2021 M1 iPad Pro vs. 2020 iPad Pro: Is It Worth Upgrading?

[Johnny907]

Nope, not even worth upgrading if you have a 2018 Pro. I tried one for four days then took it back.
On paper these thing should run circles around a three year old iPad but thanks to getting kneecapped by an out of date badly designed OS the difference in speed and performance was hardly noticeable anywhere other than benchmarks.

 

[Joniz]

It’s not like the A12X is slow for watching YouTube, Disney+, Plex, surfing the web (which is what I mainly use it for).

Well any iPad Pro seems like overkill for that. I can do the same things on my iPad Mini 5, and see it just was well when I’m holding it 2” from my nose.

Now if you has said porn, well then, yes, that I’d understand.

(Of course, I guess you need both hands to hold an iPad Pro, so I really can’t see how that works.)

 

[jole]

Upgraded 2018 iPad Pro 11" to 2021 iPad Pro 11"

• Huge upgrade to battery life (have been using previous iPad daily for 2.5 years, so partly this is just a new battery)
• 8GB memory is a huge upgrade over 4GB. This was the primary reason for upgrading.
• M1 is obviously much faster, but CPU/GPU speed was secondary reason for upgrading.

Upgrade cost me ~ $750 when handing over the old one to Apple (at their store). Very expensive upgrade, but as I do use iPad daily, better battery live and 2X RAM are worth it. For me.

 

[cupcakes2000]

Upgraded 2018 iPad Pro 11" to 2021 iPad Pro 11"

• Huge upgrade to battery life (have been using previous iPad daily for 2.5 years, so partly this is just a new battery)
• 8GB memory is a huge upgrade over 4GB. This was the primary reason for upgrading.
• M1 is obviously much faster, but CPU/GPU speed was secondary reason for upgrading.

Upgrade cost me ~ $750 when handing over the old one to Apple (at their store). Very expensive upgrade, but as I do use iPad daily, better battery live and 2X RAM are worth it. For me.

Enjoy your new iPad!

 

[Johnny907]

Upgraded 2018 iPad Pro 11" to 2021 iPad Pro 11"

• Huge upgrade to battery life (have been using previous iPad daily for 2.5 years, so partly this is just a new battery)
• 8GB memory is a huge upgrade over 4GB. This was the primary reason for upgrading.
• M1 is obviously much faster, but CPU/GPU speed was secondary reason for upgrading.

Upgrade cost me ~ $750 when handing over the old one to Apple (at their store). Very expensive upgrade, but as I do use iPad daily, better battery live and 2X RAM are worth it. For me.

… you’re aware iPadOS can only access 5GB of that 8GB of memory, so it’s not that “huge” of an upgrade, yeah?

 

[Htsi]

Going for an iPad mini 5 (or 6) instead of another 12.9. My 2018 is fine. Ram and screen upgrades are tempting, but I believe a new magic keyboard will get me to upgrade next year.

 

[jcshas]

Pro tip: If you already own the 2020 12.9" iPad Pro, download the new stock wallpapers that are posted all over the internet and set as your background. Aside from the XDR display, you’ve essentially upgraded to the 2021 iPad Pro. 😀

 

[mjcharlton71]

sold my 2020 11 inch for an m1 11inch. if you’re like me and gets squeezed by the nuts from apples marketing then upgrade from whatever ipad you got.

Same here… ooh, shiny fast thing.

 

[Joniz]

… you’re aware iPadOS can only access 5GB of that 8GB of memory, so it’s not that “huge” of an upgrade, yeah?

Actually, it’s any one non-OS app can’t access more than 5GB of RAM.

 

[Techwatcher]

Short answer: If you have an 11 inch 2020 iPad Pro, absolutely not. If you have a 12.9 inch 2020 iPad Pro, maybe. If you have a 12.9 inch 2018 iPad Pro, definitely.

100% agree!

 

[amnesia0287]

Actually, it’s any one non-OS app can’t access more than 5GB of RAM.

And that’s only for now. iOS has been full 64bit for a few years now, so addressing more than 4gb is easy given the technical limit at 64bit is 2TB (way less in practice em of course). This just seems like an optimization issue given until now the big pros at best had 6gb, and leaving 1gb to system makes lots of sense.

