Time for a new iPad

After 8 years it became time to replace my iPad Pro 10,5 from 2017. This iPad actually still works almost flawlessly and the only piece of hardware that is showing its age is the battery. The battery drain is quite big requiring frequent charging. But it is not dramatic, I can get by on a full battery for a few days, up to a week out depending on usage. The biggest reason for the switch is actually the software and OS. Among other things I use my iPad for taking notes, replacing pen and paper when I am making math exercises to help my kids. Because the iPad Pro 10,5 is no longer receiving iPad OS updates and it is definitely not Apple Intelligence ready I got into a situation where new functionality in note taking that would save me time was not available to me on the device. That was a good excuse to replace my old iPad. After a lot of comparing the different options of iPad Pro and iPad Air I had almost decided to go for the latest iPad Air that they were offering good deals for at Christmas. But then I saw a returned iPad Pro M4 for almost the same price and decided to grab that one. Technically it is second hand as it was sold and then returned by the customer after a short period. But, as promised it looked absolutely brand new and in the week I have been using it I have not experience any issues. Of course I also had to get a new Apple Pencil as the new iPads don’t support the first generation Apple Pencils anymore. I got a refurbished one at Apple at a discount and saving some money on that as well. The whole deal cost me quite a lot of money but if I can get another 8 years out of the iPad Pro M4 then I am fine. My old iPad I gave to my son who still had an old base model iPad with 32Gb of storage. And he claims the 8 year old iPad Pro is faster than what he had.