iPad Pro iPad Pro: Very Disappointing

[Naraxus]

I’ve had my 11” iPad Pro since December — about four months now. Now that I’ve put it through its paces, I think I can say confidently that this is a very disappointing product.

I bought it with 512 GB of storage, the M2 processor, 8 GB of RAM, the cellular radio and the Magic Keyboard. For a product at this price point, it is a terrible laptop. I can definitely see the value of a $300 or $400 iPad as an entertainment toy. It’s great at downloading movies for playback while on long flights. But at the price of the iPad Pro, it’s well into laptop territory, as is the hardware capabilities… but it badly disappoints.

I’m not sure where to begin, but the Safari browser is very weak, and so is text selection and editing. Select/copy/paste works so-so on the iPhone, but on a platform like iPad Pro, I should have no difficulty selecting text for copy/paste. But it doesn’t work well on this platform. I downloaded Microsoft Office, and found its performance is fairly slow. I tried brining in RAW photos from my camera for editing with Adobe Lightroom, and it was close to unusable, especially compared to using my MacBook Pro. I tried using it as a slideshow player for my digital photos, and that hasn’t worked out too well. I tried using it with my Magic Mouse, but the scrolling feature of the mouse doesn’t work; I can’t slide my finger on top of the mouse to scroll a window.

I think this system needs to be MacOS with touchscreen support, instead of iPhone OS with keyboard support. As I said, i can see the attraction at the $300-$400 level, but in a $1,000-ish product, I should be able to get at least the same productivity as a laptop. MS Windows has plenty of touchscreen laptops; it’s basically Windows with a touchscreen mouse. Personally, I don’t see much future for the iPad Pro if they’re only going to be large screen iPhones.

While I can certainly appreciate your opinion I will just say that what makes the iPad an iPad is its simplicity. Me personally I would love to see OSX (yea I still call it OSX) on an iPad but that's just me.

But for many, many people it's that familiarity with iOS/ the iPhone simplicity that contribute to its popularity. People know it and they know what to expect from it. For those people, they don't need a full fledged operating system like Mac OSX or Windows. If they did, they would just get a laptop, and for them, a laptop is overkill.

 

[Alameda]

To sell iPads. My point was that those ads were practically deceptive marketing. Deceptive marketing that, while less than it was back then, is still being used by Apple.

Most likely, Apple has an iPad Team and MacBook Team. There isn’t an over-arching leader who is telling the MacBook guys they can’t have a touchscreen nor is anyone telling the iPad Team they can’t run desktop apps.

I think the reality is that the iPad products cannot deliver on the marketed promise of ultra-fast M2 CPU with the screenshots of sophisticated video/photo editors, and it’s because of execution, not because some evil guy is refusing to allow it. The thermal considerations may be a big factor, but it’s reasonable for the consumer to see M2 with 8 GB of RAM and expect it to be comparable to a MacBook with M2 and 8GB of RAM, right? That’s pretty reasonable.

 

[owilderman]

Most likely, Apple has an iPad Team and MacBook Team. There isn’t an over-arching leader who is telling the MacBook guys they can’t have a touchscreen nor is anyone telling the iPad Team they can’t run desktop apps.

I think the reality is that the iPad products cannot deliver on the marketed promise of ultra-fast M2 CPU with the screenshots of sophisticated video/photo editors, and it’s because of execution, not because some evil guy is refusing to allow it. The thermal considerations may be a big factor, but it’s reasonable for the consumer to see M2 with 8 GB of RAM and expect it to be comparable to a MacBook with M2 and 8GB of RAM, right? That’s pretty reasonable.

I think that’s completely reasonable, seeing as I fell victim to it myself. I lucked out though as the iPad perfectly fits my needs but for others like you, it didn’t go down that way

 

[TechnoMonk]

Most likely, Apple has an iPad Team and MacBook Team. There isn’t an over-arching leader who is telling the MacBook guys they can’t have a touchscreen nor is anyone telling the iPad Team they can’t run desktop apps.

