iPad Pro vs iPad Air for drawing

[CaymanDreamin]

I was thinking of getting my daughter an iPad for art. She currently uses a Surface Pro but really wants to use Procreate. This will be my first Apple purchase since the early iPod days, so I'm not sure whether to get the Pro or the Air. She's only going to use it for drawing, so if I can save money on the hardware without sacrificing her experience, I could use the extra cash on more memory. She's very talented and is currently going to school for art, so I want to make sure it will work well for her needs. We're not in the Apple ecosystem at all, so she doesn't need a laptop replacement. Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

[Bla1ze]

You may find the comparisons here helpful - https://www.imore.com/best-ipad-artists
Also here - https://www.reddit.com/r/ipad/comments/fz7dah/drawing_on_ipad_air_vs_ipad_pro/

Most will go for the Pro due to the 120hz display and less lag between the iPad and Apple Pencil.

 

[FFR]

I would get the iPad Pro over the air for drawing.

120hz display makes a huge difference with the Apple Pencil and more ram would help with the procreate app and multiple layers.

Best of luck.

 

[CaymanDreamin]

Thanks for the reply. Do you use Procreate? I'm not sure how much storage to get. She uses Autodesk Sketchbook on a Surface Pro with 128gb but it also has a micro SD and she uses cloud storage. How much on device storage do you find you use?

 

[FFR]

Thanks for the reply. Do you use Procreate? I'm not sure how much storage to get. She uses Autodesk Sketchbook on a Surface Pro with 128gb but it also has a micro SD and she uses cloud storage. How much on device storage do you find you use?

That all depends on your daughter’s usage. Each file is a different size depending on its dimensions, number of layers, complexity, and length of time lapse recording of said artwork. Another metric to consider is how long she plans on keeping the iPad Pro, the longer she keeps it the more storage she will eventually use.

 

[CaymanDreamin]

I imagine she'll keep it for quite awhile. Are Procreate files able to be stored on OneDrive? Right now I'm leaning towards the 256gb.

 

[FFR]

I imagine she'll keep it for quite awhile. Are Procreate files able to be stored on OneDrive? Right now I'm leaning towards the 256gb.

No idea, i don’t use one drive.

256gb should be adequate as long as she doesn’t work with 4k video .

It’s a fantastic gift btw, congrats.

 

[CaymanDreamin]

Thanks for the input, I appreciate the help.

 

[FFR]

Thanks for the input, I appreciate the help.

No worries.

 

[Mr.Willie]

I imagine she'll keep it for quite awhile. Are Procreate files able to be stored on OneDrive? Right now I'm leaning towards the 256gb.

Correct, Procreate is able to use cloud storage such as OneDrive, Dropbox, iCloud, etc.

You also may want to consider a model with a laminated display. Laminated displays are thinner and are more natural to draw and write on since the pencil is closer to the actual screen. This means any model other than the standard iPad. The 256 model is more than enough.

I currently use an iPad Pro 12.9, but I don’t do artwork on mine. I got pissed when my $100 pencil wouldn’t work on my then new iPad.