Thoughtful post. I decided to continue using my 12.9” iPad Pro after checking out the new iPads. They are certainly awesome! Being on a tight budget forces me to be frugal. Fortunately, I can continue working with what I have. I do prefer the feel of the new Pencil and appreciate how it attaches and the new keyboard is definitely more solid. I’ll get by without it for a bit.

The iPad Pro is also my ‘main’ computer tho I have a lovely 27” iMac and MacBook Pro. Over the past year I’ve successfully explored ways to use the iPad more frequently. Recently, rather than launching Adobe Illustrator on the iMac I opened an .ai file with Affinity Designer on the iPad Pro. It worked perfectly (Vectornator did not open the file correctly so I deleted the app). I completed the job, saved as a .pdf and sent to the printer - success!

I have trouble figuring out Affinity Photo. Fortunately, Pixelmator runs perfectly on iOS and their macOS app is beautiful too. It’s become a real Photoshop replacement. I’m excited about Pixelmator’s future iOS upgrade and will upgrade my iPad Pro based on whether the app requires more horsepower or the latest and greatest hardware. For now my needs are met.

One surprise for me is how I’ve become accustomed to the virtual trackpad. Using the virtual or physical Bluetooth keyboard allows me two finger access to the virtual trackpad. I hope Apple goes all glass with a haptic keyboard and trackpad in the future.

My two college teenagers will get new iPad Pros this year and enjoy the new cool gear (my older son is a medical student and only uses the 9.7” iPad Pro for the past three years to successfully maintain a 3.7 GPA). My ‘new’ wife will get a new MacBook Air as I continue converting her to Apple (the HomePod has become a staple in our home). But I will trudge along with the first generation iPad Pro as long as it continues to do everything I need - and indeed, so far, it has.