I ended up finding an open box 10.5 pro at Best Buy for $459.00. Marked as excellent condition. 14 day return policy. I grabbed it!
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
2019 10.5-Inch iPad Air vs. 2017 10.5-Inch iPad Pro
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
ProMotion is a big difference. Could I live without it? Sure. But it really is nice. My mini-review in is this thread:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...d-air-10-5-value.2173734/page-3#post-27197882
For the record, its US$469 for a refurbished 64 GB 10.5" iPad Pro 2017 from Apple.
In the link above I provided some refurb box opening pix.
[doublepost=1553171105][/doublepost]
This review summarizes my experience with ProMotion:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/201...-hardware-patiently-waiting-for-pro-software/
Let’s talk more about that 120Hz refresh rate, since it’s the new display’s most significant addition. Apple calls it “ProMotion,” and it makes all animations and motion on-screen look really fluid and smooth and great. App developers don’t need to do anything to take advantage of it—Word and Tweetbot and Chrome and Slack and all my normal productivity apps all benefitted from the new screen with zero updates required.
To keep the 120Hz screen from completely destroying the tablet’s battery, Apple has continued to refine the variable refresh rate tech that it introduced in the last-generation Pro. Those models still had a 60Hz refresh rate, but they could drop down to 30Hz when displaying static or slow-moving content. The new Pro screens can go from 120Hz to as low as 24Hz (which eliminates 3:2 pulldown for 24 FPS videos) and pretty much anywhere in between, giving you smooth animation when you need it but saving your battery (and in some cases, making your stuff look better) when it can.
Apple told us that the variable refresh rate is made possible by a block in the A10X chip, one that flips the normal relationship between the display and the GPU that drives it. Rather than having a display that asks the GPU for new content 60 times per second, as is the current standard, the GPU in the iPad Pro tells the screen how many times per second to refresh.
As for how it is to use a 120Hz display, I can say that it’s undeniably slick, and it makes animations and transitions look great; it’s also easier to read text and scroll simultaneously, since the “ghosting” effect you get at 60Hz is much-reduced. None of the display improvements that Apple has made post-Retina—an ever-longer list that now includes the DCI-P3 color gamut, True Tone, and ProMotion—have had quite as big an impact as those sharper screens did, but the 120Hz refresh rate comes close. The sooner this trickles outward to the iPhone and Apple’s various Macs, the better.
---
BTW, one little thing... I like having a flashlight in the dark on the iPad now.
Last edited:
A12 vs A10X?
How did we ever live without 120 Hz on all of our computers and smartphones and for so many years on iPads? Wait, computers and smartphones never had 120 Hz.
A12 is 18% faster for CPU speed, but I've often said that if device A is less than 15% faster than device B, then it may as well be the same. At less than 18% it could occasionally be noticeable, but it's nothing to write home about. More important may be the fact that the 10.5" Pro has 33% more RAM than the 10.5" Air.
Now that I have the Pro, I really like ProMotion. I've never had a ProMotion iDevice before. Some people may not have known what they were missing, although I did know to a certain extent. When I got my A8X Air 2, I was disappointed by the scrolling text blurriness but much of that was just due to the 60 Hz screen. I was also disappointed by the screen refresh speed when fast scrolling. Both of these things are fixed on the ProMotion-enabled iPad Pro. The former due to the 120 Hz refresh rate, and the latter presumably because of the faster CPU.
It now makes my 2017 Retina iMac look like a blurry mess when scrolling. The difference is night vs. day.
I have not yet seen the 2019 iPad Air, but I would guess it would look like the Retina iMac in terms of scrolling.
Could I live without ProMotion? Of course, but it certainly is a very nice luxury bonus feature, and I'm valuing it more than I thought I would.
My only concern with the Pro vs the Air is how long it will get iOS updates. Given that the Pro came out in 2017, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple quits updating the Pro one year before the Air (but not two years before). OTOH, there is a chance it will get updated for just as long considering the speed is similar and it has more RAM.
I have the 10.5 pro and an iPhone Xr. The noticeable everyday usage difference in speed is very negligible between the A12 and the A10X. And the metal benchmarks are higher with the A10X
https://browser.geekbench.com/ios-benchmarks
Same can be said for HD television, try going without it now after having it for years.
[doublepost=1553183643][/doublepost]
How much memory does it have? For 40 dollars more, you can get a brand new one at best buy 64 gig model.
Sure, but that deal might disappear very soon, so it is only relevant for those willing to make a purchase decision now.
The more practical consideration is that the iPP 10.5 is already over two years old. It’s cheaper because Apple is only going to support A10 chips for two years LESS now.
