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iPad Pro should i get 2020 or 2021 ipad pro

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iJeff0124

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 26, 2021
19
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Hey guys, I'm planning to get an 11" ipad pro. It'll be my first ipad. I live abroad and here the A12Z is now around $150- $200 cheaper. So, should i get the 2020 A12Z at the lower price and save some money or just get the 2021 M1? FYI, I'll be using it for some note taking, drawing, watching movies/videos and will do a few, fairly light video editing with imovie. I will use it as a companion with my macbook pro so it won’t be a laptop replacement for me and also plan to use it for quite a while, about 4 maybe 5 years, so will the a12z be future proof enough?
 
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iJeff0124 said:
Hey guys, I'm planning to get an 11" ipad pro. It'll be my first ipad. Should i get the 2020 A12Z at a discounted price and save some money or splurge on the 2021 M1? I'll be using it for some note taking, drawing, watching movies/videos and will rarely do very light video editing with imovie.
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I would vote for the 2020 if you can get it at a discount. The main star of the 2021 lineup is the 12.9" with that screen but you're getting the 11" so I think it's the same screen. Especially with what you do I think it would be a waste of money. Now if the price is close then get the newer one.
 
I initially went with the 2020 11” this past weekend because even though the M1 is considerably faster, I get the impression that most of that power is not utilized for how I use the iPad (high volume photo editing, along with normal media consumption and office tasks). My 2018 12.9 never felt even the slightest bit slow (my main reasons for buying a new iPad were to downsize to the 11”, and secondarily to get more storage).

But in a typical moment of indecisiveness, I returned the 2020 the next day and brought home an M1. For the difference in price, I figured the additional RAM might be useful, and perhaps WWDC might yield some revolutionary change in iPadOS that would take more advantage of the M1 (specifically hoping of more robust multitasking / background app freedom, and allowing multiple audio streams so that my music doesn’t get cut off by muted auto-playing videos on websites). Of course, there’s a good chance this won’t even happen, and even if it does, I’d say there’s still a decent chance that the 2018+ iPad Pros would also get this same functionality.

I’m happy to have the latest/greatest, but at the same time I realize I would have been fine with the 2020. I know this might sound silly, but at the time there was a $100 difference in price, and I just noticed now the discount is $150 — for $100 I figured it was worth it to get the latest, but $150? I think I would have stuck with the 2020 had that been the case then.
 
russell_314 said:
I would vote for the 2020 if you can get it at a discount. The main star of the 2021 lineup is the 12.9" with that screen but you're getting the 11" so I think it's the same screen. Especially with what you do I think it would be a waste of money. Now if the price is close then get the newer one.
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Ah ok, thanks for the reply.Since I live abroad, here the 2020 A12Z is about $150 - $200 cheaper. With that price difference do you think I should still stick with the A12Z or go with the m1 since it has the 8gb ram, m1, thunderbolt, better cameras, etc.
 
iJeff0124 said:
Ah ok, thanks for the reply.Since I live abroad, here the 2020 A12Z is about $150 - $200 cheaper. With that price difference do you think I should still stick with the A12Z or go with the m1 since it has the 8gb ram, m1, thunderbolt, better cameras, etc.
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I guess it depends on how much money is in your budget. If the $200 is enough money to make you think about it then I would probably go with the cheaper one. Do you think you’ll use thunderbolt or the cameras? I mean if you can wait a few days you might want to wait see what comes out at WWDC. Right now the M1 is sort of overpowered for iPadOS. The extra RAM really isn’t being used. It’s possible that they might announce something. To be honest I’m surprised they didn’t announce the higher quality display on the smaller model. I bet that had to do with supply limitations.
 
russell_314 said:
I guess it depends on how much money is in your budget. If the $200 is enough money to make you think about it then I would probably go with the cheaper one. Do you think you’ll use thunderbolt or the cameras? I mean if you can wait a few days you might want to wait see what comes out at WWDC. Right now the M1 is sort of overpowered for iPadOS. The extra RAM really isn’t being used. It’s possible that they might announce something. To be honest I’m surprised they didn’t announce the higher quality display on the smaller model. I bet that had to do with supply limitations.
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alright gotcha, my only concern I have is how much more future proof will the A12Z be since its tech is basically an almost three year old A12 chip, because I plan to use it for about 5ish years maybe even 6. I'm afraid the A12Z won't last that long since its basically a 2018 chip but just refreshed in 2020 with more cpu and gpu cores, it might already be kinda old and slow already just in the next few years.
 
