Dual channel vs single channel is just a guess on my part (albeit one that seem to match up with benchmark results).
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Ars Technica iPad Pro review
- Thread starter JohnnyGo
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Similar situation: I bought the Air 1 64GB for an international trip and used it for mobile hotspot and navigation. Decided to skip the Air 2 and jumped on a used Pro 12.9 128GB when the Pro 9.7 was announced. I'm going to try the larger-sized screen for a while and downsize from a 6S Plus when the next, smaller iPhone comes out. That'll increase the spread in the screen size difference. I'll see how it goes and maybe switch back in a few years.
You and a lot of other people say that. Have you actually used an iPad 2 on iOS 9? It's appalling. My coworker has one and she absolutely hates it. It's a stuttering mess of freezes and crashes.
As for the whole RAM issue, Apple obviously felt it was needed or they wouldn't have put it into the iPad Pro 12.9". It was put there to ensure a new generation of apps could be developed that make heavy use of system resources for supporting things such as lots of layers when doing graphic design, or for making higher-res canvas areas when painting, etc. These developers now must take into account that the base Pro starts at 2GB and therefore scale back their efforts. Many more Pros will be sold at $599 than at $799. And if the market is at 2GB then that's the dev target for Pro software. So now all 4GB gets you is maybe a longer lifetime of upgrades and absolutely no tabs ever refreshing in Safari, when it could have been much more for us "Pro" users. They may as well have left 2GB in the 12.9" model for all the good it will do now. Sure, 2GB is plenty for iOS 9 and the types of things that people do with tablets today. But having a Pro model with future iOS specs was going to be all about opening up a new frontier of possibilities for creatives and other professional users. Hopefully the users with 4GB are still offered some features in certain apps, such as being able to edit higher-res images, or work on more complex video editing timelines, or have more instrument tracks going at once for music editing, etc. But it would have been so much better to start on the high end when developing a Pro app.
4gb ram is bare minimum for painting on today's hardware for illustration work. I can't even do A2 @300 ppi on the current 12.9 iPad. I could use 8gb today. But, few people using these for art will even understand pixel dimensions and print resolutions.
Except it's likely not just the RAM that's the issue, it's the CPU and GPU, too. Perhaps even the storage subsystem, also. In the case of the iPad 2 and 3, more RAM isn't going to magically fix deficiencies in processing performance. Even between the iPad 4 and Air, the latter is noticeably zippier despite both having 1GB and the supposedly higher RAM usage with the 64-bit Air. Is RAM going to be the limiting factor on the iPad Pro 9.7 in future? We won't know until we get there.
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As you touch on at the end there yourself, just as we can optimise apps for devices at the lower end of the spectrum, we can do the same for higher performing devices.
We don't even have to have complete feature parity. I've done it myself in the past, where the older systems simply can't cope with certain aspects they don't get it or they get a watered down version. Apple has allowed this providing our app descriptions are perfectly clear on the matter.
And yes, I've used several older devices with all of their highest supported iOS versions. I wouldn't like to have an iPad 2 as my daily driver that's for sure. But then it is a five year old device and anything getting past one year of me using it as my primary device is nothing short of a miracle.
I don't expect to be using any iOS device I own as my main device after five years. Although I do know people who have iPad 2's and they're perfectly happy with them. Not everyone is as concerned with blistering performance as a lot of us on here are.
To some people even an iPad 2 is a magical device they could never have imagined. Some people look at me as if I'm a crazy person when I suggest they upgrade to a newer model, they simply don't see the need.
I on the other hand, neither expect them to last forever or to perform as they did out of the box forever, it's just unrealistic to me. Although I also think if I've had anywhere near that amount of life from quite a lot of products these days, then I've had my money's worth out of it.
Outfitting iOS devices with 2GB of RAM is still a recent thing for Apple, it's not going to become a performance issue soon. I'll grant you, "soon" is subjective. But it's like any computing product, if it's running software that was released within a couple of years window of its release its usually fine.
When you get to five years later you can't realistically expect that five year old computer to run the latest apps as if it were still new. I've got a 2012 iMac, it runs all of the latest apps, but even though it was top of the line when I bought it, certainly not as good as the ones that were released when the computer was new. That's technology for you.
I'd also wager that a decent percentage of the people on here complaining about 2GB of RAM will have upgraded long before it ever becomes an issue.
At the end of the day though, no one is forcing anyone to buy anything. If people don't like the specs, don't buy it, simple. Though if your average punter is anything like the average punter I know, they couldn't tell you if the inside of an iPad had 2GB of RAM or 300 magic pixies running around passing notes to each other.
