Benchmarks Suggest New iPad Pro's A12Z Chip is Nearly Identical to A12X in 2018 iPad Pro

Gonna hold onto my 10.5 even longer. Feels like these new iPads are placeholders. I do hope some sort of keyboard and trackpad combo comes out for the 10.5 from a third party thought.
 
I’m happy right now. I purchased the top of the line 2018 model when it was released (12.9, LTE, 1tb) and this just sealed the deal that I can continue to use this model i have now for a while longer (I have an addiction where I Must have the latest model). But in no way am I feeling pressure to purchase this new model!!! I will be picking up the magic keyboard when released in May though. $350 dollars is a much better pill to swallow than a almost $2000 dollar purchase.

Just glad the 2018 models are holding up so well for so long!
 
I can't buy an iPad because it's bendy, has bad IPS glow and they jacked up prices for no reason. (Software with the new keyboard is a little better)

I can't buy a MacBook for the last several years because of the keyboard, old internals, that stupid touchbar and they jacked up the prices.

Wake me when the iPad is OLED and they bring back the super portable MacBook 12 with pen and tablet form factor support.
 
Shouldn't this be obvious, considering it's named 12Z instead of 13X? Obviously it will perform similarly to the 12X as it has the same exact cores other than the extra GPU core.

What the tech community should be asking is, why did Apple decide to do a 12Z instead of a 13X or even 14X? Is Apple facing production issues? Or are they hoping to pair the A14X straight with 5G? Is it just a marketing strategy or actual production issue?
 
DeepIn2U said:
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.
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Foxconn doesn’t even make chips.


ErikGrim said:
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.
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Makes sense. Plus the fact they’re all 6GB will encourage developers to target more RAM as necessary.

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.
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Video editing (eg. LumaFusion) easily brings the 10.5” iPad Pro to its knees.
 
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ian87w said:
Shouldn't this be obvious, considering it's named 12Z instead of 13X? Obviously it will perform similarly to the 12X as it has the same exact cores other than the extra GPU core.

What the tech community should be asking is, why did Apple decide to do a 12Z instead of a 13X or even 14X? Is Apple facing production issues? Or are they hoping to pair the A14X straight with 5G? Is it just a marketing strategy or actual production issue?
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My guess is it's a combination of the A12 series still being plenty good, and the A13 having high demand on the iPhone end. They didn't want to needlessly create a supply shortfall for iPhones.
 
Why can't Apple come out and say we have nothing new to add to the iPad Pro but newer models will be released at the end of 2020 instead of having the customer play the guess game? These expensive devices last at least few years so its really worth it to wait some months for the next big update. Not everyone makes Cook's salary so we can't just buy latest updated model whenever it comes out.
 
BB1970 said:
Biding their time until the micro led version comes out
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Micro-Led could be a very long while before we actually see this technology debut. It’s been rumored for years, and I assume it’s still under R&D (It’s actually likely the Apple Watch might be the first to this technology), but I don’t suspect 2020 or even 2021 will we see MicroLed, especially being the Apple probably doesn’t even have the necessary suppliers aligned for micro LED panels. So I doubt they’re really ‘biding’ their time given MiniLED probably will be the next technology display movement with the iPad.
 
cis4life said:
I’m happy right now. I purchased the top of the line 2018 model when it was released (12.9, LTE, 1tb) and this just sealed the deal that I can continue to use this model i have now for a while longer (I have an addiction where I Must have the latest model). But in no way am I feeling pressure to purchase this new model!!! I will be picking up the magic keyboard when released in May though. $350 dollars is a much better pill to swallow than a almost $2000 dollar purchase.

Just glad the 2018 models are holding up so well for so long!
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You literally have the 2020 model already. Your 1TB version comes with 6GB RAM.
 
MacBH928 said:
Why can't Apple come out and say we have nothing new to add to the iPad Pro but newer models will be released at the end of 2020 instead of having the customer play the guess game? These expensive devices last at least few years so its really worth it to wait some months for the next big update. Not everyone makes Cook's salary so we can't just buy latest updated model whenever it comes out.
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Who says you need to buy the latest updated model whenever it comes out? The current model will be sufficient for most users for many years. However, if you want to wait for A14X and 5G, you can do that too.


akuma13 said:
Why is everyone pushing for Micro-LED? Wouldn’t an OLED panel be more feasible( and probable) screen iteration of LCD on the iPad?
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I don’t see many people pushing for micro-LED. Many are considering waiting for mini-LED though.
 
Tmelon said:
Things like this really make me think that this is another iPad 3/4 situation where we‘ll be seeing another model within the next 6 months as was rumored. Also curious to see if anything has been done about the bending Issue.
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We’ll never see that exact situation again, although I understand the context of the point you’re making.

The iPad 3 was basically an iPad 2 with a Retina display, it was crippled out the box and the innards couldn’t power the display and amount of pixels.

Today’s iPad’s are way past that; the 2020 Pro won’t be underpowered or incapable of anything, but could it be refreshed sooner than previous Pro models? Time will tell.
 
Pretty much what I expected. The magic keyboard would have been the only reason for me to upgrade. Nice to see that I’m not missing out on anything substantial by holding onto my 2018. I’ll see what comes with the next revision.
 
iPad Pro is super powerful anyway so speed has never been an issue

For me more ram and 128GB coming as standard is a big deal for my needs
 
rp2011 said:
This one is not aimed at anyone who has the 2018 model. Just as the Apple Watch series 5 was also not meant for those who owned the Series 4.
It’s for first time owners with a slight spec bump.
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Exactly.

Only exception would be if you really have an application/workflow that could really use 50% more RAM, and you didn't sell your house to get the 1 TB last time.
 
MacBH928 said:
Why can't Apple come out and say we have nothing new to add to the iPad Pro but newer models will be released at the end of 2020 instead of having the customer play the guess game?
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What guess game? Last week, the then-current iPad Pro was pretty good, and this week, the new iPad Pro is pretty good.

Last week's will even work with the Magic Keyboard.

MacBH928 said:
These expensive devices last at least few years so its really worth it to wait some months for the next big update. Not everyone makes Cook's salary so we can't just buy latest updated model whenever it comes out.
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Nothing is forcing you to upgrade. Just like with a Mac, an upgrade cycle of three to five years is probably fine.
 
Better graphics, more storage (and faster as larger SSDs tend to inherently have quicker speeds) and 6GB RAM across the board coupled with an already plenty powerful CPU should still add up to a pretty solid performance bump here. People have compared this to the iPad 3, but unlike the A5 which quickly fell short of increasing iOS demands, the A12 still has plenty of headroom for iOS to get more complex and demanding. The A9X in my first gen iPP still runs anything I throw at it with aplomb, the A12Z has on the order of twice the single core performance, four times the multi core performance, and three times the graphics performance!

Really I would only wait for the late year refresh if like myself you really want mini LED and are willing to pay right towards the top end of the price range. Bear in mind the 11" so far isn't rumoured to be updated again this year either.
 
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