ah, got it! So you'd prefer the 2018 11" pro over the 2020 Air 4? Despite it being now 5 years old? Wow. I'll take that on board.
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iPad Pro How bad/slow is the A12X chip (iPad Pro 11")
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2GB on iOS 12 performs a heck of a lot better than 2GB on iPadOS 13-16.
For Netflix, YouTube, etc. apps, 2GB is fine.
It’s multitasking and multi-tabbed web browsing where 3-4GB can get stifling. For example, using YouTube desktop website via Safari requires more resources than the iPadOS app.
The A12X supports Stage Manager, and has a better display and the Quad Speakers. I have the 9.7-inch iPad Pro on iOS 12. I don’t use the speakers much, but they are a lot better than my iPad Air 5’s speakers, and my Pro is the first generation, and the Air is the latest.
I think I’d choose the iPad Pro over the Air 4, but the Air 5 over the Pro for longevity alone. Honestly and like I said, for content consumption you can’t go wrong with any iPad.
4GB is perfectly serviceable for an iPad as a consumption device if:
- You don't multitask heavily.
- You don't use professional grade content creation apps heavily (Lightroom, Photoshop, Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher, ProCreate, Capture One, DaVinci Resolve, LumaFusion, etc.) By "heavily" I mean you're not editing multi-layer files in Photoshop or Procreate, or working on 60 megapixel raw files in Lightroom or Capture One.
- You keep browser tabs to a reasonable number.
- You don't mind the possibility that, while your iPad will be supported by future iPadOS updates for years to come, there may be some features that aren't available due to hardware limitations.
Yeah, for performance it’s fine. It’s likely that battery life will start to struggle on 2GB iPads, but for basic content consumption 2GB iPads should be fine, even on the latest versions of iOS. As far as OP’s quandary goes, I think they’d be fine with any 4GB iPad.
Thanks so much! There are plenty of Air 4 iPads on Ebay, not so many affordable Pro 11" 2020 models, so I am just going to keep on hunting.
Still not sure whether the 2018 Pro would be better than the Air 4 2020 (same ram, similar specs, but difference in age)
Still not sure whether the 2018 Pro would be better than the Air 4 2020 (same ram, similar specs, but difference in age)
Air 4 has around the same performance despite the chip numbers, many report A12X being on par with A14, with A12Z having an extra bump in graphics but as far as I know most of the other internals are identical. Also, note that you lose out on Stage Manager with the Air 4, because despite it being a newer device Apple somehow decided to not support it, maybe because a professional but older chip has more of a possibility to beat a mid range but new chip.
More likely than not, it’s because it’s the 2018 and 2020 iPad Pro owners who kicked up a fuss. These were also the models that were heavily featured in articles.
Apple went through the hassle of adding Stage Manager to older iPad Pros purely because of the negative publicity.
Meanwhile, I doubt there were many (if any) Air 4 owners complaining about not having Stage Manager on their iPads.
It’s not limited to these apps, though. The handwriting calculator (MyScript Calculator) I like to use would crash on my mini 6 when there’s not enough RAM available.
I find even light multitasking problematic on 4GB. I just had Messages, Mail, Safari (15 tabs) and a webcomic app open and when I tried to open MyScript, it would immediately crash. I’m gonna have to hard reset the iPad to clear the RAM.
Mind, my mom is perfectly content with 2-4GB RAM iPads. Of course, her idea of multitasking is to use two iPads at the same time (video conference on one iPad and reference material on the other).
Yeah... I do really like the mini form factor, but they just don't have enough RAM.
I owned a 2018 A12X 11” and upgraded to the 2022 M2 iPad Pro 11”
Also it’s a jump from 4GB to 8GB of much faster RAM and internal storage speed is easily double.
and WiFI 5 to WIFI 6 if you have a WiFI 6 router.
Daily speeds are easily Double from a 4 year old device 5 years considering it was designed a year prior.
Its a must Upgrade.
It isn't slow at all, it is pretty fast. It's just that M-series iPads are faster by a wide margin. But if you use it by itself, without comparison, it feels snappy, consistent, and powerful. You're looking for an 11-inch 2018 iPad Pro, so buy that.
Nice to know. Am tempted to go for it. The 2020 models are all much more expensive on Ebay and the 2018 model I could afford without having to struggle. I am sure I'd love the fancy screen, even if it's not the fastest.
