Apple iPadOS 17 Review (2024)

With iPadOS 17, Apple refines the many useful tools introduced in iPadOS 16 while introducing several useful new ones. Although the changes aren’t as radical as last year’s update, the improvements are more immediately impactful. By downloading iPadOS 17, you'll enjoy a faster, more intuitive iPad experience that features enhanced multitasking functionality, superior collaboration, excellent PDF document annotation, and cool Lock Screen customization options. iPadOS 17 is a feature-packed OS that's an Editors' Choice winner for tablet operating systems.

What iPads Can Run Apple iPadOS 17?

As with previous iPadOS releases, some older iPads are incompatible with the latest version of the operating system. iPadOS 17 supports the iPad mini (fifth generation and later), the iPad (sixth generation and later), the iPad Air (third generation and later), the 10.5-inch and 11-inch iPad Pros, and the 12.9-inch model (second generation and later).

For a comprehensive list, check out Apple's iPadOS 17 compatibility list.

Customizing the lock screen (Credit: Apple)

Lock and Home Screen Improvements

The most immediate and striking improvement in iPadOS 17 comes via the Lock Screen. It integrates iOS 16's Lock Screen customization options, but with changes and enhancements to suit the tablet's larger screen.

You can now customize the Lock Screen's wallpaper, as well as the font, screen tone, and widgets. To make changes, simply swipe down from the top of the screen to open the Lock Screen, then press and hold the screen to enter Edit Mode (you can also access this from the Settings menu, via the Wallpaper tab). Like iOS, iPadOS 17 lets you customize the current screen or create a new one. In a nice touch, you can make different versions for various Focus modes.

Apple’s included recommendations look fantastic on the iPad. There are several themed wallpapers to peruse, like Astronomy, Emoji, Kaleidoscope, Pride, and Unity. Some even animate when swapping from Lock Screen to Home Screen. Of course, you can select images from your photo library to use as wallpaper. If you use a Live Photo as a Lock Screen wallpaper, the iPad plays the clip in the background. Or, you can select a photo shuffle mode to swap between images, breathing fresh life into what was once an ordinary screen.

When your iPad is in portrait mode, it supports a row of Lock Screen widgets just like the iPhone. However, it displays an elegant column on the screen's left side when placed in landscape mode. Simply tap the column's blank area while in Edit mode to add widgets. The widgets are interactive, so you can control smart home devices and appliances, check off tasks in Reminders, or play Apple Music without opening apps.

With Live Activities, your iPad displays important, time-sensitive events or appointments, from a simple timer to a food order status. These appear on the bottom of the screen, along with Notifications. This additional functionality, while seemingly mundane on paper, greatly boosts the flexibility of your iPad, since you no longer need an iOS or watchOS device to perform these tasks. Still, we hope that Apple gives us a proper Calculator app to round out the productivity features.

It’s fantastic that the iPad’s canvas is finally being used more liberally, though I wish the widget columns were wider to accommodate more icons. Likewise, Live Activities and Notifications too closely ape their iOS counterparts and don't effectively utilize the iPad’s big screen.

Stage Manager in action (Credit: Apple)

Stage Manager Improvements

Stage Manager, a feature that debuted with iPadOS 16, promised to declutter your iPad and enhance its multitasking capabilities. That implementation was confusing and a bit buggy, though more robust and feature-rich than Android's split-screen mode, which remains unchanged even with the Android 14 launch. With iPadOS 17, Stage Manager is a far more flexible app that gives you freedom to customize stages and swap apps.

For example, resizing windows is now a vastly smoother experience. If you want to resize one, hold its highlighted corner and drag it to a size more to your liking. You're still locked to preset dimensions; it isn’t a true window-resizing experience like on a desktop or laptop. Still, it's a notable improvement over iPadOS 16's limited, grid-based version.

It's also easier to move windows, as you can pull them nearly anywhere on the screen. You can’t truly hide them, so they snap to the edge of the screen when you drag them to the iPad’s extremities. Other windows react as you move them around, ensuring that everything on the screen is clickable.

