iPad Pro 10.5-inch Review: Can an iPad Replace a Laptop?
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Is the iPad pro a laptop replacement? Many are wondering if this mighty tablet can transmute into a laptop. There is one thing I need to explain before we get into this comprehensive review of the iPad pro 10.5-inch.
Nothing is a laptop replacement.
Only a laptop can replace a laptop. A computer, smart phone, nor tablet can replace a laptop in the same way a cellular connected laptop can not replace a smartphone. These two devices are meant to be used in different ways.
We need to be asking ourselves a different question. Can I do my work on an iPad? Is an iPad a better buy then a laptop? The simple conclusion is for most people an iPad can check off those boxes.
With the new iPad pro 10.5 (or even 12.9) inch and IOS 11 the iPad has helped me to complete my work and do it with more elegance and less burden on my back then my old laptop. Let me explain why the iPad might do the same for your workflow.
Hardware
General build
The iPad pro is a premium feeling device that begs to be handled. It is an Apple designed samurai sword made of aluminum and glass. The iPad pro is built exceptionally well giving the feeling of a dense and preciously manufactured device. I have been using this device for so long that I tend to forget how premium feeling it is until I pick up another tablet.
(During this review I will be mostly referencing the iPad pro 10.5 inch. There is no difference between the iPad pro 10.5 and iPad pro 12.9 except for the larger display. Keep that in mind if you do not think the 10.5-inch display is enough for you.)
Display
The display of a tablet is a core infrastructure of the device and Apple has created one of the best displays on any device. Dominating the iPad pro is its feature rich 10.5 inch display, and I can confidently say is one of the best displays I have ever used. The display is a 2224 x 1668 pixel retina display replacing the previous and slightly smaller iPad pro 9.7 inch. Retina meaning that it has a high enough pixel density that the eye can not distinguish between individual pixels at normal viewing distance, but you probably already know this.
Apple has introduced in the displays powerful features. These features are what make this display so incredible. The first is the true tone display that will adjust the color temperature of the display (how cool or warm the colors are) according to your environment. So for example if you are under fluorescent lights then the iPad will (unnoticeably) adjust its colors to be cooler giving the display a very natural look almost as if it were a piece of paper being illuminated by those same lights above you. This results in a display that is very comfortable to look at. This combined with the amazing auto brightness and increased max brightness of up to 600 nits makes this display an absolute joy to look at no matter where you are.
The second feature is the increased max refresh rate of the display. The refresh rate of the display is variable which means it will adjust depending on what your doing to conserve battery life yet provide maximum performance. This display can now reach refresh rates of up to 120 Hz. This higher refresh rate is most notable when scrolling through web pages. On older iPads or any other tablet scrolling through a page would result in text becoming blurry and unreadable. Even at the slowest scroll, text was extremely fuzzy. On this new display text is sharp even when scrolling through a page. Its almost shockingly noticeable when you first see, and has proven to be a more comfortable way to read a page. Combined with the retina display makes this an exceptionally sharp display.
The color accuracy on the iPad has always been superb. Colors are vibrant and accurate. Starting with the previous 9.7 inch iPad pro Apple implemented a wider color gamut (DCI-P3) that makes the colors pop. This technology has been carried over to the new iPad pro's and allows them to cover 93.6% of Adobe RGB and 100% of sRGB.
With its sharp display, accurate colors, and laminated display the iPad almost seems like a window into what you are touching or viewing.
The new models come with the ability to play HDR videos. This new standard in movies and tv allows videos to have a higher dynamic range and help preserve detail in highlights and shadows. Ultimately this new standard will make newer video content (that supports HDR) look much better providing increased contrast quality compared to an older televisions you may have. All these features plus the coatings on the display, anti-reflection and oleophobic, make this the absolute best display you can get on any device.
A display is so important for a tablet . The fact that this is the best display on any tablet and maybe even any device means you will be getting the best experience when operating the new IPad pros.
Size and weight
The iPad pro 10.5 is thin. Shockingly thin, and when I remind myself that this device is as fast as my desktop computer in geekbench scores I take a second and awe at its size. The 10.5 inch pro weighs a minuscule 1.03 pounds or 469 grams and is .24 inches thick or 6.1mm. I ca not help but sometimes hold up my iPad and admire how thin computers have become. This device is as powerful if not more as most laptops on the market and yet it is a fraction of their thickness.
Specifications
I wont talk about specs (much) because in the end that doesn't really matter. What does matter is how well a device preforms.
