After some thinking and planning, I decided to buy Apple’s 11-inch iPad Pro last October. During that time, the iPad Air (2020) was to be released, and I contemplated between the iPad Pro and the iPad Air for quite a while, discovering the differences and the pros and cons between the two devices. I ended up purchasing the iPad Pro for a variety of reasons. After browsing through the Apple website, I found out that the iPad Air had only two storage choices: 64 GB and 256 GB. On the other hand, the iPad Pro had four choices: 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB. As a student who once worked with a 256 GB Macbook, I figured having an iPad with the same amount of storage was a bit too large for me personally. When comparing the prices as well, there was only a $50.00 difference between the $799.00 128 GB iPad Pro and the $749.00 256 GB iPad Air, both with only Wi-Fi connectivity. All these characteristics led me to make the decision of purchasing the iPad Pro, and I have no regrets.
I use my iPad every day, from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to bed. Every morning, I open the music application and immediately turn on my favorite Melon Chart playlist and listen to the melody that travels to my ears from the four stereo speakers that my iPad Pro has. I then read the news on the Los Angeles Times application, making sure that I am updated on the current events. My iPad is extremely helpful in areas that I did not imagine would come in handy. One of these instances is when I take notes. Before I enter each of my online classes, I prepare my device by opening the GoodNotes application, which allows me to take notes and import important files and pdfs, on which I am able to annotate. Rather than using paper and pencil, I have used digital notebooks for all my classes, and I have saved so much paper over the past few months.
When interviewing Jimin Yoo, a junior at La Canada High School, she said, “I use my iPad during classes for taking notes and accessing handouts. iPad has been helpful, as I do not have to print out everything for classes, especially in this online setting where students need to print out handouts by themselves.
Another junior, Timothy Jun, from La Canada High School stated, “I’ve been using an iPad since 2020, and I use it as an organizer for everything. I can write important information in it, organize my work, take notes, schedule my day, and text people. There is no need for paper, which is why having an iPad makes it so great.”
Utilizing an iPad during the pandemic is an asset to online learning and keeping one’s mental health up. Students can easily have accessible notes and documents. In addition, iPads can take pictures with both the front and back camera, which laptops cannot do.
