iPad Pro Should I Upgrade from 2020 (A12Z) to 2021 (M1) iPad Pro 12.9”?

[Val3]

With the release of the M2 iPad Pro, I was disappointed to see that the base iPad Pro again starts with only 8GB RAM, and you have to upgrade to a 1TB+ iPad Pro in order to get more/16GB RAM. Still, I guess I should’ve expected this, given that base MacBooks with the M1 chip also start with only 8GB RAM.

I have the 2020 12.9” iPad Pro, which has 6GB RAM. I know that people say you can’t exactly compare RAM in Apple devices to RAM in other devices, because of the ways Apple optimizes RAM usage. Still, it tends to be the feature that I look out for when I’m thinking of upgrading, as I get most annoyed by frequent app and tab refreshing.

The 2020 iPad Pro has started to get to the point where I’m seeing overly frequent (by my standards) app and tab refreshing, so I am wondering if it’s worth it to upgrade to the 2021 M1 iPad Pro 256GB with 8GB RAM (because I have no need for 1TB, and don’t especially want to pay an extra $600 for a RAM upgrade). Do you think I’ll see a notable (and hopefully lasting… I don’t want to have to upgrade again in a year’s time) improvement?

About my usage: I mostly use the iPad for reading, taking notes (both typed and handwritten), and media consumption (watching video, typically in a browser). I also multi-task, i.e., having two apps open at the same time side-by-side.

I will say that it seems that certain Apple-native apps don’t seem to be especially optimized memory-wise for the iPad. For example, Apple Books frequently crashes when I load a book that I’ve annotated significantly. In contrast, loading and reading the exact same books on my iPhone XS Max is a seamless experience. Also, on the iPad, Safari has begun to frequently refresh tabs, especially when I have video playing in the background/in one of the tabs (not YouTube, FYI, which seems more optimized for the iPad Safari experience than other websites). So if the main problem is really laggy Apple development on Apple-native apps, I have to wonder if upgrading to the M1 chip is really going to solve all my current frustrations with the 2020 iPad Pro.

The best course of action would be of course to buy the 2021 iPad Pro and compare the 2 iPads side-by-side. However, financially that’s not really an option for me, as I was planning to sell my 2020 iPad Pro in order to pay for a majority of the 2021 iPad Pro.

Thoughts?

 

[rui no onna]

The best course of action would be of course to buy the 2021 iPad Pro and compare the 2 iPads side-by-side. However, financially that’s not really an option for me, as I was planning to sell my 2020 iPad Pro in order to pay for a majority of the 2021 iPad Pro.

Are you US-based or in another region with good return policy?

If so, I'd still just buy the 2021 iPad Pro and return it if it doesn't show an improvement with your usage. Credit cards have a grace period and the refund for the return will long be processed before you have to pay your statement balance.

 

[chikorita157]

Unless you need Thunderbolt 3 and External Display support that the M1 has, the performance between the M1 and 12X/12Z is not too noticable. I own a M1 and a 2018 11" iPad Pro, which only has 4GB of RAM. The M1 is only a little bit more responsive, but the experience is mostly the same since all the iPad Pros from 2018 get Stage Manager. It shows that Apple haven't done much with iPadOS to fully use the power of the M1 SoC.

In my opinion, it might not be even worth the upgrade, unless to plan to take advantage of video editing with Davinci Resolve coming to the iPad soon and gaming. M1 has a way better GPU, but besides of Safari not losing it's page as often or apps hardly reloading, the experience between the M1 and A12X/Z is the same. I just upgraded to the M1 last year because of return to office eventually and I probably use it more often. Have been doing so since late June.

In fact, I bought another 11" 2018 iPad Pro in good condition for my sister since she is still using a iPad 2 for as much as a iPad 2021, which has more features, even compared to the iPad 10. Even today, the iPad Pro 2018 11" is still holding up well.

 

[Val3]

Unless you need Thunderbolt 3 and External Display support that the M1 has, the performance between the M1 and 12X/12Z is not too noticable. I own a M1 and a 2018 11" iPad Pro, which only has 4GB of RAM. The M1 is only a little bit more responsive, but the experience is mostly the same since all the iPad Pros from 2018 get Stage Manager. It shows that Apple haven't done much with iPadOS to fully use the power of the M1 SoC.

