9.7-inch iPad Pro and iPhone SE Both Have 2GB RAM

[nando87]

I get literally ALL these things with my Nexus 5X, with a MUCH better performance to cost ratio. Seriously, it cost me less than $300 and it has the same amount of RAM as that ripoff 'Pro' tablet Apple vomitted out. It also has 32GB sptrage....go figure.

I've had high end android devices and that's just false. Go for a month without cleaning cache/restarting and they go like crap. Send it to repair and wait 3 months without explanation. And android updates... Well, if you use nexus they're better in that respect, but also not Apple like.

The last time I sent my iPhone for repair they spent 3 days more than what we agreed, so they did it for free even without me complaining (new screen). I've had iphones turned on without restarting for half a year or more without cleaning cache, closing apps and crap, and they work like the first day.

Apple uses to lack in hardware power, and android has more pc-like user experience, but you're not gonna convince me anyone beats Apple on customer service and stability. Not microsoft, nor android. If they did, I would be buying Galaxy S7 after 3 months of releasing for 3/4 their price tag, but they don't.

Also they use to fall apart at least up to the S6, but their owners and fans use to entry in denial mode, like they should preserve their pride. And yes, galaxy S are far better hardware than nexus, don't blame Samsung for lagging, nexus are overrated just for being cheap and using pure android, which is ok, but they also feel cheap, don't fool yourself.

As much as the iphone design has worsened, only the Galaxy S7 is comparable. I dont talk about quality/price, if so, buy an oneplus, I'm talking just about quality. I don't mind paying 749 or more euros for an iPhone, but I wish it had 3Gb Ram, 32gb base storage without base price increase, oled screen, at least 50% more battery life and water resist. And 10Gb icloud space included. And I hate Apple bean counting here and there like the 2gb instead of 4 of the small iPad Pro, the 16gb base storage of the iPhones, the 1Gb ram of the iphone 6... That's so mingy and bean countish that it's just embarrasing. At the end of the day they worsen the brand and waste that money for building an unnecesarily eccentric HQ and buying back AAPL stock because icahn told them so, and after some months he sold his position because he's just a short term speculator, and they used our money for keeping him happy.

 

[vmistery]

Interesting that they only really removed force touch on the SE, seems excellent value unlike the 5c when that came out. The iPad Pro 9.7" Is an odd one, I'd happily pay the old iPad Air 2 price for an iPad Air 3 without the new screen and pencil support (but all the other improvements should be standard). Id never buy the pro at that price as I don't value the pencil support that much.

 

[yegon]

Kind of kills my interest in the 9.7" iPP, coming from an Air 2.

This means the only thing I personally really care about is the better speakers, I listen to tonnes of podcasts on my iPad around the house and I'd appreciate the extra oomph. The new screen sounds great, but hardly an earth shattering difference from the Air 2, I've no interest in the pencil and I will never use a keyboard with it.

My use case doesn't necessarily need 4gb ram, but I share previous commenters complaints about ram alone curtailing the pleasant usage life of iOS devices. Mini 2 and 6 Plus became a poor experience in double quick time - Apple never should have released 64bit devices with 1gb ram. My launch Air 2 has been a great longevity model and continues to be so, I expect a least another year of it working well, meaning 2.5 years of stellar performance in total. Will the 9.7" iPP be a stellar performer in 2.5 years? Or 1 year of great performance, then a sharp dip due to iOS updates and new 4gb equipped hw? Time will tell.

Still tempted to upgrade, but with serious reservations which were non-existent until I heard about the ram.

 

[MrGimper]

The problem is that recently, the perception is that Apple are trying to con people. And TBH there is some substance to this view. It started with the Mini 4 which was "all the power of the Air 2 but shrunken down" ... this ended up not being the case as it had can A8 and not an A8X. Now we have an iPad Pro in 9.7 form which again is gimped (in relation to the larger Pro) by having only 2GB RAM.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Totally agree with you. There just seems to be people who ONLY focus on specs and there are others who look at how well something works.

It's similar to how there are car owners who ONLY focus on horsepower and torque compared to others who look at driving experience. Sure you could buy the latest Dodge Charger with 700+ horsepower and yes it will beat a 155 horsepower Mazda miata in a straight line drag race. However the experience and allure of driving a lightweight nimble car like the Miata is a whole other side of driving that you most likely miss out on driving a muscle car.

