iPad Pro Where are the iPad Pro reviews?

[Foss]

The wait is killing me!111.......................... *hyperventilates*

Ha, I feel ya. The silly thing is I know it’s not gonna be night and day between my 2018 vs the new 2021, but I just want my new piece of gear. I use my IPP 8-10 hours a day, so even an incremental improvement will be nice. I’m hoping the new Apple TV comes in earlier so I have a distraction.

 

[Digitalguy]

Who knows when Apple sent the devices to the reviewers. And similar to devs praising the iPad Pro in the presentation... reviewers will pretty much paint the same picture. I think the Verge made a point on Vergecast... that it's like walking on eggshells when being the first to review Apple products.

Because... you wanna make sure you point out the negatives, but also... be as positive to the point you keep getting products. I won't really put too much stock in the reviewers... I'm more interested in WWDC, tbh.

Big reviewers can be objective and very likely will... Someone like MKBHD has nothing to fear, Apple would never risk the negative PR of not sending him the next device because he was 100% objective...
Honestly I am not afraid at all that reviewers won't be objective, I think even the smaller one will be perfectly honest.
What I am more afraid of is people judging this device based on iPadOS 14... (overkill, limited OS etc.)
Or, conversely, people claiming that the display is amazing, the best thing ever on earth, but only comparing it to other IPS ones, not to OLED ones for instance.
As usual, I'll watch and read every single review to have a better overview, even if I don't plan to buy at this point....

 

[rui no onna]

Ha, I feel ya. The silly thing is I know it’s not gonna be night and day between my 2018 vs the new 2021, but I just want my new piece of gear. I use my IPP 8-10 hours a day, so even an incremental improvement will be nice. I’m hoping the new Apple TV comes in earlier so I have a distraction.

Lol, I just got my Air 4 order so I have a new toy to play with while waiting for the 2021 12.9".

I really wish Apple would include both TouchID and FaceID on at least the iPad Pros.

 

[dandrewk]

Forbes will be one of the reviewers. My prediction for their click bait: "Apple's new 12.9" iPad Pro is the best ever. But Apple has a huge problem on its hand"... explaining that the "big problem" is the backlog of orders.

 

[areudum]

Forbes will be one of the reviewers. My prediction for their click bait: "Apple's new 12.9" iPad Pro is the best ever. But Apple has a huge problem on its hand"... explaining that the "big problem" is the backlog of orders.

the worst part about this, is that youre probably right.

that, or the problem will be software, which everyone is already aware of.

 

[sublunar]

the worst part about this, is that youre probably right.

that, or the problem will be software, which everyone is already aware of.

After levelling off the hardware the spotlight will be on the software and the OS. Apple could partly solve this by bringing Final Cut Pro and Logic to iOS but multitasking and multi users will remain two of the major issues to tackle - if they want to.

 

[ChrisKe]

the worst part about this, is that youre probably right.

Yep, have stopped clicking their baity headlines now and don't get me started on how far Rene's YT channel has fallen...

 

[rumz]

Agreed. WWDC is the difference between a minor upgrade and a generational leap for the 2021 iPP.

I expect reviews this month will leave this hanging in the air as well. I still remember the 2018 reviews-- incredible hardware, but software doesn't really let me take advantage of it as much as it could / should. Totally expect more of this (along with some focus on new things like the mini LED screen) for the 2021 reviews pre-iPad OS 15.

I'm leaning towards WWDC taking the iPad Pro from "minor upgrade" to "slightly less minor upgrade"

 

[rui no onna]

multitasking and multi users will remain two of the major issues to tackle - if they want to.

multitasking:
Depends on what one is expecting. Freely resizable windows ala-MacOS? I can't even imagine how they'll implement touch controls for those. Most apps will likely need to be updated to support this as well. Allow apps to continue running in the background? Probably doable especially with the extra RAM.

multi-user:
Don't think Apple's interested in this. They're rather have families buy at least one iPad for each person.

 

[JSteele]

My guess is the reviews will mostly be positive. No one wants to risk losing first-day access to devices. Kind of the problem inherent in the system, apple decides who gets to be the first reviewers on YouTube to showcase the devices. It's a huge opportunity to get a large number of views, why would anyone risk that to give an honest opinion if they didn't like the device or it didn't wow them.

 

[TiggrToo]

It’s been discussed but nobody knows the answer. Apparently the new iPad Pro has more magnets in it, maybe the new keyboard supports those and...

It's been discussed at it has been confirmed by Apple and others that it's all down to the thickness. Period.