Because really... what is faster; 8 core 3.5 ghz processor, hexa-core 2 ghz processor, or a dual-core 3.5 ghz processor? Answer is they are all preform at the same unrealistic synthetic benchmarks. Electronics companies have implemented so many technologies in different ways that specs and benchmarks are not a good standard to address how well a device will preform.
What matters is real world performance and the iPad preforms very well. It is the fastest and snappiest iPad to date. Both the 12.9 and 10.5 have the same internal processors so don't expect a speed difference between them.
I have had three iPads now and I have always found ways to push them to their limits. If it was editing HD video, manipulating a 40+ megapixel photo, multitasking, or anything else I have seen iPads struggle. This iPad on the other hand as yet to see its limit.
Camera
The two iPads come with great cameras but to be more specific they come with the cameras used on the iPhone 7. Don't be disappointed as the cameras on the iPhone 7 were marvelous if not miraculous. The back camera is a 12 megapixel camera with image stabilization and the front has an adequate 7 megapixel 1080p FaceTime camera. The iPad pro can be used to take all your travel photography but i would not recommend it as you might not look as cool as you think.
Picture taken with the same camera used on the iPad pros
What is most shocking about the camera is not the camera itself but what the iPad can do with it. The IPad pro can record 4k video at 30 fps or slow motion 1080p video at 120fps and 720p at 240 fps. These are pretty incredible numbers for a camera that comes prepackaged into a device. This outperforms some dslr's on the market.
Connectivity
The iPad pros come with 802.11 ac dual channel mimo wifi. The ac standard is the fastest officially released standard on the market right now so you can rest assure your wifi will be at its fastest. The iPad also sports bluetooth 4.2 for low energy connectivity for your headphones.
This is all basic stuff but if your next purchase doesn't include these connectivity options or better then you should probably pass on that device. IPad makes great use of the technologies such as using air drop to wirelessly, quickly, and securely send images, files, or links to other iOS or mac os devices.
IOS also makes it easy to connect and use with its critically acclaimed bluetooth air pods. IPad uses its wireless technology so well you have to ask yourself is my laptop using it just as efficiently.
Battery life
Battery life is great as it has always been for iPads. Apple projects its usually 10 hours and in real world use battery life falls around there.
If you are not familiar with the battery life of iPad's you can expect fulls days worth. You will almost always get 10 hours no matter what your doing except maybe if you are playing a demanding game. For a light user you can expect days if not weeks out of a charge. Apple has some of the best battery management allowing the iPad to only slightly discharge after a few weeks with no use.
If you use your iPad more then your phone or tv like I do then 10 hours is plenty of life for a day. As someone who always carries a charger with them or has a charger in every room of the house and in the car then your iPad will never reach %0. I have always found the iPad battery life to be very reliable and I rarely find myself with an about to die iPad.
The best part is you only need one charger and cable for your iPhone and iPad. Take note that the iPad does take quite a while to charger and may not even charge with weak or low amperage chargers. The amazon dual usb charger is a great option to charge your iPad and phone quickly at the same time.
Storage options
The iPads come in three storage options but if you are considering using an iPad to do work on or content creation then you can throw away the first option of 64 GB. This leaves the 256 GB and the 512 GB. These are usually typical entry level laptop storage options. I opted for the 256 GB option and I have yet to fill it up. I believe these are adequate storage option even considering the fact that iPads don't easily let you connect external storage devices. If you need more room then you will need to go with a cloud subscription service but more on that later.
I would have liked to have seen a larger option such as a 1TB configuration but I guess we will have to wait for the next iteration. If your smart about storage and utilize something like amazons free unlimited photo storage for prime members or another device like a desktop computer with ample storage then you should have no problem.
IOS 11
Late 2017 Apple released iOS 11 providing key features that would allow the iPad pro to show the world what it could really do. Not to get to involved with iOS and assuming you have used it before I will just talk about features that have allowed me to become more productive.
Multitasking
The most powerful features added are the multitasking features. Older versions of iOS had some multitasking features but in iOS 11 the way you use those features has been altered. To help one understand how iOS handles its multitasking as a whole I will cover all (new and old) multitasking.
My favorite multitasking interface is picture-in-picture mode that allows you to have a hovering video play on top of everything else. This video window can easily be snapped to the corners of the screen or swiped off to the side to be hidden from view. The interface for picture-in-picture is simple and basic controls can be brought up by simply tapping on the video window. A satisfying small touch Apple included is that the window will intelligently move to not obscure things like the keyboard or the address bar when typing. These pleasantries are introduced throughout iOS and make this operating system such a joy to use.
