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The future of iPad

A

alex00100

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 17, 2011
469
1,227
Moscow, Russia
Hello MacRumors,
I can't believe we don't yet have a thread like this. I'm planning to upgrade from my iPad 3 next year so what do you think apple will change in iPads next year?
Alex
 
alex00100 said:
Hello MacRumors,
I can't believe we don't yet have a thread like this. I'm planning to upgrade from my iPad 3 next year so what do you think apple will change in iPads next year?
Alex
Click to expand...

There are plenty of threads discussing the future of the iPad. And Apple isn't going to be updating the iPad in the next year, they just released iPad Pros' in June.
 
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alex00100 said:
Hello MacRumors,
I can't believe we don't yet have a thread like this. I'm planning to upgrade from my iPad 3 next year so what do you think apple will change in iPads next year?
Alex
Click to expand...

There will be:
faster CPU
faster GPU
same battery life
same/similar form factor
120hz will trickle down
truetone will trickle down


The big change will be that the iPad will start being used as the base-station for augmented reality gear (glasses, etc.).
 
alex00100 said:
Hello MacRumors,
I can't believe we don't yet have a thread like this. I'm planning to upgrade from my iPad 3 next year so what do you think apple will change in iPads next year?
Alex
Click to expand...

Aside from standard incremental upgrades, it is impossible to know. That being said, if you are on an iPad 3, like the iPad experience, and are in any way able to afford it, I would highly recommend you upgrade now. Whether you go iPad Pro or upgrade to the basic iPad line that was released in the spring would be entirely based on your needs and budget. iPad 3 is arguably the worst iPad ever released. Extremely slow and you're stuck on iOS 9. iOS 11 is going to be a massive benefit to the iPad line. This is the time to buy. As hinted above the iPad line might be beginning to experience a longer upgrade cycle. So we might not see a new iPad for over a year from now.
 
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alex00100 said:
Hello MacRumors,
I can't believe we don't yet have a thread like this. I'm planning to upgrade from my iPad 3 next year so what do you think apple will change in iPads next year?
Alex
Click to expand...

I'm surprised you can still use your iPad 3. I bought mine on launch day, then wasn't happy when Apple replaced the 3 like 3-6 months later with the iPad 4. My wife and I both had the 3 and they both had charging/battery issues.

If I were you I'd upgrade now. The new iPads were just released this spring. The next release cycle could be over a year from now.
 
If it works keep going.
We have two 4s the kids still use at the grand parents and they are fine.

And yes, lots of threads on this same topic..
 
maflynn said:
Just wait, we can postulate until we're blue in the face, but that doesn't matter. Since you're not buying anything now, just sit back, and enjoy your current iPad :)
Click to expand...

I never understood these replies. "Just wait"? Why do you think he's visiting MacRumors? We're here because we want to speculate and guess what the next Apple product will have and not just wait until Apple's own announcements.

Anyway, we already have one reliable rumor by Ming Chi Kuo about the next 'Revolutionary' OLED iPad. https://www.macrumors.com/2016/08/15/kuo-10-5-ipad-pro-2017/
Revolutionary iPad model likely to be introduced in 2018F at the earliest, with radical changes in form factor design & user behavior on adoption of flexible AMOLED panel. We believe iPad will follow in the footsteps of the iPhone by adopting AMOLED panel in 2018F at the earliest. If Apple can truly tap the potential of a flexible AMOLED panel, we believe the new iPad model will offer new selling points through radical form factor design and user behavior changes, which could benefit shipments.
Click to expand...

I'm going to assume that you are looking to buy the next iPad Pro and not the low cost iPad. I'd say that it's possible that the next one will be getting changes similar to the "iPhone 8" which includes removing the home button.

