A week with the 9-inch iPad Pro

I’ve been using the new 9-inch iPad Pro for about a week and I thought I’d share a few impressions:

• The screen glare is significantly reduced. I often read under fluorescent lights and this is a significant improvement over the Air 2.
• The pencil is great fun, is lovely to use and fits nicely into my ad hoc note taking workflow. It replaces my pen and notebook setup and the ability to move and delete tasks and notes from the page, as I process them, is fantastic (thanks Notability).
• There’s nowhere to store or attach the pencil. A nicely placed strong magnet would have been a nice touch.
• The camera takes great stills and wonderful movies (4K is worth it). The camera bulge really isn’t an issue (even when writing on the screen on a hard surface)
• My old Logitech Ultrathin keyboard cover won’t stay attached to the iPad Pro when I’m carrying it around because the magnets are placed differently from the Air 2. The keyboard is still fine when the iPad is in the keyboard slot but carrying it around is so awkward that it would have been replaced anyway, even if I hadn’t got the Smart Keyboard.
• The Smart Keyboard is easy to type on, and lighter than the Logitech that replaced it and seems steady enough even when it’s not on a hard surface.
• The speakers are a huge step up. I drive an old and noisy car that doesn’t have a working stereo so I listen to podcasts and music through the iPad speakers. The iPad pro easily pumps out enough volume for me to hear over the engine roar and tire noise.
• 128Gb is overkill, but 32Gb is insufficient. I’d have preferred a 64Gb option but hey…

This is been a really good upgrade, even though it’s a bit pricey. Sometimes the features on a new version of a device are nice but not of significant interest but in this case the upgrade from an Air 2 to a 9-inch Pro really made a difference.