M4 iPad Pro Reviews: Incredible Speed and Display Hampered By Software

[d14b0ll0s]

Looks like Apple, in its typical marketing move, shipped just the 13-inch device to reviewers (with 2TB SSD, 16GB RAM, thinner bezels), who are now praising it for being super light and super fast. There are almost no reviews of the 11-inch device, which is most people would be getting, so I guess we actually have to wait for some real reviews.

Edit: typos.

 

[SpanishAppleNerd]

I am updating from my Air 4 to either a 1TB 11" or a 512GB 13", I don't care that it's overkill. The only thing overkill is the stupid price of the magic keyboard. Come in, Logitech Combo Touch!

 

[d14b0ll0s]

Looks like Apple, in its typical marketing move, shipped just the 13-inch device to reviewers (with 2TB SSD, 16GB RAM, thinner bezels), now praising it for being super light and super fast. There are almost not reviews of the 11-inch device, which is most people would be getting, so I guess we actually have to wait for some real reviews.

Forgot to mention the 9-core CPU that most people will be getting, which should be faster by roughly 1/3rd than the M2 (3600 vs 2600 single-core and 13k vs 10k multi-core performance in GeekBench), and already with +50% for the fastest version most reviewers are saying that it doesn't feel 50% faster…

 

[Zmmyt]

Everyone got their own use cases.

I just got an iMac in addition to my iPad and it feels good to finally have a “proper” computer available again, but there isn’t much I couldn’t already do on my iPad.

 

[d14b0ll0s]

I love what the Wired had to say in its review: “However, for the operating system as a whole, I stand by what I said when I reviewed the iPad Air in 2022: I feel like I'm working in slow motion. It's not as intuitive as macOS and navigating it makes my brain hurt. I was relieved to switch back over to my MacBook Air after hours on the iPad Pro.”

As an M3 Pro MacBook Pro 14" user (with a 32" 4K screen attached to it most time when I'm not traveling), I couldn't agree more.

 

[jblank]

Keeping my M1 iPad Pro. It's blazing fast still and this OLED screen isn't much of an improvement over the Mini LED screen on mine. I too wish we'd get a MacOS Lite version for the iPad Pro's.

 

[CptnJustc]

Now that top-end Pros are easily powerful enough to handle them, I'd love to see fully-featured versions of Parallels or Fusion. That would certainly address the lack of things for it to do, if in a roundabout way.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

Very confused by this negative perception of iPadOS. If you want a desktop experience, the iPad is not for you. That's why Apple also sells Macs.

What "limitations" are people running into?

Read post #26. It has every single one of my complaints.

 

[MNWildFan]

🤣 Yeah, that pretty much sums it up quite nicely.

Powerful hardware hobbled by its software.

Yup, and that's pretty much been the epitome of iPadOS for years now

While it has got better in recent years once we got a file system for it, it still has a little ways to go to where it could be a viable macOS replacement

 

[DaSal]

Everyone keeps saying the software isn't there, but nobody ever has any specific complaints. What *specifically* does iPad OS need?

Because when you turn on Stage Manager on iPad OS the experience is actually pretty much identical to a Macbook + Stage Manager. The only real difference is finder - which admittedly is better than files, but besides that it's pretty much the same.

Some apps might be better on desktop than on iPad of course, but that's an app related issue, not an OS issue.

I can't really think of any major features iPad OS misses that normal users actually need for it to be a good OS.

What are people missing exactly?

 

[sdwaltz]

As has been the case since the M series was introduced to iPads.

 

[moptart]

Read post #26. It has every single one of my complaints.

 

[bk125]

Ill have to search for more later.

These, and particularly the second, are by far the best YouTube reviews I’ve seen of the iPad Pro. And in the first, he reviews the 11-inch model as well (and there’s even a shot of what the silver model looks like in the black Magic Keyboard).

 

[TH3D4RKKN1GH7]

People keep running into this thread asking "What limitations?!"
THESE: Not an iPad Pro Review: Why iPadOS Still Doesn't Get the Basics Right

 

[Crowbot]

People keep running into this thread asking "What limitations?!"
THESE: Not an iPad Pro Review: Why iPadOS Still Doesn't Get the Basics Right

I read the article and I think the author is writing from just one perspective of an iPad user. First let me get out of the way my puzzlement with the outcry because the iPad doesn't have a native calculator app. Really?? And I found the complaints about the productivity apps (Pages and Numbers) off base for me. I can see where wham-bam power users would feel shorted but for my class of users, who just want to do Safari and Mail and play some games, the iPad is much preferred over a laptop. I'm looking forward to a prettier screen, much faster CPU (A17 to M4) and more space (256G to 512G) for movies.

