Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
How long will the current iPad Pros (10.5 and 12.9 inch) last in your opinion ?
- Thread starter max2
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
They will last long because this is mainly depending on the RAM size and they have 4GB of it.
People always say the same crap after a new iPad is released. "The iPad 4 has the new A6X and they bumped up the RAM from 512MB to 1GB. It will easily last you for 5 years until 2017". Meanwhile those same people probably already upgraded their iPads multiple times in between 2012 and today.
Forget all specs, general rule of thumb is first 2 years will have lightning performance, the 3rd year will have good performance, the 4th year will be usable but you'll want to upgrade, and by the 5th year you will be begging to upgrade.
Forget all specs, general rule of thumb is first 2 years will have lightning performance, the 3rd year will have good performance, the 4th year will be usable but you'll want to upgrade, and by the 5th year you will be begging to upgrade.
That's already better than before. Been using iOS devices since the first iPhone and my experience with older iOS devices is first year good performance (definitely not lightning, though, I still recall checker boxes while waiting for Safari to render webpages), 2nd year acceptable performance, 3rd year replace. Honestly, it wasn't until A6/A6X that I could stretch usage to year 3 or beyond.
Besides, if you consider raw performance, older devices were basically Pentium 2/3 level. In a short span of time, they managed to reach Core 2 Duo level with A8X/A9 and that's when we saw a notable increase in longevity. That's when chipsets got to "good enough" level for typical use.
Last edited:
Well, I’m still using an iPad mini 2 running iOS 11 from 2013! It has a cracked screen & broken home button and is annoyingly slow...but it still works. If a regular 5 year old iPad mini still runs...I am sure the latest iPad pros with all their extra ram & much faster chips will do even better 5 yrs from now.
Last edited:
The apps themselves seem to still work decently after years, but for me it was Safari that became unuseable and the keyboard terribly lagged. This was the iPad Air. So I concluded the RAM was the determining factor.
I’m (hoping) that my current iPad Pro has a longer lifespan with its 4GB Ram.
I’m also hesitant about upgrading to iOS12 until I see some real world specs.
I’ve had iPads since they were released and at this point, I want to hold onto one longer.
With iOS 12’s performance upgrades and that same tech being utilized in future years I’d say it is not hard to see these iPads lasting 6 years or more?
If Apple continues to emphasize fast performance like they have with iOS 12 I could see the current pros getting updates until 2025. Hell the air 2 will probably be updated for another 3 years.
The new Pros will definitely last for a while because of the 4GB of RAM. It's a shame for us 9.7 Pro users that they skimped on RAM, but if the iPad 2017 and 2018 still have 2GB of RAM then that's a good thing. It will possibly extend the 9.7 Pro's life.
In the end, I think it primarily depends - for both 10.5/12.9 users and 9.7 (Pro or otherwise) users - on Apple's approach, as a few posters before me have said.
Will Apple put an effort to optimize iOS? The answer to that determines usability.
That's for the majority of posters. For me, that my 9.7 Pro is still on iOS 9, it depends on how long will app support last for iOS 9, and if the apps that are supported are the ones I care about.
As an example, Notability was dropped on version 8 for iOS 9. My iPad says it's updated, but the latest version is 8.1 and I have 7.2.5.
In the end, I think it primarily depends - for both 10.5/12.9 users and 9.7 (Pro or otherwise) users - on Apple's approach, as a few posters before me have said.
Will Apple put an effort to optimize iOS? The answer to that determines usability.
That's for the majority of posters. For me, that my 9.7 Pro is still on iOS 9, it depends on how long will app support last for iOS 9, and if the apps that are supported are the ones I care about.
As an example, Notability was dropped on version 8 for iOS 9. My iPad says it's updated, but the latest version is 8.1 and I have 7.2.5.
iOS 12 is going to be an anomaly in that regard. It is primarily to clean up the remnants of mess from iOS 11. They're running out of time on their development cycle so they have to release the remaining fixes/clean-up in a major release.
This is one of the reasons why I'm of the opinion that there won't be any new iPads for the rest of 2018 (with the possibility of a mild processor bump).