Apple has never been known to use the fastest or most current hardware in its products whether it is the iPhone, iPad, Mac line, etc. yet they remain successful in who they strive to be.

Makes me think back to the old days when Macs were seriously underpowered from a MHz standpoint yet they still beat PCs at almost every task. When you compared the old G3 processors to the PCs at the time, they were significantly outgunned. But in controlling both the hardware and the OS together they can squeeze out additional performance where PCs eat it up with overhead of trying to make one OS fit all machines. The Macs always won when it came time for benchmarking.

 

[nando87]

Makes me think back to the old days when Macs were seriously underpowered from a MHz standpoint yet they still beat PCs at almost every task. When you compared the old G3 processors to the PCs at the time, they were significantly outgunned. But in controlling both the hardware and the OS together they can squeeze out additional performance where PCs eat it up with overhead of trying to make one OS fit all machines. The Macs always won when it came time for benchmarking.

The problem is when you pay the price of a 911R or GT3 RS and they give you a Mazda Miata. But hey, don't complain, it has a good user experience.

Good user experience my ass, paying top price it has to have good user experience and top performance/power. We are not talking about mid level range here. I'm tired of people excusing a company for giving you less for top money. For having just one of both things then it should have the price of a top level Android, that's 2/3 3/4 of what it costs.

 

[PlainviewX]

Pathetic new iPad.

 

[DNichter]

One year ago the iPhone flagship had 1 Gb of RAM ... Today the iPad Pro is doomed because it has 2 Gb of ram.
Only on MacRumors this hysteria can exist.

That 1GB phone struggles with some of the features of iOS9. People tend to keep iPad's longer than iPhones so I think it's important for a purchase of an iPad to be good for a minimum of 3 years. I see 2GB of ram becoming as issue with new software features as early as iOS11, maybe earlier.
[doublepost=1458733685][/doublepost]

There's a very good reason why the 12.9 iPP gets double the RAM. The amount of pixels it has to drive is virtually double, yes double, that of the 9.7 iPP. Comparatively, the jump from the 6S+, which performs perfectly with 2GB of RAM, to the 9.7 iPP represents a 1.5x increase.

I don't think the 9.7 iPP will suffer at all from a RAM perspective.

I hope you are right. From what I've read, the performance isn't much better than the iPad Air 2. And while that is no slouch, I am just not very inclined to buy anymore. Just as the SE is equal in performance to the 6S (which I applaud), the iPad Pro 9.7 should be the same in performance to the 12.9.

 

[jamface]

...aaaand mission accomplished.

perhaps he'd like it if apple made ten separate products, except all identical in specs (particularly 4gb of ram), design and functionality, and all called the 'Apple Pro'.
[doublepost=1458734703][/doublepost]

For me, this confirms that iPhone 7 will have 32GB standard. They pushed 16GB to the low end with this move, and since RAM is the only differentiating factor between the 6S and SE, the 7 will push the the storage up.

I'm shocked the SE has 2GB of memory. Really unexpected. This has to be the lowest margin device that Apple makes, period.

yeah - their margin must be something like 70% on this as opposed to 71% on everything else...

 

[Blue Sun]

I agree, so much fuss really. We all know Apple's business model now - this forum is full of similar posts. If you don't like it, don't buy into it. Apple will either respond accordingly to the market or they'll go into decline (again). I won't lose sleep either way.

This nerd rage is getting annoying. If you want to buy hardware based on specs then Android and Windows is where you should be. Android already has mouse support and is getting multiple window management in 7.0. Windows gives you a full OS on a tablet with specs at every price point.

Newsflash. Apple is not going to turn iOS into a desktop class productivity operating system because it would severely crimp Mac sales. They will keep teasing, promising big but delivering only enough to keep people in the fold hoping those people will also buy the phone, mac, TV, watch...

Finally, someone I can agree with (and a fellow Melbournian). Most people seem to forget that software optimisation goes a long way. How many times have we seen iOS devices outperform Android devices with beefier specs? 2GB of RAM is fine. The True Tone display is what we should be focusing on, a huge feature in a tablet for sure.