And for those of us who sync via wifi this means what exactly?
This is something I am actually extremely excited about and something that I think most people ignore. Mobile NAND is pretty slow compared to desktop class systems and everything uses it. Turning on, saving files, loading apps, and switching apps to an extent use this. So faster NAND should equal a faster experience across the board (especially loading 24GB of music).
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In his/her defense, not everyone uses Wifi because it can be slow to sync several GBs of data and can hinder your network performance (and it's a lot slower). However, USB 3 vs USB 2 on a device that you most likely aren't syncing daily isn't a huge deal.
If you import RAWs onto your iPad daily, then the Pro's a better choice.
Loading 24GB music - not really. That's mostly sequential writes and I remember benchmarking my iPad 4 and getting speeds that exceed USB 2.0. You're really mostly limited by interface speeds (WiFi or USB) for this.
However, something like updating apps in background while you're using the iPad should see improvement. It feels like my iPad freezes at times when I'm using Safari while apps are updating.
I thought the faster NAND is faster across the board?
As for updates, I know many reviews mentioned that the 6S was dramatically faster at updates due to the NAND. However, the freezing Safari may be a bug. I've encountered that too.
Lol, I have a dedicated 802.11ac router in my bedroom acting as access point so I don't have to share bandwidth with other wifi devices on the primary access point.
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Nah, it's not the iOS 9 freezing bug as I've experienced it since forever (just tiny stutters but noticeable enough to be annoying). NAND is faster across the board, yes. However, when the difference is already between 100MB/s and 400MB/s sequential, your limiting factor when loading content is not NAND, it's bound to be the external interface (USB 2.0 ~40MB/s real world, WiFi variable depending on distance, interference, etc).
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Lol, I have a dedicated 802.11ac router in my bedroom acting as access point so I don't have to share bandwidth with other wifi devices on the primary access point.
Now I'm jealous.
As soon as I start work full-time and get my own place I'm getting the perfect internet set up. Right now I have a slow down in browsing when someone else is browsing YouTube. Really? In 2016 in the U.S.? Really? And I don't even have the lowest service.
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Nah, it's not the iOS 9 freezing bug as I've experienced it since forever (just tiny stutters but noticeable enough to be annoying). NAND is faster across the board, yes. However, when the difference is already between 100MB/s and 400MB/s sequential, your limiting factor is not NAND, it's bound to be the external interface (USB 2.0 ~40MB/s real world, WiFi variable depending on distance, interference, etc).[/QUOTE]
Ah, I see. (Plus I didn't read the random vs sequential detail). It's not the night and day difference between HDD and SSD, but I do think there will be some improvements (mainly installing apps).
Could be worse - you could be in Australia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_...net_connection_speeds#Akamai_Q3_2015_rankings
I agree. The reviews coming in have been bad. They are all fluff with nothing too informative to add.
This to me shows that it's very hard for casual, non technical reviewers to find much to say when compared to the Air 2. They talk how it has the A9X and how 2gb of ram doesn't "feel" any different than the 12.9" with 4gb, but we don't really hear what tasks they are doing to base this conclusion from.
One review pointed out how the iPad Pro 12.9" scored a better score on display accuracy than the new 9.7" Pro. I am really looking forward to the Anandtech review (which takes forever usually)but I have a suspicion that while the new display will have its pros, color accuracy might be a bit off from what we are used to from Apple. I guess we will find out.
This to me shows that it's very hard for casual, non technical reviewers to find much to say when compared to the Air 2. They talk how it has the A9X and how 2gb of ram doesn't "feel" any different than the 12.9" with 4gb, but we don't really hear what tasks they are doing to base this conclusion from.
One review pointed out how the iPad Pro 12.9" scored a better score on display accuracy than the new 9.7" Pro. I am really looking forward to the Anandtech review (which takes forever usually)but I have a suspicion that while the new display will have its pros, color accuracy might be a bit off from what we are used to from Apple. I guess we will find out.
Actually, A2 at 300dpi is about where Procreate stops. You are limited to 2 layers at that point.
Have YOU actually used an iPad 2 w/ ios9? You state a coworker has...but are you able to validate that in any way?
I actually have used one, it's my daughter's that I "manage". I was surprised at how well it runs. Far better than iOS 8 on the same device.
What a rubbish review, the 2GB as opposed to the 4GB ram makes a difference with Safari tabs being open, that's all they could come up with?..... erm, no.
It's a very obviously rushed review based on 5 mins of use of the device. They make some good points, but it just comes across as rushed.