You're only using it for browsing and reading, and any iPad could handle that (well, maybe not the 1st gen but you get what I'm saying). The iPad Pro 2018 model can handle that with no strain at all, and with the 120hz screen it feels fluid and smooth. You could even browse and read at the same time with the Stage Manager. Plus, if you happen to want to do something else, it can handle that too thanks to the powerful A12X chip. I don't see why you'd regret this purchase
For content consumption it will not be slow, even for other tasks it is debatable. I think it’s the model that makes the most sense based on what you’ve said.
Yes, I've dealt with an A12 for many years and as long as you don't push it to say, intense gaming or big 3d models, it's as smooth as butter. I could only imagine how much more powerful an A12X would be. A lot of people give it praise.
It’s not slow at all. More like prone to reloads and app crashes. I bet the A12X/6GB 1TB models aren’t as constrained.
Unless you only use a single tab, web browsing is actually one of the things I find annoying on low RAM devices.
A12X is powerful. Unfortunately, the RAM on non-1TB models is quite limited for multitasking.
Well, yeah, RAM is a bit of a problem, but I find my laptop with the same amount (4GB) hitting about 40 tabs without refreshing if it's the only thing you ever open, but the tabs may refresh if you reopen it after using a lot of RAM for something else. 8GB RAM is a perfect amount for me, since it can stockpile the tabs in the background while still having plenty of room for intensive tasks.
Then again, I did browse just fine on 3GB ram for 4 years without noticing anything bad (I thought refreshing every time it opened was normal), so... you could argue that browsing on low RAM is just fine if you're okay with refreshing occasionally.
Desktop OSes have swapfile/pagefile to offload inactive pages. I regularly see Chrome and Firefox using 12GB virtual memory with that many tabs.
On iPadOS 16, only iPads with M1 and M2 chipset and 128GB+ storage have swapfile.
The annoying thing with refreshes for me in particular is when I’m filling out forms. I could be swapping between just 2 tabs and the form would reload and lose data when I want to paste something from another tab.
Mind, I’ve had instances when I had two Safari tabs in split view and the inactive “window” would refresh so even split view or Stage Manager is not a solution for lack of RAM.
For me, 4GB was plenty up to iOS 12. Once I updated to iPadOS 13 and started to use more desktop websites, that’s when my woes with 4GB RAM started.
Got a 2018 A12X (work) and a 2022 M2 (personal) here. I can't tell the difference really for anything I've run through it.
Edit: just tried a couple of things on an 8th gen plain iPad and that's not even noticeably slower other than the lack of ProMotion.
Edit: just tried a couple of things on an 8th gen plain iPad and that's not even noticeably slower other than the lack of ProMotion.
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It's still plenty fast. I love my 2018 11" Pro!! I use it daily
I switch daily between a 2018 4GB 12.9 pro, a 2018 6GB RAM 11" pro (the 1TB one) and a 2021 M1 12.9 pro.
I barely notice the speed difference between them, what I do notice is the frequency of reloads. This affects mainly Safari tabs, other apps reload much less. I have since learnt to have only 1 tab open on the 4GB iPad and it stays on for very long without reloading.
I consider the 2018 pro a better device than the air 4 and I don't expect any more longevity for the air 4. I think Apple will give 1 or 2 more years to pro devices vs air ones and also take RAM into account, not just the year of release. And while giving stage manager only to the pro (and not the air 4) is a "political" choice, the A12X still has more cores than the A14 (and while A14 has faster cores, A12X is technically faster in multicore). Also promotion, better speakers and a slightly larger screen are nice bonuses that make it a better device.
I barely notice the speed difference between them, what I do notice is the frequency of reloads. This affects mainly Safari tabs, other apps reload much less. I have since learnt to have only 1 tab open on the 4GB iPad and it stays on for very long without reloading.
I consider the 2018 pro a better device than the air 4 and I don't expect any more longevity for the air 4. I think Apple will give 1 or 2 more years to pro devices vs air ones and also take RAM into account, not just the year of release. And while giving stage manager only to the pro (and not the air 4) is a "political" choice, the A12X still has more cores than the A14 (and while A14 has faster cores, A12X is technically faster in multicore). Also promotion, better speakers and a slightly larger screen are nice bonuses that make it a better device.
+1 agree about the speakers and ProMotion. Makes a huge difference.