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jswinden · 01-13-2017, 09:18 AM

Well I took the plunge yesterday (12 Jan 2017). I was trying to decide between an iPad Air 2 and the iPad Pro 9.7. The main hold back on the Pro was the extra $200. But I saw an ad from Best Buy and they had the Pro 32GB on sale for $499, so I grabbed one. The Pro is definitely worth the extra $100. Actually it would have been worth an extra $200, but I didn't want to spend that much. The 32GB model was fine for what I use it for as I don't put a lot of songs, videos, photos, large PDFs, etc. on my iThingies.

I'm still getting acquainted with the iPad Pro 9.7, but I must say wow! It is a quantum leap up from my old iPad Mini 2 Retina. I'm keeping the Mini 2 BTW, just going to re-purpose it from all around iPad to special duties within my study. I could sell it, but it is worth more to me to keep it around.

I absolutely love the screen on the Pro! I also like the extended color spectrum which the old Mini didn't have. Photos just never looked as vibrant on the Mini as they should.

I haven't purchased the Apple Pen yet, but I probably will. I love the idea of taking notes and scribbling down math/engineering equations on it and drawing out concepts rather than killing trees by using paper notebooks.

I used it with the app Skysafari Pro 5 last night and wow, very responsive, fast, and the night sky charts looked really amazing on it. SkySafari Pro 5 is an astronomy app, BTW.

My only complaints are involving iTunes and iOS. I have no complaints at all with the Pro.

First complaint: Well iTunes is of course a suckfest, and setting up the new iPad Pro 9.7 was a tedious chore. It took a long time to get my photos and songs over to it, even though those are shared among my iThingies. I'm really not sure why Apple still cannot get iTunes to be all that useful. I know it is relatively easy to backup an old device then transfer all that to a new device, but I wasn't going that route since I will keep the Mini 2. At any rate, I've nearly got all my apps and stuff imported into the Pro, now I'm busy signing in to all my accounts which is taking a while because I don't use Keychain and all my passwords are unique for security reasons.

Second complaint: Apple has limited iOS devices to a 5 x 4 app icon grid. That was no big deal with the Mini and its 7.9" screen, but it seems rather limiting on the bigger Pro 9.7". If they do that with the big brother Pro too, then the screen on it must have huge icons. I wish Apple would allow resizing of the icons and expansion of the grid like they do on Mac OS X and like MS does for Windows.

01-13-2017, 09:18 AM	#17
jswinden Nameless Being	I just bough an iPad Pro 9.7" Well I took the plunge yesterday (12 Jan 2017). I was trying to decide between an iPad Air 2 and the iPad Pro 9.7. The main hold back on the Pro was the extra $200. But I saw an ad from Best Buy and they had the Pro 32GB on sale for $499, so I grabbed one. The Pro is definitely worth the extra $100. Actually it would have been worth an extra $200, but I didn't want to spend that much. The 32GB model was fine for what I use it for as I don't put a lot of songs, videos, photos, large PDFs, etc. on my iThingies. I'm still getting acquainted with the iPad Pro 9.7, but I must say wow! It is a quantum leap up from my old iPad Mini 2 Retina. I'm keeping the Mini 2 BTW, just going to re-purpose it from all around iPad to special duties within my study. I could sell it, but it is worth more to me to keep it around. I absolutely love the screen on the Pro! I also like the extended color spectrum which the old Mini didn't have. Photos just never looked as vibrant on the Mini as they should. I haven't purchased the Apple Pen yet, but I probably will. I love the idea of taking notes and scribbling down math/engineering equations on it and drawing out concepts rather than killing trees by using paper notebooks. I used it with the app Skysafari Pro 5 last night and wow, very responsive, fast, and the night sky charts looked really amazing on it. SkySafari Pro 5 is an astronomy app, BTW. My only complaints are involving iTunes and iOS. I have no complaints at all with the Pro. First complaint: Well iTunes is of course a suckfest, and setting up the new iPad Pro 9.7 was a tedious chore. It took a long time to get my photos and songs over to it, even though those are shared among my iThingies. I'm really not sure why Apple still cannot get iTunes to be all that useful. I know it is relatively easy to backup an old device then transfer all that to a new device, but I wasn't going that route since I will keep the Mini 2. At any rate, I've nearly got all my apps and stuff imported into the Pro, now I'm busy signing in to all my accounts which is taking a while because I don't use Keychain and all my passwords are unique for security reasons. Second complaint: Apple has limited iOS devices to a 5 x 4 app icon grid. That was no big deal with the Mini and its 7.9" screen, but it seems rather limiting on the bigger Pro 9.7". If they do that with the big brother Pro too, then the screen on it must have huge icons. I wish Apple would allow resizing of the icons and expansion of the grid like they do on Mac OS X and like MS does for Windows. Last edited by jswinden; 01-13-2017 at 09:22 AM.