iPad Pro iPad Pro: Very Disappointing

[Alameda]

I’ve had my 11” iPad Pro since December — about four months now. Now that I’ve put it through its paces, I think I can say confidently that this is a very disappointing product.

I bought it with 512 GB of storage, the M2 processor, 8 GB of RAM, the cellular radio and the Magic Keyboard. For a product at this price point, it is a terrible laptop. I can definitely see the value of a $300 or $400 iPad as an entertainment toy. It’s great at downloading movies for playback while on long flights. But at the price of the iPad Pro, it’s well into laptop territory, as is the hardware capabilities… but it badly disappoints.

I’m not sure where to begin, but the Safari browser is very weak, and so is text selection and editing. Select/copy/paste works so-so on the iPhone, but on a platform like iPad Pro, I should have no difficulty selecting text for copy/paste. But it doesn’t work well on this platform. I downloaded Microsoft Office, and found its performance is fairly slow. I tried brining in RAW photos from my camera for editing with Adobe Lightroom, and it was close to unusable, especially compared to using my MacBook Pro. I tried using it as a slideshow player for my digital photos, and that hasn’t worked out too well. I tried using it with my Magic Mouse, but the scrolling feature of the mouse doesn’t work; I can’t slide my finger on top of the mouse to scroll a window.

I think this system needs to be MacOS with touchscreen support, instead of iPhone OS with keyboard support. As I said, i can see the attraction at the $300-$400 level, but in a $1,000-ish product, I should be able to get at least the same productivity as a laptop. MS Windows has plenty of touchscreen laptops; it’s basically Windows with a touchscreen mouse. Personally, I don’t see much future for the iPad Pro if they’re only going to be large screen iPhones.

 

[sparksd]

Definitely not the device for you. I have no problems with RAW images and Lightroom on my M1 12.9 and my Logitech MX Master 3 mouse works well with it. I also have an MS Surface pro 7 but much prefer the iPad as a touch device.

 

[Alameda]

Definitely not the device for you. I have no problems with RAW images and Lightroom on my M1 12.9 and my Logitech MX Master 3 mouse works well with it. I also have an MS Surface pro 7 but much prefer the iPad as a touch device.

I don’t think Windows is a better system, I was just pointing out that adding touch screen support to a desktop OS isn’t a big deal. I find that a lot of operations are far slower on the iPad than they are on my MacBook Pro, even though they use the same CPU.

 

[sparksd]

With 50 years of s/w dev & mgmt experience, I cringe at the words "isn't a big deal" when applied to s/w projects. And I have not thought of adding touch support to a desktop OS as trivial (I have OS development experience).

 

[muzzy996]

It really boils down to a matter of preference of the individual in terms of the workflow to do any particular task that the user is interested in doing. That you're disappointed in the product speaks more towards you being desktop OS centric in your preferred workflows than it does towards the weaknesses of the iPad itself.

I'm not trying to defend the iPad - I too have limited use for the iPads that I own simply because I too am more desktop OS centric in my preferred workflows. At the end of the day the best tool for the job is one that supports the workflow that works best for each of us.

 

[Alameda]

With 50 years of s/w dev & mgmt experience, I cringe at the words "isn't a big deal" when applied to s/w projects. And I have not thought of adding touch support to a desktop OS as trivial (I have OS development experience).

Really?
So Microsoft is so much smarter than Apple that they can do it but Apple’s engineers are just too doggone dumb to pull it off?
Apple makes over one billion dollars a day. Surely it’s “no big deal” for a company of that size.

 

[sparksd]

Really?
So Microsoft is so much smarter than Apple that they can do it but Apple’s engineers are just too doggone dumb to pull it off?
Apple makes over one billion dollars a day. Surely it’s “no big deal” for a company of that size.

And MS said the effort was "no big deal"? Ever use Win 8 on a touch device?

 

[Alameda]

And MS said the effort was "no big deal"? Ever use Win 8 on a touch device?

Windows 8 is a disaster period. But their touchscreen works.

 

[NastyMatt]

I’ve had my 11” iPad Pro since December — about four months now. Now that I’ve put it through its paces, I think I can say confidently that this is a very disappointing product.

I bought it with 512 GB of storage, the M2 processor, 8 GB of RAM, the cellular radio and the Magic Keyboard. For a product at this price point, it is a terrible laptop. I can definitely see the value of a $300 or $400 iPad as an entertainment toy. It’s great at downloading movies for playback while on long flights. But at the price of the iPad Pro, it’s well into laptop territory, as is the hardware capabilities… but it badly disappoints.

Not wanting to state the obvious, but it’s not a laptop. If you are not taking advantage of the touch screen (and pen) and portability as a tablet then a laptop is the better product. Just because it’s price is “into laptop territory” does not make it a laptop.

