But we’re not doing that. Apple decided they’ll support the 7th gen (I personally assume it will run like garbage) so they should support the 10.5 IPP out of principle considering it has a faster, more capable processor.
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iPad Pro How do 10.5 IPP Owners Feel About Being Left Out of iPad OS 18?
- Thread starter Phineasgage1848
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While I agree the iPad Pro 10.5 should have iPadOS 18, it should be noted that the iPad 7th gen wasn't even released until after the iPad Pro 10.5 was discontinued.
The iPad Pro 10.5 was discontinued in early 2019, so by the time iPadOS 18 is released, it will have already been more than 5 years after it was discontinued.
It doesn't affect me much though, since I gave my iPad Pro 10.5 to my son a while ago, and I personally am using an 11" iPad Pro M4. My son won't care about iPadOS 18 at all. But I still wish the iPad Pro 10.5 would get iPadOS 18.
The iPad Pro 10.5 was discontinued in early 2019, so by the time iPadOS 18 is released, it will have already been more than 5 years after it was discontinued.
It doesn't affect me much though, since I gave my iPad Pro 10.5 to my son a while ago, and I personally am using an 11" iPad Pro M4. My son won't care about iPadOS 18 at all. But I still wish the iPad Pro 10.5 would get iPadOS 18.
That’s a fair point. I think as someone earlier up thread mentioned, it seems more about how many years it’s been since it was discontinued (eg. 5 years), than just the SOC’s capability. But do think this is a situation where it shows there may be a bit of arbitrariness to Apple’s decision… Especially since the 10.5 iPP is still a great device (my kid has been using my old one since 2018 when I got the 11” iPad Pro…). I’ve just upgraded to the new 11” 2024 M4 iPad Pro, and will be handing down my 2018 version now.
But they easily could’ve still been using the 10.5”. Only thing that was really a noticeable con was the battery life. It’s definitely suffered in ~8ish years of life. Coconut Battery shows battery health at 71%... but only 300ish cycles. I tried bringing it in to Apple a few months ago to get a new battery, and their battery diagnostics shows 87%! Wild. Unfortunately as many know, they won’t do the battery replacement price unless, with their diagnostics, health is <80%. Clearly it’s some algorithm that takes # of cycles into account, where mine is relatively low for its age. I get why they don’t want to do it unnecessarily (Eg. They replace it with a new, refurb device, rather than actually replace the battery), and avoid ppl taking advantage just to get a ’new’ device… Just sucks a bit when you’re actually on the honest side, but don’t get to use it!
I may try again now, see if anything’s changed. Probably got 50-75 more cycles on it since I last went in to an Apple Store.
Looking at support from Apple purely based on specs is going to frustrate people. There is a long history of them dropping support even though we all know the hardware is likely capable of running the latest operating system for the device.While I agree the iPad Pro 10.5 should have iPadOS 18, it should be noted that the iPad 7th gen wasn't even released until after the iPad Pro 10.5 was discontinued.
The iPad Pro 10.5 was discontinued in early 2019, so by the time iPadOS 18 is released, it will have already been more than 5 years after it was discontinued.
It doesn't affect me much though, since I gave my iPad Pro 10.5 to my son a while ago, and I personally am using an 11" iPad Pro M4. My son won't care about iPadOS 18 at all. But I still wish the iPad Pro 10.5 would get iPadOS 18.
The better way to view it is based on the last time they introduced and sold the item.
Yes it sucks, but its part of their business model.
Apple will always support devices with the latest features, functionalities, and operating systems for as long as possible. Longevity is a point of pride within Apple. I understand a small number of iPad Pro 10.5" device owners may be disappointed, but rest assured you'll still be supported with security updates for the most critical issues for awhile yet. And when you are ready to upgrade to a new iPad Pro, you will immediately begin enjoying the latest and greatest features in iPadOS 18.
What’s the point of upgrading if it makes the device slower and shorter battery life (plus some missing new features that are available on the newest device only) - unless I am a VVIP and use that old iPad for storing sensitive information.
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I prefer iPad Pro 10.5 with limited iPadOS 18 upgrade, at least bringing some Apple Notes functionality like highlighting. Even though I already bought iPad Pro M2 this January.
But iPad Pro 10.5 has long enough support so far.
But iPad Pro 10.5 has long enough support so far.
I will always have a soft spot for the 10.5 iPad Pro since it was my first iPad Pro. The unicorn Apple Pencil charging was less than ideal but i still loved that iPad.
Probably likely the 7th gen iPad‘s continued support is just to appease some educational customers who likely don’t even push those iPads to the limits, and those iPads I bet are going to get a very skeletal iPad OS 18 update, they’ll miss out on a lot of features. They’ll essentially be iPad OS 18 in mostly just the name.
Otherwise, if that iPad is ignored, for all the other great features to be added, Apple can essentially just assume a NPU is present.
No. As mentioned, the 7th generation iPad wasn't even released until fall 2019, months after the 10.5" iPad Pro had already been discontinued. IOW, the 7th generation iPad is just getting a normal amount of OS support. The reason the 10.5" iPad Pro doesn't get iPadOS 18 is because getting iPadOS 18 would represent longer than normal OS support.
