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Air2 or ipad Pro 9.7"

joshwithachance said:
The more I thought about it, the more I realized how similar the 9.7" Pro and Air 2 are. Sure the Pro has the True Tone display and support for the Apple Pencil, but fundamentally they're quite comparable. The screens are the same resolution, the dimensions are the same, processing power is similar due to the Air 2 having a tri-core processor, both have 2GB RAM.

In day to day the Pro 9.7 doesn't really "outperform" the Air 2, which is why the Air 2 for $200 less is where my money went this Black Friday. $374 for the 128GB Air 2 is solid. And I had a $100 Target gift card and a REDcard which sweetened the deal even more.
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I picked up a Pro 9.7 from Best Buy back in July for $375 (32gb). The were running a sale for $125 off and then had the student $100 off coupon at the same time. Great deal.
I really love the four speakers. It sound so good for movies and such. That to me is the big selling feature.
 
solarguy17 said:
I picked up a Pro 9.7 from Best Buy back in July for $375 (32gb). The were running a sale for $125 off and then had the student $100 off coupon at the same time. Great deal.
I really love the four speakers. It sound so good for movies and such. That to me is the big selling feature.
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Yeah, if that deal was back for BF I would have been all over it! But for $350 (with REDcard discount) I'm very pleased with my 128GB Air 2.
 
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Badrottie said:
No need to save $200 because who knows iOS 11 or 12 might slow down Air 2 I think you should stick with Pro.
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And iOS 12 or 13 could slow down the Pro 9.7. Not a reason to not buy a product. The next will always be better. And RAM will be the bottleneck of future iOS iterations, and they both have 2GB so when the Air 2 starts becoming bogged down by iOS, so will the Pro 9.7.
 
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joshwithachance said:
And iOS 12 or 13 could slow down the Pro 9.7. Not a reason to not buy a product. The next will always be better. And RAM will be the bottleneck of future iOS iterations, and they both have 2GB so when the Air 2 starts becoming bogged down by iOS, so will the Pro 9.7.
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Bingo. (add the Mini 4 to that list)

If history is any indication, the cut-off has been based on RAM not processor.

My buying strategy has always been, when buying an iPad buy at the beginning of a RAM bump. If buying in the middle of a RAM lifecycle, buy the cheapest one (because they'll effectively last just as long as the latest one at that RAM level).

I've bought the iPad 1, 2, 4, Air 2, 12.9 iPad Pro. (I skipped the 3, Air 1, and 9.7 Pro) (the Mini 4 was a late addition) :)

Surely, others will disagree... and they are free to. This method has worked well for me.
 
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joshwithachance said:
The more I thought about it, the more I realized how similar the 9.7" Pro and Air 2 are. Sure the Pro has the True Tone display and support for the Apple Pencil, but fundamentally they're quite comparable. The screens are the same resolution, the dimensions are the same, processing power is similar due to the Air 2 having a tri-core processor, both have 2GB RAM.

In day to day the Pro 9.7 doesn't really "outperform" the Air 2...
Click to expand...

Yeah, the Pro is only 19% more powerful. That's not going to be apparent in real world tasks.

IMG_1064.jpg
 
sracer said:
Bingo. (add the Mini 4 to that list)

If history is any indication, the cut-off has been based on RAM not processor.

My buying strategy has always been, when buying an iPad buy at the beginning of a RAM bump. If buying in the middle of a RAM lifecycle, buy the cheapest one (because they'll effectively last just as long as the latest one at that RAM level).

I've bought the iPad 1, 2, 4, Air 2, 12.9 iPad Pro. (I skipped the 3, Air 1, and 9.7 Pro) (the Mini 4 was a late addition) :)

Surely, others will disagree... and they are free to. This method has worked well for me.
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This is why the iPad Air started lagging after only a year and the iPad Air 2 is still going strong. It's simply because of RAM.
 
Channan said:
This is why the iPad Air started lagging after only a year and the iPad Air 2 is still going strong. It's simply because of RAM.
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Nah. That was due to processing power. Air 2 was around 1.5-2x CPU speed and more than 2x GPU speed of Air. The effect of iOS 8 on the iPad 3 and 4 is much worse despite having the same amount of RAM as Air because of their much slower CPUs.

Insufficient RAM typically manifests itself differently (frequent app/tab reloading and/or crashing, etc).

By the way, while the dual-core Pro 9.7 is only faster by 19% in multi-core benchmarks, single core is usually 1.5-2x as fast as the Air 2. That's fairly important to take note of given a lot of tasks are bottlenecked by a single thread.

Granted, for those on a budget, the Air 2 is a better deal.
 
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rui no onna said:
Nah. That was due to processing power. Air 2 was around 1.5-2x CPU speed and more than 2x GPU speed of Air. The effect of iOS 8 on the iPad 3 and 4 is much worse despite having the same amount of RAM as Air because of their much slower CPUs.

