I work with many Am Law 100 (top 100 law firms in the US) who provide iPads to their attorneys. It’s public information that many of these firms achieve millions of dollars of profit per equity partner. Investing $2,000 to enable these profit-generating attorneys to work from anywhere and to be more responsive to their elite clients is a simple calculation.
iPads are fantastic. They are portable. The Pencil is fluid. It’s quick to get to work. Try comparing your time-to-work on an iPad with loading your Citrix desktop!
But what if your firm does not quite have the budget to put a $2,000 iPad Pro kit in each of your attorneys’ hands?
In 2024, there has been a new development in the iPad family. The processor in the iPad Air is now upgraded to the Apple M2, which puts it on par with the iPad Pro 2022. I’ve traveled with the 11″ iPad Air. The light weight is a breeze, and the screen size is perfect for my needs. I love it.
I sent this brief summary (below) of iPad Pro and iPad Air pricing to a law firm IT Director who is considering buying iPads. He told me that it presents possibilities. Feel free to share it, as it may open doors for you and your firm.
Sources: Apple Website and Tom’s Guide
The 11″ iPad Air starts at $599. However, that price is with 128GB of storage and supports WiFi-only. Above, I show relative iPad prices with 512GB of storage, where available, as I would not recommend anything below 512GB. I have also shown pricing for WiFi-only and Cellular-enabled models. The pricing above does not include cellular service.
As shown, you can opt for a 13″ iPad Pro with 512GB and Cellular-enabled for $1,699.
Or, an 11″ iPad Air with 512 GB, also Cellular-enabled, is $1,049.
With any iPad, a Pencil is a must-have. The ability to take notes and mark up documents and images with a Pencil is one of the joys and conveniences of working with an iPad. The Apple Pencil Pro is $129, the Apple Pencil is $79.
I also consider a keyboard necessary for real work. The Apple brand keyboards are pricey with the Apple 13″ Magic Keyboard at $349. There are many highly rated aftermarket keyboards, starting at $39. The Zagg Pro Keyboard with Case lists at $170 (13″) and $110 (11″). They are frequently discounted at 30% off.
In summary, let’s look at two options:
- 13″ iPad Pro, 512GB, Cellular-enabled, Pencil Pro, aftermarket keyboard ($170) = $1,998
- 11″ iPad Air, 512GB, Cellular-enable, Pencil Pro, aftermarket keyboard ($110) = $1,288
The delta is ~ $700 per kit.
You don’t have to rely on my analysis – read Jeff Richardson, aka, iPhoneJD. Jeff is an appellate attorney and an avid iPad Pro user. He also writes the best product reviews that any legal user could wish for. Jeff publishes a weekly “In the News” blog which you can subscribe to and receive in your inbox every Friday morning.
Here is the summary from Jeff’s May 2024 review of the new 13″ iPad Pro. For his practice, he prefers the 13″ iPad Pro, but he recommends the iPad Air to “most attorneys.”
With the nice new improvements to the iPad Air, very few users will have a reason to say that they truly need the iPad Pro versus the iPad Air. But anyone who enjoys using an iPad and does so regularly will have a reason to want a new iPad Pro because it is simply a better overall experience. The core of using an iPad is holding a screen in your hand and interacting with it. Making the iPad thinner and lighter, making the screen better, and giving you new accessories that improve the interaction with the screen are all improvements to the most important parts of the iPad. Add to that the M4 chip for even snappier performance and the other improvements and there is simply a lot to love. I’m sure that many people will decide to save several hundred dollars and go with an iPad Air, and that is a perfectly reasonable choice. It is even the choice that I would recommend to most attorneys. But if you are OK with spending more money for a premium experience, the new iPad Pro is not just the best iPad ever, it is one of the best Apple products ever. The iPad Pro 13″ M4 is incredible.
– Jeff Richardson, iPhone J.D.
Jeff captures it well.
It’s certainly worth it to take another look at the iPad Air.
-Maureen Blando,
President & COO, Mobile Helix, Inc.