Yesterday Apple unveiled the new iPad Airs and iPad Pros and since my current (awesome) iPad Pro 13” is going to turn 3 years old in 2 months, I’m searching for a reason to replace it with a new one. That being said, my 3 year-old iPad Pro is awesome. I completely don’t need to replace it. But maybe I want to? Let’s see:
- New M2 iPad Air? Just get the previous-gen iPad Pro!
- New iPad Pro 13” is only 5.1mm thin? And 103 grams lighter? Now we’re talking!
- Nano-texture glass or Paperlike screen?
- New Pencil Pro is a newer version of the current Pencil 2
- Magic Keyboard finally of Aluminium and with a bigger Trackpad!
- 13 inch is finally 13” a not 12.9”
- What’s missing? Action button!
- More things missing? Two ports? MagSafe?
- Which model I’m getting?
- Price hike? You bet! It’d be $243 USD more for me!
New M2 iPad Air? Just get the previous-gen iPad Pro!
If you’re in a market for an iPad Air, don’t get the new one. Just search at your local reseller the outgoing generation iPad Pro. Chances are, you’re gonna get it at a similar price point but with the 120Hz Pro-motion display and in case of the 13”, with a mini-LED display even. That’s all there’s to say, because Apple basically repackaged previous generation Pro and called it a new generation Air, stripped it of a better display and added some boring colors. That’s all.
New iPad Pro 13” is only 5.1mm thin? And 103 grams lighter? Now we’re talking!
If Apple just made a spec bump from M2 to M4, I wouldn’t even bother. My M1 iPad Pro is as powerful as ever. I’m not craving for more power at all.
However, thinner and more than 100 grams lighter? I love lighter. Just check out my last post on light iPhone cases.
I love them (my computers) lighter.
If also the new Magic Keyboard is lighter, too, now we’re talking about a serious upgrade! I’ve been working on this iPad every day for the last 3 years - if I can carry less weight, I’ll take it every day of the week and if it’s beyond 100 grams, I’ll take it twice on Sunday!
By the way, the 11” iPad Pro is only 20 grams lighter, so not much. It’s the 13” that’s seriously slimmer this time. Both iPad Pros have the same OLED screen which is going to be one more upgrade for me - better blacks, and better “normal” brightness (1000 nits instead of 600 in normal work) which I’ll happily take.
Nano-texture glass or Paperlike screen?
The new iPad Pros (only in 1TB/2TB models, because science) come with an optional $100 nano-texture glass. As I’m a fan of the Paperlike screen protector, which reduces glare and adds resistance to the screen so it’s easier to use Pencil with it, I’m considering this option.
However, a screen protector I can always remove. The nano-texture glass is there to stay forever. So maybe I’ll just order a normal screen and order the Paperlike anyway? I’m leaning towards the latter option…
New Pencil Pro is a newer version of the current Pencil 2
I’m happy that they’ve upgraded the Pencil. I’m not happy that it’s not compatible with the old iPad Pros and now they have four pencils in the lineup. Four. That’s really confusing…
I like the new features - haptic feedback and twists and turns, but why no eraser on the other side? Why?…
Magic Keyboard finally of Aluminium and with a bigger Trackpad!
My 3-year old Magic Keyboard is seriously beaten up but still works. I hope the new Aluminium hand rests and the new trackpad will age better than the old ones. Still, three years of daily usage and lives on!… just doesn’t look very premium.
I’m only wondering how much lighter the new keyboard is. Apple won’t publish the keyboard’s weight on it’s site, what’s up with that? Anyway, I’m gonna know in a week for sure if there’s any significant difference. Jason Snell says there is and I trust his judgement. If I get 50 grams less, I’d be happy. If it’s an additional 100 grams, I’d love it! The current Magic Keyboard weighs 710 grams for reference.
13 inch is finally 13” a not 12.9”
I called it three years ago - stop naming the iPad Pro 12.9” - it’s very confusing. Just call it 13”. Finally Apple caved and they’re updating the names.
What’s missing? Action button!
I love the Action button on both my iPhone 15 Pro and Apple Watch Ultra and I’m only missing it on the iPad and in the new design they didn’t think about it. It’s a shame, because it’s a Pro device and having a programmable button would be awesome. Instead I still need to just have it as a Shortcuts widget on the iPad Home Screen.
More things missing? Two ports? MagSafe?
There were rumors about MagSafe but it didn’t pan out. I was hoping the new Magic Keyboard would have charging ports from both sides, but it doesn’t. A pipe dream was having TWO USB-C/Thunderbolt ports on the iPad itself. MacBook Air has two ports so why not iPad? Anyway, one can dream…
Which model I’m getting?
Back in 2021, the iPad Pro I got was:
13” inch, 1TB model with cellular
I got the 1TB model just because it has 16GB RAM compared to the 8GB on the smaller storage options. I’m not sure iOS apps really use this much RAM, but at least then iOS is not so aggressively killing me apps in the background and as this iPad is my main computer, I prefer apps to stay in the background for better multi-tasking experience.
This time around I’m planning to buy the same iPad and apart from extra RAM I’m also getting a slightly faster processor (4 instead of 3 performance cores) and the option to nano-texture glass which I’m still not sure if I’m gonna get.
Price hike? You bet! It’d be $243 USD more for me!
The iPad cost me $1982 USD before taxes (I bought in Polish currency). The same spec today will cost me $2225 USD so it’s quite a price hike. Yes, I know, this iPad Pro costs more than a 14” MacBook Pro, but I’m #iPadOnly and I prefer to work on the iPad rather than the MacBook.
Anyway, when I order the new iPad Pro I’ll have to order new accessories - both the Magic Keyboard and the Pencil. Which makes the upgrade that much more painful in terms of cost.
If you want to support me and help me sponsor my main computer, consider using Nozbe to organize your business and private life in a simple way. I’ll have to work hard on acquiring more Nozbe Premium and Business customers to be able to afford this 😜