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iJeff0124 said:
Ah ok, thanks for the reply.Since I live abroad, here the 2020 A12Z is about $150 - $200 cheaper. With that price difference do you think I should still stick with the A12Z or go with the m1 since it has the 8gb ram, m1, thunderbolt, better cameras, etc.
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Too little difference IMO.
 
Chompineer said:
I wouldn't buy a 2020, it's such as half-measure of a device.

I'd either look for a sweet deal on a 2018, or just buy a 2021.
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what's weird is here where I currently live, since the 2018 has been discontinued for a year now. Seems like these third party retailers here don't have any stock left or for some other reason, the 2018 model is difficult to find and almost no longer sold and its also more expensive than the 2020 version which is weird.
 
I always suggest going with the newest device possible, and now, right at release, is the best time to buy it. The M1 is a proper 50% more powerful on single core and multi core, more on GPU, along with more RAM, so the longevity it will give you is easily worth the difference in price today. Otherwise, I would buy a 2018 used to maximize the cost savings.
 
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I own a 2020 11 inch and I used it a lot during the pandemic. However, today I'd go for the M1 without a doubt as it's more future proof. The only downside is that size doesn't have the nicer screen the 12.9 has though.
 
For the $150-$200 difference, the 2021 is worth it, especially if you are holding onto it for a long time.

If you are on the fence both ways, and the price difference isn’t that big a hit to your budget, you might find yourself wishing you made the decision for the M1.

I upgraded from the 2020 to 2021 and there are differences in performance that are noticeable. Battery life has been better so far, it is faster, for video editing itself you might like the M1.

All comes down to spending thresholds.
 
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for $200 I would get the new one as its the newer chip and apple will only add more features geared to the new m1 and future M series chip sets
 
I just bought the 2020 11" pro wifi as an upgrade to my 2017 10.5" pro which died. The lower price was not the biggest factor. In principal I use it as a second machine to my mac. Never as a laptop replacement. My 10.5" was faster than I ever needed. The 12.9" is a bigger upgrade from 2020 to 2021 due to the screen. The 11" is very similar between years.
 
2020 if you want to be up and running with optimized OS and apps now. If you do things like video editing performance is about the same.

2021 if you're willing to buy and wait for apps and OS to be optimized. Right now unoptimized apps run worse. For example, Procreate is limited to 2GB RAM and it's to be seen what other apps have the same behavior and need to be updated. And, iPadOS is currently limited to 5GB RAM until updated so not using the 2021 to its full potential.
 
mi7chy said:
2020 if you want to be up and running with optimized OS and apps now. If you do things like video editing performance is about the same.

2021 if you're willing to buy and wait for apps and OS to be optimized. Right now unoptimized apps run worse. For example, Procreate is limited to 2GB RAM and it's to be seen what other apps have the same behavior and need to be updated. And, iPadOS is currently limited to 5GB RAM until updated so not using the 2021 to its full potential.
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is this still relevant, particularly with ios15 coming soon? I wanna buy a 2021 pro but have a 2015 rMBP to use if things aren't smoothed out yet. my hope is that slowly over time it could replace my laptop.
 
taxi_driver said:
is this still relevant, particularly with ios15 coming soon? I wanna buy a 2021 pro but have a 2015 rMBP to use if things aren't smoothed out yet. my hope is that slowly over time it could replace my laptop.
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no, but it was not correct even then....
the 5GB limit is a big source of misunderstanding... the limit is still 5GB for M1 and developers have to request additional RAM specifically and Apple decides whether to give them or not...And it's not clear if they would give more only for the 16GB version or also for the 8GB version (they need to leave spare RAM for the OS and for multitasking).
The limit on the 2020 pro is 4.5GB of RAM so 1.5 at least are needed for the OS and some minimum multitasking...
And that 5GB is probably less important that the media make it out to be on a system that does not swap to disk anyway...
Other that that the non-optimized apps will be updated by next month at the latest anyway as it generally happens with a new OS version
I am also afraid some people won't read the date of this thread and reply to the OP months later...
 
taxi_driver said:
is this still relevant, particularly with ios15 coming soon? I wanna buy a 2021 pro but have a 2015 rMBP to use if things aren't smoothed out yet. my hope is that slowly over time it could replace my laptop.
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Go with what's significantly cheaper. Paid $800 for NIB 512GB iPad Pro M1 11" which is $300 less than msrp also minus tax but it mostly collects dust since it's so restrictive and gimped. Should've been more patient and paid $500 for NIB 128GB iPad Pro M1 11".
 
Hell I would even argue to get a 2018 one. I got a
2018 11 pro, 256 wifi and cellular for $450.
 
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