I think the reality is that the iPad products cannot deliver on the marketed promise of ultra-fast M2 CPU with the screenshots of sophisticated video/photo editors, and it’s because of execution, not because some evil guy is refusing to allow it. The thermal considerations may be a big factor, but it’s reasonable for the consumer to see M2 with 8 GB of RAM and expect it to be comparable to a MacBook with M2 and 8GB of RAM, right? That’s pretty reasonable.

What is that it can’t deliver? What is the issue? Is it the App? What app? What is your workflow?

 

[rukind2]

I’ve had my 11” iPad Pro since December — about four months now. Now that I’ve put it through its paces, I think I can say confidently that this is a very disappointing product.

I bought it with 512 GB of storage, the M2 processor, 8 GB of RAM, the cellular radio and the Magic Keyboard. For a product at this price point, it is a terrible laptop. I can definitely see the value of a $300 or $400 iPad as an entertainment toy. It’s great at downloading movies for playback while on long flights. But at the price of the iPad Pro, it’s well into laptop territory, as is the hardware capabilities… but it badly disappoints.

I’m not sure where to begin, but the Safari browser is very weak, and so is text selection and editing. Select/copy/paste works so-so on the iPhone, but on a platform like iPad Pro, I should have no difficulty selecting text for copy/paste. But it doesn’t work well on this platform. I downloaded Microsoft Office, and found its performance is fairly slow. I tried brining in RAW photos from my camera for editing with Adobe Lightroom, and it was close to unusable, especially compared to using my MacBook Pro. I tried using it as a slideshow player for my digital photos, and that hasn’t worked out too well. I tried using it with my Magic Mouse, but the scrolling feature of the mouse doesn’t work; I can’t slide my finger on top of the mouse to scroll a window.

I think this system needs to be MacOS with touchscreen support, instead of iPhone OS with keyboard support. As I said, i can see the attraction at the $300-$400 level, but in a $1,000-ish product, I should be able to get at least the same productivity as a laptop. MS Windows has plenty of touchscreen laptops; it’s basically Windows with a touchscreen mouse. Personally, I don’t see much future for the iPad Pro if they’re only going to be large screen iPhones.

Well, it’s a tablet, not a laptop. Of course you’re disappointed going into it with these expectations. You want a laptop experience? Get a laptop.

 

[proveritas]

I feel for you. This is an old conversation which polarises opinion and usually runs for dozens of pages. One one side we have the "I can do more with a ten year old laptop than an iPad Pro because the OS sucks and is holding the hardware back" camp, and on the other side we have the "I don't want a touchscreen macOS on my tablet, I like it just the way it is" camp. The two camps never ever agree.

I'm in the former camp, which is why I've only ever bought the cheapest iPads. iPad pros would for me be a complete waste of money that I could still only really use for content-consumption like the cheapest iPad, because the OS does not lend itself to tasks I would normally use a computer for.

I am a novice Apple User. Decided to make the switch long ago from Windows but took years for me to actually do it in 2021. Had more money than brains at the time. So I Bought the Ipad Pro M1 12.9 with Magic Keyboard. Had no idea how to even begin using it. But just forced my self to do so. Then I decided to also get the MacBook Pro M1 Max laptop to also learn how to fully use it to replace my Windows Laptop.

Well, Covid hit me hard right after I purchased the 16 inch MacBook Pro. It took a long recovery for me and I ended up only using Ipad Pro as it was easier for me to use it reclining and recovering in a more casual manner than trying to handle the larger MacBook.

Bottom line? I ended up using the Ipad for everything I needed. Online web based research, reading, writing, emails etc. Then we moved, everything was boxed up and to this day, the MacBook Pro is unused, barely taken out of its original packaging. I keep thinking I really should learn to use it especially since it is now too late to get much value for it as a resale.
But my point is, for me, the Ipad Pro is doing everything I need. But, of course, I am a novice in the Apple universe.

 

[TechnoMonk]

I am a novice Apple User. Decided to make the switch long ago from Windows but took years for me to actually do it in 2021. Had more money than brains at the time. So I Bought the Ipad Pro M1 12.9 with Magic Keyboard. Had no idea how to even begin using it. But just forced my self to do so. Then I decided to also get the MacBook Pro M1 Max laptop to also learn how to fully use it to replace my Windows Laptop.

