Hi there!
so I’m looking at buying an iPad Pro. For my budget I’m looking at either the iPad Pro 11” 4th Gen or the iPad 12.9” 5th Gen.
I current have just a basic iPad 8th Gen and want to upgrade it. What would you guys recommend? Thanks for any help!
iPad, iPadOS 16
The principal difference between the iPad Pro 11” and fifth generation iPad Pro 12.9” is the screen. Setting aside the obviously larger screen, the 12.9” screen has the advanced miniLED backlight with zone dimming. This provides much brighter images together with significantly higher contrast - along with Reference Mode for colour grading. This screen technology is offers greater power efficiency. Other than the sixth generation iPad Pro 12.9”, no other device uses this enhanced screen technology.
Whichever iPad model of iPad that you choose, you would be well advised to purchase as much internal storage as your budget might reasonably allow - as internal storage (and other hardware) cannot be changed, upgraded or extended. The available internal storage is fixed for the entire life of the device. If you run out of internal storage for your documents, photos and other data, you will forever struggle and become a source of frustration. It is far better to have more storage than you need, than to need more storage than you have.
A good rule of thumb is to quantify how much data storage you will need - add a healthy margin - then double it. If you are unable to quantify your data storage needs, it becomes more difficult. Whilst I and others cannot cannot make definitive recommendations for your personal needs, objectively I would council against purchase of any iPad with any less than 256GB storage, 512GB providing a more flexibility. Be aware that the 1TB and 2TB models also double the available RAM from 8GB to 16GB, 16GB being the most RAM of any model of iPad.
Within the Apple Support Communities we see regular tales of woe and disappointment when storage requirements are exceeded, necessitating replacement of the device; by contrast, we never see complaint of having too much available storage. It is relatively easy to fill limited internal storage space; perhaps consider higher tiers of storage as providing room for growth as your needs develop or mature - potentially extending the useful usable life of the device.
Consider also the functional differences between WiFi Only and WiFi+Cellular models of iPad. Only WiFi+Cellular models include GPS capabilities - which may impact any Apps or features that require accurate and consistent location data, such as Mapping. Purchase of a WiFi+Cellular model does not commit you to using Cellular connections, but provides this flexibility should it be needed. WiFi Only models of iPad have no Cellular or GPS functions at all.
The principal difference between the iPad Pro 11” and fifth generation iPad Pro 12.9” is the screen. Setting aside the obviously larger screen, the 12.9” screen has the advanced miniLED backlight with zone dimming. This provides much brighter images together with significantly higher contrast - along with Reference Mode for colour grading. This screen technology is offers greater power efficiency. Other than the sixth generation iPad Pro 12.9”, no other device uses this enhanced screen technology.
Whichever iPad model of iPad that you choose, you would be well advised to purchase as much internal storage as your budget might reasonably allow - as internal storage (and other hardware) cannot be changed, upgraded or extended. The available internal storage is fixed for the entire life of the device. If you run out of internal storage for your documents, photos and other data, you will forever struggle and become a source of frustration. It is far better to have more storage than you need, than to need more storage than you have.
A good rule of thumb is to quantify how much data storage you will need - add a healthy margin - then double it. If you are unable to quantify your data storage needs, it becomes more difficult. Whilst I and others cannot cannot make definitive recommendations for your personal needs, objectively I would council against purchase of any iPad with any less than 256GB storage, 512GB providing a more flexibility. Be aware that the 1TB and 2TB models also double the available RAM from 8GB to 16GB, 16GB being the most RAM of any model of iPad.
Within the Apple Support Communities we see regular tales of woe and disappointment when storage requirements are exceeded, necessitating replacement of the device; by contrast, we never see complaint of having too much available storage. It is relatively easy to fill limited internal storage space; perhaps consider higher tiers of storage as providing room for growth as your needs develop or mature - potentially extending the useful usable life of the device.
Consider also the functional differences between WiFi Only and WiFi+Cellular models of iPad. Only WiFi+Cellular models include GPS capabilities - which may impact any Apps or features that require accurate and consistent location data, such as Mapping. Purchase of a WiFi+Cellular model does not commit you to using Cellular connections, but provides this flexibility should it be needed. WiFi Only models of iPad have no Cellular or GPS functions at all.
Hard to say with no information.
What do you plan on doing with iPad?
Do you need the larger screen?
Do you use graphics apps that would benefit from the 10 core GPU?
Would you be shooting video and want or need the high quality ProRes format?
Do you require Wi-Fi 6e support?
Have you compared them? Click here ➡️ https://www.apple.com/ipad/compare/?modelList=ipad-pro-11-4th-gen,ipad-pro-12-9-5th-gen
What is your usage cases for an iPad Pro model?
All current iPad models all run the same full iPadOS and all the same apps from the Apple iOS App Store.
All current iPad models all either use the original, 1st or newer 2nd gen Apple Pencil.
( iPad 7th, 8th and 9th and 10th gen and iPad Mini 5 all use the original, 1st gen Apple Pencil )
( 2018, 2020, 2021 and the newest 2022 iPad Pro, iPad Mini 6 and 2020 iPad Air 4 or 2021 iPad Air 5models use the 2nd gen Apple Pencil )
So, iPads are more like cars, now.
You are paying for iPad optional features, now.
Do you want/need larger internal data storage space for data, like music. movies and photos/images and room for other types of data?
Do you need a larger or smaller iPad screen?
Do you/want/need higher color gamut display with Tru-tone room brightness calibration?
Do you need a larger screen with much more pixels that is much brighter, with a high resolution dymanimc ( XDR ) color gamut range?
Do you need/want an iPad model in a variety of colors?
Do you want/need a bonded, laminated display?
Do you want/need faster, more powerful internal CPU?
Do you want/need more internal processing RAM?
Do you want/need better iPad cameras?
Do you want/need better/more iPad speakers?
Do you want/need the improved, 2nd gen Apple Pencil?
Do you want/need to have the new Magic Keyboard portfolio for the 2018/2020 iPad Pro/iPad Air 4 models?
All of these options are what you need to decide if you really need, or not, and to decide to pay for accordingly.
The more iPad features you decide you need, the more you pay.
It all comes down to how much money you are willing to spend on iPads with additional, premium features.
You can now pretty much do everything on any current iPad model, now.
All current iPad models are sufficiently powerful enough, today, to do pretty much any task put to them now.
Purchase the largest internal data storage capacity iPad model you can afford as no Apple mobile iOS/iPadOS devices have ANY internal expandable storage
Best of Luck to You!
not sure what people can really recommend apart from giving our biased opinions for me 12" is too big to serve as a tablet, and I would not get less storage that 256gb
Buying an iPad Pro?