If you want to make an app fill the screen screen, hold the three ellipses at the top of the window and select Enter Full Screen. This is ideal for YouTube and other video apps, but the option is there for any app you open.

Overall, Stage Manager feels much more intuitive. You can swap between stages with a few finger swipes and taps, so you never feel the need to use a keyboard (though you can use a Magic Keyboard and perform these same functions via shortcuts). However, I encountered some instances when apps obscured other apps, making finding them more tedious than intended.

Spotlight Enhancements

You can manually search for apps by swiping screens, but nothing tops the ease of sliding your finger down the screen, entering a few letters into Spotlight, and finding exactly what you’re looking for.

With iPadOS 17, search is not only faster, but it lets you interact with a search result if it has an existing shortcut. For example, if you search "Bluetooth," Spotlight lets you toggle Bluetooth on or off from within the results area. It's an extremely convenient feature, especially if you’re a keyboard user; you can tweak settings without lifting your hands to touch the screen.

AirDrop Files With (Even More) Ease

With iPadOS 17.1, AirDrop (Apple's wireless file transfer tech) receives a considerable performance boost.

We tested AirDrop by transferring a 1-minute video file between an iPhone and an iPad Air. When the devices were within Bluetooth range, the transfer took roughly five seconds. When the devices were moved approximately 100 feet apart, the transfer took approximately one minute over a Wi-Fi signal. Overall, AirDrops are impressively fast.

Safari Gets Profiles

Safari lacks significant changes, but it receives notable privacy conveniences via Safari Profiles. This is a useful tool if you want separate tab groups, favorites, or search history for your professional or personal browsing. You can change the profile name, icon, and color, and edit where favorites are saved. In testing, there appeared to be no limit on how many profiles we could create (we stopped at 30). You can then toggle between profiles from the drop-down menu in Safari's upper-left corner.

The second change lets you lock private windows using Face ID and Touch ID. This is an effective and valuable feature should you ever need to hand your iPad off to your children, or keep prying eyes away from sensitive searches.

Upgraded PDF Annotation Features

Documentation and PDFs are hardly riveting stuff, but it’s nice to have a device that can edit forms. iPadOS 17 uses intelligent detection to identify PDF fields, so you can quickly add details to a document. This extends to the Notes app, which lets you annotate, collaborate, organize, and read PDFs in a far more seamless fashion. Whether you’re using an Apple Pencil or a fingertip, it's incredibly easy to get paperwork done on an iPad. This is especially true when scanning documents. Scanning isn't a new iPadOS feature, but copying, editing, and sending documentation is a breeze with the improved PDF annotation capabilities.

Safari's Private Lock feature (Credit: Apple)

Other Notable Features

The changes to iPadOS 17 are too numerous to list, but let’s break down some of the more prominent enhancements you'll see after installing the new OS:

• Messages lets you create your own stickers, much like in iOS 17. Click a photo’s subject to highlight it and select Add Sticker to add the freshly cropped image to a sticker list. You can even give these images a unique graphical glow-up, like holographic reflections, puffy 3D textures, and outlines.

• iPad now offers support for external camera connections via the USB-C port.

• FaceTime lets you leave audio or video messages whenever someone doesn’t answer.

• Visual Lookup is improved, with smarter image recognition functionality. It identifies languages, animals, and symbols much more effectively with iPadOS 17.

• Maps lets you download and save a map for use when offline.

• Apple Music has visual enhancements, with dynamic visuals for select album covers. These include color-changing cover art and more visible song recommendations. There's also an enhanced Favorites option that adds your adored tracks to the Library to make songs easier to find.

• Support for the new USB-C Apple Pencil.

• Notes now supports hyperlinking to sites on the web. You can also link to other notes on the same iPad.

iPad OS 17 Lets You Get Things Done

iPadOS 17 transforms Apple's tablet into the potent, multitasking workhorse we were promised with last year's OS update. The enhanced Stage Manager, expanded PDF support, intuitive search, and excellent collaboration tools make the iPad a productivity dynamo. For that and more, Apple iPadOS 17 is worthy of our Editors' Choice award.