All iPads How Many Years 4GB RAM in the iPad Pro would be enough ?

[augustya]

For how many more iOS updates and iterations do you guys think you the 4GB RAM in the iPad Pro 11" would be suffice ?

Please don't tell me the same cliched thing that iOS does a very good management of RAM usage and blah...blah... Because despite that, as and when new iOS get released, it does slow down old devices right ? So what do you guys think and have to say about this ?

 

[entropi]

4-5 years? (then Apple will make you buy a new one)

 

[rui no onna]

Depends on how you use it. If you don't do heavy multitasking, gaming, high res photo or 4K video editing, I'd expect 3 years good performance from now at the very least. Firmware updates, I expect even longer.

iPad: 2010-2012 (2 yrs)
iPad 2: 2011-2016 (5 yrs)
iPad 3: 2012-2016 (4 yrs)
iPad 4: 2012-2017 (5 yrs)
iPad Air: 2013-2019 (6 yrs)
iPad Air 2: 2014-current

 

[EugW]

For how many more iOS updates and iterations do you guys think you the 4GB RAM in the iPad Pro 11" would be suffice ?

Please don't tell methe same cliched thing that iOS does a very good management of RAM usage and blah...blah... Because despite that, as and when new iOS get released, it does slow down old devices right ? So what do you guys think and have to say about this ?

It really depends on what you need to do with it.

If just surfing, it will probably be fine for the next 5 years.

If you're going to be doing hardcore video editing with 6 simultaneous video tracks and numerous effects, it might be restrictive even now.

 

[bodonnell202]

Because despite that, as and when new iOS get released, it does slow down old devices right ?

This isn't really true anymore. It certainly used to be the case but it doesn't really hold up anymore. My old 6s was just as fast on every version of iOS it ran (9-12, maybe a bit worse on iOS 11) and iOS 12 ran faster than iOS 11 on every supported device, and even in it's current beta iOS 13 is at least as fast as iOS 12 on all devices (including the iPad Air 2, which was released in 2014!).

To answer your original question I'd guess around 5 years.

 

[augustya]

Wow ! 5 years and no major slow down in performance would be a pretty good investement and device support to have really.

 

[entropi]

We know nothing about if future versions of iOS will slow your unit down or not, iOS 14 isn't really something we tested yet. We can only hope that Apple will continue what they started with iOS 12...

 

[Freakonomics101]

Depends on how you use it. If you don't do heavy multitasking, gaming, high res photo or 4K video editing, I'd expect 3 years good performance from now at the very least. Firmware updates, I expect even longer.

iPad: 2010-2012 (2 yrs)
iPad 2: 2011-2016 (5 yrs)
iPad 3: 2012-2016 (4 yrs)
iPad 4: 2012-2017 (5 yrs)
iPad Air: 2013-2019 (6 yrs)
iPad Air 2: 2014-current

The Air 2 is aging extremely well. I’m actually predicting that it’ll get iOS 14 and then that may be time for end of life. The iPad Pros with 4GB of RAM will age just as well. Shoot, even the 9.7 Pro is still doing really well.

iOS 12 ran faster than iOS 11 on every supported device, and even in it's current beta iOS 13 is at least as fast as iOS 12 on all devices (including the iPad Air 2, which was released in 2014!).

200% yes!!! The iPhone X was released with iOS 11 and it runs a lot better with iOS 12 when the iPhone X was already a year old for many. That tells you how bad iOS 11 was.

My iPad Pro 10.5 (2017) was amazing on iOS 12. iOS 13 seems to better than 12, even with all the improvements. iOS 13 has even given some of my storage back.

 

[Digitalguy]

I'll give you what would seem a more optimistic view of it. But I strongly believe the ipad pro 2018 will get 6-7 years updates, will have hardly any slowdown and will be good for 3 years more, so around 10 years in total. We'll see in 10 years...
However it's a very fragile device, more than any other ipad, so you should be very very careful not to break it for 10 years. Also if you used it a lot unplugged, battery may be very short by then... (old ipads tend to still have good battery life because they are slow and people don't use them often, let alone all day long....)

 

[AutomaticApple]

iPad: 2010-2012 (2 yrs)

Ouch...