First Impressions
Coming from an iPad Air 2 with 16 GB is a refresher for my iPad experience. I don’t have the problem of low storage to barely any storage on my iPad. It was time to get a new iPad but I was not going to pay full price for one. I spent half a year looking for a good discounted iPad to buy. At one point I was going to get an older model of the iPad, but the way the Apple Pencil charges for those models was the deciding factor that I was going to get something that was compatible with the Apple Pencil 2.
iPad Air 4 — Sky Blue 64 GB
- Used from Back Market for $400
- Packaged well; ensured that the iPad was protected in transport.
- No major scratches on the screen or back; It really looks like no one owned it before me
- This was not my choice in colors but hey with the price, I clearly don’t care.
Setting up
- Apple makes it easy to set up a new device if you already have Apple devices. But even if you don’t have an Apple device, Apple makes it easy to set up. I started from a backup from my iPhone XR. But it was mostly a fresh start.
- I took some time to decide on what new apps I want to try out on my iPad.
Accessories
- iPad Case
- Keyboard
- Apple Pencil
Buying new accessories is a must for any Apple product. Whether it’s a case or a screen protector or a keyboard. From the start, I knew that I wanted to buy a case and screen protector. And at a later date in the future, I would buy a USB-C Hub and an external hard drive. When looking for a screen protector and case, I went around looking in stores but none of them sold an iPad Case or screen protector for the iPad Air 4. So I went to Amazon for the best deal. I basically choose the cheaper option that has good reviews. I already owned a Bluetooth keyboard from 2015 and it still works like new.
The biggest reason that I bought an iPad was for the Apple Pencil. I wanted to get into digital art. So the Apple Pencil was a must. When searching for an Apple Pencil, I could not find any used Apple Pencil from a trusted source. Lucky for me, it went on sale when I started looking. It was only $110, so I went for it. From what I heard this was worth the purchase and I agree. Writing and drawing with an Apple Pencil is smooth and your handwriting isn’t bad. It doesn’t take much to make your handwriting or drawing look as if you were on paper. But a good screen protector helps make it better. Go for a matte screen if you are drawing some real artwork and go with a glass if you are just writing notes. Drawing figures is harder on glass than on matte. The pencil feels like it is sliding as you draw. The matte screen protector feels closer to paper, so drawing on would be better.
New Apps
- CollaNote
- Clover
- Notability
- Sketchbook
- Call of Duty
- Genshin Impact
- Adobe Fresco
A Month Later
So far finding a purpose for this iPad has been a little hard. I was looking for something outside of the regular stuff that I was doing. My other iPad was just doing nothing. Now that I have an iPad that uses the Apple Pencil, I can finally get into digital drawing and note-taking. I tried with a stylus from Amazon, it was ok for writing if you don’t care about the way your handwriting looks. It took a lot to make my writing look good. Drawing with the stylus was hard. I could not even draw straight lines with it. The lines always looked jagged. Now with the iPad Air 4, I am not having either of those problems.
I am having a big debate on what note-taking app to use. I found some free apps that have some features that are shared across the apps. So I will keep looking until I find one that is right enough. Notability looks good but there is a limited amount of edits per month and it is looking like it’s not the app to use. Notability is winning compared to the other apps. It has everything that I want in an app. But if I had to choose a second app, it would be Collanote. It’s the only app that comes close to Notability in features.
Call of Duty and Genshin Impact have been some of the best games that I have found for my iPad. They can keep me busy for hours on end. There is no real ending to these games and they are not paid to win. I am happy to have these games to play because on my previous iPad I had to let go of a lot of apps.
There are a few apps that I wanted to try to see how they work. I started using Apple Pages, Notes, and Files. Right now with just the iPad app for Pages, I want to leave Google Docs. But without having a Mac, that won’t happen. Maybe if I ever change my mind about owning a Mac because I would never pay those prices for a computer, I can get a customized one for the same price.
After using the iPad for a while now, I really love it. I went from not having any apps on my iPad Air 2 to having an iPad Air 4 with an Apple Pencil 2. There are so many other things that I want to try out in the future. So buying a used iPad is worth it especially if it comes with backing as it does from BackMarket.
