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iPad iPad Pro 10.5 vs iPad Air 10.5 - Value?

Got my Air 3 today. So much faster than my iPad 2018 while using Swift Playgrounds. I chose the faster SOC over more RAM as i think i am currently more constrained by CPU than by RAM.

I have to admit that this Air 3 will probably just go to one of my kids when i feel the need to upgrade. There is a fleet of iPad‘s here to keep everyone happy. My iPad 2018 will replace the iPad mini 2 that my daughter currently is using. My son got my iPad Air 2 last year after his iPad mini 1 was next to unusable.
 
I don't know if the Air 10.5" would be any better or worse than the Pro 10.5" in this regard, but if you're interested in video editing and video encoding, check my post in the iPad 4K video encoding thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-5-pro-or-11-pro.2175678/page-2#post-27256402

I said:
On my 10.5" iPad Pro, using LumaFusion, I just loaded up THREE 4K HEVC 8-bit videos recorded from iPhones, ranging from 22 to 45 Mbps as simultaneous layered video tracks. Then I added a bunch of cheesy effects to the tracks, colour graded a track, did some zooming for two of the tracks, and added a couple of transitions to the third layer and speeded it up to 2X.

The clips were of different lengths, so depending upon where in the sequence it was, it ranged from 1 to 3 simultaneous tracks. Scrubbing through this got a bit jumpy when 3 tracks were running simultaneously, but real-time playback was always smooth as butter. Wow. Very impressive.

Total length of time is just over 15 seconds. Then I exported the file to 4K HEVC 8-bit 30 fps, and the render took only 17 seconds, almost real time. I also tried exporting to 4K h.264 30 fps, and it was also 17 seconds.

Those were with the standard video quality setting. I also tried 4K HEVC again but with "Quality", "Extreme", and "Ultra" video quality settings, and they all were the same 17 seconds. So, it seems like it's all hardware encoding regardless of the 5 different settings I tried.
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Trouble1 said:
What compelled me to buy the iPad pro 10.5? I thought it was a good value at the time.

After I bought it is when I learned about the white spot. I also learned my MasterCard warranty does not cover refurbs.
AND, I go a new card that will pay $150 on a $500 charge.

Justifying things now.
Don't want to buy 2 year old technology. In this case probably not an immediate problem.
Don't want to buy 2 year old technology with a known issue.
Don't take pictures with my iPads, the phone covers the times I need a fast photo, iPads are too unwieldy and I decided I don't like the camera bump.
Don't listen to any iPad speakers, 85% of the time use headphones or sound through MBP and sound system.
Don't know about ProMotion, so can't feel the loss.
Don't do much photo/video rendering, so won't appreciate the GPU performance. A few times I might play with a photo in Affinity Photo, but from what I hear, people are doing just fine using regular iPads and Air 2...so there's that.
How will I notice 1 more GB or RAM? Maybe the Air's RAM is faster? Or the architecture is more efficient? lol

Anyway... I am returning the 10.5 iPad pro tomorrow. (I reserve the right to change my mind)
Holding off until I can see how the Air preforms over the next 1-2 months.

Well done to Apple for marketing the crap out of the older 2017 10.5 iPad pros sitting around. It might cost them upfront sales of the 2019 Air, but in the end, old inventory is a killer and next quarter Air sales will pick up.
AND... for taking a very similar aluminum body from the 10.5" and engineering the internals for the Air.

Really think the new Air will serve me just fine. IF I ever get to the point of needing heaving lifting, I'll buy a (by then) refurb iPad pro 11 or what ever is the latest out in 1-2 years.
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I had called last year about refurb protection as was told covered since from Apple and had regular warranty
 
So which one has better longevity for a non-pro user?

A12 + 3GB ram or A10X + 4GB ram?
 
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Donar said:
Probably both would serve you well. For which applications/workloads do you want to use it for?
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I am buying it for a retired person. Uses for web browsing, little else. Heavy user, 10 to 12 hrs a day.
The 10.5” model with home button is the preferred form factor.

ProMotion, speakers, camera, keyboard, pencil don’t matter at all. White spot matters and recent refurbs should have fixed it.

It comes down to longevity vs cost in terms of A10X + 4GB or A12 + 3GB.
 