Some of the things that could be present in the next iPad Pro update based on rumors, consistency between iPhone and iPad, technology advancements and guessing would be:
  • Edge to edge rounded display with very small bezels (or cutouts) to house the camera and sensors
  • OLED display with HDR support
  • On screen Touch ID home button
  • New design with rounded edges, 2.5D glass
  • Very thin, ~5mm body
  • 3D Touch with pressure sensitivity and linear actuators
  • IR sensors for AR and facial recognition
  • IP67 water resistance
  • A11X chip built on 7nm node process
  • Apple designed GPU
  • 6GB RAM
  • Upgraded cameras (same as "iPhone 8")
  • Bluetooth 5.0
  • 29W USB-C charger with USB-C to lightning cable
  • No 3.5mm headphone jack
I don't expect the next Pro to have all of these features so don't get your hopes up. I think the next iPhone announcement will make it clearer what Apple wants to do with future iOS products.
 
RevTEG said:
I'm surprised you can still use your iPad 3. I bought mine on launch day, then wasn't happy when Apple replaced the 3 like 3-6 months later with the iPad 4. My wife and I both had the 3 and they both had charging/battery issues.

If I were you I'd upgrade now. The new iPads were just released this spring. The next release cycle could be over a year from now.
Click to expand...

Yea, the 3 was the worst. Does not happen so often that Apple releases a half-baked product, but this was it. Too anxious to get Retina screen on the market, should have waited a bit to get the processor up to spec.
 
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Booji said:
Yea, the 3 was the worst. Does not happen so often that Apple releases a half-baked product, but this was it. Too anxious to get Retina screen on the market, should have waited a bit to get the processor up to spec.
Click to expand...

I have an iPad 2 and my father has an iPad 3. If you compare them side by side, you'll see that the iPad 3 is a lot better than the iPad 2 in terms of performance. Sure the 3 does lag because the GPU can barely drive the retina display but all that does is dropped frames during animations. The 2 on the other hand is a lot worse in that it only has 512MB RAM. Apps like Pages and Google Docs will lag so much that keyboard clicks are registered seconds after you touch them. You can't even open two Safari tabs at the same time without refreshing every time you switch the tab and having horrible lag at the same time. The same happens while switching between two apps. Not to mention all the instantaneous app shutdowns when it's out of memory.

The iPad 2 lagging will leave you with a static screen for about 30 seconds. (Several minutes on iOS 8.0, before 8.1 update) That's something that rarely happens on the iPad 3. While the 3 is not very performant by todays standards, it is still working as it should. The iPad 2 is almost unusable for many tasks. What I'm trying to say is that even if the 3 seems to be "half-baked", it did age much better than the 2 and most of the lag you guys are experiencing is "minor" animation lag.
 
GubbyMan said:
Some of the things that could be present in the next iPad Pro update based on rumors, consistency between iPhone and iPad, technology advancements and guessing would be:
  • Edge to edge rounded display with very small bezels (or cutouts) to house the camera and sensors
  • OLED display with HDR support
  • On screen Touch ID home button
I don't expect the next Pro to have all of these features so don't get your hopes up. I think the next iPhone announcement will make it clearer what Apple wants to do with future iOS products.
Click to expand...

The edge to edge display is not happening because you need some bezels to hold the device, unlike a phone that rests on your palm. OLED for sure but HDR to work properly would require being able to put out a lot more brightness so I don't see it happening anytime soon even if technically the display may support it - it just won't be "proper" HDR with 1000+ nits brightness. Touch ID on screen might pose its own set of issues too.

In any case none of the many things you listed are a significant upgrade to the iPad as it is. Maybe that says more about how good it is already but to me it needs some killer features both on the device but more on the software side. iOS 11 is a good step forward in usability.
 
OLED is a significant upgrade to me because of the deep black levels. Otherwise I think that the current 10.5" Pro is amazing.

But I disagree with you on bezels and HDR. You can already hold an iPad at the edge of the screen and your finger will be rejected because it detects from the touch area that you are just holding it and not trying to interact with the screen. There's no problem if you cover a very small part of the screen with your thumb because of this and it works well on the 10.5" with small bezels. As for HDR, light intensity is relative to your environment. If you're in a normal lit or a dark room, 600 nits will be more than enough for HDR to work properly. HDR is already available on a few phones including the GS8.
 
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