iPad Pro Question only for 16GB RAM iPP owners (M1, M2, M4)

[FrozenDarkness]

i would say in terms of appreciable differences:

chipset > thinness >> display >>>>>>>>>> ram / storage

 

[Digitalguy]

Ok, I’m being offered an M2 iPP with 16GB of RAM for the same price of a base M4 with 8GB of RAM… decisions…

I got the maxed out M1 11" (5G 2TB) new for less than the price of the base wifi model M4... No hesitation
The 13" is a different story because of the much reduced weight, and because I already have a M1 at that size (with for the 11" I only have a 2018 one, although the maxed out one).

 

[Isamilis]

I have the 16gb M4 13 and notice the difference. However I would also say this. If you‘re going to get the 16gb version, get the Nano Texture Glass. I made another thread on it a few days back, having been an initial sceptic and then a complete convert. I sat outside today in blazing sunlight and was able to read and do work in a way I’ve v been able to do on able mobile device, with zero glare.

The price in my place is above $4,200. Overpriced too much for iPad and device that’s fragile to break and stolen.

 

[Populus]

I got the maxed out M1 11" (5G 2TB) new for less than the price of the base wifi model M4... No hesitation
The 13" is a different story because of the much reduced weight, and because I already have a M1 at that size (with for the 11" I only have a 2018 one, although the maxed out one).

The thing with the cellular model though is that I’m not going to use data because I’d ha ve to pay 5€ extra each month for the extra eSIM card. Is there any other advantage aside from the data connection or the higher resale value? Can you use the integrated GPS for downloaded maps (you can download them for offline usage in iOS 17)? Or you still need a data connection/wifi?

 

[Digitalguy]

The thing with the cellular model though is that I’m not going to use data because I’d ha ve to pay 5€ extra each month for the extra eSIM card. Is there any other advantage aside from the data connection or the higher resale value? Can you use the integrated GPS for downloaded maps (you can download them for offline usage in iOS 17)? Or you still need a data connection/wifi?

Yes the advantage of the cellular is indeed GPS. Personally I am all in with cellular since I have 3 unlimited data SIM cards (pay 10 bucks a month for each, 2 of them have roaming included too).
But that's also because I am on Windows and have 2 smartphones, I have one on my laptop, on on my second smartphone and one on my iPad (swap it between my iPads depending on what I need).
However I have asked around for eSIM and I am going to skip cellular if and when I buy the M4 13. Again, I often swap cards between my cellular iPads, and buy a card when I travel abroad (for instance when I go to the EU). Swapping with eSIMs has limitations apparently, especially in some countries. Like you can do 3 times in some places. I don't want to deal with this mess. That's why for cellular I am keeping my M1 iPads with physical SIM. The M4 will be for home use.

 

[alecgold]

My immediate thought is "WTF is Notability doing?!" Maybe if it was 100,000 pages, I can see any hardware from 2015 having a hard time with it. Like, it is hosting and running Python, and putting all the stuff into a pickle database. It is not indexing anything and searches through the raw data for every search?

I don’t know what Notability is doing :-D but do remember that it are handwritten A4/letter sized pages. That might be stored like a rather big pictures 1000 pictures combined with handwriting recognition.
The indexing is stored, that is certain, but indexing new pages takes sometimes so long, it is only after several hours I can search trough the latest pages. Perhaps it is done off-device? But then it wouldn't be faster on an M4. After it has been done, it is quick enough in finding results.

I have no idea what it is that is slowing it down, but I don know that the difference between a M2 and a M4 iPad is noticable (if not huge) in this case.

 

[Aka757]

I came from a M1 12.9” to a M4 11”. The M1 had 8GB RAM. Honestly feels no different in my usage (regular web browsing, content consumption, etc). I imagine the increased RAM comes into play with more intensive tasks, but even then I’m not sure how much of a real-world difference it makes.

 

[bluegt]

Any side by side evidence of the improved performance / benefits of the 16GB, either in screenshots or YouTube reviews?

 

[sk1985]

On the iPad Pro I can't think of a single reason you'd need 16g of ram...maybe gaming?

 

[Isamilis]

I don’t know what Notability is doing :-D but do remember that it are handwritten A4/letter sized pages. That might be stored like a rather big pictures 1000 pictures combined with handwriting recognition.
The indexing is stored, that is certain, but indexing new pages takes sometimes so long, it is only after several hours I can search trough the latest pages. Perhaps it is done off-device? But then it wouldn't be faster on an M4. After it has been done, it is quick enough in finding results.

I have no idea what it is that is slowing it down, but I don know that the difference between a M2 and a M4 iPad is noticable (if not huge) in this case.

All handwriting applications (including Apple Notes and Notability) consume lots of cpu in iOS device. OP found that M2/16gb performed better than M1/8gb.

 

[Populus]

You just gave me an idea: I currently have an 11” M4 iPad Pro for testing purposes, and despite being a base model with just 8GB of RAM, I also have some big PDF that my previous iPads always struggle with, especially when I try to look for a word in thousands of pages.

So I’m going to try them on this M4 iPad Pro, just to see if it’s a CPU thing, or it could be related to the RAM amount.

I forgot to share the follow up of this test. Before returning the base M4 iPad Pro (I found a 2TB M2 iPad Pro, new, for the same price), I tested this big heavy PDF files on the M4, and the default PDF viewer failed to load them, crashing several times. So no, it’s not a matter of CPU or GPU power. Maybe it’s a flaw on those PDF files, who knows…

 

[0423MAC]

As with everything else it really depends on the applications you plan to use. iPadOS, much like iPadOS is so limited compared to macOS that even 4GB would be fine for some users doing basic tasks such as web browsing, email, notes etc.