Review Roundup: 9.7" iPad Pro is a 'Powerful' Laptop Replacement for Casual Users

[warrior2000]

The 12.9" iPad Pro?
The Apple Pencil?
The Apple Watch?
The 12" Retina MacBook?
Apple Music?

iPad Pro - best selling $800+ tablet in the world

Apple Pencil - praised by graphic artist like Disney/Pixar as the best drawing tool EVER. Beating out stand alone drawing tablets/pencils that cost thousands of dollars

Apple Watch - fastest selling new Apple product EVER. Best selling smartwatch on the Planet that will reach 15 million units in its first year

Apple Music - became the #2 music streaming service in less than 6 months. It reached 10 million paid subscribers in 6 months. Pandora/Spotify took more than FIVE YEARS to reach 10 million paid subs.

Keep being an Apple hater. Its bad for your health. Cause Apple will keep winning and you won't, LOL.

 

[gaximus]

The difference is that you usually can get it to work through troubleshooting. On the iPad, you're SOL. It's simply not compatible.

I'm not getting into a Windows debate. Maybe I should edit the term Windows from my post, as this is interchangeable with OSX in this scenario. Don't want to ruffle Mac fanboys.

on the iPad its as simple as downloading the correct app. Windows the trouble shooting would require downloading the correct codecs, which might not be that simple for some users

 

[warrior2000]

Great to read mails and surf. I cannot connect anything. Cannot expand anything. Has no card reader. No file manager, no finder. Where are your files on an iPad?icloud? And if you have no connection?
But with keyboard and mouse and pen you can buy a real computer. The iPad is great but it is quite far from being a laptop replacement.

clearly not a laptop replacement for you.
But for many it is.

There are always exceptions. There are those that a laptop cannot replace their PC tower.

 

[jamesl2]

The problem isn't the hardware, it's the OS. iOS is not a substitute for OSX (or windows). Microsoft got that with the surface. I'm watching a number of my mac-using friends switch to surface/windows 10 because of the hybrid data entry - and it's still a real OS, not a toy.

Apple needs to have a non iOS answer for the surface - it's too locked down and limited to ever replace a full computing OS for most users (they could start by adding true, non-cloud, local storage and a USB 3 connector).

Agree 100% I'm a long term mac user and still have macs, but I bought a surface is totally outdoing my ipad, so I sold it. The surface pro 4 is an awesome product. Guess what? I want to see my files and have file explorer. I want to have 20 things in my tray I'm working on. I want to be able to print screen and do manipulations in paint, while having adobe, onenote and excel all open, and exchanging info between them. I want to be able to rename files, drag them anywhere and organize them into folders.

I have no idea why apple hasn't come out with an os x based tablet. I could understand early on in the ipad life cycle it needed development progress so ios made sense. but now? Apple is totally capable of coming out with a surface competitor but they don't. Its a real shame when an apple fan chooses a Microsoft product over an Apple one, but the facts don't lie about ios being crippled for anything other than super casual.

 

[Traverse]

I must get one of those and an Apple Pencil! I NEED IT!

 

[sledgehammer89]

That's a false statement. Many Teachers, Doctors, Lawyers, Chefs, Drivers, Installers, Artist, do fine without a 'real' computer.

Can't imagine this. Even writing with a hardware keyboard is a mess when it comes to cursor movement. You've got a big touchpad, but the touchpad(!) cursor always stops in his last position. If you marked something in page 30, touchpad cursor stays in page 30. If you scroll up to page 1 and want to mark some text with the touchpad cursor in page 1, the whole document jumps back to page 30 and you need to move the touchpad cursor from page 30 to page 1. Try it in Apple Notes, which comes default from Apple.

PC/Mac replacement? What a joke. Even basics doesn't work. As I wrote before, iOS 10 must be a big step forward.

 

[warrior2000]

Agree 100% I'm a long term mac user and still have macs, but I bought a surface is totally outdoing my ipad, so I sold it. The surface pro 4 is an awesome product. Guess what? I want to see my files and have file explorer. I want to have 20 things in my tray I'm working on. I want to be able to print screen and do manipulations in paint, while having adobe, onenote and excel all open, and exchanging info between them. I want to be able to rename files, drag them anywhere and organize them into folders.

I have no idea why apple hasn't come out with an os x based tablet. I could understand early on in the ipad life cycle it needed development progress so ios made sense. but now? Apple is totally capable of coming out with a surface competitor but they don't. Its a real shame when an apple fan chooses a Microsoft product over an Apple one, but the facts don't lie about ios being crippled for anything other than super casual.

You joined this forum today.
You posted something negative about ipad.
You posted something positive about surface.

What a surprise.

 

[jamesl2]

You joined this forum today.
You posted something negative about ipad.
You posted something positive about surface.

What a surprise.

Doesn't change my opinion, I still think apple products are great, top notch, whatever. It still stands that apple has yet to have a product like the surface. Apple could probably do it better, but it hasn't happened yet.