I suspect we will see more on this, and info on some sort of OSX -> iPadOS converter or build profile for Xcode if you meet certain requirements at wwdc.

 

[GuruZac]

Short answer: If you have an 11 inch 2020 iPad Pro, absolutely not. If you have a 12.9 inch 2020 iPad Pro, maybe. If you have a 12.9 inch 2018 iPad Pro, definitely.

Why? What’s the difference in usability between a 2018 and 2020? They have essentially the same exact performance. The M1 is only worth the upgrade if you either have the money to burn, do video editing, or you are pushing your iPad hard already. Otherwise, as demonstrated in the video, you get negligible to no difference in everyday speed.

 

[GuruZac]

Writing this on a 2018 12.9 which is still lightning fast, with a decent screen and all-day battery (despite daily use). Not even slightly tempted right now. Perhaps iPadOS will change things in the summer but I doubt it. There’s nothing I can find that really tests the 2018 hardware still.

I’m in the same boat, and that’s the funny thing. People forget the 2018 iPad Pro was faster than its Intel powered 13” and 15” MacBook Pros from the same year, yet somehow the M1 iPad Pro is a definite upgrade… lol, what?! See my above post for why the M1 iPad Pro is not an absolute upgrade over 2018 iPad Pro users. Really depends on use case.

 

[amnesia0287]

100% agree!

Same same, for me, I have 1tb 2020 12.9, and I am upgrading for 4 (maybe 5) reasons:

• Screen, sure it’s not oled flawless, but given the massive glowing grey of a black screen on my current model it will still be better. Especially for things like letter boxing for movies and such.
• 5g cause yolo why not, ultimately not important, but nice add. Already covered in my fees so might as well take advantage.
• Thundebolt port, for a few reasons. First backing up my current 1tb iPad (especially full local encrypted backups) sucks. Anything to go faster will appease me. Second the new thunderbolt hubs. Third I have 10gb network and tb hubs all over my apartment.
• 2tb + 16gb ram. I am currently at ~100gb free, mostly cause I have lots of books and comics and some games and videos, so 2tb is ideal, especially if the final point bares fruit, it nothing else it will basically double as a thunderbolt drive lol. The ram is nice just cause I am a browser tab whore and it will reduce the tab memory purges more often. Plus for any video and creative uses the ram will be a huge boon.
• The potential for final cut and other ported osx apps makes me drool. And there is no reason the m1 iPad couldn’t for example run compressor to add more render nodes. Fingers crossed WWDC.

I also am hoping apple figures out a good way to take advantage of thundebolt to thundebolt tethering for like super sidecar. Cause with 40gbps and the 4k display port bandwidth, it should be totally possible for the iPad pro to work as an external monitor and touch surface for a companion Mac. Combined, its additional GPU cores for rendering there is a lot of potential as a mac and especially MacBook companion device. If they pull that off and make a pro pencil/pen/stylus, they could very seriously compete with Wacom. Especially given how good apple silicon is at running media and creation apps.

Now all that said, I can afford to upgrade, and I wanted my current one to become an intune registered work device and the new one will be for personal use (cause I really love my iPads over any computers), but I’m far too paranoid about Intune since it can force vpn policies to hijack all your traffic. Thus separate work and personal devices.

For MOST people, the iPad AIR (or a 2020 pro) is still a much more sane and logical purchase, at least until WWDC comes and we see how much apple is gonna take class of the full laptop class chip in a tablet. Cause under the current OS, it’s totally overkill, but since an M1 is an M1 it should have instruction set parity which means there is absolutely nothing preventing iPadOS from doing anything osx can, they just gotta implement the apis/instructions and then work out the mappings from 1 os to the other. But with hardware this close multi targetting should be easy.