In my opinion, it might not be even worth the upgrade, unless to plan to take advantage of video editing with Davinci Resolve coming to the iPad soon and gaming. M1 has a way better GPU, but besides of Safari not losing it's page as often or apps hardly reloading, the experience between the M1 and A12X/Z is the same. I just upgraded to the M1 last year because of return to office eventually and I probably use it more often. Have been doing so since late June.

In fact, I bought another 11" 2018 iPad Pro in good condition for my sister since she is still using a iPad 2 for as much as a iPad 2021, which has more features, even compared to the iPad 10. Even today, the iPad Pro 2018 11" is still holding up well.

This probably wasn’t your intention , but based on your experiences, I’m actually now much more seriously considering getting the 1TB model with 16GB RAM (if I can get a good price on it…).

From what you say, as impressive as the CPU and GPU upgrades on the M1 chip are, it doesn’t seem like the apps that I principally use on the iPad would benefit all that much from the upgrade from the A12Z chip to the M1 chip. However, at least based on my usage patterns and my performance expectations (i.e., minimizing refreshing), I would see notable improvements from upgrading the RAM significantly (which unfortunately can’t be done without buying the much more expensive 1TB model and wasting all that unnecessary storage). I probably wouldn’t be impressed by the increase from 6GB to 8GB, but I probably would be impressed by the performance increase from 6GB to 16GB.

Or am I mistaken?

 

[Digitalguy]

This probably wasn’t your intention , but based on your experiences, I’m actually now much more seriously considering getting the 1TB model with 16GB RAM (if I can get a good price on it…).

From what you say, as impressive as the CPU and GPU upgrades on the M1 chip are, it doesn’t seem like the apps that I principally use on the iPad would benefit all that much from the upgrade from the A12Z chip to the M1 chip. However, at least based on my usage patterns and my performance expectations (i.e., minimizing refreshing), I would see notable improvements from upgrading the RAM significantly (which unfortunately can’t be done without buying the much more expensive 1TB model and wasting all that unnecessary storage). I probably wouldn’t be impressed by the increase from 6GB to 8GB, but I probably would be impressed by the performance increase from 6GB to 16GB.

Or am I mistaken?

You'll have no performance increase at all between 8GB and 16GB RAM. Performance and reloads are 2 separate things as we discussed earlier in another thread.
I have a 4GB, a 6GB and a 8GB iPad pro and for each the additional RAM makes a noticeable difference in terms of reloads. I would even say there is more difference between 4 and 6 than between 6 and 8 (take a house with 4 rooms, 2 of which are constantly busy, now add 2 more rooms, you have basically doubled the space, now add 2 more room, you have added a third more...)
I am all for getting as much RAM as possible, but iPadOS is introducing memory swap and we don't know how it will work. If it's similar to MacOS it may reduce reloads dramatically even on 8GB devices, but again at this point we don't know for sure...

 

[Val3]

You'll have no performance increase at all between 8GB and 16GB RAM. Performance and reloads are 2 separate things as we discussed earlier in another thread.
I have a 4GB, a 6GB and a 8GB iPad pro and for each the additional RAM makes a noticeable difference in terms of reloads. I would even say there is more difference between 4 and 6 than between 6 and 8 (take a house with 4 rooms, 2 of which are constantly busy, now add 2 more rooms, you have basically doubled the space, now add 2 more room, you have added a third more...)
I am all for getting as much RAM as possible, but iPadOS is introducing memory swap and we don't know how it will work. If it's similar to MacOS it may reduce reloads dramatically even on 8GB devices, but again at this point we don't know for sure...

I think you and I basically agree. For me, the performance of an iPad (rather than any particular app) includes the extent to which apps reload or tabs refresh. Other people may not notice, but I do, and when it starts happening frequently, it annoys me. It’s one thing if the refreshing app was the 10th app I last used (at that point I’ve probably forgotten where I even left off at), but when the refreshing app is the last or second-to-last app that I used before the current/active app, I definitely notice and get annoyed at the few milliseconds it takes to reload. I wouldn’t say that I use particularly intensive apps (I’m not editing photos or videos), and I regularly cycle through only a few apps, so not-too-frequent-reloading is one of the standards of performance that I set for the iPad.

With all of the furor around Stage Manager, I forgot/overlooked that iPadOS 16 is bringing virtual memory swap! I guess I’ll wait until iPadOS 16 is officially released then check back in. Hopefully by then the Apple Refurbished Store will also have refurbished M1 iPad Pros, and I can check the price of the 1TB model.