Apple Doesn't Make an iPad for Me

I’m still using the 11-inch iPad Pro from 2018, and it’s great. Yes, it’s showing its age a little bit: the transitions aren’t as smooth, and the battery life is getting worse. Considering its age, it’s still a fantastic device.

But worst of all, Apple doesn’t have anything I can reasonably replace it with.

I was reading the review of the latest iPad mini on The Verge and it’s just sad. Yes, it’s half the price, but it’s built on outdated hardware and has a terrible screen. The new Pro with M4 is good, but if you want a keyboard, your only first-party option is a $300 Magic Keyboard. I vastly preferred the old Smart Keyboard. It was much lighter and cheaper. Basically, a cover that you can use to type if you have to. The new Magic Keyboard turns your iPad into a heavy laptop. And despite all of this, it’s still made out of this polyurethane that looks terrible in a couple of years. 

I don’t really want to spend $1300 on a device I mostly use to watch YouTube and read saved articles. 

And you could say that I should compromise. Technically, iPad Air is there for $600. But the bezels are still worse than on my device from six years ago. And the screen is 60Hz, which I do notice quite a lot, since we have one of these at home. iOS is no longer built for this. So if I upgrade, I’d actually downgrade.  

Tim Cook says that he uses an iPad as his main computer. This makes sense because he falls exactly into one of three categories I outlined here. For most people, it’s a media consumption device. But for many years, Apple has been neglecting this obvious use case. 

I bought the iPad Pro back in 2018 because it was the first one with proper stereo audio with four speakers. Which was quite neat for all the video-watching. And that was going on for years! Why lock proper sound behind the more expensive “Pro” devices? What’s Pro about it?

We went over this hump, now it’s the screen. I don’t believe all users need a pencil and a keyboard with a trackpad. But both the screen and the sound are paramount to the iPad’s primary use case. 

And while I do want to update, I find it crazy to spend so much money on an iPad I can’t use for most things, because iPadOS just isn’t there.