 

[warrior2000]

Can't imagine this. Even writing with a hardware keyboard is a mess when it comes to cursor movement. You've got a big touchpad, but the touchpad(!) cursor always stops in his last position. If you marked something in page 30, touchpad cursor stays in page 30. If you scroll up to page 1 and want to mark some text with the touchpad cursor in page 1, the whole document jumps back to page 30 and you need to move the touchpad cursor from page 30 to page 1. Try it in Apple Notes, which comes default from Apple.

PC/Mac replacement? What a joke. Even basics doesn't work.

Learn to select the right App for the job.
Why the heck would you be typing a 30 page document using Apple Notes?

 

[BillyMatt87]

iPad Pro - best selling $800+ tablet in the world

Apple Pencil - praised by graphic artist like Disney/Pixar as the best drawing tool EVER. Beating out stand alone drawing tablets/pencils that cost thousands of dollars

Apple Watch - fasting selling new Apple product EVER. Best selling smartwatch on the Planet that will reach 15 million units in its first year

Apple Music - became the #2 music streaming service in less than 6 months. It reached 10 million paid subscribers in 6 months. Pandora/Spotify took more than FIVE YEARS to reach 10 million paid subs.

Keep being an Apple hater. Its bad for your health.

Apple Pencil - Completely goes against Steve Jobs' views on styluses. also insanely overpriced and needs to be charged. Then again, Cook is doing every thing that Steve wouldn't do because he can.

Apple Watch - A glorified and overpriced iPhone accessory, doesn't deserve its own class of product when it's completely dependent on the iPhone to even function. How do we know it's the fastest selling new Apple product ever when they refuse to release sales figures? Apple, of all companies would never shy away from bragging about sales figures unless they had something to hide.

iPad Pro - Oversized (and overpriced) iPad running an iPhone interface. Not really a pro device. The Surface is a much more sophisticated and superior alternative.

Apple Music - Worst designed music app on iOS (iTunes is also a bloated mess), completely sidelines and undervalues the original tentpole feature of using your iPhone/iPad as an iPod.

Funny how you didn't mention the 12" Retina MacBook with almost no ports, no HD FaceTime camera, no glowing Apple logo on the back and weak internals.

Quit being such a deluded fanboy and accept the fact that Apple has lost its edge and focus.

FYI: I'm an Apple fan, I'm just willing to criticize them where they need to be and not blindly defend and praise them at every turn.

 

[warrior2000]

Doesn't change my opinion, I still think apple products are great, top notch, whatever. It still stands that apple has yet to have a product like the surface. Apple could probably do it better, but it hasn't happened yet.

So you join this forum TODAY to bash iPad and hype up Surface?

LOL.

Dude get a life. You literally wasted your time to sign up to this forum to bash Apple product and pump up the Surface.

 

[sledgehammer89]

Learn to select the right App for the job.
Why the heck would you be typing a 30 page document using Apple Notes?

It is an example how to touchpad cursor works, which everyone can try for itself. Same behavior in Pages. And now? Hopefully no more trash answers from you.

 

[ZenThought]

Synopsis of this thread:

If you are having trouble replacing your laptop with an Ipad ... your the problem and your obviously doing something wrong.

Hail Apple.

 

[radio893fm]

Ohhh Rene... another un-biased review... I wish these guys practice some constructive criticism so things will actually move forward. But I like Rene... Jason Snell on the other hand... what a crazy cheerleader.

 

[jamesl2]

So you join this forum TODAY to bash iPad and hype up Surface?

LOL.

Dude get a life. You literally wasted your time to sign up to this forum to bash Apple product and pump up the Surface.

I've been reading this website for a decade, bud. Finally created an account to write a few comments. Guess that was a mistake, if everyone has this attitude. Maybe I should write 10 positive posts first about the apple things I own in order to be entitled to say something negative. Hah, tell me to get a life? says the guy with over 700 forums posts here.

 

[Tycho24]

I'm just not feeling it. I mean it's really just an iPad Air 3 with $100 more and half the storage. No thanks apple.

Well... To be fair: it's the same price for half the storage. A 64gb iPad Air 2 was $599. That's the same price.
If you compare it to the base memory configuration of the Air 2 w/ previous pricing, you'd have to say: "it's a hundred dollars more for twice the storage ". I don't know how you arrived at what you said.
You either got briefly confused, or aren't aware of what the real pricing & specs are.

 

[warrior2000]

Apple Pencil - Completely goes against Steve Jobs' views on styluses. also insanely overpriced and needs to be charged. Then again, Cook is doing every thing that Steve wouldn't do because he can.

Steve Jobs also said he would never make an iPad smaller than 9.7 inches........
Steve Jobs also said he would never make an iPhone larger than 4.0 inches......

When the market changes you have to change or you will lose.

Apple Watch - A glorified and overpriced iPhone accessory, doesn't deserve its own class of product when it's completely dependent on the iPhone to even function. How do we know it's the fastest selling new Apple product ever when they refuse to release sales figures? Apple, of all companies would never shy away from bragging about sales figures unless they had something to hide.