 

[Seanm87]

It’s not just iPadOS itself. Look for example at how limited the Mail app is, and how bad the Calendar app is. I suspect the problem is that most developers and managers at Apple don’t use iPads for actual productivity work, and therefore don’t themselves feel the incentive to fix all the little (and large) shortcomings they would otherwise encounter. Much of iOS/iPadOS updates feels like design-by-committee features being added, instead of research being done what the friction points are for actual users.

Whats wrong with the calendar app?

 

[chetzar]

I read the article and I think the author is writing from just one perspective of an iPad user. First let me get out of the way my puzzlement with the outcry because the iPad doesn't have a native calculator app. Really?? And I found the complaints about the productivity apps (Pages and Numbers) off base for me. I can see where wham-bam power users would feel shorted but for my class of users, who just want to do Safari and Mail and play some games, the iPad is much preferred over a laptop. I'm looking forward to a prettier screen, much faster CPU (A17 to M4) and more space (256G to 512G) for movies.

If you just want Safari, Mail, Streaming, and some games then the iPad AIR is what you want, not the iPad PRO.

I will hold the perspective, until it can be adequately disproven, that the iPad PRO should be akin to a Surface Pro.

 

[Crowbot]

If you just want Safari, Mail, Streaming, and some games then the iPad AIR is what you want, not the iPad PRO.

I will hold the perspective, until it can be adequately disproven, that the iPad PRO should be akin to a Surface Pro.

You may be right from your perspective. But I've been an engineer for 30+ years and I have an affinity for powerful hardware, even if it's more than I barely need. That's why I bought a digital caliper instead of using my father's hand-me-down mechanical one. I didn't need the accuracy. It's just easier to read.

 

[crsh1976]

As someone who's not a boomer pining for a desktop OS on a tablet, this revision sounds amazing and I can't wait for mine.

Who said anything about a desktop OS? You mean to tell us there's absolutely no way iPadOS can evolve to offer more versatilty and broader usefulness unless it gets replaced by MacOS?

There's plenty of room for a better tablet-centric OS, it's Apple's position to not undermine notebook sales with a tablet that could do more that is the issue.

 

[bradman83]

I really think Apple should never have put the M series in tablets. Obviously now everyone wants a full OS on it. Even if the chip was the same but branded differently, things would be different.

It could have been the A18 Max.

The base M-series chip is basically the A#X variant from prior versions; the M1 is what an A14X would have been, the M2 is basically an A15X, etc. I don't think re-branding the chip would have made a difference. Heck, the fact that they're identical chips probably would have been quickly discovered and spawned a whole different set of conspiracy theories.

The way people need to think about it is not that Apple put a desktop chip into a tablet, it's that they made a tablet chip powerful enough for a desktop.

 

[chetzar]

I do wonder if the new Qualcom chips in the Surface Pro will change people’s minds. Microsoft is behind the ARM curve compared to Apple, but if they get the new ARM Surface Pro’s right, and the software support is even half decent, I think it’s going to change how people view the iPad Pro.

 

[purplerainpurplerain]

I do wonder if the new Qualcom chips in the Surface Pro will change people’s minds. Microsoft is behind the ARM curve compared to Apple, but if they get the new ARM Surface Pro’s right, and the software support is even half decent, I think it’s going to change how people view the iPad Pro.

Microsoft did ARM laptops and tablets years ago and the ones they are planning are still ****. Windows is ****. Nothing can make it un-****.

 

[macduke]

I can’t imagine needing an iPad more powerful than my M1 with 16GB memory as long as iPadOS is in purgatory.

 

[David1964]

Calling iJustine a “reviewer “ is laughable 🤣🤣

 

[SactoGuy18]

I actually thought about getting an iPad Pro 13" 512 GB but since I use my current 10.5" iPad Pro as a media consumption device, I'll end up with the iPad Air 12.9" 512 GB instead (and save myself quite a bit of money).