Another old multitasking feature is the four finger gestures that let you switch between apps or get to the home screen with simple four finger motions. Very old feature but to this day has not been mimicked with such sophistication and intuitiveness. It is important to bring these legacy features up as they create the whole multitasking experience.
iOS 11 and dock
The introduction of iOS 11 as added some new powerful multitasking features as well as some powerful apps to help the iPad accomplish complex tasks. The multitasking gestures I just talked about have been in IOS 10 or earlier but with IOS 11 the way you interact with them has changed.
Most of these multitasking features make use of the new dock. This dock is similar to the Mac OS dock. It sits in the same location as the previous bottom row app area and for the most part looks not much different then before. This new dock allows you to place up to 11 apps (15 on the 12.9 inch iPad pro) on the left and presents you with most recent apps on the right. When in an app the dock can be brought up with by swiping up from the bottom. This means the dock can always be accessed no matter where you are in the operating system.
If you swipe up from the bottom the dock will appear but if you keep swiping up your app will minimize you will be presented with three powerful multitasking interfaces. The first is the dock mentioned before. The second is small windows of recently opened apps. This will allow you to quickly select and app opened before. The third is "control center" which is quick access toggles including the ability to turn on and off wifi, bluetooth, airplane mode, air drop, etc.
The most prominent feature to talk about is split screen view. This allows two apps to be open side by side at one time. Previously this was only available for the 12.9 in iPad but now is available for both 10.5 and 12.9 in iPad pros. This is my most used multitasking feature and allows to simply have two apps open at one time. This is not groundbreaking but was a sorely missing feature for a modern operating system. Apple does a very good job of allowing apps to be moved from the left side to the right, closing out one app, or resizing an app by dragging on a grey bar at the top of the app screen. You might think that is all you need from multitasking but IOS 11 introduces some more handy feature.
Slide over feature is similar to the split screen except that an app window hovers above the main app open. Similar to the picture-in-picture. This windows can be placed on the right or left side of the screen or hidden away with a simple swipe. This window can be easily brought back with a swipe from the right side of the screen. This is a great way to temperately open a window to get some quick information. Often when using pages to write an article or essay I will have safari as the slide over app to get quick information.
The multitasking features I have talked about are initiated with the new dock but the way you initiate it is not so obvious. After bringing up the dock one can tap and drag an app icon and place it where they would like the app to be. Dragging an app icon to the right side of the screen will make it a split screen app that will appear on the right side of the screen. The same can be done on the left side. Dragging that app in the middle of the display will turn it into a slide over app.
As mentioned before on the top of apps is a bar that can be used to move apps from left to right or turn a split screen app into a slide over app. It is not as straight forward at first and has a learning curve but after a while you get used to the gestures.
One would think the dock is a nice addition since every other operating system has one but really its a little bit of a complication. You can only initiate a split screen view of an app that is in your dock. This means you can only easily multitask with apps in the dock. If you come to a point where you want to have the slide over window of an app that is not in your dock you need to either; close out of your app and add it to the dock, open the app and close it so its in your recently opened apps in the dock, or open that app then split screen it with the other app you want and finally turn it into slide over window. I have found this to be the least intuitive part of IOS 11 but it is far from a disability.
For the most part the features work well as long as the apps support them. For example the youtube app doesn't support picture-in-picture but supports split-screen. I found that some apps don't support split screen and slide over. You can usually work around this and I have hope that some of these apps will integrate these features in the near future.
Folders
The folders app is new to iOS 11. This well designed app congregates all your cloud storage services into one app. With ease you can move from Dropbox to google drive to box to seafile to mycloud to icloud to local iPad storage and more. This app opened up the way iPad handles files and has creating a more powerful file manager for iOS. Combined with air drop file transfer and various free or paid cloud storage options opens up the iPad storage.
One feature not talked about is that you can now drag and drop one or multiple files or pictures. Not an exciting feature but is helpful in the folders app when you want to drag and drop a few files from Dropbox to icloud.