Insufficient RAM typically manifests itself differently (frequent app/tab reloading and/or crashing, etc).

By the way, while the dual-core Pro 9.7 is only faster by 19% in multi-core benchmarks, single core is usually 1.5-2x as fast as the Air 2. That's fairly important to take note of given a lot of tasks are bottlenecked by a single thread.
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The A7 is plenty fast enough to keep up even now. If the iPad Air had 2GB of RAM, it would run fine on iOS 10.
 
Channan said:
The A7 is plenty fast enough to keep up even now. If the iPad Air had 2GB of RAM, it would run fine on iOS 10.
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I think you're ignoring a couple of generations of performance leaps from when the A7 was released up to now.

Basemark OS II 2.0 System Score (per AnandTech)
6,741 iPhone 7 (A10)
5,110 iPhone 6s (A9)
3,051 iPhone 6 (A8)
2,541 iPhone 5s (A7)

6,127 iPad Pro 12.9 (A9X)
4,680 iPad Air 2 (A8X)


Basemark OS II System Score
3,032 iPad Air 2 (A8X)
2,060 iPad Air (A7)


Kraken 1.1 Chrome/Safari/IE Time in ms (lower is better)
1,666 iPad Pro 9.7 (A9X)
2,367 iPad Air 2 (A8X)
5,028 iPad Air (A7)
11,828 iPad 4 (A6X)


Kraken Time in ms (lower is better)
19,087 iPad 4 (A6X)
36,059 iPad 3


Would more RAM on the Air have been better? Sure. It would be nice not to have apps and tabs constantly reloading or crashing. Just don't expect the extra RAM to magically fix the Air's performance issues. Single app lag/slowness in particular likely stems more from CPU/GPU rather than RAM.
 
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rui no onna said:
I think you're ignoring a couple of generations of performance leaps from when the A7 was released up to now.

Basemark OS II 2.0 System Score (per AnandTech)
6,741 iPhone 7 (A10)
5,110 iPhone 6s (A9)
3,051 iPhone 6 (A8)
2,541 iPhone 5s (A7)

6,127 iPad Pro 12.9 (A9X)
4,680 iPad Air 2 (A8X)


Basemark OS II System Score
3,032 iPad Air 2 (A8X)
2,060 iPad Air (A7)


Kraken 1.1 Chrome/Safari/IE Time in ms (lower is better)
1,666 iPad Pro 9.7 (A9X)
2,367 iPad Air 2 (A8X)
5,028 iPad Air (A7)
11,828 iPad 4 (A6X)


Kraken Time in ms (lower is better)
19,087 iPad 4 (A6X)
36,059 iPad 3


Would more RAM on the Air have been better? Sure. It would be nice not to have apps and tabs constantly reloading or crashing. Just don't expect the extra RAM to magically fix the Air's performance issues. Single app lag/slowness in particular likely stems more from CPU/GPU rather than RAM.
Click to expand...
The iPhone 5s benchmarks the lowest of the A7 devices, but I never had the performance issues with it like I did with my iPad mini 2. It has a much lower resolution screen which didn't require as much RAM, meaning more free RAM for the OS.

The lag I experienced never happened sticking to using just one application. It always came when I tried multitasking and it just couldn't keep up.
 
Channan said:
The iPhone 5s benchmarks the lowest of the A7 devices, but I never had the performance issues with it like I did with my iPad mini 2. It has a much lower resolution screen which didn't require as much RAM, meaning more free RAM for the OS.

The lag I experienced never happened sticking to using just one application. It always came when I tried multitasking and it just couldn't keep up.
Click to expand...
One thing to keep in mind, the A7 GPU in the iPad Air and mini 2 were only slightly higher clocked than the GPU in the iPhone 5s.

GFXBench Manhattan ES 3.0 Onscreen Ave FPS
56.1 iPhone 6s (A9, 1334*750, 1MP)
35.7 iPad Pro 9.7 (A9X, 2048*1536, 3.1MP)
33.2 iPad Pro 12.9 (A9X, 2732*2048, 5.6MP)
27.2 iPad Air 2 (A8X, 2048*1536, 3.1MP)
26.7 iPhone 5s (A7, 1136*640, 0.7MP)
26.1 iPhone 6 (A8, 1334*750, 1MP)
8.8 iPad Air (A7, 2048*1536, 3.1MP)

GFXBench T-Rex HD Onscreen Ave FPS
59.4 iPad Pro 12.9 (A9X, 2732*2048, 5.6MP)
59.0 iPhone 6s (A9, 1334*750, 1MP)
52.4 iPad Air 2 (A8X, 2048*1536, 3.1MP)
49.6 iPhone 6 (A8, 1334*750, 1MP)
40.9 iPhone 5s (A7, 1136*640, 0.7MP)
21.2 iPad Air (A7, 2048*1536, 3.1MP)
 
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