 

[ChrisR244]

EDIT: Wrong thread. I suck at foruming evidently.

 

[gimikinc]

iphone SE looks like the real highlight of the announcements and looking at the ipad prod 9.7 as the next gen ipad air not bad.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

The problem is when you pay the price of a 911R or GT3 RS and they give you a Mazda Miata. But hey, don't complain, it has a good user experience.

Good user experience my ass, paying top price it has to have good user experience and top performance/power. We are not talking about mid level range here. I'm tired of people excusing a company for giving you less for top money. For having just one of both things then it should have the price of a top level Android, that's 2/3 3/4 of what it costs.

Your comparison makes no sense. This isn't GT3 RS vs Miata. You're talking GT3 RS vs GT2 here. Haven't driven both cars for extended periods and owning a 12" Pro and tested the 9" Pro, that's a far more fare comparison.

 

[Scarpad]

for the money they are charging this is pretty disappointing, especially when Samsung and others are now putting 4gb as a minimum into their phones and tablets

 

[Max(IT)]

I've never understood this pseudo-religious criticism of the Android user experience. Maybe two years ago it was valid. But these past few years, Android to me seems superior to iOS in most respects. Android is FAR more powerful than iOS is, especially for power users.

Android user experience still is poor.
Android "more powerful" ? Lol ....

Perhaps you should have called Samsung customer service to troubleshoot your problems with the Tab S2, because in my experience it's been far better than my iPad Air 2. Significantly faster, can hold more tabs open in Chrome, much more gorgeous display, expandable SD card, the list goes on and on. They even managed to beat Apple at their own game by making the Tab S2 thinner.

Samsung Tab S2 better than an iPad Air 2 ? Yes in a parallel dimension....

Pretty much the only criticism of Android that is still valid is security. You probably shouldn't get one for your Grandma if she is prone to opening suspicious emails. But if you have even a small modicum of common sense it really isn't an issue.

Nope, security isn't an issue as far as you use your brain (and the official Store).

Honestly the new iPad Pro is a PERFECT example of why iPad sales have been so awful. They're just not competitive with the Android tablets. Not even close.

Not competitive ? reality check: there isn't ANY android tablet that sells even comparably to the iPad. Not even close.

People are sick of getting screwed over by Apple. Apple has had this coming for a long time now. I hope iPad sales continue to get worse and worse until Apple finally decided to catch up to where Samsung was a few years ago (expandable storage, AMOLED display, more RAM, etc)

Lol, Apple has to catch up to where Samsung is ?
It's comic...
Samsung's tablets are ridiculous in my experience.
Totally useless.
Just a good list of tech specs.

Honestly NONE of your criticisms are even close to being valid

1. The TAB S2 battery quality is every bit as good as the battery in iPads, given its physical size...where do you think Apple gets their batteries from...?

2. I would hardly call the Tab S2 processor 'poor'. You will be feeling pinched by that puny 2GB of RAM long before the Tab S2 starts to feel slow. Speaking as a software developer, I actually notice WAYYY more UI slowdowns on my 1.5 year old iPhone 6 Plus than on my much older Galaxy Note 2, because Apple stuck the 6 plus with a wimpy 1GB of RAM. No amount of wishful thinking will fix poor specs, sorry.

3. The Tab S2 is running Android 6.0 and the skin, in my experience, isn't slow at all. A whole bunch of Apple fanboys tried a Galaxy device a few years ago, thought it was slow, and think it's still the same way, but it's not. Android has improved significantly over the last few years. The UI on the Tab S2 is every bit as responsive as iOS 9, and is MUCH more useful and customizable.

4. Sure, the same way the iPhone 4 got years of support? What a joke. No amount of software updates can fix poor specs, and in two years that new iPad Pro is gonna be awfully slow with that puny and pathetic 2GB RAM. No software update can fix that, sorry.

This post make quite clear your agenda here.
You should worship Samsung on another website. I could suggest something like Android Central, for example. A lot of people that could share your vision.
In my experience the Tab S2 is like any other Android tablets: useless.

The only half valid alternative to the iPad is the Surface, that lacks a tablet OS but it's a valid solution nonetheless.

Android tablets ... lol...

