So did you ever figure out how you were bending your iPads? Whatever it was, presumably you stopped carrying or packing them that way...
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Benchmarks Suggest New iPad Pro's A12Z Chip is Nearly Identical to A12X in 2018 iPad Pro
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After much deliberation, I decided to order the 12.9" 2020 1TB WiFI+Cellular.
I'm coming from a 2018 11" 256GB WiFi.
Yes, it is a small bump over the 2018 chip wise, however, I would rather get the "perfected" LTE model, rather than a "first generation" 5G / Mini-LED model. There will surely be improvements in a late 2020 or early 2021 model, but it also means added risks.
I will be happy with this early 2020 model for some years to come, and by the time I am ready to upgrade again, the new technologies such as 5G and Mini-LED will be greatly improved.
I'm coming from a 2018 11" 256GB WiFi.
Yes, it is a small bump over the 2018 chip wise, however, I would rather get the "perfected" LTE model, rather than a "first generation" 5G / Mini-LED model. There will surely be improvements in a late 2020 or early 2021 model, but it also means added risks.
I will be happy with this early 2020 model for some years to come, and by the time I am ready to upgrade again, the new technologies such as 5G and Mini-LED will be greatly improved.
eh, rather, they needed to include the extra camera and lidar. no way competition would have resulted an A13X + ultra-wide camera + lidar + U1 chip + 6GB ram standard at the same price. if anything, competition would have resulted in the product being released sooner. that's all.
I checked out the dimensions and the weight. They were almost if not identical. I don't recall the exact dimensions. But it makes me think they haven't. I guess we'll have to see JerryRig destroy it and find out.
Absolutely. And makes an older iPad a way better option for kids to do their homework rather than a brand new chromebook.
I bought a chromebook thinking i could use it to browse the web and type things out on the road. Terrible device.
Another thought on why the 2020 iPad Pro has the A12Z is due to production yields being much lower the past 2-3mths due to the pandemic at the Hon Hai (Foxxcon) assembly plants. Likely this affected Apple putting an A13 chip within this iPad and Apple and Foxxcon most likely agreed a simple added gpu core would suffice. ??
Yes could be, but I think this was sent out for assembly way before the virus.
Ouch, this removes a lot of reason to upgrade IMO. No way this iPad Pro cycle lasts the usual 1.5 years. I bet we see a fall refresh, assuming COVID-19 doesn't slow down things.
That doesn't make much sense, on multiple fronts.
- Why would slower production reduce yields? That would mainly just reduce numbers produced.
- There would be zero reason to put A13 in the iPad Pro, as it's much slower than A12X/Z.
- If you mean A13X, then that would have had to have been planned literally years in advance. However, if A14X is coming this year, then A13X would have been almost pointless.
- I agree with the others, that the extra GPU core was likely already always there. If anything, this suggest that yields have actually improved, which isn't a big surprise after two years. Likely, A12X is an 8-core GPU part, but due to yield issues they could not activate all 8 cores. Having it spec'd as a 7-core part makes production much easier as they can just deactivate one core, as it would be defective on many chips coming out. Now in 2020, yields are good enough that they can sell the exact same chip as an 8-core part.
Nope.
It happened twice... same exact usage as every iteration I’ve owned for the last 10 years- cheapo case the 1st time & an $80 zugucase the 2nd time.
I’m still unclear on how either occurred.
I used to have the 12.9-inch gen 1 but gave it to my friend after I bought the 10.5-inch gen2. Now I preordered the 12.9-inch and perhaps the magic keyboard down the road. Funny to say I had the 'underpowered' iPad 3 😆
Highly unlikely that Apple changed processors at the last minute (and impossible that they designed an A12Z at the last minute)
I haven't updated since my iPad Air, which I gave away to my GF in Italy so I can live with this year's Pro 12.9/1TB. I just ordered it from ATT. With the Pencil-2, AppleCare, and upcoming Magic Keyboard, it's another $2,500 sub-par Apple device.
I need it as a backup to my 2017 MBP, which is showing its age. Apple replaced the POS butterfly keyboard, and the keys are already sticking again.
I need it as a backup to my 2017 MBP, which is showing its age. Apple replaced the POS butterfly keyboard, and the keys are already sticking again.
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I’m pretty sure the gambit here is getting the U1 and LIDAR in to as many devices as early as possible to spur on AR development.
