I have a new 11" iPad Pro that I got to run WingX and Foreflight. It replaces my original gen 1 iPad and my gen 3 iPad. With my RV-3B unfinished, I mostly use it at home and in my Cessna 180.
Bottom Line First -
I don't think it's worth the money, frankly, and until I discovered the software shut-off (see below), I hated the thing. It's annoyingly slippery. But the screen is decent, it was easy to set up, it's fast, light, and it does the job. The attraction for me was the processor which, I hope, will still get iOS updates for a long time to come. But if I'd had a newer iPad that was still supported, I'd have passed this one by.
I like -
The screen, which is nice. It seems lightly better than the gen 3 one, which was also a Retina screen, although not as bright and without the anti-glare. So far the screen met my needs.
The battery life, which seems close to what my gen 1 iPad had. That was excellent. But still, I'd happily trade a bit of weight and thickness for more battery.
The processor speed, which is noticeably but not hugely improved over the others. I hope that Apple won't prevent operating system upgrades for a while. That was the main reason for buying a new iPad for me as the previous ones were no longer upgradable.
It was relatively easy to load a lot of things on initially by merely placing it side-by-side to my iPhone. That was sweet. It was the easiest device set-up I've ever encountered.
I don't like -
The price.
The lack of a one-button shut-off. The only button shut-off seems to be simultaneously pressing the power button and a volume button. If you don't hold it long enough and happen to press the volume up button, it takes a screen shot instead. The only alternative I know about is Settings, General, scroll to the bottom and press Shut-Off, and that's more convenient than the physical buttons.
It doesn't let me use unsupported 32 bit heritage apps. For me, these include "gps2tas," and a weight and balance app. There's no 32 bit emulation capability that I know of.
To accommodate the plenitude of new features that I don't care about, they made the Settings app full of interrelated choices. It took a long time to set things the way I wanted it, basically telling it not to do things. No Siri, no cloud, etc. But that's just me.
The exterior surface is extremely slippery. Plus, according to a video I saw, the overall unit is somewhat fragile. There are very few soft, grippy cases that simply provide a bit of cushioning and a better grip available as yet. Right now, caseless, this thing is just waiting to be damaged. Someone make me a soft, simple, high-friction case!
The rear camera protrudes from the back. If I thought I could cut it off with a hacksaw, I would.
What's just different -
A swipe up of different lengths is used to replace the missing home button. It works and is only slightly annoying - when I first turn it on, the swipe up doesn't work. the iPad goes dark and then I tap it and then the swipe up works. Except for that, the swipe up is no better and no worse than the Home button.
It has a face-recognition feature. I am not using it. I am still using a typed-in code to open it, and that works fine even though it's not really an advertised feature. Since I have no need for the front camera, I taped over that and the face camera. The iPad works fine anyway.
With the settings finally set up the way I wanted them, it works much like the previous ones I have, and that's satisfactory.
I hope this helps!
Dave
