This question isn't only for people in healthcare, or who use their iPads professionally, but those are the cases I'd be extremely interested in hearing from. I've been out of the iPad scene for the past 2-3 years and am trying to figure out what's changed; what's now possible (or impossible); and what's worth getting.
I work in healthcare. When I worked in a hospital setting I used an iPad - first a mini, and then when it stopped receiving updates, an iPad Pro 9.7" with the first-generation Apple Pencil. It was used heavily, for a combination of things: paper replacement (writing notes from patient encounters that would then be transcribed into the electronic health record); reference (medical information and literature, articles); team communications; and occasionally, giving Keynote presentations. It worked beautifully for this use case, and with an Otterbox Defender case and a case from Ztylus for the Apple Pencil that also added a clip, the devices could also withstand alcohol and bleach-based wipes to keep them sanitary.
Work changed about three years ago, and I stopped using my iPad, but I'm set to return to the way things were before and I'll be using an iPad in my workflow regularly again. I worry that the performance and the battery of my old, trusty 9.7" A9X iPad Pro may not hold up as well as I remember, given new software demands and the impact of age (and disuse) on the batteries of the iPad and Pencil. The new iPads also have FaceID, which - if it can also use the Apple Watch to unlock similar to what the iPhones can do (I'm guessing not, though, since the Watch does not pair to the iPad) - would be perfect, since there were a fair number of times that my hands were in gloves, or wet from washing, and TouchID was unusable.
The new Pencil seems less work-friendly; I recall needing to recharge my first-get Pencil once or twice during the day (if that), and I could do so easily on the iPad or with a special charging cable I bought, but the new iPads seemingly could not fit a full-coverage case because the Pencil needed to be right up against the iPad to charge... and there's no other way to charge it, right? That, in turn, makes the iPad less work-friendly because while I see Otterbox does have a case that accommodates the Apple Pencil, it's not a full-coverage case like the Defender. Those aren't necessarily deal-breakers, and it seems to be the way things are going (Apple still sells the first-ten Pencil, it still has a Lightning port and there's no adapter, so you cannot charge it from the newer iPads).
The question comes down to: are there any good cases for the new iPad Pros and Apple Pencil Gen2 for professional use, ideally that can help to protect them from regular sanitization? If not, just how badly did people feel moving from the previous generation gear to the newer ones? It's mostly a question of whether I should upgrade now and feel comfortable with that decision, or hold out, use the gear I have, and possibly even invest in a new first-generation Apple Pencil (should the battery on mine be shot) because the newer stuff is too limiting.
I work in healthcare. When I worked in a hospital setting I used an iPad - first a mini, and then when it stopped receiving updates, an iPad Pro 9.7" with the first-generation Apple Pencil. It was used heavily, for a combination of things: paper replacement (writing notes from patient encounters that would then be transcribed into the electronic health record); reference (medical information and literature, articles); team communications; and occasionally, giving Keynote presentations. It worked beautifully for this use case, and with an Otterbox Defender case and a case from Ztylus for the Apple Pencil that also added a clip, the devices could also withstand alcohol and bleach-based wipes to keep them sanitary.
Work changed about three years ago, and I stopped using my iPad, but I'm set to return to the way things were before and I'll be using an iPad in my workflow regularly again. I worry that the performance and the battery of my old, trusty 9.7" A9X iPad Pro may not hold up as well as I remember, given new software demands and the impact of age (and disuse) on the batteries of the iPad and Pencil. The new iPads also have FaceID, which - if it can also use the Apple Watch to unlock similar to what the iPhones can do (I'm guessing not, though, since the Watch does not pair to the iPad) - would be perfect, since there were a fair number of times that my hands were in gloves, or wet from washing, and TouchID was unusable.
The new Pencil seems less work-friendly; I recall needing to recharge my first-get Pencil once or twice during the day (if that), and I could do so easily on the iPad or with a special charging cable I bought, but the new iPads seemingly could not fit a full-coverage case because the Pencil needed to be right up against the iPad to charge... and there's no other way to charge it, right? That, in turn, makes the iPad less work-friendly because while I see Otterbox does have a case that accommodates the Apple Pencil, it's not a full-coverage case like the Defender. Those aren't necessarily deal-breakers, and it seems to be the way things are going (Apple still sells the first-ten Pencil, it still has a Lightning port and there's no adapter, so you cannot charge it from the newer iPads).
The question comes down to: are there any good cases for the new iPad Pros and Apple Pencil Gen2 for professional use, ideally that can help to protect them from regular sanitization? If not, just how badly did people feel moving from the previous generation gear to the newer ones? It's mostly a question of whether I should upgrade now and feel comfortable with that decision, or hold out, use the gear I have, and possibly even invest in a new first-generation Apple Pencil (should the battery on mine be shot) because the newer stuff is too limiting.
