That's a very big "if".
They are nowhere close to taking big bites of the console market, and better iPad specs aren't the reason.
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iPad Pro What the 2021 iPad Pro doesn't need.... a faster processor
- Thread starter bscheffel
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That's a very big "if".
They are nowhere close to taking big bites of the console market, and better iPad specs aren't the reason.
Oh yeah, the 9.7 pro is noticeably faster that the air 2, not even close, but is not aging as well as the 12.9 because of constant reloads and some stutters when you do certain things due to lack of RAM. And this could get worse depending on future updates... But I am confident that any other pro will end its (probably long) life virtually as snappy as the first day, since even 3GB is way better than 2GB and no other pro has less than 4 (and they all have fast storage, in SSD territory, contrary to older iPads like the air 2, which are more in eMMC territory).
To be honest, I've already had issues even with my 4GB RAM iPads. Just the other day, I was switching between Excel and Safari and I kept losing my place in Excel (had to reopen the spreadsheet I was working on over and over). I normally would've just restarted the iPad but I was in the middle of a meeting so I couldn't really do it then.
I've also been getting pauses in Safari where the iPad become non-responsive for a while (usually after waking up from sleep or switching from another app). It's not a touchscreen issue since I can switch to the home screen and touch works fine there.
With that said, I do think the new iPads are aging fine. May not be top performance but still very decent nonetheless.
People like to make this claim, but it's never held true to me. iOS devices actually offer remarkable longevity, which is kind of the point here about the next Pro not needing a faster processor. I know that among tech enthusiasts it's common practice to get the latest device every year, but the majority of people are out there using iPhone and iPads that are 4 or 5 years old with absolutely no performance issues, and full support for the latest OS.
Yeah, agreed. Anything 2020 and beyond, I'd want at least 6 GB of ram if I was spending >$500 on it.
I've experienced the freezes on all my iPads at one point or another (2017 Pro 12.9 & 10.5, Air 3). Admittedly, I usually have a ton of Safari tabs open. On the one I'm using for example (12.9), I currently have 88 tabs open.
For the freezes, I just wait for Safari to finish loading. For Safari crashes/reloads, I force close background apps I might have forgotten to close and if that still doesn't do the trick, I hard reset the iPad.
I also tend to leave tab opens forever (I have 70 on my pro 11...). I don't know how much this impacts RAM, since most of the time they will reload when you reopen them, my guess is not too much...
I have these mini-freezes on the 2015 12.9 pro and to a lesser extend on the 10.5.
The difference with the 9.7 is that it can stay stuck for a long while and sometimes crash, while the 12.9 is like 2-3 seconds and the 10.5 even less. So far I haven't experienced any in the 11 pro (6GB) but it's a recent device so maybe I haven't spent enough time... Also the mini 5 with 3GB I don't remember any freezes, but again I use it less, especially for multitasking....
Having said that I have noticed something... It's not just a matter of how much is in RAM... There is some kind of algorithm that will decide that at some point some things has to be ejected... I was using my newspaper app every day and it was staying open where I left each time even while I opened tons of other apps in my 11pro in between. Then I left the tablet unused for like 1-2 days and when I reopened it it reloaded, and I had not used other apps in the meantime or at least much less than usual... So the algorithm will also weight how long the iPad has been in stand-by when it comes to ejecting stuff from RAM... This does not happen with my iPad 2 and its measly 0.5 GB RAM on IOS 9, if I leave a youtube video on pause for instance and don't touch it for days or weeks it will reopen just as it was...
I don't now if it's related, but on Windows, if you don't turn off you pc for many days or weeks, RAM usage by apps will increase. You turn off you restart and open the exact same apps and you have much lower RAM usage...
If the same could happen on IOS it would explain why it ejects stuff more after longer stand-bys...
Similar experience except I've actually had both the 12.9 and 10.5 crash as well and trying to reopen Safari just causes it to crash again. The crashes do occur less often on the 12.9/10.5 compared to 9.7.
But yeah, in my experience, both iOS 9 & 10 were better at keeping "saved state" specially if you have at least 2GB RAM.
I guess that iPad sales are bigger than Mac sales already, and video editors with FCP are surely just a niche in the user base. We’re not in Mac land from two decades ago when only graphic design folks would buy Macs.
I think they’re not interested at this stage and want to focus on casual gamers at the moment.
Which is a shame considering the advancement in the iGPU's in the M1 Macs. If only Apple would work closely with game developers to optimise games for Apple silicon, they would run as well as their Windows/Console counterparts if not better.
