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Apple could learn a whole lot from this 55 second clip. God, I miss Steve as he was the greatest and the world has been robbed of his genius and products.

Uh, it was Steve Jobs who introduced the MacBook Air. It originally sat between Macbook and MacBook Pro. Now the iPad Air sits between the iPad and the iPad Pro. Also Steve Jobs experimented with PowerMac Cube. Granted, Apple has made a mess of the nomenclature used for the product lines after Steve left us. And sure, Air used to denote the thinnest Apple had to offer. Also, the MacBook is still not the entry level portable Mac -- and it should be.
 
I got the iPad Pro 11 256GB SG after today's announcement. I was hoping Face ID in the non-pro models but Apple doesn't want to do this for some reason.
I looked at it but unfortunately the 11” Pro is over 50% more expensive than the refurb 10.5” Pro, so I went with the latter.

So here comes my 10.5" Pro!

Screen Shot 2019-03-19 at 7.23.25 AM.png
 
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Anyone know if the home button is the solid state button like the iPhone 7 and 8 or still a physical button like the previous iPads? Debating models as we close in on our lease expiration and the physical button has occasionally failed for us over the years.
 
Anyone know if the home button is the solid state button like the iPhone 7 and 8 or still a physical button like the previous iPads? Debating models as we close in on our lease expiration and the physical button has occasionally failed for us over the years.
Good question. The 10.5" Pro it replaces has a regular mechanical button.

My guess is it would be the same for the 2019 Air, because it's not cost effective to implement a taptic engine solely for the home button. A taptic engine like in the iPhone can't be used to vibrate the entire iPad, and the iPad doesn't need to be waterproof, so there isn't much reason to implement the taptic engine from those perspectives. However, I could be wrong.
 
Good question. The 10.5" Pro it replaces has a regular mechanical button.

My guess is it would be the same for the 2019 Air, because it's not cost effective to implement a taptic engine solely for the home button. A taptic engine like in the iPhone can't be used to vibrate the entire iPad, and the iPad doesn't need to be waterproof, so there isn't much reason to implement the taptic engine from those perspectives. However, I could be wrong.
That'd be my guess as well. We have a few 10.5 Pros and I definitely like the form factor (one will likely become my personal device later this year). For me it's all about reliability as in our case these things are in and out of bars, restaurants and liquor stores 5-7 days a week regardless of weather. They've been such an improvement over our Windows laptop/tablet setup it's insane.
 
Processor upgrade gives decisive benefit. Single-core 1.5x, multi-core ~20%.
Halving the refresh rate and speaker count are minor considerations
 
Processor upgrade gives decisive benefit. Single-core 1.5x, multi-core ~20%.
Halving the refresh rate and speaker count are minor considerations

And in every day use, one will not really notice the processor difference. Coming from a 10.5 pro to this, you'd see the screen difference in every minute of use. I'll keep my 10.5 pro that I got for $525 last year.

"The new iPad Air also has dedicated hardware called the "Neural Engine" that handles artificial intelligence and machine learning tasks, while the 10.5-inch iPad Pro does not." What exactly does that bring to the table? Haven't noticed any difference performance wise with my iPhone Xr that has that engine.
 
Has anyone touched the new iPad Mini 5? I was wondering if the Home button is a mechanical button or a virtual button with haptic feedback.
 
And in every day use, one will not really notice the processor difference. Coming from a 10.5 pro to this, you'd see the screen difference in every minute of use. I'll keep my 10.5 pro that I got for $525 last year.
Again, nobody considerate changing Pro 10.5 for Air. For iPad (2018) to Air 10.5 transition performance jump will be much more noticeable. Single 38% Multi 89%.
Sure am not personally experienced 120 Hz but as plain iPad owner never had the chance regret 60 Hz so far. Maybe for hi profile gameplay? Video is smooth, comparing with bumpy experience in IMAX cinemas.
 
Couldn't you be more specific? Have I overlooked any obvious benefits in this thread?
 
Processor upgrade gives decisive benefit. Single-core 1.5x, multi-core ~20%.
Halving the refresh rate and speaker count are minor considerations

Promotion is everything. The screen is so good I would even take a less powerful processor to not have to go back to the earlier screens. No argument here that the A12 is better but for a tablet, the screen is the most important factor (for me). If the screen stinks, I don't care if the processor comes from an alien planet that's 30 years ahead of our time
 
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I wasn't even in the market for a new iPad until yesterday lol. Apple has a funny way of doing that to people. I have the 9.7 iPad Pro and love it but at the current discounted price of $499 (Best Buy and others), the now discontinued 10.5 Pro is too hard to pass up. Like others have said, there's no way I'd go back to a 2-speaker iPad, so the new iPad Air is immediately disqualified. I'm looking forward to the bigger screen and 120 Hz refresh rate.
 
I wasn't even in the market for a new iPad until yesterday lol. Apple has a funny way of doing that to people. I have the 9.7 iPad Pro and love it but at the current discounted price of $499 (Best Buy and others), the now discontinued 10.5 Pro is too hard to pass up. Like others have said, there's no way I'd go back to a 2-speaker iPad, so the new iPad Air is immediately disqualified. I'm looking forward to the bigger screen and 120 Hz refresh rate.

Heh. I'm in exactly the same position. I'm also going with the 10.5 Pro, but as an Apple refurb. The 256 GB will cost me £539 in the UK which I think is a pretty sweet deal. Still undecided about AppleCare, though. Hmm.

BTW, thanks to everyone on this great thread for all the valuable advice. It is much appreciated.
 
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Which of the two would be better for playing games like Fortnite? Thanks

Does Fortnite take advantage of Apple's metal hardware acceleration? If it does, I would imagine the 10.5 pro would do better. Keep in mind the 10.5 Air has a A12 chip which is same as Xr/Xs/Max, not the A12X that the latest pro models have. Take a look at the benchmarks here and look at the metal scores, good chance the new Air will score lower than the 10.5 pro

https://browser.geekbench.com/ios-benchmarks
 
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One key factor: Memory. We don't know how much the new Air has.

If the new Air is limited to 3 GB then I'm going with the Pro which has 4 GB. The 64 GB WiFi 10.5" Pro refurb in Canada costs exactly the same as the 64 GB WiFi 10.5" Air educational pricing, at CAD$619.

EDIT:

I ended up ordering the 10.5" Pro refurb for the other features mentioned, but then I found out at least one of the new iPads only has 3 GB RAM, so that works out well. :p

https://www.macrumors.com/2019/03/18/new-ipad-benchmark-3gb-ram-12-bionic/

newipadgeekbenchscore-800x738.jpg


However, I'm not sure if that's the Air or the mini.
Hi fellow, Canadian, was wondering if we could get a udate on how the iPad is and maybe compare it and if you can tell if the promotion display makeshifts a difference. Personally, I have speakers for music and might not even use the Apple Pencil, so I’m sure if it’s worth getting the slight dated model refurbished
 
Hi fellow, Canadian, was wondering if we could get a udate on how the iPad is and maybe compare it and if you can tell if the promotion display makeshifts a difference. Personally, I have speakers for music and might not even use the Apple Pencil, so I’m sure if it’s worth getting the slight dated model refurbished

In the UK, the new Air 256 GB is being advertised at £629 whereas you can pick up a refurbished iPad Pro 10.5 256 GB from Apple for £539. Even with the possible white spot problem, I'm going to take my chances with the iPad Pro.
 
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