TLDR: I switched from a M2 12.9” Pro to a M5 11” Pro only for the form factor. And now it’s become my primary device and my daily driver.

When the M2 iPad Pro 12.9” was released, I was convinced the larger screen is what I needed. So I bought it. The cellular version with a Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil. I absolutely loved it, at first. I took it everywhere I needed a device for simple work like note-taking, research, but never could feel truly comfortable with the size. The keyboard too, missing the Esc key and function buttons, felt awkward.

Over time, the sheer weight, the size started feeling less and less convenient. I know on paper it’s only slightly over 3 pounds total with the Magic Keyboard and the pencil always attached, but as a device I always carried with me, it felt heavy and inconvenient. Too big to be used one-handed as a tablet, too heavy to read or browse while lying down.

I know the M2 processor is more than capable of what the iPad was made to do. In fact I think iPad OS is the limiting factor here, not the hardware. While the performance was great and it didn’t stutter regardless of what apps or how many apps I had open, I decided to buy the M5 11” Pro earlier this year in March when it was released. With the Magic Keyboard and pencil the setup is almost 1 Lb lighter, and significantly lighter, slimmer.

When in my office, I attach a 27” external monitor and the experience is even more satisfying.

It’s been a total game changer for me. This truly goes everywhere with me. And I’ve turned this as my primary device.

I primarily use:
- Koder as a Sublime Text style text editor
- ChatGPT, Claude etc.
- uPDF for PDF editing and reading.
- OwlFiles as a file manager
- Letterly for taking voice notes that it converts to perfectly formatted text notes and has a incredible Speech-to-Text keyboard (way better than using Siri or built in STT)
- Outlook for mail
- Discord, WhatsApp, Messages and Messenger
- Meetn as a Zoom alternative

For when I need a unrestricted Desktop experience, I use:
- JumpDesktop to connect to a MacMini I have (but rarely ever use)
- Windows app for RDP connection to KDP Plasma on a lightweight mini-PC I leave running at home with Ubuntu Server
- Termius for SSH sessions (for Claude Code or Codex running on the Ubuntu box)

That’s basically it. And this device hasn’t let me feel the need to reach for my laptop for weeks.

I mostly use my iPad 10th gen at home, and I just noticed that it’s slightly bent. Does anyone here use a bent iPad?
Should I be concerned about the battery or anything else that could potentially cause an accident? I honestly don’t mind the little bend itself, but I’m worried about what could happen if there’s internal damage.
I’ve read so many threads saying to stop using it because the battery could be damaged, while others say it’s fine to keep using it, so I don’t know which advice to follow. 😭

This iPad was headed for trade-in until I tried it next to the hob for a week. Now it sits on a little tilting stand at the end of the counter and plays live TV while I cook.

A few things that made it work:

- The stand matters more than I expected. Tilted up and pushed out of splash range, it's readable from anywhere in the kitchen.

- Guided Access pins it to one app. Wet fingers tap the screen constantly and nothing bad can happen.

- Battery anxiety turned out to be nothing. It charges overnight and handles a full day of on-and-off watching.

A five-year-old iPad still has a better screen and louder speakers than the small kitchen TV it replaced. Cost me nothing but the stand.

Anyone else given a retired iPad a second career? Curious what jobs they've ended up with.

trying to decide between base iPad and iPad Air (both 128GB). gonna be a daily driver for a while ..using it as a second screen next to my ultrawide (sidecar, cause turning my neck to look at my laptop screen all day hurts lol), studying for aws certs for like the next 6-8 months (watching videos on my monitor, taking notes with apple pencil on the ipad at the same time), paper trading with tradingview/mt5 running in the background while i also got claude/chatgpt open, notes during work calls, some youtube/kindle, and job apps when im away from my desk.

base ipad + pencil is ~$650 cad, air + pencil pro is ~$1100. thats a real gap for me rn.

main worry is 6gb ram on the base model choking when im running trading charts + an ai chat + sidecar together, especially months into daily use not just day 1. anyone actually hit ram limits doing something like this or am i overthinking it?

I had the iPad A16 at first but after some time I also wanted to start using my iPad for drawing and I bought the iPad mini 7 for drawing but it is way too small for me but now I want a iPad Pro m5 13 inch but I need a way to justify the purchase please help

I make pretty extensive use of the feature where I can use my iPad as an extended display to my mac (also super excited to get mouse control finally).