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Saskat said:
I am buying it for a retired person. Uses for web browsing, little else. Heavy user, 10 to 12 hrs a day.
The 10.5” model with home button is the preferred form factor.

ProMotion, speakers, camera, keyboard, pencil don’t matter at all. White spot matters and recent refurbs should have fixed it.

It comes down to longevity vs cost in terms of A10X + 4GB or A12 + 3GB.
Click to expand...

For a retired person who doesn’t need quad speakers and promotion... get the A12.
 
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I had a 10.5 Pro and it got the white spot. While I'm generally happy with my Galaxy Tab S4 for entertainment value it can't quite match the iPad for overall usability. Today I'm going to go to an Apple store and look at the new Air. I know I will lose the amoled display but I can deal with this.
 
jameseld82 said:
I had a 10.5 Pro and it got the white spot. While I'm generally happy with my Galaxy Tab S4 for entertainment value it can't quite match the iPad for overall usability. Today I'm going to go to an Apple store and look at the new Air. I know I will lose the amoled display but I can deal with this.
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No iPad has ever had an OLED display. Are you maybe referring to the ProMotion technology that allows the screen to refresh at up to 120Hz?
 
Many thanks to all who contributed to this thread. I came here looking for advice on this choice and decided to go for the refurbished Pro. After the decision was made I had far more difficulty trying to choose a keyboard case and pen, but (postal gremlins allowing) they should all arrive on Monday. I’m excited - thanks again :)
 
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I am also considering one of those two iPads and it seems (from the reviews) that the Pro 10.5 is a better choice. However, there are no refurbished units here (EU), so the price of both is about the same/Pro costs more - and with promotion I could get the Air for 450€ (vs. the Pro for 550€). The Air seems perfect for me, but I would like to know if promotion display makes a significant diference in taking notes for college and drawing? 100€ more for the Pro just for the 120 Hz refresh rate seems a bit much - I dont really care that much about the speakers and better camera...
 
Domen151 said:
I am also considering one of those two iPads and it seems (from the reviews) that the Pro 10.5 is a better choice. However, there are no refurbished units here (EU), so the price of both is about the same/Pro costs more - and with promotion I could get the Air for 450€ (vs. the Pro for 550€). The Air seems perfect for me, but I would like to know if promotion display makes a significant diference in taking notes for college and drawing? 100€ more for the Pro just for the 120 Hz refresh rate seems a bit much - I dont really care that much about the speakers and better camera...
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The pro artists usually say ProMotion for drawing is noticeably better but those just taking notes and scribbling don’t seem to really care. I have the Pro but that’s because they were similarly priced. I love the smoothness of ProMotion and the quad speakers but if I had to pay that much more for the Pro, I would have bought the Air. I don’t draw though.
 
Domen151 said:
The Air seems perfect for me, but I would like to know if promotion display makes a significant diference in taking notes for college and drawing? 100€ more for the Pro just for the 120 Hz refresh rate seems a bit much - I dont really care that much about the speakers and better camera...
Click to expand...
I’ve yet to actually see an artist who says ProMotion makes a real difference once they’re used to it. The artists YouTube reviews and comparisons I’ve seen have backed this up too.

Think of the Cintiq, and every other screen tablet in existence. Theyre not running at high fps. Nobody has been calling for higher FPS. Yes you can see a difference, but it doesn’t have any impact on your ability to do art, or make it any more comfortable, or really mean much at all. It’s pretty though.
 
TorontoSS said:
Hi there,

I'm one of those extremely lucky people who an ipad pro 10.5 with a bright spot on the screen. it's unfixable, and although I live in the UK, where we get 2 years of warranty instead of one, because I got it in Canada, it won't get fixed here. My plan was to sell the ipad soon (and point it out to the buyer).

I also have a 50 pound voucher which expires with Apple soon. So was thinking now may be a good time to replace it. My question is this:

the ipad 10.5 pro refurb is £539 (the 256 version).
the new ipad 10.5 is £629.

which is a better buy? I'm a normal user. I don't think I use the pro functionality. I already have the pen and i'd continue to use that either way.