Well, Covid hit me hard right after I purchased the 16 inch MacBook Pro. It took a long recovery for me and I ended up only using Ipad Pro as it was easier for me to use it reclining and recovering in a more casual manner than trying to handle the larger MacBook.

Bottom line? I ended up using the Ipad for everything I needed. Online web based research, reading, writing, emails etc. Then we moved, everything was boxed up and to this day, the MacBook Pro is unused, barely taken out of its original packaging. I keep thinking I really should learn to use it especially since it is now too late to get much value for it as a resale.
But my point is, for me, the Ipad Pro is doing everything I need. But, of course, I am a novice in the Apple universe.

I have used Apple for decades, but each new device/category I approach like a novice. Devices are like tools, if you give something to a guy who is used to hammers, the every tool will be measured on how to bang a nail with hammer.

 

[rb2112]

I got an iPad Pro some years ago to try and see if it could replace a laptop for me. It was good, but not quite what I needed. I ended up selling the iPad and getting a laptop.

That's what you need to do OP. The issue isn't the iPad Pro, the issue is what you need. It was an experiment that didn't work. Move on. The iPad Pro is a phenomenal device. I know some people who use it and are very happy with it instead of a laptop -- it all depends on what you need.

Agreed. This is what I did in 2018 for 6 months and realized IPP could not function as a computer. Will not beat up "OS is holding it back."

What I would truly love to see, no kidding, is an example showing "The iPad Pro is a phenomenal device." What would using that look like? What can the IPP actually do in a powerful and usable workflow look like? An earlier poster said it could act as an A/V controller, so I can envision that. What else is there? Maybe a video person who goes to work in the a.m. shoots his res video with IPP then has it process while driving to the next shoot. What is the IPP phenomenal at doing? For it's price?

 

[Rafterman]

Agree. I like my Surface Pro 7 with an i7 and 16Gb but the lack of a true GPU hurts for video processing (it could also use more memory). I won't buy another 2-in-1, I'll go with a larger, more capable standard laptop and leave tablet mode to my 12.9 & Mini 6.

I would love a do it all tablet that could crush video performace. A Surface Pro, with an Nvidia 4060, 64GB RAM a 2TB would be my dream machine But then it would have battery life of 20 minutes.

 

[Alameda]

Well, it’s a tablet, not a laptop. Of course you’re disappointed going into it with these expectations. You want a laptop experience? Get a laptop.

This is an image from Apple’s iPad Pro page: “With apps like Final Cut Pro for iPad, you can speed through time‑consuming tasks with Fast Cut features like Scene Removal Mask.”

There’s a lot to like about the iPad Pro, but high performance computing isn’t one of them.

 

[rb2112]

I am still stunned to see people buy an expensive ipad and than are disappointed they got an ipad instead of a laptop.

I'm not stunned when people give credence to "you get what you pay for", for pay they certainly did. I'm sure they were expecting closer to get "$1200 laptop-capabilities" vs "$400 tablet capabilities." Unfortunately also a ding against marketing for being farther from the truth

 

[TechnoMonk]

This is an image from Apple’s iPad Pro page: “With apps like Final Cut Pro for iPad, you can speed through time‑consuming tasks with Fast Cut features like Scene Removal Mask.”

There’s a lot to like about the iPad Pro, but high performance computing isn’t one of them.

View attachment 2364987

What is that you can’t do? What is the issue? What are performance Numbers on your MBP? What MBP do you have? Did you try optimizing?

 

[eltoslightfoot]

What is that you can’t do? What is the issue? What are performance Numbers on your MBP? What MBP do you have? Did you try optimizing?

See you say this stuff, but then the second someone has something, you still don't accept that it honestly can't work for them. Why is that? Why can't you see that we shouldn't have to do all this work just to make it work--especially since sometimes there honestly isn't a solution except to give up and use it like a $400 tablet while you use a true computer with it.