 

[Scarpad]

I have a galaxy tab s2 the tablet is very nice, especially the screen, the ipad has better battery life, and the app experience is still better on the ipad with better tablet apps. Still for the set of apps I use on the galaxy its a great tablet, not to mention it was just $499
[doublepost=1458738278][/doublepost]MY guess from years of apple watching is the next iteration of the pro 9.7 will have 4gb of ram, gotta save something for the upgraders

 

[hoxuantu]

for the money they are charging this is pretty disappointing, especially when Samsung and others are now putting 4gb as a minimum into their phones and tablets

If you want 4Gb, go with them and worse OS. Android always needs more and more RAM.

 

[Lemon Mac]

pfff. Certainly shows that creative visionaries have been replaced by the bean counters.
They gonna to milk the cash cow for as long as the grass grows...

 

[Max(IT)]

I have owned iPhones since the original back in 2007. I love Apple, or at least I used to. But I'm absolutely SICK of paying such high prices for such awful devices. Yes, awful. I'm sick and tired of seeing Apple put out devices that would have been considered a mid range Android device a year ago.

Easy solution: switch platform and be happy.
I'm under the slightly "impression" you already switched platform and your motivations here are different....

When Apple stops trying to rip people off with such blatantly awful devices, maybe iPad sales won't be so awful. Apple devices have a few advantages, such as good customer service and prompt software updates, but NONE of these fixed the iPad 3 becoming ridiculously slow after only a year because of awful specs. That seems to have become the norm for Apple, release devices with poor & uncompetitive specs so that when it becomes slow in a year people will upgrade.

Every time I read something about "poor specs" referred to Apple I just laugh loudly. The A serie SoC still infesting the nightmare of Samsung and Qualcomm, unable to design something comparable....

My Nexus 5X is an amazing phone and I paid less than $300 for it. Display is every bit as good as the 6S plus, and it comes with MORE storage (32GB vs Apple's ridiculous 16GB). Yet Apple seems to be stuck in 2011 and is STILL puking out 16GB devices. Unbelievable.

Your Nexus 5X is a cheap Android phone i wouldn't get even for free.
TBH it's better than most of the Android devices out there, because it's a Nexus. But still not comparable to an iPhone.

Several reasons I had no use for the tab s2. Battery life was about half of what I got on an air 2. Android app optomization for tablets is terrible. There is nothing close to iMessage to sync messages between a Samsung tablet and phone like you can with an iPhone and iPad. Side sync was a poor substitute. Yes the tab s2 is a nice device. Good display, expandable memory, etc, but even when I went all in and got the Samsung phone and tablet together, the user experience was lacking. It was like using two completely unrelated products..

I've used android phones on and off for years. There is a lot of flexibility in the operating system, ability to customize, tinker, root, set various apps as default, etc. At one point, I viewed those things as positives but when I gave it another run this time, it was just a headache.

Different strokes for different folks but for me, the user experience of iOS is reliable, and does everything I need it to do. The seamless integration between Apple devices is far better than any of the competition.

Correct. I agree.

I get literally ALL these things with my Nexus 5X, with a MUCH better performance to cost ratio. Seriously, it cost me less than $300 and it has the same amount of RAM as that ripoff 'Pro' tablet Apple vomitted out. It also has 32GB sptrage....go figure.

You are a typical Android user. Good for you. Move on.
Keep speaking about numbers... the same amount of RAM speaking about Android have no sense.
iPad Pro, even with "only" 2 Gb of RAM, is by far the best tablet out there, second only to its bigger sibling.

And really, a lot of people on this forum agree with me. We want to be able to buy an Apple device that is actually competitive with what the Android companies are putting out. As it stands the iPad pro is gonna be miserably slow in a year or two.

indeed.
This forum is well known for a resident community of haters.
No problem, we are accustomed to them.

And Android with 2gb of RAM doesn't run as well as the iPad with 2gb. So keep on pretending numbers are the most important thing.

They like to drool on specs list...
I don't really care.

 

[sdugoten]

Did people honestly believe that a company (not just Apple buy any smart company) was going to release a product that was cheaper than their flagship by a couple hundred dollars and let it cannibalize their flagship model? You really, honestly believed that?