It’s unfortunate but probably too niche for them to have an interest in. Casual stuff is easier to do I guess.
Never, they won't go back and talk about iPad RAM, they'l keep not mentioning it as Jobs wanted...
Are you sure of this claim? Not arguing, I just think of the iPad as one big flat radiator of glass on the front and metal on the back. It rarely gets warm unless I am speed charging. I know this claim is made of the M1 MacBook Pro versus the M1 Air because of the fan, but even there the performance difference isn't that great.
Sustained performance. With burst performance, the iPad will be quite fast, just like how the a MacBook Air performs really close to the MacBook Pro. But try doing that for hours, and see the iPad throttles. The thermal headroom of the iPad is obviously less than a MacBook. Try exporting hours for video on the iPad.
I have yet seen anybody complaining about the performance of their iPad Pros, even the 9.7" one (other than RAM related issues). So not sure how you got your conclusion from. Anything with the A9 onwards seem to be scaling up well with newer iOS versions.
I don't even really see the point of an ipad pro. I'd much rather they just kill it and start again.
Keep iPad as is, move over all the existing 'pro' features (if theres any left) over to the 'normal' line.
Now with M1 and macs being able to run iOS apps, bring out a new mac line with different form factors.
I expect my need is very niche, but I just want a mac in a much more portable form factor, like the ipad already has. I'd easily buy the top of line macbook if I could remove/detach the keyboard for example. I'm not saying it has to be touch primary, I'd definetely be connecting a mouse/keyboard to it when I needed to do something productive - much like I do with the ipad pro now. I just wouldn't have to remote into a real computer on the ipad to get anything done. Which is going to be even more ridicolous on the newer ipads that run nearly identical chips as macs.
I still think what I want will happen eventually, its just going to take forever. The quick way is just shoving MacOS on an ipad pro, even with touch disabled. But its pretty clear that isn't what Apple wants to do (which is why I'd just love to see new mac form factors at this point as I think thats the only chance of getting there sooner now).
iPadOS seems to be taking an extremely long time to reach anywhere near where I'd like it to be. iOS 11 and iOS 13 were pretty big, but its still miles beyond. Two year jumps is also fairly infuriating, I guess mouse support was a welcomed surprise for 13.4, but that was almost a year ago now.
There are a things that are pretty much beyond a joke now, like external screen support. All this talk about how magical the M1 external screen support is and yet the iPads is abysmal. If iPadOS gained the ability to run Mac apps I think that would be a massive step, but the OS is just nowhere near capabale of such things yet so I can't see it happening. Any 'Pro' iPad apps coming are still going to be massively held back by the OS - External screen support, file management, sandbox restrictions (CMD line etc). You can't just shove Xcode on an ipad for example, its going to have to be massively restricted.
Sure iPadOS 15 might address some of these, but thats part of the problem. We might get decent external screen support finally in iPadOS 15, but what about any of the others? We'll have to wait for iPadOS 17, 19 or 21...
Keep iPad as is, move over all the existing 'pro' features (if theres any left) over to the 'normal' line.
Now with M1 and macs being able to run iOS apps, bring out a new mac line with different form factors.
I expect my need is very niche, but I just want a mac in a much more portable form factor, like the ipad already has. I'd easily buy the top of line macbook if I could remove/detach the keyboard for example. I'm not saying it has to be touch primary, I'd definetely be connecting a mouse/keyboard to it when I needed to do something productive - much like I do with the ipad pro now. I just wouldn't have to remote into a real computer on the ipad to get anything done. Which is going to be even more ridicolous on the newer ipads that run nearly identical chips as macs.
I still think what I want will happen eventually, its just going to take forever. The quick way is just shoving MacOS on an ipad pro, even with touch disabled. But its pretty clear that isn't what Apple wants to do (which is why I'd just love to see new mac form factors at this point as I think thats the only chance of getting there sooner now).
iPadOS seems to be taking an extremely long time to reach anywhere near where I'd like it to be. iOS 11 and iOS 13 were pretty big, but its still miles beyond. Two year jumps is also fairly infuriating, I guess mouse support was a welcomed surprise for 13.4, but that was almost a year ago now.
