I am so weak. Switched from Surface Pro to iPad Pro 2018 12.9”

Subject says it all. I switched from a Surface Pro 7 to an iPad Pro 2018 12.9” 256GB. I got a steal on the unit with a Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil 2 for $750. SO good. I realized that what I really needed to get my books written was something that was less prone to distract me. Lord knows the iPad OS is limited enough so the distractions are less. LOL. So far so good. I will say this. The pencil is ridiculously good.

We’ll see how it goes. Handed the SP7 to my wife for her photography needs.

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You’re not alone.

For the longest time the extent of my Apple usage was the iPad Mini 5.

I had a ton of windows devices I could draw on. The Galaxy Book 10.6, Surface Pro 5 with the Slim Pen, The HP Zbook X2, and a still working Mobile Studio Pro.

Then I got a iPad Pro 12.9 (3rd gen) because Covid made my coffee shops outdoors only for a time and I wanted the brightest screen I could get.

Then I got the M1 Macbook Air so I could test the Water with Apple Silicon and learn X-code

Then I got the iPad Mini 6 that supported Pencil 2.

Gradually I went from drawing over a variety of Windows devices to almost exclusively drawing just on my iPads.

It doesn’t help that my Zbook X2 and GB10 more or less died, and the battery life of my Mobile Studio became extinct. The Pro 5 is now my most reliable windows device which isn’t saying much.

My Desktops are still windows, but in a mobile sense, I am all Apple and I don’t want that to change.

When I look at my Mobile Studio Pro and ZBook X2, with the dim 200-300-ish nit screens with the grainy texture over everything, drawing on the crystal clear, no grain, 600nit 12.9 inch iPad Pro screen is far more preferable.

And while my GB10 served me very well for years…the portability and performance I get from my iPad Mini 6 just owns all.

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You bring up a great point about the displays. It is just so crisp on the iPad Pro!!! I am going to break down and make a cheap hackintosh out of an old Dell Optiplex 7020 so I can publish my book (Vellum and Scrivener) when the time comes and other things that are generally better on a mac.

But yes, I still have my gaming desktop (AMD Ryzen 5 5600X and nVidia 3060Ti) so I am also with you on the windows desktop…

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I have to admit that I spent most of my weekday free time on iPad / Android tablet these days:

  • can turn off the screen and go back to where you left off anytime with battery life relatively intact.
  • light and easier to carry around
  • no keyboard needed to be functional
    -it’s hard to come back to 1080p on bigger screen when you are already used to 2k-3k in 10-12 inches

I’m moving from my old iPad to tab S7 FE though, because my pencil is requiring more frequent charging versus s-pen that always work, free Krita, TV paint, and the ability to use as a great penabled touchscreen with Super Display. :grin:

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Traitors! Traitors everywhere!

Apple devices are very slick. You can’t fault them on their attention to detail. And as limiting as iOS/iPadOS is, it does what it does well. Compared to when I tried to use solely Android and simply couldn’t find a good desktop publishing app, while Apple has a decent one right there with Pages.

And the battery life. Oh the battery life!

But, I find Windows much more flexible and it has some more powerful programs. Not to mention sillyly simple stuff like proper desktop expansion to external displays (compared to iOS). And as great as the Apple Pencil is: 1. charging 2. clack clack clack.

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Even with my new found friend, the SP8, I will still get an iPad Mini 6 for pure “tablety” things like News+, FaceTime, iMessage, mobile browsing, and occasional short notes (still too small a screen for long sessions - besides OneNote synching with desktop OneNote still sucks).

Welcome all traitors!

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Well, the wireless charging of the Apple Pencil 2 helps with that, and for the second I have some tips coming that were recommended here that should help. I do occasionally miss full featured software, but the simplicity of the apps appeals to me more–since I have a desktop for the rest…

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Wait… someone isn’t being a curmudgeon with their wallet recently…

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I’m a poor who can’t afford pro model, and Pencil 2 (these two go together) :joy:
When my pencil completely dies I would have moved all my drawing needs to the Samsung tho.

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I use my iPad Pro instead of the windows tablet for the same purpose as well, even though it’s smaller and lighter :slight_smile:
It’s due to the following points

  1. Faster refresh screen
  2. The screen is brighter + higher resolution
  3. Higher battery life + instant on feature
  4. Touch UI is more mature
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I agree with every one of those points. :smiley:

The more I try to use an iPad (OR Samsung Android, really), the more I’m convinced that the UI wasn’t designed for me. I have kind of a cluttered mind, so I feel like I need to have a few windows open when I draw. I find myself fighting the UI to do the basic things that I can do with ease on the PC.

