I have had an iPad Pro 9.7" for half a year, and had also used the 12.9" for a month. My experience and impressions so far:
• Perfect for using in bed, or outdoors when you don't need the power of a laptop/desktop OS. A phone is too small, cannot have a physical keyboard, and even the thinnest+lightest laptop is too bulky in comparison.
• The Apple Pencil beats every other stylus out there in just about everything. [1]
• With the Smart Keyboard, split-view multitasking, iCloud Drive, desktop-quality games, and many iPad-exclusive apps like Procreate [2], the iPad and iOS easily fulfills 50% of my computing needs, and I'm sure it can do 90% of what most people need to do on a desktop or laptop. The iCloud Drive file picker is really bad for a large number of files though, but it should hopefully improve in iOS 11.
• Nothing beats reading books on an iPad. The E Ink display on a Kindle may be better on the eyes for text, but the ability to multitask and listen to my music or watch a video while reading a book puts the iPad ahead.
• I can use the iPad as a secondary display and even a drawing tablet for native macOS/Windows apps with [3] and [4].
• The wide color screen is amazing and True Tone makes it easier on the eyes over long periods of usage.
• Thanks to the true multitouch and split-view you can actually control two apps at once, unlike on a desktop OS where there's only mouse pointer and single-window focus (even in Windows on a touchscreen, the last time I check you couldn't put a finger on different apps and interact with their controls at the same time. Has this changed in the latest Windows 10 update?)
• The 12.9" was great to use indoors but awkward in public, and doesn't have a wide color screen or a good camera yet. Especially gorgeous games like Samorost 3 [5] were even more amazing on the bigger screen.
I'm happy with the performance, but I'll be getting the next iPad Pro this year if it has a sleeker form, like significantly reduced bezels.
Oh and 3D/Force Touch and "Taptic" feedback too, is what would make me buy the next iPad Pro.
As for desktop-quality games I mean stuff like FTL, Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, XCOM, Inner World, Grim Fandango, Monkey Island (sadly no longer available), Banner Saga, Machinarium and many other faithful ports, some of which are actually more convenient to play on a tablet. Even among all the microtransaction-plagued crap there are a few mobile-only games with quality or depth comparable to desktop titles.
I have had an iPad Pro 9.7" for half a year, and had also used the 12.9" for a month. My experience and impressions so far:
• Perfect for using in bed, or outdoors when you don't need the power of a laptop/desktop OS. A phone is too small, cannot have a physical keyboard, and even the thinnest+lightest laptop is too bulky in comparison.
• The Apple Pencil beats every other stylus out there in just about everything. [1]
• With the Smart Keyboard, split-view multitasking, iCloud Drive, desktop-quality games, and many iPad-exclusive apps like Procreate [2], the iPad and iOS easily fulfills 50% of my computing needs, and I'm sure it can do 90% of what most people need to do on a desktop or laptop. The iCloud Drive file picker is really bad for a large number of files though, but it should hopefully improve in iOS 11.
• Nothing beats reading books on an iPad. The E Ink display on a Kindle may be better on the eyes for text, but the ability to multitask and listen to my music or watch a video while reading a book puts the iPad ahead.
• I can use the iPad as a secondary display and even a drawing tablet for native macOS/Windows apps with [3] and [4].
• The wide color screen is amazing and True Tone makes it easier on the eyes over long periods of usage.
• Thanks to the true multitouch and split-view you can actually control two apps at once, unlike on a desktop OS where there's only mouse pointer and single-window focus (even in Windows on a touchscreen, the last time I check you couldn't put a finger on different apps and interact with their controls at the same time. Has this changed in the latest Windows 10 update?)
• The 12.9" was great to use indoors but awkward in public, and doesn't have a wide color screen or a good camera yet. Especially gorgeous games like Samorost 3 [5] were even more amazing on the bigger screen.
I'm happy with the performance, but I'll be getting the next iPad Pro this year if it has a sleeker form, like significantly reduced bezels.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMA25CqKcn8
[2] http://procreate.si
[3] https://www.duetdisplay.com
[4] http://astropad.com
[5] http://samorost3.net/