On iPad Sizes

Sunday, May 21, 2017 

Recently, I tried out a multiple iPad workflow. I set up three iPads, all with the same software, and attempted to do as much of my work as possible using just iPads.

There’s a lot to be said here about iOS, its strengths, and its shortcomings for productivity. While I think there are things iOS does better than a Mac, clearly there are things it does not do as well or cannot do at all. File management remains a challenge, and dealing with files in bulk is a major pain point. Professional apps like Adobe Creative Suite have yet to arrive on iOS in a way that offers serious parity with their desktop counterparts. Yet there are so many times when using an iPad is just more enjoyable than a Mac, and I think that's why you see so many people giving it a try as a real, full-fledged work computer.

For this article, I’d like to put software aside for a moment and focus on the iPad hardware, the form factor, and the relative advantages of each iPad size. Which size is best?

One size fit all

In the beginning, iPad came in a single size. So did iPhone. If you wanted one of these devices, there was just a single size to choose from. All that has since changed, and Apple is offering more choice than ever.

When I worked at Apple, before iPad, it could be difficult helping customers choose the right size notebook. Apple's Mac notebooks came in a few sizes. We offered 12-inch and 14-inch (both later replaced by 13-inch), 15-inch, and 17-inch. Most customers I met would assume that bigger is better, and thought they should buy as much computer as they could afford.

But I knew from my own experience as a student that many customers wouldn't be as happy with a big notebook. People tend to undervalue portability, especially when buying their first computer. I'd owned every size computer you could imagine, and I eventually settled on a 13-inch MacBook. Bigger notebooks just didn't fit on tiny college desks. I was almost embarrassed when I would open up my 15-inch PowerBook in class. It was too conspicuous. And so I tried to share that experience with those customers.

Still, 15 and 17-inch Macs had their place. Creative pros loved them. One time I sold some to Slipknot. But, unless you have the benefit of trying out all these different sizes—or piles of cash like Slipknot—it could be incredibly hard to know which one to choose. And that's why, to some degree, I lament that Apple no longer offers just one size of iPad. When Apple makes the hard choices for the customer, saying "no" where ideas don't make sense, they tend to make a more focused, simple product. I realize Apple is often criticized for offering too little choice, and sometimes that's valid. I also understand the doubt customers can have when presented with too many choices.

With rumors of an upcoming 10.5-inch iPad and thinner bezels, the size equation may be about to change again. But for this experiment, I used the most current iPad from each product line:

9.7-inch iPad Pro

I’ve owned an iPad since day one, so, 9.7-inch has long been the canonical size to my mind. It sits at a sweet spot: large enough to provide a big multi-touch display, and still small enough to be truly portable.

I’m a big fan of iPad, and the sit-back posture that Steve Jobs famously demonstrated on stage continues to make it my most enjoyed and most used device. I typically use an iMac when I’m doing serious work, but iPad has really displaced my iPhone and my MacBook for just about everything else. Being able to touch a webpage is still pretty magical to me.

iPad has always tried to be about more than just viewing content. Since its launch, Apple has offered its iWork apps—Keynote, Pages, and Numbers—for iPad. iPad shipped with iOS 3.2, well before iCloud, so using those apps meant syncing documents over the cable with iTunes on a Mac. Even though the software had a long way to go, the hardware was already there: Apple offered a keyboard dock for that first generation iPad, which was literally a dock and a standard Apple keyboard fused together. (Frustratingly, Apple's own iPad case was incompatible with their keyboard dock, and you had to remove the iPad from the case to use the keyboard.)