Conclusion of iOS
The best part of iOS is that it just works. It may not be as elegant as it was in the earlier iterations but its those attention to details that make this feel like an operating system that is trying to work with you and not you trying to work with it. Simple things like moving the picture-in-picture window when the keyboard pops up or snapping back to my location in the pages app as I start to type again. Everything down to the fact that every device comes with the improved virtual assistant siri that can be operated with your voice. (By the way siri has improved ever so slightly but is still not up to par with alexa or google.) Ios might not have improved as fast as the hardware has but to this day it is still my favorite operating system.
Apple Pencil: Using the Ipad at Uni
I was hesitant to use the Apple pencil and iPad for note taking in class. No technology has come close to the intuitiveness of a pencil and paper. It has been a semester now and I have tested the pencil under a full university workload.
I had been already using my iPad heavily at school. Its my text book and my laptop for writing essays or lab reports. My idea was to have one master device since the iPads battery life is so incredibly reliable.
The first week of using the Apple pencil I was mildly surprised with the accuracy of the pencil and how well the palm rejection worked, but I still kept a critical view as I tested the pencil in more detail.
A pencil or pen is a very reliable utensil and when it fails a second writing utensil is not far behind to pick up the slack. At $100 I would only have one Apple pencil so consistent reliability was important.
For the semester I used penultimate, an app that will sync notes with Evernote. This was one of my preferred apps as the notes are then backed up to Evernote and also can be viewed on a evernote.com or evernote app. This meant I could keep evernote as a slide over app while I write on penultimate app if i needed to reference something from a previous note. Additionally I could open up Evernote on a computer and use penultimate on the iPad.
After one whole semester my conclusion is the Apple pencil works fine. Every once in a while the pencil would get confused and not write but a simple lift of the pencil and a second attempt seemed to resolve this. Palm rejection was great and never accidentally started writing as my hand dragged across the screen.
For note taking it was precious and quick. An advantage I found when using the pencil is I never had to turn a page. In the penultimate app it perpetually scrolls down never needing to compensate for that last line that I know my next sentence wont fit on. I also found I was color coding and highlighting my notes more since I did not have to pick up and put down another writing implement. Sharing notes is as easy as emailing them and assignments could be printed.
Writing with the apple pencil is like writing with a smooth bold pen. The pencil writes on the iPad how you would expect it to write on glass. Each stroke has little resistance but after a while you get used to the writing style.
One big issue I thought I would have was battery life. This turned out not to be an issue. The Apple pencil can be charged either directly from the iPad pro or with a lightning cable using a dongle. The Apple pencil lasts 12 hours on a full charge which is a decent amount but is not what impressed me the most. What had saved me in class many times was the ability to charge the pencil for 15 seconds and get at least 30 minutes of battery life. If I ever received a message on the iPad stating I was at 5 percent I could plug in my pencil while the professor was egotistically ranting about his or her achievements and get enough charge to take notes for the rest of the class period and longer.
The Apple pencil started to blend into my workflow. It became almost indistinguishable to a normal pencil. The Apple pencil is beautifully designed, premium feeling, and intuitive. The pencil maintains an always on connection with the iPad so once I take it out of my backpack I can start writing. If it ever disconnected all I needed to do was plug it into the lighting port and it was synced again. I forgot that it uses a bluetooth connection with the iPad because the pencil just works. That is the beauty of the Apple pencil.
The Apple pencil is not without flaws. One issue I have with the Apple pencil is that it is quite slippery and when I am done with my pencil I have nowhere to put it. I solved this issue with one item (affiliate link). This magnet sleeve for the Apple pencil gave me a soft rubbery grip that also has a very powerful magnet build into it. This meant I could write for hours without fatigue and then simply snap the pencil onto the smart cover and the bond would be so strong I could throw it in my bag and have the pencil be in the same place when I go and take it out again. I cant imagine using the pencil without this.
The only additional feature I wish the pencil had is a customizable button. I would then assign that button to an eraser or maybe undo. This would save me a lot of hassle when taking notes but is not a deal breaker by any means.
Will I go back to the tried and true pencil and paper? I think a better question is not to ask if the Apple pencil can replace a traditional pencil but to ask if it will be as reliable.
I forgot my Apple pencil one day and had to use a pencil and paper. I then realized how cumbersome a pencil and paper can be. I had to poorly erase mistakes the professor makes his erasable whiteboard, think about the continuity of my notes as I approach the last line of the page, click my pencil to sharpness as the point breaks, think about if i need to apologize to the person next to me as my broken graphite shoots into their face, and decide if I should waste the time switching colors and risk falling behind on the lecture. The mighty pencil and paper did not seem as reliable as it used to be.