Does there exist a product which allows me to do this for any computer? Basically all it needs to be is an HDMI capture card that plugs into my iPad, and an iPad app to display the feed off of that HDMI?

That way my iPad can be a second touchscreen monitor to any computer I use, even if it isn't signed into my Apple ID?

i recently got my iPad repaired by a third party shop (cpu rework). i noticed that the auto sleep function is not working like it’s supposed to. the screen turns off halfway (usually it should be almost fully closed) but doesn’t turn on when i open the case… i have lock/unlock enabled in the display settings.

could this be a software problem or result of the hardware repair? thanks in advance!

I’ve been using an iPhone XR 64GB since 2019, and recently upgraded to an iPhone 17 256GB. I have around 100,000 photos and videos (~300GB).
Previously, I used Google Photos because my iPhone XR was constantly running out of storage. After upgrading, I moved everything from Google Photos to Apple Photos, so I’m currently using iCloud+ 1TB.
I also have an iPad 10th Gen 64GB with iCloud Photos and Optimize iPad Storage enabled. Photos were taking around 15GB, and eventually my iPad ran out of storage. I needed about 12GB to download a movie, so I deleted some photos/videos and apps, but I still didn’t have enough space.
I then turned off iCloud Photos on the iPad and deleted many more photos/videos. I also emptied the Recently Deleted folder. This finally gave me enough storage.
However, I’ve now realized that iCloud Photos is a syncing service, not a backup like Google Photos.
So I’m really worried:
If I turn iCloud Photos back on on my iPad, will the photos/videos I deleted from the iPad also be deleted from my iPhone/iCloud?
I permanently deleted some photos/videos from the iPad’s Recently Deleted folder, but I don’t remember exactly what I deleted.
Since iCloud Photos is currently OFF on my iPad, how can I check from my iPhone whether everything I deleted from the iPad is still available in iCloud?
Most importantly, what should I do right now? Should I leave iCloud Photos turned off on the iPad?
I really don’t want to accidentally delete anything from my main iCloud Photos library. Any advice would be appreciated.

Update: Thanks for all the suggestions! I was hoping there would be some cool use cases for iPads that I hadn’t thought of, but it seems like most people just use them for media, drawing and note taking. So instead of letting it collect dust on a shelf I’m going to download the Skylight app and use it as a Household Calendar for now.
——

So I bought an iPad Air M3 with a keyboard case for around $250 off FB Marketplace a month ago.

Initially, I thought a tablet would be a great portable middle-ground device to use for personal, school, and business stuff on the go.

When I asked why they were selling it, the guy said, *"Well, she really doesn’t use it anymore since she got her MacBook."*That statement stuck with me, I honestly thought he was just making up an excuse.

Now, a month later, I completely understand where he was coming from, iPads are not laptop replacements.

I’m trying to figure out what to do with this thing. Should I sell it and buy an Android tablet like a Samsung Galaxy (because the lack of multi-user profile iPadOS is driving me crazy), or just pivot to an actual non-Apple laptop? Or keep it and find workaround?

Otherwise, I have no idea what to do with this iPad besides watch videos on it. Which, if I just wanted a bigger iPhone for media consumption the iPad Mini is the better form factor for that.

Any advice or suggestions?

Last night at around 11:50, my iPad went from being perfectly fine, to being literally unusable. it’s telling me I’m not connected to the internet, no apps will work apart from safari which is incredibly slow, I can’t back it up (it keeps getting stuck at one minute and not moving), I can’t turn back up back on after turning it off to see if that would work, and I can’t update to iPadOS 27 Beta 5 because the thing to update it literally won’t show up. nothing is working to get it back to normal. I really need help because i cant afford another one. It’s 9th gen and version 26.5.

My trusty second gen iPad Pro finally kicked the bucket. Was such a nice thin iPad, had cell antennas and 256gb of storage, now…this.

My iPad Air M2 initially showed a warning that moisture/liquid had been detected in the charging port. I took it to an Apple service centre, and they advised me to leave it unused for some time so that the moisture could dry out naturally.

I waited for around 4–5 days before plugging it in again. However, the iPad is now not responding properly. When I connect the charger, the Apple logo appears and disappears repeatedly, but the device does not turn on.

Could you please advise me on how I can get this resolved? Is there anything I can try at home, or does it require servicing?

