My M1 iPad Pro still feels brand new (if I scrub my toddlers finger marks from it!) I wouldn’t think it’s almost 3 years old. I think the M1 was the right choice. I’ll probably upgrade it in 3/4 years time, the same upgrade schedule as my MacBook! That’s what I want from Apple
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iPad Pro M1 and M2 iPad Pro too slow?
- Thread starter Sami13496
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I have the M1 iPad Pro and it’s fast and smooth. I am looking forward to the new one because of potential improvements to the Apple Pencil, Hover (as I skipped the M2), better screen and the new design.
In other words, nothing major
I just want to treat myself.
The desire to upgrade from iPads M1 or M2 is objectively irrational when considering how fast both of those are and how little M3 offers in gains.
Sure, if the baseline 11" or 12.9" M3 iPads Pro come with 12GB or 16GB RAM and OLED displays while retaining their current $799 and $1099 pricing then there would be a lot of performance to gain from ditching an M1 or M2 iPad.
But with all that said, it's still justa big iPhone iPad.
-Even an iPad Pro with market-leading OLED display, M4 Ultra and 64GBs RAM would still be chained toiOS iPadOS and tied down by all the limitations that Apple forces on iPhone/iPad.
But we all know that Apple is going to make the new Pencil or some extra high-end iPad Pro keyboard exclusive to M3. And then you're all going to tell yourselves you have very good reasons to upgrade.
No wonder Apple never does anything genuinely new with iPad yet keeps hiking prices. You buy it anyway.
Sure, if the baseline 11" or 12.9" M3 iPads Pro come with 12GB or 16GB RAM and OLED displays while retaining their current $799 and $1099 pricing then there would be a lot of performance to gain from ditching an M1 or M2 iPad.
But with all that said, it's still just
-Even an iPad Pro with market-leading OLED display, M4 Ultra and 64GBs RAM would still be chained to
But we all know that Apple is going to make the new Pencil or some extra high-end iPad Pro keyboard exclusive to M3. And then you're all going to tell yourselves you have very good reasons to upgrade.
No wonder Apple never does anything genuinely new with iPad yet keeps hiking prices. You buy it anyway.
The iPad has a system software issue. iPad OS doesn’t remotely harnessed the actual power of an M2/M3. But they charge a price as if it does.
Needs more than OLED for me to upgrade from my 12.9” M1.
What I really want is function keys on the Magic Keyboard. I don’t think it’s going to happen though, any talk about the new keyboard merely mentions possible aluminium construction and a larger trackpad. Alu might be nice, though hardly worth an upgrade for me. I’m not remotely fussed about a larger trackpad, current size is fine.
What I would really like is the function row, like I said, and the ability for the iPad to be used in portrait with the keyboard fully functional.
I personally find Apple stagnant these days though, can only foresee the obvious upgrades - new colours, new chip, OLED, new keyboard that’s functionally the same. In which case I’m happy to use my M1 for a few more years, the mini LED screen is superb already, and performance wise even my trusty old 2018 1TB LTE 11” still holds up for travel, never mind the M1.
The days of me chucking money at Apple with abandon are long over. Not because I can’t, but AVP aside, they’re just an increasingly overpriced iterator these days in their core areas.
What I really want is function keys on the Magic Keyboard. I don’t think it’s going to happen though, any talk about the new keyboard merely mentions possible aluminium construction and a larger trackpad. Alu might be nice, though hardly worth an upgrade for me. I’m not remotely fussed about a larger trackpad, current size is fine.
What I would really like is the function row, like I said, and the ability for the iPad to be used in portrait with the keyboard fully functional.
I personally find Apple stagnant these days though, can only foresee the obvious upgrades - new colours, new chip, OLED, new keyboard that’s functionally the same. In which case I’m happy to use my M1 for a few more years, the mini LED screen is superb already, and performance wise even my trusty old 2018 1TB LTE 11” still holds up for travel, never mind the M1.
The days of me chucking money at Apple with abandon are long over. Not because I can’t, but AVP aside, they’re just an increasingly overpriced iterator these days in their core areas.
It's interesting that so many have said OLED is the thing that will drive them to upgrade. I don't have any issue with the quality of the screen on my iPP 2018 11 inch. The colours are rich, resolution is great. Blacks not as deep as OLED, but I find it more comfortable to use for longer periods of time than OLED devices that I have. The thing that would drive me to upgrade is iPadOS evolving to better support document creation and editing workflows. It's not that I can't do these things on iPad, it's that the experience of working on iPad quickly becomes frustrating. I also need to be able to use different browser rendering engines, not just Safari re-skinned. If I wanted to use my iPad over my MBA more often, I would want to upgrade. At the moment, I just use it for content consumption.
There’s other considerations :
- Ecosystem : I have an iMac and iPhone and the iPad is especially a nice device to use together with the iMac (Universal Control + integration of apps) - the OLED alone isn’t enough to switch
- Samsung tablets are great but I personally don’t like the reflectivity and unless that’s changed the palm rejection is inferior too. Same with the max brightness. I use mine on my closed terrace all the time.