Apple is pushing A11 and A12 added “neural chip” features hard now. They’ve even updated ALL the current models to A12 except for the “Educational” iPad version. (And A11 for iP X & 8 owners). A clever person would expect something big to come in the Next iOS that A10 won’t run well.
Besides, if you had money for an iPad Pro, the new Air really isn’t for you... Apple wants YOU to buy the shiny new models (because they like the ka-ching!)
I view the whole iPad Pro 9.7 as a distraction from Apple’s Air line in the first place. They put the best features from Air 2 into the Pro then nerfed the iPad lineup to second string. They also bumped the base price up $100 for two versions in a row. So this Air is the REAL successor to the Air 2 at the same price point. Along the same line, they nerfed the Mini to get people to buy the cut-back iPad versions. But now they have a clear path... iPad for Education, Mini and Air for regular adults, and Pro for the cool kids that have to have the shiniest device possible.
So ignore what’s “on sale” and see that they have a similar lineup to 2015-2016 with the Pro added on top.
That’s a great way to spend too much money for what you get.
Basically you’re recommending either getting inferior features for a moderate amount of money or else spending 50% more to get features another moderately priced model already has.
Last edited:
The most important is Face ID, which of course is ironically not available on the 2019 iPad Air.
Last edited:
You mean Face ID, facetime is available on all current iOS devices
[doublepost=1553295762][/doublepost]
Did Apple say that? Is that a rumor you just made up?
Last edited:
The 2017 iPP will be fully supported by Apple for 5 years from its March 2019 discontinuation date. The 2019 Air will probably have around 1.5 to 2 more years of support.
You make that sound like a fact. Do you really know what Apple will do?
It is really hard to predict how long Apple will support older devices. Up until 3/18/19 , the iPad Mini 4 was still the top of the line mini ipad and still sold by Apple. It was introduced in 2015 and runs an Apple A8 processor and only has 2 gig RAM. How much longer will they support it? Another 5 years for that? After all it got discontinued the same date as the 10.5 pro which sports the A10X and 4 gig RAM.
mabhatter writes:
"A clever person would expect something big to come in the Next iOS that A10 won’t run well."
I'm glad I'm too stupid to have realised that. Otherwise, I would not be purchasing something I really want.
You overthink things. That way procrastination and paralysis lies.
"A clever person would expect something big to come in the Next iOS that A10 won’t run well."
I'm glad I'm too stupid to have realised that. Otherwise, I would not be purchasing something I really want.
You overthink things. That way procrastination and paralysis lies.
Last edited:
The 10.5” iPP was introduced in June 2017. It’s not even 2 years old. It probably won’t support upcoming features requiring the neural engine included in the latest CPUs. The much older previous Mini most likely won’t be able to run the newest iOS in 4 or 5 years, but that was not a Pro device.
My point was simply that it’s a pretty glaring omission, and that they should update the story.
But there’s no difference? They both support the Apple Pencil - there’s no point of difference.
Whether it’s different or the same, it should be stated in the article so people aren’t left guessing. Part of the article speaks to differences, but the features that are the same are also mentioned. However, Pencil is nowhere discussed.
And even though both iPads use Pencil 1, it actually would have been valuable to mention the difference in the experience of using the Pencil on a 60Hz-refresh Air display vs. the 120Hz Pro. As I understand it, the response is more fluid and immediate, with noticeably less lag, when the Pencil is used on a ProMotion-equipped device.
Good lord, what is it about this simple post of mine that you don’t grasp? This is basic journalism. Sorry to be so blunt, but come on. (If you are a young kid, then I’m sorry). The article is a “compare and contrast” of the two tablets to help prospective buyers decide which might be best for them, describing the features & benefits that are exclusive to each tablet, as well as the ones they share. As such, they described a number of features they have in common, such as “Both iPads feature a fully laminated Retina display with a resolution of 2224×1668 pixels and 264 PPI, True Tone, and support for the P3 wide color space”. They go on to list a half dozen other things they have in common, but leave out one important detail that most prospective buyers of either tablet would wanna know: does it work with Apple Pencil, and if so which one? They screwed up and left an important detail out. This happens thousands of times a day across the web, and users typically write in with corrections when needed.
Surely you can understand this, right?
Making the air and refurb the exact same price.
[doublepost=1553448830][/doublepost]
If you don’t really care about the pencil and don’t need great speakers then air is all good.
[doublepost=1553448945][/doublepost]
Try it out in a Apple store. I’m having sooooo much trouble so I’m going today to see what i should do.
[doublepost=1553449304][/doublepost]
It’s that neural engine that is important for the future. Also a10x gpu crushes a12