Simple math. And knowing how to read financial statements. In 9 months the Apple Watch has DESTROYED Surfaces entire 4 year sales cycle. LOL.

Funny how you didn't mention the 12" Retina MacBook with almost no ports, no HD FaceTime camera, no glowing Apple logo on the back and weak internals.

Quit being such a deluded fanboy and accept the fact that Apple has lost its edge and focus.

FYI: I'm an Apple fan, I'm just willing to criticize them where they need to be and not blindly defend and praise them at every turn.

I never mentioned the MacBook because I never used one for an extended period.

Apple lost its edge? LOL. Nice joke. Apple is more powerful and influential than ever before.

 

[macs4nw]

I wonder if we will ever see another non-pro tablet update in 9,7" size

In either case I suspect many, if not most of those intending to do some serious stuff on their tablets are going to buy the Pro. As noted before, in effect Apple basically just upped the baseline price for the 9.7" by $100.

The Air2 might languish for a year or two, and once sales drop off significantly, they could quietly discontinue it.

 

[warrior2000]

It is an example how to touchpad cursor works, which everyone can try for itself. Same behavior in Pages. And now? Hopefully no more trash answers from you.

So its not the App.

Its your inability to point to a general area. LOL.

 

[Max(IT)]

It just seems like Apple could release a pile of turd with their logo on it and these people will still praise it.

Very credible your signature saying that....
You practically said Apple customers are a bunch of idiots and you claim to have bought several thousands $ of Apple products

 

[639051]

My iPad 2 is due for an update and I'll probably buy one, but these reviews are a little bit too positive to make me wonder if they're reviews or ads.

It's an iPad. Do you like your current iPad? If so, you will like this iPad. It isn't like this is a new category of iPad .. it's just an iPad.

 

[Rekan_]

Personally, for me this iPad could replace my Mac, like any other iPad.

All I needed was a keyboard to whack on the iPad and there, I can use Word or Pages with ease. I can have an app for creating and saving notes with the Apple Pencil (if the Notes doesn't do that already).

For students, this can be the ultimate replacement without needing to buy a big iPad.

 

[MH01]

A laptop replacement for casual users is an iPad Air , in this case an iPad Air 3.

 

[Max(IT)]

If you don't want to go back and read all the posts, here is a summarization of most of them:


Until Apple releases a proper iPad for me as a pro I think Apple has gone downhill. Being that I'm not a consumer as those are only grandmas who use computers for opening up a web browser. The new iPad is a POS. They need to add 16gb of memory, give it a keyboard, add a trackpad to the keyboard, preferably with force touch. Make the screen bigger and add a 1TB drive and have it run full OS X applications. I also want it to have a file system so it's more usable. Maybe attach the screen to the keyboard permanently so it's not as wobbly as the surfacebook. I think an intel processor in there would be good too because the iPad I haven't even seen yet feels slow.

Reviewers are definitely getting paid billions by apple to make their products seem better than they are. I mean come on? It's not even an iPad PRO. I tried running full version of adobe effects on it, and guess what? It didn't work! Wouldn't even install!! What a POS. It even sucks as a consumer device. I installed the full version of battlefield 4 and the damn thing a) doesn't load and says, you cannot run this windows exe on an iPad. It is NOT a replacement because it requires a PC since iPads don't even have Direct X. Talk about being behind the time apple. I'm surprised reviewers didn't mention anything about that, those kiss as**s. They are definitely getting paid and get free tickets to the events for omitting my needs from their reviews which clearly reflect all the other professionals.

Even though I haven't used it yet, I can't believe they only put 2gb of ram. I need more RAM. I'm a pro damnit! Pro's need at least 16gb of RAM. I don't know anything about memory optimization, but I do know that Android tablets and surfaces have more. Apple is just losing their touch, Steve would never allow them to only put 2gb of RAM on the device. I mean... with only 2.. it's like... you know, not enough RAM. We need more RAM. Otherwise it's a consumer device with less RAM. I think it would be ok if they put at least 3GB of RAM and then Apple would just RAM them all.

There you have it, the new Apple wishlist everyone wants.

And you clearly have lot of evidences about those ridiculous accusations, right?

 

[warrior2000]

I've been reading this website for a decade, bud. Finally created an account to write a few comments. Guess that was a mistake, if everyone has this attitude. Maybe I should write 10 positive posts first about the apple things I own in order to be entitled to say something negative. Hah, tell me to get a life? says the guy with over 700 forums posts here.

Sure you have been here for a decade. LOL. So desperate to pump up the pathetic sales of Surface? Hope they are paying you good money to pump it up.

You don't see me or other Apple fans go to Microsoft forums to bash on Surface. Why? Because we have lives. We are happy with our devices and don't see the need to go on to other non-Apple forums to bash their product.

I enjoy Apple products and talk about it. Nothing pathetic about having 700 posts here.

What is pathetic is someone setting up an account only to bash a product. Really sad.

Well at least Microsoft has the foul mouthed young girl AI market cornered.