They just did it with iphone SE. Cheaper than iphone 6S, same CPU, same 2G of ram, 2/3 of the price.

1.8x the CPU performance of the Air 2. Double the graphics performance of the Air 2. Love how you're all about specs specs specs until it comes time to look at actual performance and then it turns to "I'm not convinced." What you're saying is that you just want to brag about specs all day and don't care about how something actually performs in day to day life. You're the guy that buys a car based on specs but won't race because you know that people with slower cars can smoke you all day long.

You know what, this ipad "pro" is a natural upgrade of the ipad air 2 after 18 months of release. For every single version of ipad in the past 5 years, every single new version have the speed bump and/or ram increase + other new features while keeping the same price. Technology will become cheaper as time passed, this rule apply to any computer related gadget since ..... Intel 8086 was released.

So, it is natural to expect new version of ipad to have more feature, faster speed, more ram , more storage at the same price. Using your car analogy, there are two cars side by side here

Car 1: ($15000)
150 horse power
4 wheel drive
power steering
Power AC
built in 4 speakers
Bluetooth built in for connecting ipod
Sun roof as an option


Car 2 : ($20000)
110 horse power
2 wheel drive
manual steering, $1000 to upgrade to power steering.
No AC built in, but you can pay $1000 more to buy the Power AC
No bluetooth, but it does have the socket for USB
2 speaker slots are built in, but you need to pay $1000 more to buy 2 speakers.
No Sun roof option
They name the car ProCar

It's not about spec, it's the fact that they are ripping you off. Something you expect it should exist in a car in 2016 doesn't exist is the problem. I don't care if they have better memory management in IOS, you should get what you pay for, especially elsewhere are offering similar product at a lower price with better spec and similar user experience (see Nexus). On top of that, if they named it as Pro, price it as a Pro, they better give something that is inline with what people expect as a Pro tablet. Even the entry level iphone SE have the same memory size of the "Pro", hello? Anyone will expect to buy a Lexus without power steering and no AC?

 

[Radon87000]

And Android with 2gb of RAM doesn't run as well as the iPad with 2gb. So keep on pretending numbers are the most important thing.

Says who?Android Marshmallow runs perfectly on my Nexus 7 with 2 gigs of ram.Stock Android is actually pretty light on resources

Android user experience still is poor.
Android "more powerful" ? Lol ....


Samsung Tab S2 better than an iPad Air 2 ? Yes in a parallel dimension....


Nope, security isn't an issue as far as you use your brain (and the official Store).


Not competitive ? reality check: there isn't ANY android tablet that sells even comparably to the iPad. Not even close.

Lol, Apple has to catch up to where Samsung is ?
It's comic...
Samsung's tablets are ridiculous in my experience.
Totally useless.
Just a good list of tech specs.


This post make quite clear your agenda here.
You should worship Samsung on another website. I could suggest something like Android Central, for example. A lot of people that could share your vision.
In my experience the Tab S2 is like any other Android tablets: useless.

The only half valid alternative to the iPad is the Surface, that lacks a tablet OS but it's a valid solution nonetheless.

Android tablets ... lol...

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 destroys the Surface and iPad when it comes to display as it's a superior OLED technology

From a tablet perspective it's even superior to the Surfface and iPad once it gets Android N because it supports pip and split view and slide in on ALL apps unlike on iPad which needs specific optimisation to support this feature while Windows lacks tablet friendly apps.The Galaxy Tab S2 combines the best of both the world's and is easily one of the best tablets around

Easy solution: switch platform and be happy.
I'm under the slightly "impression" you already switched platform and your motivations here are different....


Every time I read something about "poor specs" referred to Apple I just laugh loudly. The A serie SoC still infesting the nightmare of Samsung and Qualcomm, unable to design something comparable....


Your Nexus 5X is a cheap Android phone i wouldn't get even for free.
TBH it's better than most of the Android devices out there, because it's a Nexus. But still not comparable to an iPhone.


Correct. I agree.


You are a typical Android user. Good for you. Move on.
Keep speaking about numbers... the same amount of RAM speaking about Android have no sense.
iPad Pro, even with "only" 2 Gb of RAM, is by far the best tablet out there, second only to its bigger sibling.


indeed.
This forum is well known for a resident community of haters.
No problem, we are accustomed to them.