For a time, Apple abandoned keyboards altogether—though still offering Bluetooth support—but with iPad Pro they're now positioning keyboards at the forefront with the iPad Smart Keyboard. It smooths out many of the rough edges of that original setup, smartly combining a keyboard with a Smart Cover, attaching magnetically and folding up behind the iPad when not in use. It's a surprisingly comfortable keyboard and I love typing on it, even on the smaller iPad. It does unfortunately force you to use the iPad in landscape orientation, making the device feel more like a traditional laptop, whereas the original iPad keyboard dock put the iPad in portrait orientation. Portrait orientation is part of what makes an iPad an iPad, and being locked into landscape contradicts the promise that iPad fits you, that there's no correct way to hold it. At the moment, typing this review on the 9.7-inch iPad Pro and Smart Keyboard, I'm wishing I could rotate the iPad into portrait and see an entire page at once. Instead, landscape orientation limits my view.

Nevertheless, the great thing about the Smart Keyboard is that it removes so easily. Most of the time I use iPad hand held, removed from its cover. The 9.7-inch size manages to do everything well. It's small enough to hold for a long time, and big enough to display all the content you want. Reading, browsing, viewing photos, watching movies, panning through maps—all of it is a joy on this iPad. And when I need to set it down on the desk and start typing, it's big enough to do that comfortably too.

iPad mini 4

When iPad mini launched, it looked like there would be a sizeable market for 7-inch tablets. iPad mini was also much lighter than any previous iPad, so it had clear advantages. But, today, with lighter iPads and bigger phones, that market now looks like it will be short-lived.

I bought the original iPad mini when it debuted, and used it exclusively for 6 months. I never really warmed up to it. I ultimately gave it up and went back to a 9.7-inch iPad.

So, now, a few years later, I was curious to give iPad mini another try.

I think my original impressions hold up. I didn't enjoy using it, with a few exceptions I'll get to in a moment. I don't like that iPad mini takes the resolution of a 9.7-inch iPad and compresses it into a smaller area. It feels like a shrunken iPad, like an afterthought, rather than a fully realized product in and of itself. While the pixel density is greater and the display is sharper; the icons, buttons, and touch targets are smaller. An iPad is really defined by its big multi-touch display, and iPad mini sacrifices that to some extent. The result is an awkward device that's not quite a phone and not quite a tablet.

I can share a few positive observations though. Of course, iPad mini is incredibly lightweight, and it's very comfortable to hold for long periods. Thumb typing is easy, just like on a phone, and so messaging on iPad mini is a breeze. It's a great size for kids. It's also a great e-book reader. It really is the perfect size for reading a book. You get just the right line length and just the right number of lines on the page. It's like reading a bigger paperback. Using iBooks on an iPad mini is really satisfying. If there was one place for iPad mini in my life, I'd probably delete all the other apps and use it as a dedicated book reader.

Reportedly, Steve Jobs had to be persuaded to release iPad mini, and I can understand why. Apple had meticulously prototyped different sizes before deciding on 9.7 inches for the original iPad. Deviating from that size carried some significant risk of diluting or damaging the iPad experience. And now with some hindsight, I feel safe in saying that Apple made a misstep with iPad mini. It led to some short-term gains, sure, but has since helped drive the narrative that iPads are in decline as customers are increasingly abandoning this smaller size.

12.9-inch iPad Pro

The first time I saw an iPad Pro, I was blown away. Viewing a high resolution photo or a looking at a map on its giant, crisp retina display is stunning. A multi-touch surface this big is just so inviting.

iPad Pro makes great use of the new split-screen multitasking features in iOS. At this size, you can essentially have two full-size iPad apps up on the screen side-by-side. I used the 12.9-inch iPad for a project that involved compiling population and demographic data into an Excel spreadsheet. For most of the project, I had Excel and Safari open at the same time. It worked great and it was as functional and as productive as any Mac would've been. That experience really showed me that iPad had arrived as a viable work computer.

Apple also introduced Apple Pencil with the 12.9-inch iPad, and this iPad offers an expansive canvas for drawing. Steve Jobs famously derided the stylus when he introduced iPhone, but Pencil is not a stylus. Being able to draw on screen with a precision tool opens up whole new areas of professional and creative uses for iPad. It redefines how people think of iPads. The smaller iPad Pro now offers Pencil support too, but there is really no comparison to drawing on a bigger canvas. If you're serious about drawing, the 12.9-inch model is the clear winner in this category.