Me on PC: 3 windows open, quickly add another one effortlessly if need be
Me on Apple: ew a splitscreen?

Though it doesn’t help that PC’s have gone the way of Apple, with less user control and more of a streamlined process.

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This is how I used to feel, but I was equally bad on my Surface Pro 7. Why can’t it just use touch input right? Why are the apps so not optimized, etc., Why is the battery life so BAD?

In the end I guess we all have to choose what bothers us the least. For me, I need the simplicity of the tablet app environment to actually get anything done…

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Agreed! I’m with @aquarake here though, on the iPad I keep struggling with the split screen and slide over (?) functions. Just the other day I couldn’t figure out why there was a half-inch Safari strip on the left edge of the screen. I think so I could tap the second split screen app, but I couldn’t just swipe the dang thing out of the way. Probably user error, but at least with Windows machines I know how things should work. :slight_smile:

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I mean, for content consumption, security, battery life, ease of use, warranty support, app library, and ecosystem, Apple cannot be beat. And if you can’t beat 'em, join 'em, right? :wink:

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Pick and choose to be honest.
Content Consumption: Vance (Android) = Adblock (PC) >>> Apple
Security: Apple. PC’s suck at security, and Samsung is ruined by onscreen fingerprint scanners that never work.
Battery life: Tablets by far
Ease of use: Entirely subjective. Apple is legitimately easier for grandma with -30 years of technology experience, but it tends to filter long time PC users like myself hard. But in my case, PC > Samsung > Apple
App Library: For me its PC > Ipad > Android
Ecosystem: Does that mean having proprietary peripherals that sync to each other? If so, that’s negligible to me.

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Two years ago I was in the market for a new drawing tablet. I had been using a Lenovo Miix700 for around 4-5 years prior. At the time, I had a good job that provided me a work laptop, that I could also do much of my work from my Android phone.

I went to Best Buy and tested the pens on the SP that was out at the time, the SB, the SPX, Yogas, etc, along with the iPad Pro. The iPad Pro was the clear winner in drawing experience, and I did very little on my Miix700 other than draw, and since Clip Studio (my main drawing app) was recently released on the iPad, I went with the 12.9 iPad Pro with magic keyboard. I was hoping to make it my daily driver for everything since I did very little other than writing and drawing. This was right before the pandemic, and, as it happens, I was laid off a couple months after.

I then decided to switch careers to become a software developer. Guess what you really can’t do well on an iPad? Write code. At least not at any sort of professional level. And the school I was going to strongly encouraged using MacBooks for the class, so I ended up getting a MBP, and suddenly I was deep in the Appleverse.

Some of my observations with 2 years in now. The file system is terrible across the board, but especially in iPadOS. Using any kind of third party cloud drive is infuriating at times. I had an Office subscription for my wife, and we had extra storage on OneDrive with the subscription, so I have for the past 2 years tried to work with it with the iPad and MacBook. It’s been nonstop frustrating. I’ve had tons of issues with ClipStudio specifically, trying to keep my art saved on OneDrive. It will save there, but it takes 5 steps to first do it, with every piece I create, and, once stored on OneDrive, if I close CSP, it doesn’t store the art, and I have to find it in OneDrive and reimport it, often causing significant lag/delay.

Airdrop is great though. It’s super easy to move art and other files to the MBP from the iPad. And MBPs are pretty great for writing code.

Right now where I’m at, if I had the prescience to see the layoff and my career change, I would still have gotten an IPP, but probably would have gone with the 11" since it wasn’t going to be my “I use this for everything” device, and honestly, even if I wasn’t doing the career change, I would probably still have bought it, but then also got a cheaper Windows laptop. The drawing experience is just so nice. Otherwise, I’d much rather have a SP8.

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The fingerprint scanner on my Galaxy Note 10 has been rock solid for more than 2 years.

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How has that been working out for you, @Eltos ? I have a new 12.9" that’ll be arriving just in time for NaNoWriMo and that will be its primary purpose till the month is over. (Of course, it will be my canvas for cràppy amateur art and a media consumption device as well.) Just curious if you ran into any downsides.

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Really?