Even you said that you have to use a PC with a 4090 for some things.

 

[Alameda]

What is that it can’t deliver? What is the issue? Is it the App? What app? What is your workflow?

My issues are two-fold:
First, file management isn’t very good. If I want to store five PowerPoint decks on the thing and deliver a presentation to a customer, it’s fine. Editing those slide decks, is difficult for me, compared to using a MacBook.

Secondly, I’m a photographer. First thing I want to do after a shoot is copy the photos to my 4 TB SSD drive. I plugged my card reader into the iPad and the SSD drive into the USB-C port of the Magic Keyboard… but it wouldn’t recognize both. Then I tried a USB hub; still couldn’t see both. Mabye I just need to buy the correct hub? It’s been cumbersome, that’s for sure. A vintage 1987 Mac Finder would be better.

Lastly, of course, I want to rapidly edit RAW photos (45 mp in my case) on the iPad. My editor of choice, DxO, isn’t available, so I tried Adobe Lightroom, but found its control sliders are very difficult to manipulate and sluggish with my finger on the touch screen. The touchpad didn’t work well either. Next I’ll try a mouse. I did try my Apple Magic Mouse (Bluetooth) and it connects, it works, but the scrolling feature doesn’t work. Somebody in this thread says there’s a hack to make it work. Sigh…

Safari seems to have some big limitations, so I downloaded Firefox and Chrome. I’ve been trying Firefox, but it won’t work with the 1Password tool, which unfortunately I rely upon.

There are a lot of things it gets right. I’m hoping that I can travel with just the iPad and not bring the laptop. I keep all of my files on my Synology at home, and I am able to connect remotely to the Synology and download files to my iPad. And all of the videoconferencing products work very well with iPad. But photo editing, so far, has been a failure for me, which is very disappointing.

 

[TechnoMonk]

See you say this stuff, but then the second someone has something, you still don't accept that it honestly can't work for them. Why is that? Why can't you see that we shouldn't have to do all this work just to make it work--especially since sometimes there honestly isn't a solution except to give up and use it like a $400 tablet while you use a true computer with it.

Even you said that you have to use a PC with a 4090 for some things.

Just trying to help OP. I have Lightroom on iPad Pro. I am not pro by any means but wanted to know actual issue and performance, so I am aware if I run in to it. There is no reason to be emotional, I find solutions to problems. Funny you bring up why find solutions, for all the hate iPad gets about file management, it’s my main file manager in my workflow, validating and moving files between Linux and Mac, and cloud. I just drag and drop from mac to Linux at pretty good speeds. I can run inferences move data models on iPad Pro. I get nothing being emotional, either you solve something or move on. This is my iPad Pro SSH tunnel for files.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

Again, not emotional. (You seem to use that word a lot...) Just confused. What about when there is no solution? What then?

 

[RLRabb]

My issues are two-fold:
First, file management isn’t very good. If I want to store five PowerPoint decks on the thing and deliver a presentation to a customer, it’s fine. Editing those slide decks, is difficult for me, compared to using a MacBook.

Secondly, I’m a photographer. First thing I want to do after a shoot is copy the photos to my 4 TB SSD drive. I plugged my card reader into the iPad and the SSD drive into the USB-C port of the Magic Keyboard… but it wouldn’t recognize both. Then I tried a USB hub; still couldn’t see both. Mabye I just need to buy the correct hub? It’s been cumbersome, that’s for sure. A vintage 1987 Mac Finder would be better.

Lastly, of course, I want to rapidly edit RAW photos (45 mp in my case) on the iPad. My editor of choice, DxO, isn’t available, so I tried Adobe Lightroom, but found its control sliders are very difficult to manipulate and sluggish with my finger on the touch screen. The touchpad didn’t work well either. Next I’ll try a mouse. I did try my Apple Magic Mouse (Bluetooth) and it connects, it works, but the scrolling feature doesn’t work. Somebody in this thread says there’s a hack to make it work. Sigh…

Safari seems to have some big limitations, so I downloaded Firefox and Chrome. I’ve been trying Firefox, but it won’t work with the 1Password tool, which unfortunately I rely upon.

