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The real question is "is a used iPad Pro 12.9 a better value than a new iPad Pro 12.9 2020?"

The 1st gen IPP 12.9 cellular is like $289 on swappa, with 128GB of storage. That's a smoking deal. I literally have 3 of them (well, one has 32GB) and they've been really great for pretty much everything. Why spend $700 more?

If you want to see if an IPP is good enough for you, there's no reason not to try a used IPP 12.9.
 
People complaining on here likely won't notice the difference in performance of a so called A13X/A14X chip and would most likely dump their iPad Pro long before they feel any slow downs due to software updates. SMH

It's more likely they improved yields to the point where all eight cores are functional when produced and therefore can enable it while the A12X likely had one core fail.

This seems very possible. They may have, alternatively, found a problem in the 8th graphics core or in the unit that dispatches among the various cores. Either of these won’t show in imaging that simply looks at layout if it’s a few to even many gate changes. It seems very fair they named it an A12Z and didn’t increment the major number.
 
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If in 2020 I pay the same price for the same technology compared to 2018, I'm actually paying more!

For example, in 2020 a pay half the price for a 50" 4K TV than the price I paid in 2010 for a 40" 1080p TV.

But the 2020 iPad Pro is not only CPU, it has 50% more RAM, 100% more basic storage, LIDAR, camera improvements, so it's a good upgrade.

You couldn’t be more wrong.

Ultra wide camera, 2gb of RAM, 128gb on entry model.
 
I'm waiting for the A14 in the ipad
going to be a long slow year with delay or no new iPhone and an iPad that is similar in performance to last model.
 
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No...because likely the poster was anticipating a faster/better chip that IS WORTH plunking down $1000 for a product that hasn't been refreshed in 2+ years. The chip could have had a very similar name AND had much better performance, faster MHz, more cores, or a combination of all 3. Instead, it's just 1 core that was magically enabled by Apple.

Regardless of how people can rationalize Apple's decision, this is a very shady step by Apple. This is a Pro unit which means most of the people evaluating an upgrade are going to look at the tech specs (and not to mention the hefty price tag). This marketing/advertising scam was caught very quickly and Apple should be ashamed and likely will have poor sales.

And someone said here that the "real excitement is the new keyboard in May." Seriously?! People wait 2+ years for an upgrade (on a "Pro" device no less) and a)there's essentially no hardware upgrade and b)I have to wait several more months after the launch for the "real excitement" which c)just turns out to be a bleeping keyboard that d)costs several hundred bucks?!

Wow.

I dont get it, either. After 1,5 years waiting they release a product (pro) thats almost identical to its predecessor, with the same hefty price tag, on the other hand, rumors say there will be another release in fall, that makes no sense, they should have skipped this. I dont care whether the A12X/Z has enough power for most used cases, for a price tag over 1000$ and a product called "pro", I ecpect the fastest possible chipset, regardless of wheter i need it or not. They changed nothing, except the camera on the back, which is extremely important in a tablet, not. Oh okay, they added another 2gb of ram, wow.
 
I just upgraded from the 2nd gen 12.9 to this new 2020 11 pro, I usually purchase every other generation. The 2018 was tempting, but my 2017 is still a very solid device ... & they stay in the household. The new one is a much better size for me feels so small and easy to pack around. It has a lot of great new features for me. No one has mentioned WiFi 6 on this one?
 
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I'm sure a lot of suckers who bought the 2018 iPad Pro upgraded to this, too. But with a name like A12Z, you could pretty much sum it up that this was an incremental release. It is likely as Jason Snell said and what I believed all along, Apple will require developers to have in order to test macOS beta on A Series this summer. Hence the mouse support and the new $350 smart keyboard.

But the real iPad Pro is likely to be a bigger one with a larger 15 inch screen and a A13X processor this fall. Apple is not gonna give the iPad Pro A14X, they are likely saving that for the A Series MacBook launching in March 2021. The A14 is likely for the iPhone only.
 
No...because likely the poster was anticipating a faster/better chip that IS WORTH plunking down $1000 for a product that hasn't been refreshed in 2+ years. The chip could have had a very similar name AND had much better performance, faster MHz, more cores, or a combination of all 3. Instead, it's just 1 core that was magically enabled by Apple.

Regardless of how people can rationalize Apple's decision, this is a very shady step by Apple. This is a Pro unit which means most of the people evaluating an upgrade are going to look at the tech specs (and not to mention the hefty price tag). This marketing/advertising scam was caught very quickly and Apple should be ashamed and likely will have poor sales.