Nothing to do with magnets.

 

[sublunar]

multitasking:
Depends on what one is expecting. Freely resizable windows ala-MacOS? I can't even imagine how they'll implement touch controls for those. Most apps will likely need to be updated to support this as well. Allow apps to continue running in the background? Probably doable especially with the extra RAM.

multi-user:
Don't think Apple's interested in this. They're rather have families buy at least one iPad for each person.

Side by side app implementation in iOS is pretty unintuitive and possibly not consistent between apps and flexibility is lacking if you want to, say, stream a video, keep an eye on a social media feed, and write some notes into a text editor at the same time for example.

It's ok when the CPU is an A12 vs an M1 but when the CPUs (and the RAM) are the same the shortcomings of iOS come more into the foreground. I guess you could compare with running macOS apps in full screen mode for when you are focusing on a single task, but one of the big features of iPadOS with M1 is the ability to use an external screen at native resolution.

Now this is nice quality of life for people who were fed up of black bars on a mirrored display, I guess Final Cut Pro would use an external display as a playback display at native resolution rather than an extended mirror.

And it would be really need to have a guest mode if they aren't going to go full multiuser but it's not top of the list for many people.

I think Apple would have a compelling product choice for users if they could set up a side by side battle between 12.9" iPad Pro + Magic Keyboard + pencil vs a MacBook Air. It'd be a massive thing if they choose to drop iOS versions of FCP and Logic at WWDC - that really would put the cat amongst the pigeons.

 

[rui no onna]

Side by side app implementation in iOS is pretty unintuitive and possibly not consistent between apps and flexibility is lacking if you want to, say, stream a video, keep an eye on a social media feed, and write some notes into a text editor at the same time for example.

To be honest, I prefer the split-view gestures in iOS 10. They just needed to change the app selection from the stupidly wasteful scrollable, single column list app icons to a standard-sized app drawer and add search. This would also take care of needing to guess which apps support split-view.

 

[Digitalguy]

My guess is the reviews will mostly be positive. No one wants to risk losing first-day access to devices. Kind of the problem inherent in the system, apple decides who gets to be the first reviewers on YouTube to showcase the devices. It's a huge opportunity to get a large number of views, why would anyone risk that to give an honest opinion if they didn't like the device or it didn't wow them.

I think they'll be honest, clickbaity but not afraid of Apple. I think this idea that reviewers are afraid of big companies is overall wrong... See my other comment above about this...

 

[Kierkegaarden]

Regardless of what happens at WWDC, the OS will continue to improve. But putting that aside, the new Pro has the same chip running on the current Macs, more memory, and a big upgrade in the front camera. It is more of a mobile office than it ever has been.

 

[Deanster]

What I am more afraid of is people judging this device based on iPadOS 14... (overkill, limited OS etc.)

What other version of iPadOS has Apple given any of us to judge this device with?

I understand your point, of course. It's likely that any M1 iPad is going to spend only a few months of its life on iPadOS 14, and most reviewers should note that we can expect (substantial?) improvements in iPadOS 15, 16, etc over time.

But what the M1 iPad will arrive with is iPadOS 14, and until Apple announces 15 and its features, and gives reviewers a working version to assess its potential and eventually a final version to review the M1 iPad and release software as a pair, there's literally no option but to judge it based on what Apple sends out in the box.

If the product that Apple mails to John Gruber et al isn't good enough to stand on its own and be reviewed for what it is today, as-is, then Apple is making a huge mistake releasing it.

My 12.9" M1 iPad is due in early June, mostly so I can hand down my 2020 12.9 iPad pro to my wife so my daughter can take her 1st Gen 12.9 iPad Pro to college in the fall, so I've put my money down on this being a meaningful upgrade.

 

[fitcious]

If Apple announces exclusivity features/softwares on M1 IPP that can be used more like a computer (i.e. running Mac Apps, be more of a full fledged OS, etc), then I can see the delivery times of these new M1 IPPs deep into fall. and then Apple will announce at their September event that these iPads are the most popular Apple has ever seen. lol

 

[Traverse]

Yes, A14X is what I meant. Is the M1 not a bigger improvement than a sequential jump to A14X?

Nope. A10X -> A12X is actually a bigger jump than A12X -> M1.

Basically:

A12X/Z is the A12 with 2 more high-performance CPU cores and 4 more GPU cores (albeit A12X only has 7 GPU cores enabled)

M1 is the A14 with 2 more high-performance CPU cores and 4 more GPU cores ($999 MBA and $1299 iMac have the 7 GPU core version)

I track this stuff because...well, I'm me. Based on Apple's marketing claims using the A4 chip in the original iPad as the baseline, below is the performance scaling.

