iPad Pro M1 and M2 iPad Pro too slow?

[rui no onna]

I'll let you know, as given the headroom I plan to upgrade till the end.

Yeah, there’s a lot of performance headroom on the M-series iPads.

I plan on getting refurb or clearance 128GB cellular M1/M2 iPad Pros to replace my parents’ older iPad 7th gens. With the discounts, there’s not much price difference compared to 256GB cellular iPad 10th gen.

 

[FeliApple]

Lack of RAM can be responsible for poorer performance. With 8GB we are past the point were it can be a bottleneck over an update cycle. Just like 6GB is not going to be a bottleneck for the 2018 iPad pro during the supported life of the device (4 I am not 100% certain yet). Especially with Apple continuing to make 4GB iPads until now (and I bet the next base iPad will still be 4GB RAM).
And I am not even considering the fact that M1 has access to swap memory, since Apple has zero transparency about that and we don't have a clou about how much it can swap or if it does only when some specific RAM intensive apps call for it.
As for battery life, the impact of software is unpredictable. You may have lost hope, but nothing prevents Apple to improve battery life with software instead of degrading it. Likely? No. Possible, yes.

Lack of RAM can be responsible por poorer performance... when updated. Almost always. When weren’t updates required? Twice. With the 3rd-gen iPad and its lackluster A5X and 512MB combo, which was so underpowered that it prompted Apple to upgrade it within six months. The other time? The iPhone 6 (especially the 6 Plus). Even on iOS 8, the A8 with 1GB of RAM wasn’t enough to power the 6 Plus’ added pixel count, and the device struggled (again, even on iOS 8). Once RAM hit 2GB, it was never a bottleneck for original iOS versions, until Apple started to divert. Even the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, long and widely regarded as sheer Apple greed in terms of RAM starvation was absolutely marvellous on iOS 9 with its 2GB of RAM. Every other device is fine. Perhaps some newer 3GB devices like the 9th-gen iPad can be the third category (released too late with too little RAM), but then, if you respect the device’s original iOS version, RAM is fine. When was RAM a serious issue for the 9.7-inch iPad Pro? On iPadOS 13 onwards. When were the 3GB of RAM troublesome for the iPhone Xʀ? On iOS 16 onwards.

But an original device would almost never struggle if Apple weren’t abhorrently stingy with RAM (like they were with the 6 Plus).

As far as battery life goes, no chance. They aren’t interested. It’s the #1 issue that users report with the bottom end of the chain in terms of support, and they don’t care. It’s a finished issue, like a to-do ticket which has been thrown out. They aren’t fixing that ever. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think Apple will ever prove me wrong.

 

[Zest28]

The M1 is almost identical to what an A14X would have been. It has only a few changes, mainly to support thunderbolt and an additional display controller. That isn’t enough differentiation to really warrant spinning a whole new piece of silicon.

Indeed. The M1 chip is a rebranded A14X with additional controllers added to it.

The first ARM Mac was running the A12Z even.

 

[Tagbert]

If OLED was important, people could have switched to Samsung, therefore it isn't an important feature.

How do you figure that? do you think that a Samsung is the same as an iPad? I don't.

OLED should be better for people who watch a lot of videos on their iPad. It gives a much better luminance range than the IPS or miniLED screens of earlier models. That may not matter to you but it will to quite a few people.

I expect there will be other changes for the Pros beyond OLED. I have a 2018 IPP that is beginning to show its age and I am at least entertaining the idea of upgrading. I'll see what else changes and what the price ends up being.

 

[Pezimak]

Can someone explain it to me because I just don’t get it. There are people (on this forum) who own M1 or M2 iPad Pro and are eagerly waiting for new M3 iPad Pro. What kind of stuff are you doing with your M1 or M2 iPad Pro that you need even more processing power? Not a rhetorical question.

Totally agree, I got the M1 and it's totally wasted on iPad OS. It runs any game available too. May get Death Stranding.

 

[Torty]

Can someone explain it to me because I just don’t get it. There are people (on this forum) who own M1 or M2 iPad Pro and are eagerly waiting for new M3 iPad Pro. What kind of stuff are you doing with your M1 or M2 iPad Pro that you need even more processing power? Not a rhetorical question.

Not enough NPU TOPS 😏

 

[sparksd]

Totally agree, I got the M1 and it's totally wasted on iPad OS. It runs any game available too. May get Death Stranding.

Not totally - improved performance for me when processing 4K videos in Lumafusion and very large RAW images in Lightroom.

 

[Johnny365]

I’ll chime in again. I don’t do photo or video editing at all. I also have the iPad Pro 12.9” M1 and have had zero issues with performance, slowdown. We (M1 owners) are at the mercy of app/game developers to optimize for the chipset and also for Apple to release OS updates that will utilize the hardware. But, at this point, nearly 3 years later I don’t see that happening.

Still games may run better on the newer M-chip line, but they still don’t come to console gaming with the same visual fidelity.

 

[xxFoxtail]

I’ll chime in again. I don’t do photo or video editing at all. I also have the iPad Pro 12.9” M1 and have had zero issues with performance, slowdown. We (M1 owners) are at the mercy of app/game developers to optimize for the chipset and also for Apple to release OS updates that will utilize the hardware. But, at this point, nearly 3 years later I don’t see that happening.

Still games may run better on the newer M-chip line, but they still don’t come to console gaming with the same visual fidelity.