There are a lot of things it gets right. I’m hoping that I can travel with just the iPad and not bring the laptop. I keep all of my files on my Synology at home, and I am able to connect remotely to the Synology and download files to my iPad. And all of the videoconferencing products work very well with iPad. But photo editing, so far, has been a failure for me, which is very disappointing.

The usb-c port on the Magic Keyboard is just for charging. It does not do data.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

The usb-c port on the Magic Keyboard is just for charging. It does not do data.

It can in some cases...

Connect external storage devices to iPad

On iPad, use files stored on USB storage devices and SD cards.

support.apple.com

 

[RLRabb]

It can in some cases...

Connect external storage devices to iPad

On iPad, use files stored on USB storage devices and SD cards.

support.apple.com

No. I specifically said the usb-c port ON THE MAGIC KEYBOARD. It is only used for pass-through charging of the iPad Pro. It cannot be used to read external drives or transfer data.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

No. I specifically said the usb-c port ON THE MAGIC KEYBOARD. It is only used for pass-through charging of the iPad Pro. It cannot be used to read external drives or transfer data.

Ah, you are correct. I should have read closer. My apologies.

 

[RLRabb]

Ah, you are correct. I should have read closer. My apologies.

No problem.

 

[TechnoMonk]

My issues are two-fold:
First, file management isn’t very good. If I want to store five PowerPoint decks on the thing and deliver a presentation to a customer, it’s fine. Editing those slide decks, is difficult for me, compared to using a MacBook.

Secondly, I’m a photographer. First thing I want to do after a shoot is copy the photos to my 4 TB SSD drive. I plugged my card reader into the iPad and the SSD drive into the USB-C port of the Magic Keyboard… but it wouldn’t recognize both. Then I tried a USB hub; still couldn’t see both. Mabye I just need to buy the correct hub? It’s been cumbersome, that’s for sure. A vintage 1987 Mac Finder would be better.

Lastly, of course, I want to rapidly edit RAW photos (45 mp in my case) on the iPad. My editor of choice, DxO, isn’t available, so I tried Adobe Lightroom, but found its control sliders are very difficult to manipulate and sluggish with my finger on the touch screen. The touchpad didn’t work well either. Next I’ll try a mouse. I did try my Apple Magic Mouse (Bluetooth) and it connects, it works, but the scrolling feature doesn’t work. Somebody in this thread says there’s a hack to make it work. Sigh…

Safari seems to have some big limitations, so I downloaded Firefox and Chrome. I’ve been trying Firefox, but it won’t work with the 1Password tool, which unfortunately I rely upon.

There are a lot of things it gets right. I’m hoping that I can travel with just the iPad and not bring the laptop. I keep all of my files on my Synology at home, and I am able to connect remotely to the Synology and download files to my iPad. And all of the videoconferencing products work very well with iPad. But photo editing, so far, has been a failure for me, which is very disappointing.

Here is Apple on connecting external usb Drives. I use external drive, but connect to a usb powered hub for passive SSD. You need to connect directly to USBC iPad port not magic key board for data.

Connect external storage devices to iPad

On iPad, use files stored on USB storage devices and SD cards.

support.apple.com

Regarding performance, I travel with both my 16 MBP, and iPad Pro. For my computing needs MBA or iPad alone won’t be good. I use Lightroom, best way for me to use sliders is through pencil, I have more control. Try it out, and see if it works. Apple M series chips are powerful but for me I need Max chip in MBP.

If you don’t want to bother with adapting to device, sell it. If you gonna keep it, might as well use it to max and try solving some of the issues. Did you look at Affinity for photo editing?

 

[sparksd]

My issues are two-fold:
First, file management isn’t very good. If I want to store five PowerPoint decks on the thing and deliver a presentation to a customer, it’s fine. Editing those slide decks, is difficult for me, compared to using a MacBook.