That is not to say the 10.5" iPad Pro couldn't handle it, because it most definitely could, and I had hoped it would get it. I'm just saying that by normal Apple standards, it makes sense that the iPad 7th gen gets the iPadOS 18 update while the 10.5" iPad Pro does not. The iPad 7 is a 2019 product that was discontinued in late 2020. The 10.5" iPad Pro is a 2017 product that was discontinued in early 2019.
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The part about OS support is absolutely true. The hardware support is however unrelated to software support. These 2 forms of support haven't historically matched.
Software support has been very stable however since the air 2, as I mentioned above (5 OS updates for the base and 7 for the air/pro). Even the year of release is not a factor itself, it's the release OS that matters. So an iPad released in September/October will get longer support than an equivalent one released in May or June.
The 10.5” iPad Pro is my all-time favorite iPad.
It has been handed down twice, and has been used for Minecraft, Roblox and Pokémon Go for years, the battery is still fine.
I have a policy against household devices that cannot run the latest OS, so now it is sadly time for it to go.
It has been handed down twice, and has been used for Minecraft, Roblox and Pokémon Go for years, the battery is still fine.
I have a policy against household devices that cannot run the latest OS, so now it is sadly time for it to go.
It is the best home button iPad ever - super thin side bezels with Pro Motion and True Tone - love this iPad and loved the gold color option we used to have with it too!
I’m in agreement with you, enthusiastically so.
Mine served with distinction for 6+ years and all of a sudden a line through the screen made me take it in for repair. The battery life was down to 69%, the screen had issues but I can’t believe a tablet I used nearly 6 hours a day for 6 years did as well as it did. That’s 13,000+ hours of use. Remarkable for a portable device.
It’s a good thing though that OS’s 13-15 only needed 2GB of RAM and since then release date of said device being a norm,
I hope the Air lineup in general gets actual 6-7 years of OS Support ( not counting Air 2 because it was released as a “Pro” Device before the first iPad Pro became a thing a year later so it will be interesting for Air 3 and beyond)
the last time Apple did that in terms of both hardware/release date combined was iOS 4 when the iPhone 3G despite it having the same cpu/ram as the 2G and touch 1G ( not touch 2G because that had a much better CPU than the 3G). iOS 6 in ways is a close second but then iPadOS 18 is the second OS since iOS 6 to drop iPads and not iPhones.
The 7th Gen IMO should have had the A12 instead of the A10 when it came out, it would have unified the lineup and made the A12 even more peak like than it is. And I hope 9th Gen iPad and above get slightly longer support given that it was on sale for over a year before it was discontinued
7th gen iPad is the most luckiest iPad in existence, getting iPadOS 18, 6th gen iPad is second for iPadOS 17, 5th gen iPad is 3rd because it got iPadOS 16 given its specs when A9/A10 iPhones got dropped for iOS 16 and but all 3 budget iPads were supported longer than the 8/X though for they’re lifespans.
Again, as I said, year of release, years on sale and specs mean NOTHING for software support.
The only thing that matters for software support is OS of release. End of the story.
I don't believe the air 2 was treated better because it came before the pro existed.
I don't expect the base iPad to get more than 5 OS updates (= 6 OS support)
However, as I mentioned in my predictions from last year (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/predictions-for-ipados-updates-over-the-next-8-years.2391411/), I expect the support of the pro to increase to 8 OS updates (so 9 in total) from M1 on, with the air remaining at 7 OS updates (8 in total) and the base at 5 (6 in total). This way M series SOCs will have a better aligned software support since they are first released in the pro and later in the air.
I could be wrong though (and in this case Apple would for maintain the same software support for the pro and the air, with the M2 air being supported as long as the M4 pro, which would not be suprising, just as the loss of support of the 10.5 pro was not either), but I believe it would make more sense and would be a nice improvement now that Samsung and Google offer 7 OS updates too. We'll see, but for now the paths seem quite clear and predictable and the rest is just speculation, generally proven wrong at WWDC (like the speculation that A10X with more RAM would be supported at least as much as A10 with less RAM, which was proven wrong at WWDC as I had mentioned early this year, because again, specs don't matter).
5 years used to be quite old for new release compatibility. Especially as the 7th was released with iPadOS 13.
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Yep I think this is overstated. I’ve actually owned two 10.5” pros; the first from 2018 was only 64gb and I was running out of storage all the time, but I liked it so much and had the pencil and Smart Keyboard etc, so I traded it in for a like new 256gb version a couple of years ago. The screens on both iPads have been perfect, and in every other way - especially with the extra storage - this ipad does everything I want to this day.
I was having performance issues early on in ios 17, but I decided to wipe the ipad and start again (after years of just restoring from backups including from the previous 10.5”) and since then it’s been like a new device. I have zero issues and I’ve absolutely no doubt it would run 18 very well, it’s just being punished purely down to its age.
Age discrimination! 🙃
Seriously though, when I was using the iPad Pro 10.5" up until a few months ago, I had zero performance concerns with it with regular mainstream usage like surfing, email, Messages, etc. The only times where I would encounter significant slowdowns were with realtime playback of in LumaFusion when there were multiple overlapping video clips with various edits, but that is to be expected and is something that most users don't do.
Now that my kid is using the iPad Pro 10.5", he has no performance complaints either.