The Apple 10.5" iPad Pro (512GB, Wi-Fi, Space Gray)

August 12 2017

I was about to start college, and my older brother kept telling me to get a Mac. I’ve been a PC user for as long as I can remember, but I mostly just used it for gaming and writing essays.

The weird thing was that I noticed the screen on my older brother’s Mac always looked way brighter and more colorful than my PC’s screen did. Now that I had graduated from high school, my parents told me I needed to purchase a laptop to take with me to college.

However, I did what my older brother told me to do. I went into B&H Photo Video. After a fairly long discussion with the guy in the computer section, I decided to take home an Apple 10.5" iPad Pro (512GB, Wi-Fi, Space Gray).

It’s only been a month, but, for study purposes, I’m very happy that I switched. The iPad Pro comes with iOS 10 preinstalled, a 512-gigabyte hard drive with an A10X Coprocessor. It also has 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity.

I no longer use my desktop for anything else except Warcraft. The 10.5" Multi-Touch Retina Display was more than enough space for me to do word processing on. I was able to easily carry it with me between classes. And, I even downloaded an app in the iTunes store that allowed me to do voice recordings for free. This has made life a lot easier because I can always play back lectures later on.

The screen has a 2224 x 1668 resolution which is great for watching my favorites series like Glow, Halt and Catch Fire and Game of Thrones. I also love watching YouTube videos and listen to the Bill Burr and Marc Maron podcasts.

I’ve my iPad Pro to Skype with my parents back at home. The sound quality is great because it comes with four speakers, two on top, two on the bottom. Whether it’s classical music loops for reading or watching a TED talk, I have no complaints when it comes to audio. The entire MS Office Suite is online, and I also bought a Smart Keyboard so papers have been super easy to finish especially under pressure.

The iPad Pro also comes with a Lightning and Smart Connector in case you need to import data from your phone or other computers. I haven’t had to use it a lot, but the iPad’s 7-megapixel front camera and FaceTime HD camera capture super clear photos and videos.

The rear camera is really good. It takes 12-megapixel photos, and, unless you want to make a photo into a mural, you really don’t need them bigger than two. However, these higher resolution photos were eating some of my hard drive space.

Luckily, the guys on B&H Photo’s live chat walked me through how to adjust the size and quality of the photos in iPad Pro’s settings. I’ve saved a lot of space thanks to their tips.

If you’re thinking about buying an iPad Pro for college, I think the iPad Pro is a terrific substitute for a laptop; it’s easier to take with you to class, and if you get the Smart Keyboard writing reports is a breeze. If you’re a film or photography student and doing heavy graphic design or editing, then you’ll probably need something with greater capabilities, but if you’re an Undeclared major or a humanities student, then the iPad Pro offers more than enough features.

College is scary enough without having tech problems. Thanks to the computer experts at B & H, I have one less problem to worry about.