While being "fast enough" at launch is all well and good, I've personally been caught out by how there was too little overhead before updates annihilated the usability of my iPad after a couple of years. It could no longer run web pages smoothly when it had before, nor could it even play basic games it merrily played before. Of course, Apple being Apple I also couldn't roll it back to a usable OS. The base iPad today will no doubt be junk within just a few years of updates, especially as people start to fill up its teeny tiny SSD. Its specs are horrible for the price.
TBH I regret ever upgrading from my 2018 iPad Pro (Now on an M1 11”). iPadOS hasn’t grown beyond what that iPad is capable of yet (Sure, if you want external displays running with Final Cut Pro, maybe.) The M1 iPad is still great, but iPadOS really still needs a boost to make it worth upgrading.
‘People say…’ is always a great way to start a discussion… I have a A12Z iPad Pro and for certain games it certainly feels a bit sluggish from time to time. For other uses my iPad is already overpowered, so… I guess it depends on your apps? I intend to use the new iPad Pro for Logic Pro, and for that app the more power it has, the more tracks and plugins I can throw at it😊
Yeah, agreed. Devices are practically always fast at launch (and they can be forever, if you never update iOS), but Apple always manages to shatter that overhead fairly quickly.
It’s very sad to see amazing iPads now be reduced to garbage, but the saddest part is to see people defending this (“well, it’s old, what do you expect”?”. What?! I expect it to work properly, thank you very much.
Just to give one example (and perhaps the perfect one): the A9 family of devices. iOS 9 and 10? Perfect. The iPhone 6s’ battery life was always only half-decent, but provided you weren’t the heaviest of users, it was enough.
You can even go and read people’s discussions when the iPhone 6s was released, and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, too, and they said “the biggest leap in quality and speed”, “an iPad that will last years”, “the best iOS device I’ve ever purchased”.
Go see how these devices run. Go see how the 6s runs on iOS 15. How the 1st-gen, 12.9-inch iPad Pro runs, and even worse, see how its little brother, the 9.7-inch iPad Pro runs, with 2GB of RAM, on iPadOS 16. They’re pathetic. My point is that they shouldn’t be.
My 9.7-inch iPad Pro was forced by the A9 activation bug on iOS 9 into iOS 12, and apart from significantly reduced battery life (from 14 hours to 10-11 hours of screen-on time), the device runs almost perfectly. One more update, and it would’ve been completely obliterated. Luckily, as it stands now, I just have to charge it a liiiiiittle more frequently. Apart from that, it’s a pleasure to use. Ask updated users whether they can get any decent battery life from these devices...
...and ask them whether they’re a pleasure to use or if they have to struggle with the devices lagging and bogging down, too.
I have never once looked at my M1 iPad Pro and said "I wish it were faster", or "I wish the screen were better" but I have cursed the camera placement while on FaceTime calls which would be the main reason to upgrade for me. Hardware isn't iPad's problem but that's a well documented topic.
This. I have a M2 11” iPad Pro, but it is perfect for my needs and uses. I have no interest in the new iPad’s at the moment. OLED definitely interests me, but it’s not something that I’m going to sell my M2 for.
IMO they are just addicted to buying hardware that has some higher number associated with it than the previous hardware. They’ll be clamoring for an M4 iPad next year.
But “M” implies “Mac”. I expected Apple to stay with “A” for the iPads, even if they use the same architecture underneath.
(And no, the M is not a secret hint that Apple wants to bring MacOS to the iPad and rename them to MacPads.)
Yeah, 11 inch M2 here, and the blacks look...black. I mean, is there a blacker black? Is OLED blacker than the blackest black, times infinity?
It's a flex, of course. "I need an M3-based iPad Pro" means "Look at me I'm going to buy an M3-based iPad Pro"
(and they'll use it to watch Netflix
)
I still think Apple will produce one day a Surface-Pro like "MacPad" as you wrote. Some day.
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Not an M1 or M2 owner but I have the A12X iPP and am waiting for the M3 because I want an 11" without having to compromise on screen quality. I suspect those with an M1 or M2 11" iPP might want to get the M3 for similar reasons.
Edit: I also want real Thunderbolt in mine since the A12X/Z only had USB-C.
You wanted them to call the same chip by two different names?
I didn’t expect it to be exactly the same chip. Like the iPad used to have X and Z variants of the A line, and iPads plausibly having some differences in the internal interfacing and power/efficiency requirements compared to the MacBooks. The M1 was very similar to what an A14X would have been. It was even initially rumored under that designation: https://www.macrumors.com/2020/09/09/a14x-chip-apple-silicon-mac-ipad-pro-4q20/
The M1 is almost identical to what an A14X would have been. It has only a few changes, mainly to support thunderbolt and an additional display controller. That isn’t enough differentiation to really warrant spinning a whole new piece of silicon.