iPad Pro Another perspective on iPadPro 12.9 2018 vs 2020

[Neodym]

In tests and reviews about the iPP 12.9 2020 I’ve often read the recommendation to rather look for discounts on the 2018, get a refurb etc, as the hardware improvements on the 2020 would be too marginal (or too niche at this point in time - Hey LiDAR and WiFi 6) to make it really stand out. There is, however, one improvement that usually seems to get overlooked and that‘s thermal improvement.

Quite some 12.9 iPad Pro’s suffer from touch disease and degraded batteries and those seem to be connected to heat. Apple officially never offered a full case for the 12.9 1st and 2nd gen. I wondered, why, but eventually used a 3rd party case and forgot about it. That is - until I also caught the “iPad touch disease” on my device.

After some investigation and testing, I’m now convinced that heat (be it from heavy lifting or recharging) causes - or at least supports - the degenerative effects seen in some 12.9 iPad Pros (even 2018 models). So far I could not see the connection, why even some 2018 iPP‘s suffered from the problem - despite different technical platform - whereas others seemed to be unaffected. Perhaps using a case in conjunction with high load/charging together with excessive heat generation is the common root cause.

The A12z in the 2020 now having the 8th graphics core enabled, means that the production process is more stable and gives improved yields. That usually also means that the produced chips have less leak voltage and less heat dissipation. I find it telling that even Apple itself pointed out “an enhanced thermal architecture” in its press release (Link), whereas they normally are rather tight-mouthed about these kinds of under-the-hood improvements.

So for me this enhanced thermal architecture is a significant pro for the 2020 iPP 12.9 and a con against its 2018 predecessor.

Any thoughts? Do I overlook something or reading more into a small, technical side-note than there actually is?

Edit: Here’s a related discussion about heat problems, which reinforces my opinion of “enhanced thermal architecture” being a bit more than merely some marketing buzzword.

 

[AutomaticApple]

In tests and reviews about the iPP 12.9 2020 I’ve often read the recommendation to rather look for discounts on the 2018, get a refurb etc, as the hardware improvements on the 2020 would be too marginal (or too niche at this point in time - Hey LiDAR and WiFi 6) to make it really stand out. There is, however, one improvement that usually seems to get overlooked and that‘s thermal improvement.

Quite some 12.9 iPad Pro’s suffer from touch disease and degraded batteries and those seem to be connected to heat. Apple officially never offered a full case for the 12.9 1st and 2nd gen. I wondered, why, but eventually used a 3rd party case and forgot about it. That is - until I also caught the “iPad touch disease” on my device.

After some investigation and testing, I’m now convinced that heat (be it from heavy lifting or recharging) causes - or at least supports - the degenerative effects seen in some 12.9 iPad Pros (even 2018 models). So far I could not see the connection, why even some 2018 iPP‘s suffered from the problem - despite different technical platform - whereas others seemed to be unaffected. Perhaps using a case in conjunction with high load/charging together with excessive heat generation is the common root cause.

The A12z in the 2020 now having the 8th graphics core enabled, means that the production process is more stable and gives improved yields. That usually also means that the produced chips have less leak voltage and less heat dissipation. I find it telling that even Apple itself pointed out “an enhanced thermal architecture” in its press release (Link), whereas they normally are rather tight-mouthed about these kinds of under-the-hood improvements.

So for me this enhanced thermal architecture is a significant pro for the 2020 iPP 12.9 and a con against its 2018 predecessor.

Any thoughts? Do I overlook something or reading more into a small, technical side-note than there actually is?

The redesigned thermal architecture is definitely something to not ignore. If anything, it really makes the 2020 iPad Pro seem much better compared to its predecessor.

 

[ericwn]

I’d say only a field test can give any validity to these ideas. Interesting, but until someone investigated with a sufficient sample size it’s really not much.

And Apple’s marketing had to point something out with such an incremental update in order to have some stuff to work with. “All the same, plus some extra RAM and a switched on Core” doesn’t read too well.