iPad Pro Is the 2020 iPad Pro really ‘faster than most laptops” like Apple claims?

[secretk]

So I decided to install Affinity Photo on my iPad Pro and decided to test the photo processing using Affinity on the iPad and Dxo on the laptop. I don't own Affinity Photo on my laptop for the test so I know that it is not good comparison in terms of testing the same app performance on two devices. That being said the test suits me because it is in terms of workflow. I generally use DxO for raw files processing because it can tweak its algorithm according to my camera and lens. And because it supports batch processing which is good for first layer of processing before I decide to apply custom stuff. So without further ado here are two photos:

1. Laptop:

2. Ipad Pro:

It is easier to play with colors and contrast on the iPP than on the laptop but it depends on what you like. The iPP photo is less realistic as I played with color far more. The thing I like on the laptop more is the noise reduction. When you zoom out the photos, the iPP one has more noise than the laptop one. And the blur is smoother on the laptop than on the iPP. Overall it seems that in general for lower light photos it is better to process them on the laptop to reduce the noise before doing color correction on the iPP.

I will continue to test and compare. This is just one example. I might find another cases where I prefer the end result on the iPP.

 

[sparksd]

So I decided to install Affinity Photo on my iPad Pro and decided to test the photo processing using Affinity on the iPad and Dxo on the laptop. I don't own Affinity Photo on my laptop for the test so I know that it is not good comparison in terms of testing the same app performance on two devices. That being said the test suits me because it is in terms of workflow. I generally use DxO for raw files processing because it can tweak its algorithm according to my camera and lens. And because it supports batch processing which is good for first layer of processing before I decide to apply custom stuff. So without further ado here are two photos:

1. Laptop:
View attachment 924032
2. Ipad Pro:
View attachment 924033

It is easier to play with colors and contrast on the iPP than on the laptop but it depends on what you like. The iPP photo is less realistic as I played with color far more. The thing I like on the laptop more is the noise reduction. When you zoom out the photos, the iPP one has more noise than the laptop one. And the blur is smoother on the laptop than on the iPP. Overall it seems that in general for lower light photos it is better to process them on the laptop to reduce the noise before doing color correction on the iPP.

I will continue to test and compare. This is just one example. I might find another cases where I prefer the end result on the iPP.

How do the images look if you compare them side-by-side where they were processed - the iPad version displayed on the iPad screen and the laptop version on the laptop screen? Did differences in screen brightness/contrast/color come into play wrt the differences between the processed results?

 

[secretk]

How do the images look if you compare them side-by-side where they were processed - the iPad version displayed on the iPad screen and the laptop version on the laptop screen? Did differences in screen brightness/contrast/color come into play wrt the differences between the processed results?

Good idea to test this indeed. The noise on the photo processed by the iPad is more pronounced on the laptop to be honest. That could be related to the screen brightness. My laptop display brightness is set to higher as it is in power, on the iPad is on lower percentage because otherwise the battery drains way quicker than what I would like.

I just now transferred the photos processed on the laptop to the iPad to see how they look on the iPad. The one processed on the laptop does seem a bit better in terms of noise reduction. That being said the difference is less pronounced on the iPad than on the laptop.

I am thinking indeed it is about the contrast. I did change the contrast in Affinity while I did not do so on the laptop. The contrast made also the noise more pronounced. I will try to do more accurate test these days. Meaning I take the same raw photo and process it in both apps without doing anything. So no additional changes from me and then I will compare again. I think that this would be fairer.

 

[sparksd]

Good idea to test this indeed. The noise on the photo processed by the iPad is more pronounced on the laptop to be honest. That could be related to the screen brightness. My laptop display brightness is set to higher as it is in power, on the iPad is on lower percentage because otherwise the battery drains way quicker than what I would like.

I just now transferred the photos processed on the laptop to the iPad to see how they look on the iPad. The one processed on the laptop does seem a bit better in terms of noise reduction. That being said the difference is less pronounced on the iPad than on the laptop.

I am thinking indeed it is about the contrast. I did change the contrast in Affinity while I did not do so on the laptop. The contrast made also the noise more pronounced. I will try to do more accurate test these days. Meaning I take the same raw photo and process it in both apps without doing anything. So no additional changes from me and then I will compare again. I think that this would be fairer.

Yeah, I have found it a bit tricky to get the display of my 2018 12.9 Pro to match up with my 24" 4K monitor attached to my laptop so that images processed on either device look as closely the same as possible on both. I use Lightroom on both to process Canon RAW.

Edit: One of the irritations of iOS is that it does not show display brightness as a percentage (as far as I can tell) so if there is a particular setting you want to always use for photo processing, you have to eyeball the brightness bar. I use a free app called Dimmer - Adjust LCD Brightness that allows setting as a percentage and also supports preset values. It's a portrait mode only app so the interface is wonky but it works for what I want - set the display brightness to an exact value every time.