And someone said here that the "real excitement is the new keyboard in May." Seriously?! People wait 2+ years for an upgrade (on a "Pro" device no less) and a)there's essentially no hardware upgrade and b)I have to wait several more months after the launch for the "real excitement" which c)just turns out to be a bleeping keyboard that d)costs several hundred bucks?!

Wow.
The LiDAR scanner is the main feature of the update. If you have a 3rd gen and want the new sensor, you buy the 4th gen. If you don’t care about it, don’t. And its a better upgrade for 1st and 2nd gen owners than was the 3rd gen.

They also cut prices on upgrades, went from 4GB to 6GB of RAM and doubled the base storage. It’s a better model for the same or lower price.

Obviously, that’s worth complaining about to some 🤣

Wow.

PS.
a) it’s not 2+ years, it’s a year and 4+ months 🙄

b) no hardware upgrade?
  • A12Z: GPU upgrade
  • 64—>128GB Storage
  • 4GB—>6GB RAM (128/256/512GB)
  • single—>dual camera,
  • LiDAR scanner
  • Five “studio quality” microphones
  • “Enhanced thermal architecture”
  • WiFi 6
  • U1 chip—ultra wideband
c) The new keyboard is real excitement for some, others couldn’t give a rat’s ass. If you don’t want or can’t afford it, the solution is simple: don’t buy it! Or buy the current keyboard. Or a third party keyboard. Or no keyboard. The choice is yours.
 
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Apple could stop producing new chip designs for the next two years and they'd probably still be faster than the competition.

The hardware isn't the limiter for the iPad line right now. Software is.

I’m glad to see other people saying this too, the iPad hardware is more than enough and was more than enough probably since the first iPad Pro released. The software needs to catch up (though with proper mouse support it’s finally getting there).
 
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The critic‘s that are harsh on here on this site, won’t be nearly as critical as the average consumer would be that’s looking to upgrade to 2020 Pro. This is probably more targeted to iPad owners _under_ the 2018 model, not so much necessarily for the 2018 iPad Pro owner and above.

there’s a lot of potential here for this new iPad, but more than anything, I think we can see where Apple is moving with LiDAR/AR capabilities, But we’re getting there.
 
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humans are absurdly wasteful. the resources were already spent to make the damn thing and there's a bunch of these out there that are crippled...on purpose.
 
humans are absurdly wasteful. the resources were already spent to make the damn thing and there's a bunch of these out there that are crippled...on purpose.

No, they likely were not crippled on purpose. Because of the yield curve, a large percentage of processors will have 1 out of 8 units that have a fault. Those are sold as having 7 units.

It’s incredibly common to have extra units and extra circuitry. After fabrication, quick automated tests determine which units work, and blow on-chip fuses to disable the non-functioning units.

It’s very very very difficult to make a die with billions of transistors and have every transistor work properly.
 
Funny thing is, for my uses, I could probably use a 4-5 year old chip and not even notice a difference. I read books, watch YouTube and Netflix and comment on sites like this. How much power does that take?
 
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No...because likely the poster was anticipating a faster/better chip that IS WORTH plunking down $1000 for a product that hasn't been refreshed in 2+ years. The chip could have had a very similar name AND had much better performance, faster MHz, more cores, or a combination of all 3. Instead, it's just 1 core that was magically enabled by Apple.

Regardless of how people can rationalize Apple's decision, this is a very shady step by Apple. This is a Pro unit which means most of the people evaluating an upgrade are going to look at the tech specs (and not to mention the hefty price tag). This marketing/advertising scam was caught very quickly and Apple should be ashamed and likely will have poor sales.

And someone said here that the "real excitement is the new keyboard in May." Seriously?! People wait 2+ years for an upgrade (on a "Pro" device no less) and a)there's essentially no hardware upgrade and b)I have to wait several more months after the launch for the "real excitement" which c)just turns out to be a bleeping keyboard that d)costs several hundred bucks?!

Wow.
Every time people repeat that the 3rd gen iPP is 2 years old, I find it hard to believe. I bought this thing as soon as it was available and it still feels brand new. If it broke down on me today, I’d readily buy another 2018 for the same price. It would still be a modern, uncompromised tablet. The fact that I could get the features of the 2020 is just gravy— I don’t even think I could notice a faster CPU— with the apps I run anyway.

I am excited about the new keyboard, though I’ll need to see it first, and very pleased that I don’t need to upgrade to use it.

Some people fetishize ”new”. I don’t. All I care about is whether it does what I need.
 
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