Edit: One limitation I seem to be getting close to hitting is the battery life of the ipad. I thought the pencils battery life might be in issue, but quick charging works well. The ipad on the other hand must be charged over %30 for a 2 hour class with wifi on. If wifi is turned off then I can get away with about %30 percent. This means I need to make sure my ipad has adequate charge or I am stationed near an outlet.
Is it a laptop replacement?
One thing to note is that iOS has a plethora of apps that are sometimes comparable to their pc counter parts. These iOS apps are always cheaper then those counterparts. For example I can get a free version of Lightroom on iOS that is very powerful and the photoshop counterpart affinity photo is only $20. The pc counterpart might cost $120 for each. They might not have the same feature set but I think the strength of iOS is that apps are always well crafted and enjoyable to look at (thanks to Apples APIs).
The IPad pro is not a paperweight nor a large iPod touch as people used to say. The app store has apps for editing video, editing photos, for artists, for work, to organize your personal life, for businesses, and more including the very powerful free software installed.
A concern one might have for not purchasing an iPad over a laptop is the iPad does not have a physical keyboard. This is true, but the iPad does have a great virtual keyboard, the best dictation software, and a virtual assistant. If this is not good enough there are other options such as buying a thin and light bluetooth keyboard or apples case keyboard.
I usually type on the virtual keyboard and use dictation for quick safari searches. At my desk I have a bluetooth keyboard for when I need to type long essays or lab reports. This keyboard usually stays home unless I know I will be typing something long. The iPad pro has a lot of flexibility when it comes to text input so there should be no concern for typing. This whole article was typed on the iPad's virtual keyboard in pages if that is any consolation.
Another concern one might have is that the iPad does not have a rat or track pad. In my opinion the touch operating system is one of the most intuitive interfaces around and a rat would only hinder that fluidness. Apple has incorporated features such as siri, predictive text, and two finger cursor manipulation to alleviate the need for such precise yet cumbersome mechanism. For those who do not know one can use two fingers on the virtual keyboard to move the cursor around the page. It works very well.
If you are still not convinced an iPad will fill the roll you need it to let me approach the iPad from a few different perspectives.
As a photographer ios has apps such as Lightroom, Affinity photo (photoshop), and other photo editing apps they help me edit my pictures. Using a dongle I can connect my cameras sd card to the iPad, import the RAW files, edit them, then export them to what ever social media I want. The lightning port is usb 3 so you can expect a fast connection for reading sd cards but I have found using the built in wifi of my camera was much faster and more intuitive. The iPads screen helps me see my pictures in full high quality view on the retina display and in accurate colors. To convince myself the iPad pro was future proof for my photography I downloaded 42 megapixel RAW file from a Sony a7r III to see if it be the Goliath that falls, but to my amazement the iPad pro edited and exported the files with ease. The pro only hung during large edits but was completely capable of editing large RAW files. With the current selection of apps on the app store the iPad can easily be used for professional photographers.
As a videographer iOS has great apps such as lumafusion or imovie to edit videos. These may not be professional level apps but for someone who may want to get into youtube or similar these apps are more then adequate. This device was able to handle 4k video and even slow motion 1080p. Anything above what the iPad pro 10.5 could record I could not test since I had no camera that could outperform the iPad pro. On very long videos however the iPad did struggle a bit (im talking 20 min or longer videos with deep edits) but for youtube sized videos (5 to 15 mins) the iPad will do well.
As a student the iPad is my textbook, notebook, word document, and internet device. I have written some of the nicest lab reports using this device. The included apps such as pages, numbers, and keynote are powerful, easy to use, and sync with iCloud. I have stated that I do not mind typing on the touch keyboard but an inexpensive bluetooth keyboard would aid someone that is not of my mind. Marking up my textbooks is fast and easy on the iPad and can be done without regret and the apple pencil will make note taking a joy.
As a blogger this site is mostly operated on this iPad. I am currently typing this article on it. Squarespace, the host of the website, is pretty heavily demanding site and the iPad can struggle at times when trying to edit but my work around is I use pages to write the articles and then upload using the squarespace blogger app, so in turn I can do everything I need to on the iPad when it comes to operating this site.
As a business owner I can operate completely off my iPad. I can use software to track my expenses, create TPS reports on pages, use the calendar that is integrated with iCloud to schedule appointments, and finally take payments from credit cards using the square app and mag strip reader. The last one is pretty amazing. One could use the iPad as a cash register and run all your payments through the iPad pro. Additionally with a bluetooth keyboard I can sit at my desk and type up long emails or articles. A device that weighs less then a pound can run a whole business. Incredible.