I don’t have a magic mouse but a 5 second “Google” came up with lots of videos of scrolling, here is one

I use MS Office on it - granted it’s no MS Windows Office but I wouldn’t call it “fairly slow” but I have a bugbear with MS on iPad - so let‘s not go there.

 

[MajorFubar]

I feel for you. This is an old conversation which polarises opinion and usually runs for dozens of pages. One one side we have the "I can do more with a ten year old laptop than an iPad Pro because the OS sucks and is holding the hardware back" camp, and on the other side we have the "I don't want a touchscreen macOS on my tablet, I like it just the way it is" camp. The two camps never ever agree.

I'm in the former camp, which is why I've only ever bought the cheapest iPads. iPad pros would for me be a complete waste of money that I could still only really use for content-consumption like the cheapest iPad, because the OS does not lend itself to tasks I would normally use a computer for.

 

[TracerAnalog]

I’ve had my 11” iPad Pro since December — about four months now. Now that I’ve put it through its paces, I think I can say confidently that this is a very disappointing product.

I bought it with 512 GB of storage, the M2 processor, 8 GB of RAM, the cellular radio and the Magic Keyboard. For a product at this price point, it is a terrible laptop. I can definitely see the value of a $300 or $400 iPad as an entertainment toy. It’s great at downloading movies for playback while on long flights. But at the price of the iPad Pro, it’s well into laptop territory, as is the hardware capabilities… but it badly disappoints.

I’m not sure where to begin, but the Safari browser is very weak, and so is text selection and editing. Select/copy/paste works so-so on the iPhone, but on a platform like iPad Pro, I should have no difficulty selecting text for copy/paste. But it doesn’t work well on this platform. I downloaded Microsoft Office, and found its performance is fairly slow. I tried brining in RAW photos from my camera for editing with Adobe Lightroom, and it was close to unusable, especially compared to using my MacBook Pro. I tried using it as a slideshow player for my digital photos, and that hasn’t worked out too well. I tried using it with my Magic Mouse, but the scrolling feature of the mouse doesn’t work; I can’t slide my finger on top of the mouse to scroll a window.

I think this system needs to be MacOS with touchscreen support, instead of iPhone OS with keyboard support. As I said, i can see the attraction at the $300-$400 level, but in a $1,000-ish product, I should be able to get at least the same productivity as a laptop. MS Windows has plenty of touchscreen laptops; it’s basically Windows with a touchscreen mouse. Personally, I don’t see much future for the iPad Pro if they’re only going to be large screen iPhones.

Seems you need a laptop, not a tablet. I’d sell it😊

 

[Basic75]

Really?
So Microsoft is so much smarter than Apple that they can do it but Apple’s engineers are just too doggone dumb to pull it off?
Apple makes over one billion dollars a day. Surely it’s “no big deal” for a company of that size.

Well, Apple doesn't even let us choose the font size for the menu bar, something an Amiga could do 30 years ago.

 

[klasma]

I don’t think Windows is a better system, I was just pointing out that adding touch screen support to a desktop OS isn’t a big deal.

Yes it’s a big deal. It’s a bad UI compromise for both desktop and touch usage, as Windows has demonstrated.

I agree with the criticisms regarding text selection and such on the iPad, but adding multi-touch to MacOS is not the solution. (Text editing works much better on Android tablets, by the way.)

 

[JohnRckr]

The biggest problem with iPad is the OS.

 

[iPadified]

it is a terrible laptop.

I think it said iPad Pro on the package. Why are you surprised? A screw driver and a hammer cost about the same but are used very differently.

 

[ThailandToo]

What if it could run MacOS simultaneously with iPadOS? To
Me, that makes it a much more convenient portable device that can be detached to watch movies or connected to run full apps like the SoC it has?

I think Tim’s AAPL is afraid of any cannibalization of its own products. If the iPad could do everything, it would win for me. Since it can’t, it loses! You’re correct the iPad Pro is a joke. It has all this power but does nothing that a $349 iPad can’t do extremely well. This is the tragedy that is iPad and Apple under Tim Cook who doesn’t see products as a visionary. He only sees dollars as someone who wants as much as he can get by operating the ecosystem well.

In 50 years, Apple will be gone as we know it. Other companies will have one device that does everything so much better than an ecosystem of a ton of devices that all work together. Apple with Tim Cook gives users what they want - look at MacBook Pros with thicker bodies and the ports people wanted. What Apple needs is a new Steve who can visualize the future and make it a reality.

Cannot wait to be done with all this ecosystem. I think the bully is going down, and I can’t wait to see what could happen from all the people who have great ideas and can make products that interface and do everything we want in one device we carry on us perhaps a ring or contacts that ensure we see the tech and get info instantly over the air.