Also there are very few things on iOS that even come close to taxing even my original 10.5” iPad. It’s got compute to spare for days.
mom not stating anything about designing another chip. Quite in agreement with you.
I’m stating Apple probably could not get Foxxcon to produce an A13X chip (my mistake earlier as I stated A13) for the iPad Pro. The iPhone 11 debuted last year with A13 but the iPad Por was released earlier than usual 11mths prior and thus had to wait for the A13X which wouldve been in line to ship around this time.
this easier to work with Foxxcon and ship A12Z an amendment of an existing A12 chip and start production of A14 & A14x (the later late summer for XMas 2020).
not just about production yet a concern for sales numbers of units during this crisis. As a CEO or engineering team would you want to spend the extra money and team effort or save the angst for much later.
I don’t think an adjustment like what we’re seeing takes years to plan on. Simply a month and a half for a slight incremental adjustment. Just my thoughts.
It’s not an overblown issue, I literally owned an 11” iPad Pro 256GB LTE and had to sell it, out of great sadness, because it bent
By saying it’s a hoax, you’re letting Apple get away with poor quality, and leaving me without an iPad I’d love to own
The A12Z is odd but there probably is a practical explanation such as the 5 nm node not being ready. Is it underpowered? No - and that is what matters. My A9X still runs fine probably because of the, at the time, generous 4Gb RAM. The A12Z with 6 Gb RAM would probably be useful for most tasks for 5-6 years. Who can complain of that really?
That being said, it is irritating that the iPad chips are non-predictable suggesting no strong strategy behind the iPad line.
That being said, it is irritating that the iPad chips are non-predictable suggesting no strong strategy behind the iPad line.
Fourth on the right is the 2015 MacBook Pro
This tablet stuff is a lot of drama I'm glad I never participated in.
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There's more to these chips than CPU and Metal benchmarks. On-chip accelerators and other specialized hardware support are huge these days. Straight up CPU performance doesn't improve nearly like it used to. Anyway the CPU is "jack of all trades, master of none" and will be easily beaten by gen 1 of anything built closely to a purpose. GPU is a bit more specific than CPU but not by much; it's just like a CPU but with way more cores (thousands).
Apple is adding more and more of that with each generation, most notably the T2 chip in Macs. Ironically we're trending towards Apple computers being faster than the competition (already true on iOS devices) because of their close integration of hardware and software. It's not all about Intel x86 anymore, and PC benchmarks are about to get a whole lot more complicated. Enthusiasts will be upset.
The article title is also really misleading. Says the chips are nearly identical. Their scores on these particular benchmarks are nearly identical. Are the actual chips very similar?
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I was going to upgrade my 2017 iPad Pro too!! I saw these stats and wasn’t impressed. I’m waiting for the next update, hopefully it’s much better.
What todo ... Here in Greece the 256Gb 12,9 model costs 1319€. I’m a casual user , some games , Facebook , YouTube etc , but 1319€ is a lot of money and I’m thinking that in like 5 years this would stop taking upgrades since it’s a A12Z chip and maybe in 6 years it would become obsolete.
If I bought a Surface Pro 7 , it could surely run for like 10 Years without being obsolete.
I could go for a 11” model which will cost me about 969€ for the 128Gb , but since it will be my only computer , I think I need that bigger screen and space.
If I bought a Surface Pro 7 , it could surely run for like 10 Years without being obsolete.
I could go for a 11” model which will cost me about 969€ for the 128Gb , but since it will be my only computer , I think I need that bigger screen and space.
i owned both a 12.9" and 11" iPad Pro for over a year. i throw it in my backpack with no issue.
you just abuse your devices. a small percentage of owners experience a bend due to that which is hardly a widespread issue. go search on Twitter, most tweets from the past year link back to jerryrigeverything's ipad bend test. i see a couple of tweets over the past several months complaining about the issue. i see 100x more tweets relating to butterfly switch keyboards failing (even still, I don't think the butterfly switches are a widespread issue, just a higher percentage than bending iPads)
also a bend isn't a sign of quality. a thin laptop can easily bend. it's just a physics issue when you go from a curved edge to a flat edge (for charging the pencil 2) for such a thin device. unless of course you switch over to a different material, but then you're just adding weight which Apple decided to strike a balance between durability and weight. if you look at the surface pro, the magnesium body adds a ton of weight which makes it not so friendly to hold in the hands all day.
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you do know that Apple could have easily nerfed and downclocked the A12X to make A12Z look better and no one would complain, right?