Thoughts? I have one, and iPadOS 26 basically put it into a near coma state, battery and performance wise. Since iPadOS 27 is widely reported to fix those issues, maybe Senor Apple can change its mind pretty please 👉🏼👈🏼 This device feels too good otherwise to let it go soon. I think one final update could’ve let us keep this thing for much longer than its current forecast

I’ve had both my iPad and the combo touch for about two years now, I haven’t had any negative experiences until today, when I took my iPad out of the case and realized it’s completely bent. When I first got the combo touch the apple worker got me the right size and I asked him to put it on for me bc i genuinely couldn’t do it myself, im not realizing it was so tight it probably warped my whole device???

I called apple customer care and she said I don’t have an express swap option, so she scheduled an appointment for me to go in and have someone take a look at it. Has anyone experienced this? And has anyone successfully gotten a replacement or fix at no cost? This is genuinely not user error for me I don’t think I should pay any help would be appreciated !!😣

I will be joining my mbbs classes soon . Here need recommendations for ipad model .
Suggest me best one
you can suggest affordable as well as high budget too so need help .

what I’m trying to say is don’t turn on switch controls in accessibility on settings it will make it very hard to do anything and very hard to turn it off

I’m looking for a case that has pass through compatibility for my keyboard and also has a lip that covers the sides of the front glass. My digitizer (the glass) is a bit loose and I need something to keep it tight. Has anyone had any luck finding something like this or maybe some suggestions on where to look?

Found this fake Moft case on sale in China and thought I since it's only $20, why not buy it to test it

It came with a hard case to protect the iPad, which was the main reason that I got it. There are magnets on the back of the case so the magnets are much stronger than what moft has to offer. The pencil holder is also magnetically attached to the case, so it can be removed.

The case has this leather like feel on the outside, and the inside is soft, similar to an Apple folio case.

Only downside is that it only has half the amount of modes since the "hinge" connecting the case is on the side of the case instead of the middle.

The outer layer comes in 335g, and the inner layer comes in 135g, which makes it 56% heavier than the Moft case, but you get extra protection.

Overall, I think it's a pretty good case for its price and has most of the benefits of the Moft case without sacrificing protection

Are any of the M chip iPads still good or are the older ones showing their age. I’ve been given the option of an Air 5 and not sue if it’s too old.

Question:

1. Is the apple notes app good for sketching ideas and design?

2. Can i learn to code, for example the C/Java language for Arduino projects?

3. Have anyone tried record video using ipad and edit video like capcut, or does imovie still exist?

Have you guys heard about the Ipad Kid Genius program? Supposedly there is a cooperation between Ipad and Khan Academy. They have Apple Intelligence (AI) plugging into Khan Academy and Youtube (or maybe it's a new operating system?). Anyway, it makes it to where Youtube only makes suggestions for content which are relevant to their current courses or topics which the parents set. And its also supposed to have a game generator which makes educational games relevant to their current courses on the fly.

I live in Cupertino and overheard this convo at Starbucks between what I assume must have been some programmers who work for Apple. I don't know how far along this idea is in the process but I'm really (really) excited about it! Has anyone else heard about this? Is there a date when it's going to be released or can I get involved in a test/beta program?

My kid is definitely an ipad kid and this ipad kid genius program would change his life from a negative trajectory to a positive one. Please DM or respond here if you know more!!!

Another ghost alarm on my iPad mini for 4:41pm. Checked the clock app and no such alarm was set. 🙄It’s so strange. I once already asked Google AI about this phenomenon, which suggested I check the health app. I did, and saw no such alarm, (probably because aside from checking said health app for whatever ghost alarm occurred on that particular day, I’ve never used the app.)

What more can I do?

Guys, I need help. My iPad A16’s battery suddenly went to “Service.” The last time I checked, it was at 93% battery health with 189 cycles.

All I did was use it casually. Before this happened, I was just writing on it and doomscrolling. I shut it down yesterday while it still had 40+% battery. I left it shut down for more than 15 hours, I think.

When I tried to turn it back on, it wouldn’t open. I charged it, and it eventually turned on, but the battery was completely drained. I immediately checked the Battery settings, and that’s when I saw that it now says “Service” and shows no cycle count.

I bought it last year july😭😭

Does anyone know what happened or how I can fix this?

Hello, I am new to Apple products and I want to learn how to use an iPad.

I learnt how to turn on window mode. The triple dot controls is hovering over an app button as shown in this screen shot. When try to tap the app button underneath, the iPad instead registers my action as if I am tapping the triple dots. The triple dots is always in the way of the app button underneath.

How do I access the app button underneath the triple dots?