As a home user the iPad has the best display in my house. It may not be the biggest but it sure is the best. The iPads speakers are also superb. They are clear, loud, and have some bass to them. I do not need to watch Netflix on my tv sitting on the couch anymore, but instead can use my iPad and watch it outside, in the garage, in bed, at my desk, or occasionally on the couch... in front of my tv (yeah I do that sometimes). The iPad holds the best display in my house which makes working on it to relaxing a wonderful experience.
As a graphic designer I have used this iPad to create business cards, shirt designs, and sketched ideas. An artist might find the Apple pencil to be very useful for sketching but since I am not artistically inclined I can not speak of how well the iPad would work for drawing. What I can say is that the pencil is very precious. My stick figure people look as good on the iPad as they do on paper. To give more useful information I have read that the apple pencil works well for artists and is ranked in the top lists for best electronic drawing tools (next to the Wacom tablets).
The iPad pro does more then what I have stated filling roles that I have no need it to fill. Coding apps, IT apps, music creation apps, and apps for teachers to name a few are all available through the app store. Its potential far exceeds other devices such as laptops. The iPad has been able to fill every roll I would need a laptop to do and additionally it does it with an elegance a laptop has never reached. For some specific uses the iPad will not be able to accomplish what maybe a more mature operating system or dedicated device can but for a regular user and many professionals it is a smaller, lighter, and more premium option then a laptop.
Price
The iPad pro comes in two sizes; 10.5 inch and 12.9 inch. The MSRP for these sizes at 256 gb are $799 and $949 respectively. The 512 GB models come to an MSRP of $999 and $1149 respectively. At these prices the iPad pro is less expensive then a premium laptop. The decision to buy an iPad over a premium laptop is not mine to make but I can provide you with methods to purchase a new iPad pro at a significantly reduced price.
The first is through Amazon. They are selling the iPad pros for a lot less then Apple. For example you can snag an iPad pro 10.5 with 256 GB of storage for $50 less then Apple does even when you apply Apples student discount program. You can also buy all the Apple accessories at less cost then at the Apple store. If you do decide to buy through Amazon and you enjoyed this review then use our Amazon affiliate link here. At no cost to you, you will be helping to support this site.
The second method is through Apple using a student id. Not a student? Well send yourself a fake email. The Apple employees do not care enough to dispute it. Use an old school id, tell them you lost your id, tell them the universities email system is down, or photoshop a schedule for a popular university you found on the web. This method might not be legal (or maybe it is i do not know) but this method will provide you with about $50 off your purchase and sometimes a free gift like beats headphones or an Apple gift card. Through the apple store website you will also get free shipping.
Conclusion
So can the iPad replace a laptop is the wrong question to ask. How about this "Can an iPad pro complete the work that I currently do?" I am not going to answer that for you but maybe ponder on it before you make your next purchase. What I will say is that these are devices designed in different ways. The iPad is an incredibly small and light device that is so elegant and intuitive in design that it begs to be used. What you need to figure out is if this device can do what you need to accomplish. For me I have found that the iPad checks off most of the boxes I need it to do and for those few boxes that it does not I have found workarounds.
There is something about the iPad that makes it seem more then what it presents itself as. How can a device with 4 buttons, two ports, and a display do so much? The iPad is so much more then a cut and past laptop. You can expect the latest connectivity and the best interface. Air drop is an impressive feat of technology that is used to transfer files wirelessly, securely, reliably, and incredibly fast. I wish everything had airdrop.
The iPads are prepackaged with two cameras. Having a camera on the back of such high quality makes this iPad more versatile then say a laptop. You can use A.R. apps and manipulate virtual objects in front of your eyes or snap some pictures of items you want to sell for ebay right from that device. Every iPad comes with a fingerprint reader that makes buying apps and unlocking your iPad so incredibly simple yet secure.
Siri, the virtual assistant (no matter how dumb she is) is available on every iPad and Apple is always trying to improve it. Siri is so well integrated into the software that having it come on a device would have been thought of a thousand dollar add on in the yesteryears.
IOS 11 might have its flaws but it is one of the nicest touch operating system to interact with. The iOS operating system is also one of the most intuitive and most secure operating systems a consumer can buy.
Above all the iPad is a device that is well designed, engineered and most importantly it just works.
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