It has been 6 years since I have upgraded my iPad. I currently sport the 2017 iPad Pro 10.5 that I actually purchased in 2018 and so far it’s been quite good to me. It’s been in constant use almost daily and I use it mainly for media consumption and writing blogs like this every once in a while. My needs for the iPad aren’t that great and it does what I need it to do. There are supposed to be new iPads released this month and I was eyeing a new iPad Pro 11. Why not the iPad Air? Mainly it’s because I have a 512GB model right now and I use a little more than half of the storage on it with apps, documents, photos, and who knows what else. Needless to say, I need something with equal storage so I can transfer all my stuff. I’m sure I could get rid of some apps here and there but there’s really no need. The primary reason for thinking about an upgrade was due to planned obsolescence. My iPad Pro is running the A10X chipset, my iPhone 6 had an A10 chip inside of it and that was many years ago. iOS 18 likely will not support the A10X going forward according to a lot of websites and I don’t like using devices that might have security holes in them. The newest features are nice too but I don’t use them all that much on the iPad as compared to my iPhone.
I decided to go to the Apple website and price out a current generation M2 model, I think the prices are going to remain relatively the same so I think its a good way to get an idea of what it would cost me to replace my iPad. The iPad Pro just by itself is $1100, I also have to add the Apple Pencil 2 which is $130, and finally the Smart Folio (not the Magic Keyboard) for $180. After totaling everything up, thats over $1400 which is really expensive! I just bought a MacBook Pro M2 Pro this past Christmas to replace my MacBook Pro i5. I can’t fork over another $1400 just to replace my current setup, thats just crazy! As much as I want a new iPad Pro, the price has to come down or something. I don’t want the budget version iPad 10 (or the new 11 likely to be released) because the specs on my 6 year old iPad Pro are still better except for the processor (Pro Motion display, 4 speakers, 512GB memory….) and those suckers are also kind of expensive too for what I would be getting.
I could go Samsung or something like that but I have an all Apple Ecosystem for myself for the most part. I do have Windows computers but thats a necessity, not really a choice due to what the family is familiar with. Also a lot of the services that I enjoy like Messages, Photos, and a plethora of my apps aren’t available outside of iOS. There might be an option to get a new Air if they have the memory that I need, I might be able to sacrifice the Pro Motion and the 4 speakers. I’ll have to see what happens in the next couple of weeks. I’m already going to make my credit card cry with my ski vacation thats coming up so an iPad Pro might have to wait and be budgeted for another day unless my bonus for work is really that awesome. I guess I’ll have to make do with my iPhone 15 Pro Max and MacBook Pro M2 Pro. Maybe I’ll just get an M2 version on the refurb store if they’re cheap enough.
Wonger's Ramblings 