intel MacBook Air last year and didn’t use the iPad as much as I did before I got that first MacBook Air back then. Now that I’ve got an AVP I almost never use the iPad but I’m thinking if I got an iPad with a Magic Keyboard, a newer Apple Pencil than the 1st generation one, a better display and one than can run Apple Intelligence I would use it more since AI isn’t coming to the Vision Pro until next year if at all.

Either way whatever I buy is going to be it for me probably for the next 4 - 5 years. So if forced obsolescence is in the cards I’d much rather go with this year’s iPad Air as much as I’d like Face ID and probably prefer the display on the Pro. I don’t have either a Generation 2 Apple Pencil or the new Apple Pencil Pro so I’ll have to upgrade that either way.

What is everyone’s thoughts on forced obsolescence perhaps taking a year or two off of support for the latest iPadOS version that winds up being able to run on both devices. Dropping support for the Pro but keeping it for the Air given the specs seems like a reach but they could chalk it up to the display or some other BS. I just dint see them giving the Pro models an extra two years but IDK because outside of the original 9.7” iPad Pro I’ve not owned one nor followed when support drops for Air’s versus Pro’s.

Any help would be much appreciated. I realize it’s a SWAG (Scientific Wild A$$ Guess) at this point and nobody has a crystal ball.

 

[Bromio]

Thank you all for your replies!

After considering all of your comments, at the end I kept the 128 GB iPad Air M2 11" and returned the Pro. Yes, the screen is screen is slightly smaller, with lower quality (LCD vs. OLED, no ProMotion, less nits). But for my use case this Pro advantages were not decisive, sometimes they were even negligible. For example, I rarely use more than half brightness in the Air. TouchID is quite reliable and I don't feel this system cumbersome. After configuring the system, I only used 30 GB, so 128 GB was already plenty. I don't care about the cameras and LiDAR. Most important, the price difference was around $300. For the pencil, I'm using the USB-C version, which is good for me at the moment, while I have the opportunity of getting a Pro in the future. My 2nd gen will be exclusively for my iPad mini, which is more convenient than my initial plan of sharing.

Of course, my experience can be completely different from yours.

 

[sk1985]

Pro M2. Better display and minor size difference of the screens isn’t noticeable