PIREP iPad Pro 9.7"

[LDJones]

I got the bug to upgrade my iPad to the new, smaller Pro. Feels quicker with ForeFlight. I like having the TouchID on my iPad...I'd gotten used to having it on the iPhone. But the biggest bonus is the improved audio. I use my iPad a lot for videos with students and the four speaker audio system is awesome. I stayed with 128GB since I still had plenty of space on my old one.

I'm happy with the upgrade.

 

[bluesky74656]

How does the size of it seem in the cockpit? In tempted, but I feel like it might be big enough to be annoying to use in a plane.

 

[Badger]

Are you using in portrait mode in cockpit?

 

[LDJones]

How does the size of it seem in the cockpit? In tempted, but I feel like it might be big enough to be annoying to use in a plane.

This is the Pro that is the same size as the Air, which was just slightly smaller than the original iPad. The original Pro would be a monster in the cockpit.

Many people like the Mini which can easily fit on the yoke. Personally, I've never had a problem with the regular iPad in the cockpit, and I use it for so much more than just flying that the larger size is preferred.

 

[LDJones]

Are you using in portrait mode in cockpit?

Flight instructing it's usually on my lap in landscape mode. When flying XC I mount it to the side window in portrait mode. Or, in the Bonanza it gets mounted to the right of my yoke on the crossbar thing.

 

[Badger]

Have you tried split screen mode yet?

 

[JGoodish]

The question for the 9.7" Pro is whether it provides enough advantage over the Air 2 to justify the premium price. Apple Pencil (a $100 optional accessory) support seems to be the big advantage, but I suspect that you'd have to merit use of the Pencil outside the airplane to justify the cost. The Pro's screen is also apparently less reflective than the screens on prior iPads, but in my in-store side-by-side comparison with the Air 2, it didn't appear to be drastically so. The improved audio may be important if you have a use case for it, but I'm using headphones most of the time for privacy. The one thing that I didn't care for was Apple's $150 keyboard case accessory, which was just slightly too narrow, with the surface are of the keys just slightly too small, to make prolonged typing comfortable.

I have an iPad 3, so I'm sure that either the Air 2 or Pro would be a huge improvement in speed. I've looked at the mini, but since I use my iPad as a laptop replacement for many things, I'm not sure that the mini would cut it for use outside of the airplane.


JKG

 

[LDJones]

Have you tried split screen mode yet?

Yes, I use that with the Stratus from time to time.

 

[LDJones]

The question for the 9.7" Pro is whether it provides enough advantage over the Air 2 to justify the premium price. Apple Pencil (a $100 optional accessory) support seems to be the big advantage, but I suspect that you'd have to merit use of the Pencil outside the airplane to justify the cost. The Pro's screen is also apparently less reflective than the screens on prior iPads, but in my in-store side-by-side comparison with the Air 2, it didn't appear to be drastically so. The improved audio may be important if you have a use case for it, but I'm using headphones most of the time for privacy. The one thing that I didn't care for was Apple's $150 keyboard case accessory, which was just slightly too narrow, with the surface are of the keys just slightly too small, to make prolonged typing comfortable.

I have an iPad 3, so I'm sure that either the Air 2 or Pro would be a huge improvement in speed. I've looked at the mini, but since I use my iPad as a laptop replacement for many things, I'm not sure that the mini would cut it for use outside of the airplane.


JKG

I do find the screen less reflective in daylight use....not non-reflective, but better than my Air. The audio improvement was huge since I often use it to play videos while with a student. The difference in usability for that purpose is significant. I find myself kicking up Pandora and listening via the speakers while working on other things since it's so good now.

Was it worth it? Verizon had a $250 promo to upgrade through them, I sold my Air to a student/employee at our flight school (for a pretty good deal!) so ultimately only cost me a few hundred to upgrade. So it was definitely worth it to me. I average a couple of years on a device. This one might go longer. It depends on how many new features get added to ForeFlight that demand more horsepower.