A Somewhat Negative Review of a Product I Love: the New iPad Pro
It’s a great device wrapped in a good shell. I liked the old shell.
Almost a decade into its existence, a lot of people remain skeptical about the iPad. That includes some people who were extremely bullish after its explosion in sales out of the gate, who now look at such metrics and see relative stagnation. I am not one of those people. I love the iPad. It might be my favorite computer.
So it’s safe to say I’m in the wheelhouse for the new iPad Pro. Hell, I may reside there. This is the fastest iPad yet. With the biggest screen. Etc.
But I have to say, I don’t love this device as much as I thought I would.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s still great. Really great, in many ways. But if I’m being honest, I think I prefer the old design for the iPad Pro more than this updated version. Yes, even though the screen has been embiggened (and rounded) substantially. I just don’t like the way it feels in the hand as much.
At first, I was sure I would love this new design. It hearkens back to the iPhone 4 design with the flat sides. But while that made for a device that felt great to hold in your hand, such design doesn’t work as well for a larger device you grasp a portion of with one hand, or hold with two. At least not in my opinion.
I’m not even sure I like the way it looks more than the old iPad design. On one hand, it’s a nice, clean look. On the other, something about it looks a little juvenile to me. Maybe it’s the screen’s rounded corners matched with the rounded corners of the device. It almost reminds me more of a children’s toy, aesthetically.
Whereas all previous iPads featured either various tapering (which, again, made it nicer to hold, in my opinion) and/or bulges in the back, this feels like the first full-on tablet, tablet. It’s a true slate. You could see Moses holding this thing. Especially the big one.
Speaking of, while I got the smaller variety — 11” — I’m still torn if I should have gotten the larger one — 12.9”. I’ve played around with the larger one in an Apple Store a bit and it both feels bigger (in a good way), and doesn’t seem all that much bigger (in a good way). As someone who bought both the smaller and larger iterations of the previous iPads Pro, I can assure you this was not the case before. The older big iPad Pro seemed comically huge.
I think I made the right call from a portability perspective, but it’s close. Very close.
I also opted to buy the Smart Keyboard Cover — sorry, Folio — once again. And it’s pretty good. Some people hate the keys, but I quite like them and their chiclet shape. They’re very quiet. The new tweak this year is that you get not one, but two different viewing angle options. Option 2 — the one with the bigger angle — is good. It’s like the previous version of the device. Option 1 — the more vertical option — makes no sense to me. I don’t understand who would want to look at a computer this way. Maybe if you’re standing at a standing desk where the thing was so jacked up that the iPad was at eye-level. But who the hell would want to type in such a way?
So perhaps it’s meant to replace the previous fold-over angle? That is, the angle when you propped it up without the keyboard deployed? (You can’t do that anymore with this new keyboard.) I don’t know. But I don’t get it. Certainly it’s not a good angle to use it in your lap either, unless you’re laying completely flat on your back? Who does that?
I wish Apple gave you the option to go the other way — to have it more inclined. Or to just copy the Surface/Pixel Slate and let you pick the angle at which to work.
That said, the base of this keyboard cover is solid. More solid than before. As such, using it in your lap is great. As long as you use Option 2 as your angle.
That said — x2 — the case is far too cumbersome for my taste. This is largely due to the fact that it now wraps around the entire device (thanks to those magic magnets) and protects the back. I’ve never used a case to protect the back of my iPad. I guess it’s useful for the camera, but it’s overkill in my book. I preferred the older cases that only protected the screen, including the old keyboard case. This new one adds significant bulk to such a svelte device.
This new keyboard case — sorry, folio — is also pretty ugly. It’s very industrial and stark. Gray. Dark Gray. The darkest of dark grays. I’m tempted to add stickers to the fully flat side to liven it up a bit. Would that be tacky? That seems tacky. I really miss the comparatively elegant leather covers. There are no leather options this year. Only polyurethane in all its brutally bland glory.
Did I mention that folding the keyboard cover back so it sits against the back of the iPad to use in “tablet mode” leaves the keys exposed? It’s a little looney that Apple signed off on this. At least the keys are disabled when you do this. Still…
Speaking of the magnets, I would not recommend using this device on a metal table. Unless you wish to look ridiculous when you leave.¹
There are plusses and minuses to this being the first iPad without the home button. First and foremost, FaceID on this device is fantastic. More fantastic than on the iPhone. It seems both faster and more reliable. So much so that it often surprises me with the angles at which it will unlock. I hope these learnings are rolled out to the iPhone soon (of course, a big part of it is positioning more front-facing cameras in different places around the rim).
In the minuses camp, I find it a bit more cumbersome to use the swipe-to-home gesture versus using the home button when in keyboard (landscape) mode. Luckily, the keyboard shortcuts easily alleviate this — cmd-H takes your right home, cmd-tab will be your new best friend.
Tap-to-Wake (the screen) is as amazing on this device as it is on the iPhone. This is innovation, people.
The move to USB-C is fine. It’s slightly annoying if you often just carry an iPad and an iPhone, as I do, but I’ll get used to it. And yes, you can now charge an iPhone with this iPad, if you have the right USB-C-to-Lightning cable.
I realize I’m focusing on some negatives here — and I have a few more — but just to reiterate: this is a great device. It’s insanely fast. So fast that I would bet that you’ll never be able to find anything to truly tax this machine. Battery life remains amazing. The screen is amazing. It’s a little ridiculous to complain about this device. Then again, it’s also ridiculously expensive!²
The new Apple Pencil is brilliant. The new way it latches onto the side of the iPad and charges this way is beyond brilliant. And yes, it makes the old way you paired/charged the Apple Pencil seem even more ridiculous.
A few last nits since, if you love the iPad as I do, you’ll undoubtedly be getting this device, so I just wish to highlight some things that may annoy you too. You’re welcome.
This new iPad is said to be both thinner and lighter than previous versions. And I’m sure that’s true. But I’m also sure that it doesn’t really feel true, in the hand. This is probably a balancing issue — did I mention how flat/uniform this device is? — but it actually feels a little heavier to me in daily use when compared to the old iPad. It also feels a little thicker, due to the flat sides. I know it’s just me, but I also know I won’t be alone here.
I also find that this device often looks a lot dirtier than previous versions with use. I’m sure this is related to the bigger screen, but also because I used to prefer the white-rimmed versions of the iPad for this reason. There is no more white option. So the all-blacks highlight the grime and fingerprints galore. Also, the smaller black rim mixed with the lack of home button means I’m holding this thing upside down quite a bit now. All the time, in fact. The iPad software rotates for this purpose, but it’s annoying. Not as annoying as holding the Apple TV remote control upside down as we all seem to do 100% of the time, but still annoying.
There’s a lot of ink being spilled about the need for Apple to once again update iOS for the iPad. That it has gotten long-in-the-tooth, and if Apple truly wishes the iPad to be a capital-P-capital-C, it needs PC-grade software. I agree with this mainly in the fact that Apple needs to overhaul Safari for the iPad. The “Request Desktop Version” button should be removed. There should be 100% parity. The screens on these devices are big enough now. I’d still eventually like some sort of trackpad option. But even without that, Apple needs to figure it out so that we can use things like overlay menus on the web. The full web. Full stop.
¹ This was the case with the old cases too, but now it’s really the case.
² Especially if you opt for the 1TB version Which seems like complete and total overkill — I opted for 256GB — but apparently it has more RAM?!