So, we know that the 12.9-inch iPad really excels at drawing and productivity. But how does it do at traditional iPad tasks? Times when you want to lean back or lay down in bed? In short, it's not as good of an experience.

Because of its size, this iPad really asks to be propped up or supported in some way. So holding it and reading is not very comfortable. Whenever you're using one or both hands to hold iPad Pro, versus using it flat on a table or upright on a desk, it gets a little cumbersome and unwieldy. At the larger size, I tend to prefer landscape orientation, but my favorite way to use iPad is portrait. In landscape, thumb typing is quite impossible, and Apple inexplicably omitted the split on-screen keyboard that had been present on iPads for years. That feature still remains on smaller models, so I don't understand why it's absent on the iPad that would benefit from it most.

The 12.9-inch iPad Pro is a great work iPad. It's a great desktop iPad. It's great for multitasking, it's great for typing, it's great for drawing. But, it's just not as enjoyable when you're sitting back and relaxing. It's not a leisure iPad. Despite that, there's still a real appeal to the 12.9-inch iPad Pro that I can't quite get over. It's a compelling device and I'm curious to see where Apple takes it in the future. Will we some day see 20-inch iPads? 27 inches? That would surely expand the definition of what an iPad is and how it can be used. But, for the first time, I'm open to that idea.

What's next?

With the recent release of the 9.7-inch iPad (5th generation) it seems the iPad Air design will be with us for a while longer. But rumors are hot about changes to the iPad Pro.

It's a foregone conclusion at this point that we'll see reduced bezels, at least at the rumored 10.5-inch size. I have some trepidation about that change. We've seen Apple reduce the bezels before, when iPad Air replaced iPad 4. I think bezels play an important part in the usability of iPad. You need a way to grip the device without hiding content or triggering spurious inputs on the display. Reduced bezels will allow Apple to fit more screen in a smaller enclosure, but that comes with trade offs.

We'll undoubtedly see True Tone offered on the larger iPad Pro. I'm kind of stunned that after more than a year, Apple still only offers True Tone on the 9.7-inch model. True Tone is great, and it's tough using the 12.9-inch iPad's display after you've used one with True Tone.

I also hope to see the current beveled edge design replaced with a curved edge design, like we've seen on iPhone 6 and iPhone 7. With smaller bezels and swipe-from-edge gestures now prevalent in iOS, curved glass on the edges really helps blur the lines between hardware and software. (It's why I don't like using my iPhone 7 in a case: my thumb bumps up against the edge of the case instead of gliding over the curved edge.)

I really hope Apple sticks with the 4:3 aspect ratio on future iPads. I don't think an iPad at any other ratio would feel like an iPad. I've used 16:9 tablets, and while it's nice that they can show video without letterboxing, they just don't lend themselves to rotating between orientations. As I've discussed, holding iPad in a vertical or portrait orientation is a big part of what makes it unique and different from a traditional computer. Viewing webpages, reading books, taking notes... all these tasks feel great in portrait. And 16:9 in portrait (or should I say 9:16) just doesn't feel balanced to me.

Will 10.5-inch replace 9.7-inch? It's looking more and more likely. 9.7-inch has long been and continues to be my preferred iPad, so I'll be Apple's toughest customer if they hope to change from a well-worn and proven size.

Conclusion

A big part of this experiment was not just deciding on the best iPad size, but deciding between one iPad or multiple iPads.

The experience of switching between iPads was more stressful than I'd imagined. Not just the stress of keeping everything in sync, but also the stress of added clutter in my life. I already have a lot of devices—a lot of devices to charge and manage and update and configure—and having two or three iPads to juggle instead of just one added a lot of overhead without much benefit.

So, I'm back down to just a single iPad: a 9.7-inch iPad Pro, on which I'm typing this article. Apple offers more choice now, and choosing can be hard. My choice is surely not the right choice or the only choice for everybody. But, after spending serious time using all three of these sizes, I think it's impressive how much Apple got right on their first try.