 

[nouvejetzt]

no

 

[Biglethal69]

Well I’m sorry I must say this is one of the worst reviews that I’ve seen on MacRumors in a long time.
I had 2020 model iPad and change to the new M1 and absolutely love it, I have 4 olead tv’s in my house and because my son works for electrical company but I can see the difference in the quality and brightness of the screen. I see the difference in the performance in the apps loading I’m not only got my own I got one for my son as well because he was so impressed we sold our 2020 iPads. So it cost us next to nothing to upgrade as most places have trading options I just don’t use Apple because they give you nothing worthwhile.
I’m in Australia and we pay a lot more than the US but I would never buy one of their keyboards especially when they’re $550 here in Australia there is no way to justify that amount for a keyboard.
I have a Logitech that uses Bluetooth and the new iPad fit in perfectly well with no extra expense.
Just to say you would upgrade from the 2018 and not the 2020 the only difference was the same chip from an 12X to 12Z meant nothing the absolute blacks and the brightness that doesn’t burn your eyes out when you have it turned up to watch the HDR movie compare to the 2020 model makes a huge difference, Even the movies with Dolby Vision in Netflix look amazing.
I just laughed at this review as I don’t think it was fair even the 5G maybe 100 Mb per second download where you live I’ve gone from 60mbps to 760mbps Download by changing to 5G huge difference no more waiting for movies to buffer just happens so sorry really dislike your review DAN.

 

[Rafterman]

no

Thank you for that in depth and thought provoking argument. Well said.

 

[Biglethal69]

I got ipad mini 2.. I ordered the new one and i am getting it tomorrow or Monday.. after watching the video i have doubts if it's worth it.. should wait for 1-2 years..

No don’t wait you wont be disappointed.

 

[cupcakes2000]

Well I’m sorry I must say this is one of the worst reviews that I’ve seen on MacRumors in a long time I had 2020 model iPad and change to the new M1 and absolutely love it I have 4 olead tv’s in my house and because my son works for electrical company but I can see the difference in the quality and brightness of the screen I see the difference in the performance in the apps loading I’m not only got my own I got one for my son as well because he was so impressed we sold our 2020 iPads So it cost us next to nothing to upgrade as most places have trading options I just don’t use Apple because they give you nothing worthwhile. I’m in Australia and we pay a lot more than the US but I would never buy one of their keyboards especially when they’re $550 here in Australia there is no way to justify that amount for a keyboard I have a Logitech that uses Bluetooth and the new iPad fit in perfectly well with no extra expense. Just say you would upgrade from the 2018 and not the 2020 the only difference was the same chip from an 12X to 12Z meant nothing the absolute blacks and the brightness that doesn’t burn your eyes out when you have it turned up to watch the HDR movie compare to the 2020 model makes a huge difference I just laughed at this review as I don’t think it was fair even the 5G maybe 100 Mb per second download where you live I’ve gone from 60mbps to 760mbps Download by changing to 5G huge difference no more waiting for movies to offer just happens so sorry hate your review.

I think I agree, but: full stops, commas and paragraphs mean people can read your ideas easily. If you’re not English native, then you should research it a bit. It will help with future postings.

 

[jole]

… you’re aware iPadOS can only access 5GB of that 8GB of memory, ...

Reference, please?

 

[Biglethal69]

I think I agree, but: full stops, commas and paragraphs mean people can read your ideas easily. If you’re not English native, then you should research it a bit. It will help with future postings.

I use the voice type option so it doesn’t actually put in …. commas or anything else and I can’t be bothered editing I think most people can read clearly what I put thanks for your advice but………

 

[jtopp]

I probably would have kept my 2nd-gen 12.9" iPad Pro (2017) if it weren't for the lingering intermittent touch screen issues I put up with for the last 3 years. No iPadOS software update or custom configs ever fixed it, which made it just unreliable enough that it wasn't fun to use. Now with the 2021 M1 equivalent in hand, it's so nice to have a screen that works 100% of the time again. Now to decide if I should get AppleCare+ for this thing...

The display is $700 to have replaced or $7 or $8 a month for AppleCare.

 

[Biglethal69]

I use the voice type option so it doesn’t actually put in …. commas or anything else and I can’t be bothered editing I think most people can read clearly what I put thanks for your advice but………

Done….

 

[Biglethal69]

Reference, please?

Because it stores and uses the other 3 GB for multitasking I was advised by an Apple specialist when I rang to ask why.

 

[Rafterman]

no

Thank you for that in depth ane thought provoking argument. Well said.

Because it stores and uses the other 3 GB for multitasking I was advised by an Apple specialist when I rang to ask why.

So it does use all 8/16.