‎Dimmer -Adjust LCD brightness-

‎"Dimmer! Brightness control application! Very useful, and for free!" iPhone back light can be adjusted in favorite luminosity very quickly. You can start it with the brightness specified by a shortcut from the widget. Because your iPhone life becomes comfortable ”epoch-makingly". ＊＊＊...

apps.apple.com

 

[petvas]

I was away the last three days and I decided to take my iPad Pro 12,9 with Magic Keyboard with me. It was actually a short vacation, but even in this scenario, and while I enjoyed the advantages of using an iPad (mainly battery life), I missed my 16" MacBook Pro. I wanted to create some demo scripts for an upcoming workshop I will be delivering, and using Microsoft Teams on the iPad was as everything else Microsoft has developed for iOS, namely severely limited.
I understand and respect everyone's opinion, but for my needs and wants the iPad is still a nice toy. It has become more useful, especially with the Magic Keyboard, but still lacks the functionality I come to expect from a computer. Now I a back home and it was a breath of fresh air for me to use my iMac and MacBook Pro again.

 

[secretk]

Yeah, I have found it a bit tricky to get the display of my 2018 12.9 Pro to match up with my 24" 4K monitor attached to my laptop so that images processed on either device look as closely the same as possible on both. I use Lightroom on both to process Canon RAW.

Sadly my laptop is not that fancy . I was looking the photos not at external display but at the laptop display. It is FHD (1920x1080), LED-backlit.

So I did the test. No tweaks on Affinity, no tweaks on DxO. I open the raw files in both apps and just export them in images. To be noted that the jpeg DxO creates by default is 5 MB, the jpeg Affinity creates by default is 15 MB.

1. Laptop

2. iPad

1. Laptop

2. iPad

I still like the photos processed by the laptop better. Lighter and less grainy.

To be frank both have noise. Man is my camera old. It is like 7-8 years old and you can see it. I don't take enough photos to warrant new camera though. So I just have to choose what is more tolerable out of the two approaches for processing.

 

[muzzy996]

Sadly my laptop is not that fancy . I was looking the photos not at external display but at the laptop display. It is FHD (1920x1080), LED-backlit.

So I did the test. No tweaks on Affinity, no tweaks on DxO. I open the raw files in both apps and just export them in images. To be noted that the jpeg DxO creates by default is 5 MB, the jpeg Affinity creates by default is 15 MB.

1. Laptop
View attachment 924085
2. iPad
View attachment 924088

1. Laptop
View attachment 924089
2. iPad
View attachment 924090

I still like the photos processed by the laptop better. Lighter and less grainy.

To be frank both have noise. Man is my camera old. It is like 7-8 years old and you can see it. I don't take enough photos to warrant new camera though. So I just have to choose what is more tolerable out of the two approaches for processing.

Yeah but more color noise is coming through in the images processed on the iPad. Perhaps that factors into the file size observation.

 

[secretk]

Yeah but more color noise is coming through in the images processed on the iPad. Perhaps that factors into the file size observation.

Hm could be indeed. I can try to export the photos into similar size as the ones on the laptop. I am not saying my camera is a good one and both have noise, but I do see more noise on the iPad indeed.

I checked and I can choose between High quality and best quality. Does not tell me a lot. Nevertheless in both cases the resulting image has pretty much the same noise.

 

[MyopicPaideia]

Good content! Maybe a new thread is in order for this...

 

[secretk]

Good content! Maybe a new thread is in order for this...

You mean about the photos processing comparison?

 

[FSMBP]

Are you asking about results in benchmarks or real use case usage? In terms of benchmarks yes. In terms of real usage I have not seen any meaningful data. I mean if you ask if the iPP's CPUs are capable of doing a lot - yes they are. If you are asking because you expect once you receive the answer Yes to expect to see better performance (and faster) in terms of day to day work then the answer is it depends. It depends on what you do with an iPP. If it just browsing you won't see a difference. Same if we are talking about watching movies or youtube stream, word processing, chats, facetime etc.

You might see better performance in terms of photos processing and video processing. And it still depends on your use case. For example I do batch proessing of RAW files. 50 photos take a minute. I use software that has specific profile for my camera and my lens so processing is improved consideirng my setup. So most probably technically the iPP's CPU can do better but do I have the app to do batch processing for my camera setup? I kind of doubt it.

Or say video processing. Sure it does it faster but I cannot do it in the background. I have to wait for the app to finish before doing something. In comparison on my laptop is slower but I can do lots of other stuff while waiting.

So yes it is faster but I honestly would not care about this currently as it does not bring my anything as an end user. IMO people pay too much attention on this. Way more than it is needed considering iPadOS state and the apps we can install on an iPad.

I feel like these lines sum it up for me...I was looking at ditching my 13" 2012 MacBook Pro for an iPad Pro. But at the end of the day, it wasn't for me.

Rendering a in iMovie on my MacBook Pro (while working in Garageband), seems like it'd be a nightmare on an iPad Pro (at least window management-wise, let alone how it handles apps in the background). Not to much certain apps, iMovie included, haven't reached parity with iOS versions.