New iPad Pro 11 or 12.9
 

Currently I have ipro 9.7 and I think it is time to upgrade for me. I know there are no other differences in specs between 11 and 12.9 except size. But I can’t decide if it will be enough 11” or it is better to go with 12.9? I feel 9.7 a bit small for me. Could you please describe your experience, especially if you migrated from smaller to bigger or vice versa? :thanks:

I've got an iPad Pro 12.9 and an iPad mini. I suspect that a lot comes down to a combination of your reading eyesight and whether or not you find the larger screen harder to hold. I like the big screen since it allows me to read full page PDF's without reading glasses. For normal ebook reading, where you can adjust the font size and have the page reflow, the extra size doesn't really buy you much.

Normally, I would recommend going to an Apple store and doing a side by side comparison to see which suits you best, but I guess in these times, it's going to be a while before you can do that.

I suggest you go to screen sizes and get the actual screen dimensions and cut out a newspaper to size and look it over. Note the aspect ratio is different for the 11" Also look at the iPad Pro 2020 page in the wiki.

Dale

I went from the iPad Pro 9.7", to the 10.5" and now have the 2018 11" version. For me, the 11" is perfect, because (normally) I take my iPP everywhere with me. It travels everyday to work, when I go out on the weekend to run my errands or to get a coffee in the city.

I have friends and colleagues who have the 12.9", and for me that is honestly too big. I also have a 13" MacBook Pro and a 15" MacBook Pro at home - the 12.9" iPP and the 13" MBP are too close in size for me, which would mean that I would end up using the 13" MBP more than the iPP. YMMV of course.

I think it boils down on how important portability and price are for you. Both are absolutely amazing devices, so I'm sure you won't regret your choice. Worst case, if you buy from Apple directly, I believe you can return it easily?

thank you guys. Yes, surely I will buy from Apple or from Costco, so no problem with returning/exchanging. I have MacBook Pro 15 and Lenovo s740 15.6 at home. But when I commute I always with iPad and Eink reader. I am afraid that bigger iPad is too big, so it will end up siting home where I tend to use laptop instead. On the other side probably I will use it more at home replacing laptop for almost everything except coding.

The 10.5" iPad easily fits in my purses so I assume so will the 11" which is around the same overall size, just with smaller bezels.

The 12.9", you're going to need a big bag (pretty much something that can hold a 13" laptop).

I have the 2017 10.5" and 12.9". If I were commuting, I'd definitely leave the 12.9" at home. To be honest, I find the 12.9" too big for reading novels even in 2-column landscape. I have to blow up the font size or there's too many words per line which messes with my concentration/immersion. Great for comics, magazines and PDFs, though.

The screen size is not an issue for me. I had a Mini 2 and still have a 9.7" Pro. Both had adequate screen sizes. But the 9.7" is now so old that it just can’t handle the apps that well and has become very sluggish with some of them. The same apps running on my newer and faster iPhone XR zip along without issues. On the Pro 9.7" the apps often run out of memory and/or slow to a snail's pace. I’m probably going to get a Mini 5 to replace the Pro 9.7", especially since the Pro 9.7" loses its charge extremely fast now. But that will have to wait until this pandemic ends.

one other consideration is that if you intend for your IPP to replace a computer as well (since a mouse and keyboard can be used), then i would go for the larger size. for personal use, i'd say that the ipad can replace a computer completely. i use excel a lot for work and use its advance features and open files that are 10s, even 100s of megabytes in size for work. sadly, the IPP is still lacking in this area. but otherwise, it can replace your computer.

I don’t use an iPad as a laptop substitute, no way. iPads cannot do that. The apps are wimpy and the hardware is too. I use my MacBook Pro for the heavy lifting. The iPad is for when I’m lounging in my recliner and want to surf the web, look at weather apps, check email, text message, and similar things that iPads are designed and equipped to do well. Numbers isn’t one of those things, nor is documentation. I’ve tried several photo editing apps on iPads and unless you just want to make minor adjustments they all fail miserably. When I edit photos, I need at least 16 GB RAM and a heck of lot of horsepower as I’m editing RAWs. An iPad ain’t gonna cut it! Not enough RAM, not enough horsepower, and a lousy user interface for that that kind of processing. That is where the MacBook Pro shines.

I had an iPad Pro 12.9” (the 2018 version, not the most recent) and I found it too big, in spite of using a Macbook with a 13” screen and being happy with that. I think, for me, it was that size + aspect ratio... it just didn't suit me, and it was too heavy to cart about so it always stayed home. Sold it on and went with the Air 3, and that has worked well. If I upgrade again it will be to the 11”, but at this time, 10.5” is just fine :)

Bought a Mini 5
 

Well I went ahead and bought a refurbished iPad Mini 5 64GB for $339. I set it up and it far surpasses the speed of my 4 year old Pro 9.7. Plus I got a free year subscription to Apple TV+ with the purchase, not that it has much worth watching, but it was free...

I don’t think I realized just how much I missed the Mini 2 which I sold several months ago. I really like this size format much better than the bulky Pro 9.7. The Mini 2 and 5 are easily the best ereader tablets I’ve ever owned.

I don’t seem to have any of the issues with iPadOS 13 on the Mini 5 that I’m having with the Pro 9.7 from 2016. Maybe the old Pro is just too old for iPadOS, or maybe the old Pro was just a dud to begin with. The battery is certainly worn out on the Pro too. I’ll keep the Pro as a backup though.

Might be worth erasing all contents and settings on the Pro 9.7, setting it up as new and just installing the bare essentials.

My mom's got a Pro 9.7 and I've got it pretty stripped down. Background app refresh disabled, Siri Suggestions disabled, Location Services only enabled for select apps, etc.

Good suggestions. I’ll do that tomorrow. If nothing else it will make a good weather radar display and occasional internet browser.

Forgot to mention the Apple Pencil 1 I used with the Pro works well with the new Mini 5 too.

I went from Ipad pro-2017 to the 11" and don't regret it. It has a noticeably better screen quality and is noticeably faster. It is a tad heavier but a very solid build.

I had the mini briefly. perfect size and shape for reading