I disagree - I believe the technology they use to ramp up the CPU will be continued in future OS updates and this focus on performance will have long lasting improvements because the fundamental principles here are applicable going forward and don’t see any reason they’d not continue that tech in iOS 13 and beyond. Otherwise iOS 13 will be a huge downgrade from 12 and I don’t see them doing that at all.
I say for media consumption, mail, web etc >5 Years.
I think that it also depends on the development on the app market. Recently, there are more and more apps that rivals desktop apps in functionality and these are RAM and CPU hungry. The rumoured “desktop grade” Photoshop port will likely be demanding for IPP2 when editing large photos.
The heaviest app I use is Civ 6 which seem to be nearly one to one a desktop port. It run fine on IPP2 (better than CIV5 On a 2014 MBP!) but is ejected from RAM if you switch and work with a few other apps. CPU and GPU is also challanged by Civ6.
I think that it also depends on the development on the app market. Recently, there are more and more apps that rivals desktop apps in functionality and these are RAM and CPU hungry. The rumoured “desktop grade” Photoshop port will likely be demanding for IPP2 when editing large photos.
The heaviest app I use is Civ 6 which seem to be nearly one to one a desktop port. It run fine on IPP2 (better than CIV5 On a 2014 MBP!) but is ejected from RAM if you switch and work with a few other apps. CPU and GPU is also challanged by Civ6.
Realistically iOS devices A9 and 2GB of RAM and better can probably be expected to last their entire iOS update life cycle without slowing down in the way previous devices have (for example the A5 based devices are possibly the most notorious for getting long support but really feeling underpowered past iOS 7). You might see them get ‘less snappy’ but they won’t likely slow to a crawl or be unusable with the keyboard lagging your input and making typing near impossible, for example.
Probably 0-2 yrs over iPhone 8+/X.
Assuming Apple doesn’t release another performance oriented release like iOS 12: (based on useable performance and not support by Apple)
iOS 13 should definitely run well.
iOS 14 may run decently.
iOS 15 might run acceptably.
No way iOS 16 will run tolerably unless there is at least one more iOS 12 like release after iOS 12 and within/including iOS 16. But there’s still a chance based off Air 2.
Assuming Apple doesn’t release another performance oriented release like iOS 12: (based on useable performance and not support by Apple)
iOS 13 should definitely run well.
iOS 14 may run decently.
iOS 15 might run acceptably.
No way iOS 16 will run tolerably unless there is at least one more iOS 12 like release after iOS 12 and within/including iOS 16. But there’s still a chance based off Air 2.
I am not sure slowdown because of new feature rich OS version will be sustainable in the future. iOS devices have had a very nice exponential development in CPU and GPU compute power. That has slowed down significantly the last years with more moderate gains year over year.
As an example, for daily use I cannot perceive any difference between IPP1 (2.5 years old work) and IPP2 (1 year old, home) unless I run high ends Apps like Civ 6. Annotate large pdf files (>200 mb, 600 pages) work great on both devices.
Furthermore, each node shrink takes longer and longer time so obvious gains in compute power will take longer time to achieve. Sure architecture can improve but the gains are smaller. Only way to increase compute power significantly without node shrink is to add more cores (Coffee lake, A11) but that does not automatically translate to better performance in all software like a node shrink.
Hence I predict the that longevity will increase for iOS devices for "normal" users. Good for the wallet and the environment but bad for the ugly "monster" inside me waking up now and again demanding a new device to play around with.
As an example, for daily use I cannot perceive any difference between IPP1 (2.5 years old work) and IPP2 (1 year old, home) unless I run high ends Apps like Civ 6. Annotate large pdf files (>200 mb, 600 pages) work great on both devices.
Furthermore, each node shrink takes longer and longer time so obvious gains in compute power will take longer time to achieve. Sure architecture can improve but the gains are smaller. Only way to increase compute power significantly without node shrink is to add more cores (Coffee lake, A11) but that does not automatically translate to better performance in all software like a node shrink.
Hence I predict the that longevity will increase for iOS devices for "normal" users. Good for the wallet and the environment but bad for the ugly "monster" inside me waking up now and again demanding a new device to play around with.
I'd say 4-5 years, a solid amount of time. I upgrade yearly, but iPad's last a while.
Don't worry. Regardless of whether or not new features and functions are added to iOS, you can guarantee that they will release new devices every 12-18 months... and each release will include "must-have" new features.