Even with photo and video editing, when I had my M1 iPad Pro 12.9," it had no issues or slowdown with it. I'm not much into gaming apart from emulating a few older childhood 80s and 90s games - which also is no issue for any iPad, really. What really started heating up and slowing down my M1 iPP was using on-device photo generating apps.

For the last few years before I got my MacBook Air, I was using my iPP 12.9" (2020 and 2021 models) as my only computer. Every year, they'd release improved software and operating system, but it's still being very held back. I finally gave up and bought an M2 MBA. I miss using iPadOS for a lot of things (dedicated streaming apps, Fitness+, banking apps, FaceID, drawing and handwriting, etc), but it's a lot more practical to me to use a desktop OS right now as I can still access most of those things I listed, but also have the ability to use legacy programs, programming, etc without connecting to a service like Shadow PC or a local PC. (The reason I don't have both is because I find most of my usage very redundant between the two machines. Even my iPhone can do 99% of what I use my MacBook for).

The number one complaint I see about the iPad mostly online is how limited the OS is. On the other hand, everyone I know offline who has an iPad is completely happy with it just how it is - a larger version of their iPhone. There's ways for them to upgrade the user experience to make everyone happy, they just won't as it will affect MacBook sales, probably.

After 3 years of having an M1 iPad available, I'm hoping one of these years we see an iPadOS-renaissance of sorts, I just wouldn't get my hopes up.

 

[FeliApple]

The number one complaint I see about the iPad mostly online is how limited the OS is. On the other hand, everyone I know offline who has an iPad is completely happy with it just how it is - a larger version of their iPhone. There's ways for them to upgrade the user experience to make everyone happy, they just won't as it will affect MacBook sales, probably.

Because the vast majority of users like the iPad for what it is. Online we see an echo chamber: the extreme minority who should buy (another) Mac and doesn’t, so it pointlessly requests MacOS on iPad... which would destroy the device.

Once you look at it from an outside perspective, you realize nobody wants that.


I want downgrading on iOS because I already don’t update anything and would like to roll back a couple of devices that have been forced out of their original iOS versions, especially considering iOS updates obliterate devices.

But people have become accustomed to their devices eventually worsening massively in terms of performance and battery life. People have accepted this. And people keep updating, with Apple breaking adoption records every year. People who would like to downgrade old devices... perhaps I can find more.

But then, why don’t they change their ways with their next device and refrain from updating? Maybe because they really don’t want that. We are an extreme minority. I have accepted that Apple will not do this. Maybe they should accept that the iPad isn’t for them once and for all.

 

[I7guy]

[[[.]

But people have become accustomed to their devices eventually worsening massively in terms of performance and battery life. People have accepted this. And people keep updating, with Apple breaking adoption records every year. People who would like to downgrade old devices... perhaps I can find more.

[…]

Don’t think that’s true at all mostly because modern iPhones dont really worsen in terms of performance or battery life.

Our M1 Pro for example still performs admirably.

 

[Traverse]

I don’t really care about the SoC other than RAM. If Apple let me I’d have an A17 “Pro” chip with 16GB of RAM to save battery.

The iPad is a “magical pane of glass” per an old Apple presentation. It’s mainly the screen so any screen update is going to boost the experience and OLED will be huge (for me.)

I know it’s a contentious topic - but the mini LED 12.9” was a disappointment between the blooming and off-axis viewing.

 

[AlexJoda]

Needs more than OLED for me to upgrade from my 12.9” M1.

What I really want is function keys on the Magic Keyboard. I don’t think it’s going to happen though, any talk about the new keyboard merely mentions possible aluminium construction and a larger trackpad. Alu might be nice, though hardly worth an upgrade for me. I’m not remotely fussed about a larger trackpad, current size is fine.

What I would really like is the function row, like I said, and the ability for the iPad to be used in portrait with the keyboard fully functional.

I personally find Apple stagnant these days though, can only foresee the obvious upgrades - new colours, new chip, OLED, new keyboard that’s functionally the same. In which case I’m happy to use my M1 for a few more years, the mini LED screen is superb already, and performance wise even my trusty old 2018 1TB LTE 11” still holds up for travel, never mind the M1.

The days of me chucking money at Apple with abandon are long over. Not because I can’t, but AVP aside, they’re just an increasingly overpriced iterator these days in their core areas.

The new 2024 Magic Keyboard should have everything you wanted….

 

[AlexJoda]

Yes, that’s what I’ve been thinking. The ipad Pro has accumulated a surplus of speed and power along with thickness and weight (which is very noticeable to me on my 12.9” M1 iPad Pro). I think both were driven by the initial shift to the M1 processor and mini-LED display. I would love to see the combination of OLED and future MX SOC efficiency gains applied to reducing power requirements and hopefully leading to smaller battery and reduced weight and thickness. This is obviously a nice to have as I am very satisfied with the iPad Pro as it is.

Looks like you exactly got that with the M4 iPP….

 

[heretiq]

Looks like you exactly got that with the M4 iPP….

Yes we did. I like the tradeoffs that Apple made in this iteration. The reduction in weight and thickness is very noticeable as I use my iPad Pro for hours each day. I’m loving the 13” M4 IPP both with and without the new MKBD. I’m a happy IPP camper so any software improvements with iPadOS 18 is a bonus.

 

[yegon]

The new 2024 Magic Keyboard should have everything you wanted….

I’m glad I was wrong

/typed on a 13” OLED