They like to drool on specs list...
I don't really care.

Actually my Air 2 with 2 gigs of RAM shows stutters while iPad pro does not so you are incorrect.

We aren't haters but rather customers who own both Samsung and Apple and just stating facts

 

[Ries]

For me, this confirms that iPhone 7 will have 32GB standard. They pushed 16GB to the low end with this move, and since RAM is the only differentiating factor between the 6S and SE, the 7 will push the the storage up.

I'm shocked the SE has 2GB of memory. Really unexpected. This has to be the lowest margin device that Apple makes, period.

I din't check what they are selling, but they properly only source one 1GB RAM chip. All models with the same chip, the iPad Pro is larger, so they added 4 x 1GB because it had more room for it on the logic board.

 

[Max(IT)]

That 1GB phone struggles with some of the features of iOS9. People tend to keep iPad's longer than iPhones so I think it's important for a purchase of an iPad to be good for a minimum of 3 years. I see 2GB of ram becoming as issue with new software features as early as iOS11, maybe earlier.

In my experience absolutely NOT.
iPhone 5S, iPhone 6 and iPad Air working FLAWLESSLY with iOS 9.3 and they all have 1 Gb of RAM.

iDevice introduced 1 Gb of RAM with the iPhone 5 in 2012 with iOS 6.
They are still enough after 4 years and 4 iOS releases.
2 Gb of RAM introduced on the iPad Air 2 in 2014 with iOS 8.1. iPhone first introduced 2 Gb with the 6S in 2015 with iOS 9. No reason to believe 2 Gb won't be enough after 2 years.... absolutely no reasons.

I hope you are right. From what I've read, the performance isn't much better than the iPad Air 2. And while that is no slouch, I am just not very inclined to buy anymore. Just as the SE is equal in performance to the 6S (which I applaud), the iPad Pro 9.7 should be the same in performance to the 12.9.

Where did you read about performance similar to iPad Air 2 ? No one did an extensive review yet, but based on the iPad Pro performance (the 9.7" is just slightly under clocked) the difference is notable.

 

[lsatterfield]

As long as all of the drawing apps work just as well on the 9.7, I'm fine with 2GB of RAM. I would hope that some of that on the 12 inch iPad Pro has to do with the screen size operability.

 

[nando87]

Your comparison makes no sense. This isn't GT3 RS vs Miata. You're talking GT3 RS vs GT2 here. Haven't driven both cars for extended periods and owning a 12" Pro and tested the 9" Pro, that's a far more fare comparison.

I'm not talking about iPad specifically but about Apple in general, iPhone 6s vs Galaxy s7 for example. I want the best hardware AND the best user experience, that's why it's more expensive than anyone else. The S7 in a pair of months will retail for 65% the original price. The iPhone didn't. I don't care if android uses more ram, I want the same or more ram than the S7, the same or better screen, the same or better battery life. I'm not a conformist fool, not when paying premium. The optimization and crap sentences are just excuses for bean counting.

As I said many times before, when the iPod was released people were using 650 Mb Cds. They didn't sell a 500 mb iPod with "better user experience", nor an 1Gb iPod. They sold a 10Gb model. Everything else: pure propaganda for taking a pair of bucks here and there. That, and the mighty 1st gen iPhone hardware built this brand as it's today. If you sell worse and worse hardware to more and more people, you simply destroy the brand. No one could have said then "the iPod is an overpriced toy", because it wasn't. It was an expensive toy, not overpriced, because it was over the top hardware, the same happened with the first iphones. Nowadays Apple is selling a lot of: a) old crappy hardware at premium prices (macbook air, mac mini, thunderbolt display...), all of these are just embarrasing. B) overpriced toys


Come on, how can you sell a 1366x768 pixels notebook with 4gbs ram 128ssd and 2 cores intel for 1000 euros in 2016, this is just a joke. A 27'' 2k display for 1150 euros. A flagship iPhone in 2015 with 16gb storage and 1Gb ram for 750-850 euros. A flagship iPhone in 2016 with 16gb storage. It's ridiculous. The iPod from 2002 had more available storage than the flagship 2016 iPhone, then, when there were no videos, let alone 2k, let alone 4k.