From the A10X to the A12Z: 35% faster CPU and 100% faster graphics
From the A12Z to the M1: 50% faster CPU and 50% faster graphics.

The 50% faster graphics is indeed 50% faster than the already faster A12Z, but it looks like the jump to the A12Z may have been the all-round bigger change in experience. Another factor is storage speed. I know the A12X/Z had increased SSD performance (not sure if marketed though). The M1 is advertised as having 2x the storage. Not sure how the SSD performance will be, but that could make a different for reeder apps loading local content.

 

[rui no onna]

I track this stuff because...well, I'm me. Based on Apple's marketing claims using the A4 chip in the original iPad as the baseline, below is the performance scaling.

From the A10X to the A12Z: 35% faster CPU and 100% faster graphics
From the A12Z to the M1: 50% faster CPU and 50% faster graphics.

The 50% faster graphics is indeed 50% faster than the already faster A12Z, but it looks like the jump to the A12Z may have been the all-round bigger change in experience. Another factor is storage speed. I know the A12X/Z had increased SSD performance (not sure if marketed though). The M1 is advertised as having 2x the storage. Not sure how the SSD performance will be, but that could make a different for reeder apps loading local content.

That CPU comparison is mostly based on single-core performance but I'm considering the chipset as a whole. Honestly, one of my thoughts when they released the 2018 iPad Pros was they're closer to replacing Intel on Macs than I had originally expected.

Apple switched from homogeneous to heterogeneous processing on the A12X (well, A10 -> A11 really) and I believe they increased from 6-core to 8-core so multi-core performance increased by 100%. A12X is also when they added the Neural Engine on iPad. They also improved storage performance, and yes, that was mentioned in keynote although they never really go in depth.

Here are some SSD performance benchmarks of the 2017 iPad Pro 12.9 512GB and 2018 iPad Pro 11 1TB.

View attachment 838838

Thanks for the link! Here’s my results.

iPad Pro 1TB/6GB (11” unlocked)

 

[Steve121178]

I'm leaning towards WWDC taking the iPad Pro from "minor upgrade" to "slightly less minor upgrade"

I hope so. It's infuriating to have such ridiculously good hardware completely gimped by such a shoddy limited software experience.

After 10 years I expect the iPad to be something an awful lot more than just a giant iPhone.

I think with the M1 chip it's a given that apps like Final Cut will be coming to iPad, but it's still not enough. iPadOS needs to be radically different to iOS otherwise it's still just a limited giant iPhone.

 

[Ludatyk]

After 10 years I expect the iPad to be something an awful lot more than just a giant iPhone.

Tbh, the iPad is based off the foundation of the iPhone. About the only thing that seperates the iPad and iPhone is multitasking.

And Apple is in a tough spot... because on one end... the iPad has to be simple enough a child or grandmother can use it. But be complex enough to do more for dedicated iPad users.

 

[Steve121178]

Tbh, the iPad is based off the foundation of the iPhone. About the only thing that seperates the iPad and iPhone is multitasking.

And Apple is in a tough spot... because on one end... the iPad has to be simple enough a child or grandmother can use it. But be complex enough to do more for dedicated iPad users.

That's easy, they can give it a 'classic' display toggle. But those of us paying >£1000 for iPad Pro really want more than a Granny friendly UX. There's so much wasted space with the menus, layout & icons - it's ridiculous to have everything behave the same as it does on iOS.

Same can be said for the iPhone Pro Max. Doesn't make any sense to have the same sized menus, icons, 3x3 folders etc as smaller iPhone's.

 

[Zimmy68]

I was thinking the same thing.
Can't believe iJustine hasn't got her free iPad Pro yet to "unbox" and "review".

 

[Steve121178]

I was thinking the same thing.
Can't believe iJustine hasn't got her free iPad Pro yet to "unbox" and "review".

Embargo for iPad Pro reviews is next Wednesday I believe, 9am EST. iMac Tuesday 9am EST.

Not that you'd want to take much notice of her hyperactive child routine.

 

[pdoherty]

Tbh, the iPad is based off the foundation of the iPhone. About the only thing that seperates the iPad and iPhone is multitasking.

And Apple is in a tough spot... because on one end... the iPad has to be simple enough a child or grandmother can use it. But be complex enough to do more for dedicated iPad users.

Why not have the Ipad default to the easy function and allow a user to turn on the advanced gestures/functions via a Settings decision?