The problem is most people can’t see what they want. They think they wanted a faster horse until the car was created. I don’t want 15 devices that all work well together in a monopolistic way. I want one device that does everything I want better and I don’t have to be caught in an endless cycle of buying for one update.

 

[Basic75]

The biggest problem with iPad is the OS.

Or exaggerated expectations. You can partly blame Apple for that. I don't expect my iPad to come close to replacing my MacBook Pro.

Some limitations are still ridiculous, like not being able to see the whole URL in mobile Safari and the often mentioned text selection that just plain sucks.

I can live with these on a device used for light gaming and content consumption. Tasks that don't need an iPad Pro.

 

[robertogallo]

Dual boot IPadOS/MacOS would cover most of the use cases. The hardware is capable, iCloud and/or a local mount point would allow for easy data sharing between running OS.

 

[sunapple]

I’d love a reworked OS for iPad. It’s missing some “Apple magic” IMO, I want to be amazed at what it can do rather than be annoyed by what’s missing or by basic gestures and input.

And I agree that while this is technically difficult, Apple can be expected to pull it off anyway.

 

[Basic75]

I want one device that does everything I want better

Good luck finding a single device that can replace an Apple Watch and a Mac. That's like asking for a car that replaces a Smart and an F150. And the same goes for iPad and Mac, to a lesser degree.

 

[MazingerZND]

I’ve had my 11” iPad Pro since December — about four months now. Now that I’ve put it through its paces, I think I can say confidently that this is a very disappointing product.

I bought it with 512 GB of storage, the M2 processor, 8 GB of RAM, the cellular radio and the Magic Keyboard. For a product at this price point, it is a terrible laptop. I can definitely see the value of a $300 or $400 iPad as an entertainment toy. It’s great at downloading movies for playback while on long flights. But at the price of the iPad Pro, it’s well into laptop territory, as is the hardware capabilities… but it badly disappoints.

I’m not sure where to begin, but the Safari browser is very weak, and so is text selection and editing. Select/copy/paste works so-so on the iPhone, but on a platform like iPad Pro, I should have no difficulty selecting text for copy/paste. But it doesn’t work well on this platform. I downloaded Microsoft Office, and found its performance is fairly slow. I tried brining in RAW photos from my camera for editing with Adobe Lightroom, and it was close to unusable, especially compared to using my MacBook Pro. I tried using it as a slideshow player for my digital photos, and that hasn’t worked out too well. I tried using it with my Magic Mouse, but the scrolling feature of the mouse doesn’t work; I can’t slide my finger on top of the mouse to scroll a window.

I think this system needs to be MacOS with touchscreen support, instead of iPhone OS with keyboard support. As I said, i can see the attraction at the $300-$400 level, but in a $1,000-ish product, I should be able to get at least the same productivity as a laptop. MS Windows has plenty of touchscreen laptops; it’s basically Windows with a touchscreen mouse. Personally, I don’t see much future for the iPad Pro if they’re only going to be large screen iPhones.

It's shocking that a device that's not a laptop isn't great at being a laptop, huh?

 

[one more]

Why did you go for iPad Pro with the keyboard vs, say, MBA in the first place? I have been using iPad Airs as my “laptop” for about 10 years now and it still works very well for my workflow, but I agree - any iPad in its current state is essentially a big iPhone with much better multitasking and pencil support. If this does not work for you, you need to look into other devices.

 

[RichHI]

It is unfortunate that you bought a tablet when you needed a laptop. Phones, tablets and Laptops are different products with different sizes and different uses. Dismissing video uses as a toy is immature. It may be unimportant for you but for many it is much more important than trying to rival their laptop. It is precisely this reason which will hurt iPad pro sales should they put a notch or the island onto the screen.

 

[ThailandToo]

Good luck finding a single device that can replace an Apple Watch and a Mac. That's like asking for a car that replaces a Smart and an F150. And the same goes for iPad and Mac, to a lesser degree.

I am not talking about this second. I am talking about moving through the future and how things will be. Sorry, I thought that was implied by how I worded my post.

 

[owilderman]

The weekly “iPad Pro needs MacOS” thread 🫠.

If you did any research at all before buying your iPad, then you would know whether or not it would fit your workflow. (If you didn’t and it was a gift? Why are you complaining, use it for what it does well and stick to your old workflow.)

Yes the iPad Pro and the whole iPad lineup in general has some flaws. Like some of the other comments I’ve seen, Apple’s limitations and restrictions are so frustrating and I’m excited to see how the DOJ lawsuit plays out.

You know there’s a reason why Apple doesn’t make the “What’s a computer” ads anymore right?