There are a things that are pretty much beyond a joke now, like external screen support. All this talk about how magical the M1 external screen support is and yet the iPads is abysmal. If iPadOS gained the ability to run Mac apps I think that would be a massive step, but the OS is just nowhere near capabale of such things yet so I can't see it happening. Any 'Pro' iPad apps coming are still going to be massively held back by the OS - External screen support, file management, sandbox restrictions (CMD line etc). You can't just shove Xcode on an ipad for example, its going to have to be massively restricted.
Sure iPadOS 15 might address some of these, but thats part of the problem. We might get decent external screen support finally in iPadOS 15, but what about any of the others? We'll have to wait for iPadOS 17, 19 or 21...
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I had the opportunity recently to try a base iPad, mini 5, a display in store Air 4, then the 2020 Pro 11'. For my uses, I've found the Pro 11 to be a sweet spot for what I need. Base iPad has way too much reflectivity but I don't mind the ergonomics. The mini 5 is almost perfect but a little too small - no Apple Pencil 2 support. The Air 4 just struck me as within $150 as expensive as the Pro without the longevity (ram). And ... despite it being in store, the screen just didn't seem as nice as the Pro 11.
Pro 11 - I've used a 2018 iPad Pro 11 for almost 1.5 years now. I sold that and tried the above iPads and then went back to a 2020 iPad Pro 11. I find I consume a lot easier with the 11 than any other iPad. I found this out in my monthly reading - without the 11, it was significantly reduced - I just mentally did not want to read for as long or as much.
For me, the iPad is the perfect consumption device - reading, reading, reading, email, news, and more reading. The display makes it such a pleasant experience.
I don't usually game and while sometimes I'll pop out a bluetooth keyboard and mouse with my iPad Pro 11 - I use it as a reading device mostly. Yeah, it's an expensive reading device but I've come to be REALLY fond of it. Being able to take handwritten notes when I want - to just drain what's in my brain so I can relax or take quick notes while my boss is rattling off wishlists - yep. It's a great PDA.
I've read 10 books so far this year. Libby, Kindle, Apple Books, Economist, WSJ, NYT, Ars Technica, Apple News, and yes, Macrumors.
In the future, I'd love to see these tablets be computers when connected to monitors. Why can't they run Mac OS 4k displays? I'm sure we'll be there in a few years.
To the thread topic - CPU is plenty fast for me and I expect to get at least a few years of use out of this before I think of upgrading again.
Pro 11 - I've used a 2018 iPad Pro 11 for almost 1.5 years now. I sold that and tried the above iPads and then went back to a 2020 iPad Pro 11. I find I consume a lot easier with the 11 than any other iPad. I found this out in my monthly reading - without the 11, it was significantly reduced - I just mentally did not want to read for as long or as much.
For me, the iPad is the perfect consumption device - reading, reading, reading, email, news, and more reading. The display makes it such a pleasant experience.
I don't usually game and while sometimes I'll pop out a bluetooth keyboard and mouse with my iPad Pro 11 - I use it as a reading device mostly. Yeah, it's an expensive reading device but I've come to be REALLY fond of it. Being able to take handwritten notes when I want - to just drain what's in my brain so I can relax or take quick notes while my boss is rattling off wishlists - yep. It's a great PDA.
I've read 10 books so far this year. Libby, Kindle, Apple Books, Economist, WSJ, NYT, Ars Technica, Apple News, and yes, Macrumors.
In the future, I'd love to see these tablets be computers when connected to monitors. Why can't they run Mac OS 4k displays? I'm sure we'll be there in a few years.
To the thread topic - CPU is plenty fast for me and I expect to get at least a few years of use out of this before I think of upgrading again.
All I want to see is Apple making more use of the 6GB RAM, hoping for some more Pro software to come.
The hardware will always continue to get more advanced than the software though, I think that helps futureproof devices, just look at how the A12X/A12Z are doing versus the 5nm chips, the A12X/A12Z will probably see the same longevity as the standard A14 and the A14X/A14Z will probably see similar longevity to the next few Apple iPhone chips and possibly M1.
Good times ahead.
The actual real-world performance difference would not be noticeable at all. The A12Z has double the GPU cores and would outperform the A14 in graphics-intensive operations.
Not really, the A14 in the air 4, despite having half the cores, slightly outperforms the A12Z in terms of GPU. Having said that it's fair to say that they have roughly the same performance since the difference is very small. The A14 in the iPhone is weaker.
Do you think that market is really huge? They have iMovie out there and some other apps on the market are quite popular with the existing iPad users I think? The same will hold true for the Mac, FCP is used in certain fields but they probably make a fraction of Apple’s user base.