I see that on Apple’s website, they do not differentiate on the increase in latency for the Apple Pencil. I am currently running iPad OS beta on my iPad Air (2019) and I am not sure I notice a difference. While I can imagine the latency will pick up for the ipads with promotion, does anyone know if it would get better for those that don’t, like the IPad Air 2019? Thanks.
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All iPads iPad OS Pencil Latency
- Thread starter Mike84
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Unfortunately ProMotion doesn't have much to do with the Apple Pencil latency. The latency mostly depends on the software you're using and it also depends on the speed of the Pencil/screen touch recognition. And Pro Motion is about the screen refresh rate and the screen is a separate hardware device.
I had two iPad Pros (1st & 2nd gen), the first one was without the ProMotion, the second had it. There was no difference in Pencil latency. The lag is there if you notice it and it's the same.
I had two iPad Pros (1st & 2nd gen), the first one was without the ProMotion, the second had it. There was no difference in Pencil latency. The lag is there if you notice it and it's the same.
Thanks for clarifying. I had thought that the refresh rate of the screen had something to do with the latency, but I guess I was wrong.
In any event, does anyone know if the pencil latency in iPad OS, as advertised by Apple, would benefit the iPad Air 2019?
If you bring your iOS 13 iPad Pro to Apple store, pick an Apple Pencil from one of their demo machines, after a few long strokes on notes app, you will notice that difference. 20ms is already super crazy compared with Apple Pencil 1, but 9ms really brings the definition of stylus latency to a whole new level. Surface Pro stylus in comparison is just laughable.
Notes probably is the only app where you can see the difference lol. Also Evernote. All other apps are the same (if not worse) as Surface Pro. It highly depends on the software and sometimes complexity of the drawing.
Try moving your hand real slow and see how the line lags behind.
I tried. And I can see the lag, but not to an extent that it would become a huge dealbreaker for me. Yes, I use stock notes app.
The difference is with the iPP’s that use Pencil 2. I never noticed a big difference on iPP 9.7 and pencil 1 on iOS 13 b3.
The iPP 11/12.9 and Pencil 2 are where the 20mms to 9mms speed is.
Realistically you will not notice the minimal lag on your 2019 Air.
Right, this is what I am trying to find out because Apple doesn’t state one way or the other.
Mad Mac Maniac
macrumors 601
wow, so much misinformation on this thread.....
1) On iOS 12 and earlier, iPads w/ Promotion (iPad Pro 2nd/3rd Gen) have 20ms latency, all others with pencil support have 40ms latency. Pencil 1 vs 2 make no difference on the latency. Purely an OS/screen technology thing.
2) On iPadOS Apple claims iPads w/ Promotion will reduce from 20ms to 9ms latency, there is no mention of non-promotion iPads. A quick google search pulls up articles which claims...
1) On iOS 12 and earlier, iPads w/ Promotion (iPad Pro 2nd/3rd Gen) have 20ms latency, all others with pencil support have 40ms latency. Pencil 1 vs 2 make no difference on the latency. Purely an OS/screen technology thing.
2) On iPadOS Apple claims iPads w/ Promotion will reduce from 20ms to 9ms latency, there is no mention of non-promotion iPads. A quick google search pulls up articles which claims...
That's really all we have to go on. My Personal speculation (hope) is that iPadOS will provide a similar ~11ms latency improvement for both, but 20ms to 9ms is more dramatic than 40ms to 29ms. Same absolute change but lesser relative change.
This 9 ms latency os not a big thing, because it will works only with apples specific algorythm which is predicts the stroke. Maybe for notetaking if the developers implements the stuff, but for drawing? No thanks, I don’t want to a software tell me where I want to put the stroke. 
And the 20 ms is already pretty good, I dont see better latency on the wacoms products. From surface, I only had the v3 surface pen I think, that’s also not so good as the pencil.
And the biggest advantage of apples technology is that it works so damn good with touches together compared to wacom/ntrig.
The biggest drawback is the missing hover cursor functionality, but I can live with that.
And the 20 ms is already pretty good, I dont see better latency on the wacoms products. From surface, I only had the v3 surface pen I think, that’s also not so good as the pencil.
And the biggest advantage of apples technology is that it works so damn good with touches together compared to wacom/ntrig.
The biggest drawback is the missing hover cursor functionality, but I can live with that.