Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPad Pro Browsing on the iPad is horrible

F

Feffi2014

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 26, 2014
7
0
I just got a new 12.9 inch iPad Pro and I absolutely love it. However, I’m really disappointed in the browser experience. I know that the iPad does not offer a desktop class browser (until iOS13) but the issue is not with Safari’s (or any other iPad browser) capabilities but rather with how it renders websites.

All sites are ridicously zoomed in making text and images far too big. It autozooms the content to fill up the entire width of the screen which makes everything cramped and you loose so much vertical space. I do not understand the decision behind this. It makes the browser experience awful. Like you are browsing on a humonges iPhone.

I don’t understand why apple chooses to render websites on an iPad in this way instead of giving us a desktop class experience. It’s like they’re telling websites that the device has a resolution of 1024 pixels in width. My MacBook Air from 2012 has a much lower resolution and a smaller screen, yet I get more space to view website content on it than I do on my iPad. Same goes for my chromebook that can flip over and become a tablet. I enjoy browsing on those devices much more than I do on the iPad because I get the desktop experience.

Does anyone understand apple’s reasoning behind this? Is there a workaround? From what I’ve seen from the iOS13 previews this will not change. Am I right about that?
 
One thing you can try to experiment with is holding the reload icon in Safari and request the desktop site to check if that is more to your liking.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lowhangers
Holding down the refresh button does not resolve the issue.
[doublepost=1560435347][/doublepost]
benshive said:
It is changing in iOS 13. I'm running the beta on my 12.9" Pro and browsing is great. Pages render like they would on your MacBook.
Click to expand...

Really? That’s great news. Can you post a screen cap of the macrumors startpage? Looks like this on ios12;
 

Attachments

  • 22D91A08-E95B-4871-8E6F-6334CB28E177.png
    22D91A08-E95B-4871-8E6F-6334CB28E177.png
    3.9 MB · Views: 463
Feffi2014 said:
Holding down the refresh button does not resolve the issue.
[doublepost=1560435347][/doublepost]

Really? That’s great news. Can you post a screen cap of the macrumors startpage? Looks like this on ios12;
Click to expand...
I’m not seeing the issue here. Nothing seems to be zoomed in. The text looks normal sized. Of course with MacRumors, it is set to fill the entire screen. Your iPad has a resolution of 2732-by-2048 so webpages will have to fit in at 1136-by-1024. Most modern websites will adapt to fit that no matter if it’s the full desktop view or the mobile view.
As far as crampness, definitely get a decent adblocker. I use AdGuard.
 
I can definitely understand the OP's complaints. Here are some examples.

On MacRumors Forums, the 12.9" iPad displays more content compared to the 9.7" iPad.

However, if you look at the MacRumors Front Page, the 12.9" iPad simply displays the same content as the 9.7" iPad just blown up. There are plenty of webpages that behave similarly to the MR Front Page. Rather than take advantage of the larger display, they just display zoomed in versions of 1024x768 content (instead of 1366x1024). I'm very much looking forward to seeing iPadOS remedy this.


MacRumors Forums

9.7" iPad
622675FD-E2F7-43AE-85ED-FFA27569E233.png


12.9" iPad
5876C781-AC87-46E9-AD94-90C18941C1EA.png




MacRumors Front Page

9.7" iPad
7D73500E-56DE-4C27-AA95-6EA978B377E1.png


12.9" iPad
9ED1BAB5-937D-41B9-80D9-8672861FCB68.png
 
AutomaticApple said:
Where did they say that?
Click to expand...
“Desktop websites
Safari automatically presents a website’s desktop version for iPad. Touch input maps correctly when a website expects mouse or trackpad input. Website scaling takes advantage of the large iPad screen, so you’ll see websites at their optimal size. And scrolling within web pages is faster and more fluid.”
 
benshive said:
“Desktop websites
Safari automatically presents a website’s desktop version for iPad. Touch input maps correctly when a website expects mouse or trackpad input. Website scaling takes advantage of the large iPad screen, so you’ll see websites at their optimal size. And scrolling within web pages is faster and more fluid.”
Click to expand...
I'm very curious how this works out (come on public beta, where are you?).

The above screenshot for MR Front Page on 12.9" iPad was already after requesting desktop site. I've been to several sites where requesting the desktop version didn't do squat.
 
CE889908-E9A2-46EF-99CF-F42FACAC95BB.jpeg
I just checked out the keynote again. This is what Craig showed. You can clearly see that the iPad does not show a desktop version in the example they showed. Why can’t the resolution be the same as the MacBook next to it? Look at the difference! This clearly shows what I’m talking about.

Desktop websites is apparently not the same as getting the desktop experience.
 
I'm not sure or convinced that iOS 13 will change the 'zoom' level when a website renders. I believe it's more of which version is loaded and forcing that.
 
I agree it's not ideal, I usually either browse in portrait, or else have safari in split view 3/4 alongside a 1/4 YouTube or Music window. The nice thing is that in portrait the iPad pro is still as wide as a 9.7" in landscape.
 
Feffi2014 said:
I just got a new 12.9 inch iPad Pro and I absolutely love it. However, I’m really disappointed in the browser experience. I know that the iPad does not offer a desktop class browser (until iOS13) but the issue is not with Safari’s (or any other iPad browser) capabilities but rather with how it renders websites.

All sites are ridicously zoomed in making text and images far too big. It autozooms the content to fill up the entire width of the screen which makes everything cramped and you loose so much vertical space. I do not understand the decision behind this. It makes the browser experience awful. Like you are browsing on a humonges iPhone.

I don’t understand why apple chooses to render websites on an iPad in this way instead of giving us a desktop class experience. It’s like they’re telling websites that the device has a resolution of 1024 pixels in width. My MacBook Air from 2012 has a much lower resolution and a smaller screen, yet I get more space to view website content on it than I do on my iPad. Same goes for my chromebook that can flip over and become a tablet. I enjoy browsing on those devices much more than I do on the iPad because I get the desktop experience.

Does anyone understand apple’s reasoning behind this? Is there a workaround? From what I’ve seen from the iOS13 previews this will not change. Am I right about that?
Click to expand...

I noticed that on my 12.9 but got tired of putting up with the bulk and returned it and got another 11 Pro and do not see this effect.
 
Newtons Apple said:
I noticed that on my 12.9 but got tired of putting up with the bulk and returned it and got another 11 Pro and do not see this effect.
Click to expand...

The smaller iPad has the same behavior though. See the screen caps above. Glad you’re enjoying yours.
 
Apple already said they’d address this in iOS 13. I don’t understand the need to continue complaining about this, unless it’s because some devices won’t get iOS 13 or the changes in iOS 13 are inadequate.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back