The iPad Pro: First Impressions

I’m writing this on my brand new iPad Pro (gigantic model, specced up to the wazoo). In case anyone’s also thinking about pulling the trigger, here are my impressions from the first 24 hours of use. I’ll probably edit it over the coming days as I discover more.

The Good

• It’s surprisingly light. I can hold it in one hand without too much problem, for a good long time. (Caveat: I’m a large strong dude with large strong hands. I even lift, bro. YMMV.)
• The Smart Keyboard’s not bad. It’s not perfect (I can’t quite type as fast or as accurately on it as I can on my MBP), but it works pretty well. I’m writing this on it as we speak. It’s pretty easy to use on my lap.
• One great thing about the Smart Keyboard: even though the screen on this thing is as big as my MacBook Pro, the lack of a touch pad on the keyboard means that I can actually use this on my lap on an airplane. Can’t I’d that with the MBP.
• The Pencil is crazy amazing. It really is the best thing about this. Right after the iPad arrived, I got PDF proofs from a journal editor to look over, so I just fired up iAnnotate and marked it right up on the iPad. It was almost indistinguishable from using paper, except that I didn’t have to print anything out. Love it so much. (Like everyone else, however, I do wish that they’d done something with the cap, and with the issue of attaching the Pencil to something.)
• Split screen is actually useful now!
• It turns out iCloud Drive is actually useful too. I hadn’t tried it much before getting an iPad I could really type on. Using Byword on iOS, tt turns out that if you update a document on the Mac in iCloud Drive then it automagically updates in Byword on the iPad — even if it’s already open. If this works with some useful text editor on the other end too (Emacs should be able to figure it out… I like to think).
• DUDE, IT WORKS. I just had the same document open in Byword on the iPad and in Emacs on the Mac, and an edit to either one was reflected seconds later in the other. I’m not sure how stable this is (and I think I’ll combine it with a cron job to routinely copy files to a git repo somewhere else for backup and version control, just to make sure I don’t blow things up horribly). (Edit: did that. If you have commandline skills, this blog post should be enough for you to set it up too.) On my machine, the Byword files are stored in ~/Library/Mobile Documents/N39PJFAFEV~com~metaclassy~byword/Documents but the bit that looks vaguely like a hash might be different on your machine(?).

The Bad

• The screen is really glare-y. Way too much gloss, a bit eyestrain inducing. I’m seriously considering getting Gunnar glasses for it or something. I think part of the problem is that I got a space grey one, and the black bezel adds more reflectivity and contrast, which ain’t great. There’s a setting under general>accessibility called “reduce white point” that seems to help a little. Also in general>accessibility>accessibility shortcut, you can add a function to triple-click the home button to turn that on and off, or to just invert colors altogether.
• The Smart Keyboard adds a shocking amount of weight for such a thin accessory. It starts to be significantly less comfortable to hold in one hand.
• The Smart Keyboard doesn’t have an escape key. If you shell into vim a lot, that gets annoying — even though Prompt (a great iOS ssh app, by Panic software) has a software escape key on the screen, files I edit on the server tend to get littered with `s from automatic finger movements when I try to get to normal mode.

Vs. 12-inch Macbook

My goal was to get a device that could come with me anywhere and allow me to do anything — read things, edit documents, write, code, etc. So the main competition was between this and a 12-inch Macbook. Here’s how I see them stacking up:

• When I tried it in the store, the 12-inch Macbook keyboard actually felt worse than the Smart Keyboard.
• When you add up all the extras (pencil, keyboard, a new bag, AppleCare, etc.) the prices are pretty similar.
• Obviously, this doesn’t have a proper filesystem. Which is always a problem. So far, it doesn’t seem to be harshing my buzz too much though. My main machine is always going to be the MBP on my desk, so any lightweight mobile device is going to have to find some way of getting at the files on it. And downloading from/re-saving to Dropbox/iCloud Drive seems only a little less convenient than automatic sync (for coders and others using Github, the Textastic/Working Copy combination is amazing).
• I’m still working on finding good replacements for command line utilities that I use a lot.
• But I’m really looking forward to setting up LTE. That and the Pencil are the things that really blow away the 12in Macbook.
• Fundamentally, the 12-in Macbook just seems like a different kind of trade off. Getting a 12–in Macbook would just be redundancy: just a lighter, less powerful, version of what I already have for travel. The iPad Pro is a totally different kind of device either from my MBP or my iPad Air 2 (which I’m keeping around for stuff like long-term one-handed reading and other non/pencil non/keyboard things), with different functionality and uses.

Vs. 9.7 inch iPad

• As noted, I have an iPad Air 2. Split screen has never been all that useful there, and I’ve tried various small keyboards to match it, which also haven’t been useful. So I imagine that neither of those things would work well on the 9.7 pro either. Plus, half the ram? WHY?

Thoughts on Apps and Third-Party Accessories

• The Waterfield Designs iPad Pro sleeve case is great — fits perfectly, looks nice (I got the vertical waxed canvas one), seems quite protective, and doesn’t add a ton of bulk. With a shoulder strap you have exactly the right bag for going anywhere with the iPad. My only complaint is that the little pocket in the back for the Pencil sucks. It sticks right out, making it too easy to fall out, get rained on, get stolen, identify the bag as holding an expensive-as iPad Pro and get the whole thing stolen, etc. I’m just sticking the Pencil in the main compartment.
• iAnnotate is great with Apple Pencil. It just automatically puts you into writing on a PDF when you use the pencil and then turns off when you stop, palm rejection is about 95%.
• Prompt is a mindblowingly good ssh app. Working copy is an even better git app, especially when paired with Github and Textastic. Honestly, for coding, I think that + a $5/month digitalocean droplet is really all you need, especially if you shell out for LTE and have perma-connectivity.
• Byword is a ridiculously good writing app. iCloud works seamlessly.