iPad Pro iPad Pro general use lifespan?

[dingclancy23]

But my question is that only with 4 GB of RAM in it, is there going to be any inadequacy in the first place ?

The first gen 12.9 iPad Pro will last a loooooong time. Think about the fact that the iPhone 7 only has 2 gb of ram, the iPhone 7 Plus with 3gb, while the 12.9 gen 1 and gen 2 models + the 10.5 model has 4 gb. There are only 3 iOS devices that run 4gb ram today.

Apple will take years to shut down support for 2gb ram devices, as the earliest devices that had it was the 6s and the Air 2. And the 6s was only released less than two years ago.

 

[rui no onna]

But it is widely believed more the RAM, more iterations of iOS it can sustain. It is mainly because of lack of adequate RAM that devices would get slow down with new iterations of iOS coming out every year.

Widely believed is an apt description. Comparing device performance, I find the RAM argument doesn't quite hold. The caveat is you usually can't just compare RAM in isolation. iPads are integrated systems. Performance is a product of how the various components and operating system interact. Sure, the iPad Air 2 has 2GB RAM but pointing to that as the single reason for longevity is likely erroneous when it also featured a significant CPU and GPU upgrade with the A8X (comparable to Intel Atom level CPU; GPU is much faster). RAM is one of the factors but not necessarily the mitigating factor.

From personal experience:

iPhone 5s ~= iPhone 6 > iPad Air > iPad 4 > iPad 3

I find RAM mostly helps multitasking and reduces app and Safari refreshes. Mind, Safari reloads haven't been as annoying as before since later iOS versions seem to be doing storage-backed webpage cache now. I know I'd often have a tab open for a week and it would refresh when I reopen the tab but it still shows the webpage exactly at the position where I left it the week before.

 

[JohnnyGo]

Just replaced an iPad Version 3 2012
Last OS supported 9.3.5 laggy and slow on that at best.
Wouldn't support 10.x in 2016
Wont support 11 in 2017.

Either way battery was due for a replacement 5 years later but an iPad Pro 10.5 was a better choice
My wife who has an iPad Air would use the Version 3 and say whats wrong with it.

So about 5 years.....

iPad 3 was the first retina version and significantly underpowered. So much so that Apple released an iPad 4 six months later. I can attest to the same sluggishness as I had one and handed it down to my son who still uses it.