Secondly, I’m a photographer. First thing I want to do after a shoot is copy the photos to my 4 TB SSD drive. I plugged my card reader into the iPad and the SSD drive into the USB-C port of the Magic Keyboard… but it wouldn’t recognize both. Then I tried a USB hub; still couldn’t see both. Mabye I just need to buy the correct hub? It’s been cumbersome, that’s for sure. A vintage 1987 Mac Finder would be better.

Lastly, of course, I want to rapidly edit RAW photos (45 mp in my case) on the iPad. My editor of choice, DxO, isn’t available, so I tried Adobe Lightroom, but found its control sliders are very difficult to manipulate and sluggish with my finger on the touch screen. The touchpad didn’t work well either. Next I’ll try a mouse. I did try my Apple Magic Mouse (Bluetooth) and it connects, it works, but the scrolling feature doesn’t work. Somebody in this thread says there’s a hack to make it work. Sigh…

Safari seems to have some big limitations, so I downloaded Firefox and Chrome. I’ve been trying Firefox, but it won’t work with the 1Password tool, which unfortunately I rely upon.

There are a lot of things it gets right. I’m hoping that I can travel with just the iPad and not bring the laptop. I keep all of my files on my Synology at home, and I am able to connect remotely to the Synology and download files to my iPad. And all of the videoconferencing products work very well with iPad. But photo editing, so far, has been a failure for me, which is very disappointing.

I use an Anker USB-C hub to do exactly that - I put my camera card in it and attach a Samsung SSD to copy to. Both devices are visible in Files (though I usually use FileBrowser Pro as my favored file mgr). As noted, the keyboard port is power only so the hub is connected to the iPad. I use a Logitech MX Master 3 mouse that works great with LR (I have difficulties with the sliders with my fingers at times as I have essential tremors). I interface with the attached SSD in LR. It all works great (M1 12.9 + Magic Keyboard).

 

[bondr006]

I’ve had my 11” iPad Pro since December — about four months now. Now that I’ve put it through its paces, I think I can say confidently that this is a very disappointing product.

I bought it with 512 GB of storage, the M2 processor, 8 GB of RAM, the cellular radio and the Magic Keyboard. For a product at this price point, it is a terrible laptop. I can definitely see the value of a $300 or $400 iPad as an entertainment toy. It’s great at downloading movies for playback while on long flights. But at the price of the iPad Pro, it’s well into laptop territory, as is the hardware capabilities… but it badly disappoints.

I’m not sure where to begin, but the Safari browser is very weak, and so is text selection and editing. Select/copy/paste works so-so on the iPhone, but on a platform like iPad Pro, I should have no difficulty selecting text for copy/paste. But it doesn’t work well on this platform. I downloaded Microsoft Office, and found its performance is fairly slow. I tried brining in RAW photos from my camera for editing with Adobe Lightroom, and it was close to unusable, especially compared to using my MacBook Pro. I tried using it as a slideshow player for my digital photos, and that hasn’t worked out too well. I tried using it with my Magic Mouse, but the scrolling feature of the mouse doesn’t work; I can’t slide my finger on top of the mouse to scroll a window.

I think this system needs to be MacOS with touchscreen support, instead of iPhone OS with keyboard support. As I said, i can see the attraction at the $300-$400 level, but in a $1,000-ish product, I should be able to get at least the same productivity as a laptop. MS Windows has plenty of touchscreen laptops; it’s basically Windows with a touchscreen mouse. Personally, I don’t see much future for the iPad Pro if they’re only going to be large screen iPhones.

Jeeze bud, I have no problems like that with my M1 iPad Pro 11. In fact I have used it exclusively for my real estate and property management business for over 2 years now with no such issues. Sounds like maybe could be a little user malfunction? God, if mine did all that stuff you described, I probably wouldn't like it either. But as it stands, the iPad Pro is my most liked and useful Apple device I own. In fact, for my needs, it is the most flexible device for my work flow that Apple makes.

 

[TechnoMonk]

Again, not emotional. (You seem to use that word a lot...) Just confused. What about when there is no solution? What then?

That’s for OP to decide. There are lot of folks here who use iPad Pro with Lightroom, after Op shared his issues, suggestions started coming from the users. Generic statements of like dislike doesn’t help conversations about issues.