On one side I doubt I'd notice any difference with the new ipad. However on the other hand, it would be future proofing a bit, right?

Thoughts?
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My 10.5 inch iPad Pro developed a bend which kept bending until it would no longer turn on. No fix, of course, so I paid to replace it. Six months later, it developed lines all across the screen and was dead within a week. Was told warranty was 3 months. Screw Apple for screwing me. I went and bought a Samsung. I cannot tell you how many Apple products I've bought in the last 20 years, but I can tell you how many I'm going to buy in the next year or two -- zero!
 
mixel said:
...it doesn’t have any impact on your ability to do art, or make it any more comfortable, or really mean much at all.
Click to expand...

I'm not so sure. I think it might well have made all the difference to da Vinci's career and reputation.
 
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I think I’m going to wait and see what happens at WWDC. My iPad Air 2 still runs pretty well, and the new Air just doesn’t seem like that much of an upgrade. Four speakers and I probably would have been sold.
 
TorontoSS said:
Hi there,

I'm one of those extremely lucky people who an ipad pro 10.5 with a bright spot on the screen. it's unfixable, and although I live in the UK, where we get 2 years of warranty instead of one, because I got it in Canada, it won't get fixed here. My plan was to sell the ipad soon (and point it out to the buyer).

I also have a 50 pound voucher which expires with Apple soon. So was thinking now may be a good time to replace it. My question is this:

the ipad 10.5 pro refurb is £539 (the 256 version).
the new ipad 10.5 is £629.

which is a better buy? I'm a normal user. I don't think I use the pro functionality. I already have the pen and i'd continue to use that either way.

On one side I doubt I'd notice any difference with the new ipad. However on the other hand, it would be future proofing a bit, right?

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
IPad Pro 10.5’ whitout a doubt, especially for that price.
 
Honestly speaking, I would recommend the new Air. The Pro 10.5" is nice, however, the white spot issue/digitizer issue is concerning. Promotion and quad speakers are nice, but not necessary. The boost in performance with the Air is great.
 
VertPin said:
Honestly speaking, I would recommend the new Air. The Pro 10.5" is nice, however, the white spot issue/digitizer issue is concerning. Promotion and quad speakers are nice, but not necessary. The boost in performance with the Air is great.
Click to expand...
Your points are fair, but for the record, when I tested them side by side in actual mainstream usage there wasn't much difference in performance between the 10.5" Air and 10.5" Pro at all. They feel the same in regular usage. In fact, if it were not for the camera bump, speakers, and ProMotion, I wouldn't be able to tell them apart. I didn't try any games though.

The one that does feel noticeably faster is the 11" Pro. The UI feel of the 10.5" Pro and the 10.5" are both near-perfect. However, the UI feel of the 11" Pro is just perfect. It's a subtle difference, but its definitely there when compared side by side.
 
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EugW said:
Your points are fair, but for the record, when I tested them side by side in actual mainstream usage there wasn't much difference in performance between the 10.5" Air and 10.5" Pro at all. They feel the same in regular usage. In fact, if it were not for the camera bump, speakers, and ProMotion, I wouldn't be able to tell them apart. I didn't try any games though.

The one that does feel noticeably faster is the 11" Pro. The UI feel of the 10.5" Pro and the 10.5" are both near-perfect. However, the UI feel of the 11" Pro is just perfect. It's a subtle difference, but its definitely there when compared side by side.
Click to expand...
In regular usage, yes, they feel identical to each other. In terms of playing graphically intensive games (if the user is into that) or wants to render high end photo and video, I would certainly recommend the Air.
 
VertPin said:
In regular usage, yes, they feel identical to each other. In terms of playing graphically intensive games (if the user is into that) or wants to render high end photo and video, I would certainly recommend the Air.
Click to expand...
It would depend on the game. It should be noted that in Geekbench Metal, the 10.5" Pro scores much higher than the 10.5" Air.

Also, for software video rendering, I suspect the Air is only marginally faster although it's hard to find reviews that actually test this. It's stupid, as it seems everyone just runs Antutu and Geekbench. For hardware rendering they're both fast. If you really are concerned about software video rendering speed, you wouldn't be considering the Air or the Pro in the first place. The real choice would be the 11" Pro.
 
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