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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.
I have multiple bends in my 12.9---I will not buy another iPad Pro until they figure that out. It is absolutely unacceptable for those devices to bend while being used as intended.
 
None of your complaints apply to the new MacBook Air.

It's quite a good offering. Tooheavy though I think.
I'd take a MacBook 12 with upgraded CPU instead if they offered it (which also has a noticeably better screen)
 
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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.

I never had an iPad 3 or 4, but I think it was more the GPU. The 3 was the first one with Retina Display, so the framebuffer suddenly quadrupled.

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!

Still using an iPad mini 2 with A7 here. It's sluggish, but plays video (except for H.265) and scrolls through Twitter just fine.

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.

mini-LED is gonna be good, but I don't understand people waiting for that specifically. There will always be new tech around the corner. And the first generation of it might not be that great.
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Technically, the iPad with OLED makes a lot of sense and cheaper than MINI-LED!

The iPad Pro not moving to OLED makes more sense to me, due to color accuracy. Mini-LED is a better option there.

I'm not aware of pricing. What are your sources?
 
2 year old chip performance. Meanwhile forum members berate Intel for modest gains.
More like 1.4 years (30 Oct 2018 to 18 Mar 2020).
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Apple doesn't like any of its other devices outshining the iPhone. A14X will likely be for fall 2021, while A13Z will be next years March incremental revision. I think the update was just to support the new camera improvements.
Can you give me an example for when a new (high-end) iPad was released with SoC that had a lower 'version' number than the current iPhone but a higher version number than its predecessor?

Apple skips generations with iPad CPUs, but when it releases a new iPad processor 'generation', it is based on the current iPhone processor.
 
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The chip's "Performance Controller" (i.e., CPU scheduler) will need to be Perf Tested / Evaluated.

As a reminder, the A10 (in the 7/7+) had a simplified design, which worked extremely well (i.e., Extreme High Perf).

Apple incorporated fancier & fancier designs in the A11 & A12, which UN-fortunately, they did NOT fully test BEFORE committing to Silicon !

The A13's Perf Controller is almost as good as the A10's !

The Perf Controller in the A12Z would obviously be their latest design, & may be just as Good as the A10's !

Note that this is NOT something the Avg iPhone OR iPad User would ever discover, OR know about.

ONLY those who use Extreme Perf CPU-oriented apps, of which there are very few.

Those who remember Phil's statements about the Perf Controller a few A-series chips back, should have more insight than others into this part of the chip.

But ALSO, ask yourself, why does Apple NEVER mention it anymore ???

You now know the reason !!!

Please cite where you found this. From what little I can find, A12 performs quite well under crushing loads.
 
This is a bit disappointing as I’m upgrading from a 2018 -> 2020 11”. But the main reason I’m upgrading is because I need more storage on my iPad (I just went with a base model 64GB 11”.)

So basically this update is 1 more GPU core, better camera/AR setup, hopefully a U1 chip, 6GB RAM and fits the new keyboard case a little better.

I hope Apple has some cool LiDAR sensor apps in iOS 14 to make that upgrade worth something. The RAM upgrade will be nice regardless. My current 11” is already fast enough for everything I use it for, but still the A14X iPad in 2021 is going to be smoking fast in comparison given the two generation CPU/GPU jump.
 
Wonderful... so what I've ordered is essentially the exact same 12.9" iPad I already have with SLOWER RAM???? I would be ok with the minor improvement in other areas, but the slower RAM is absolutely unacceptable. I will have to do some testing of my own.
 
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.
You nailed it. I usually upgrade my iPhone every year, my AW every other year and my iPad every 3 or 4 years. This was not a conscious decision up front, it is just they way it worked out based on how the products evolved. AW3 basically just added cellular and I was not in a big hurry for that so I waited to upgrade until the AW4 came out in all its splendor. Then AW5 came out with not much more than the always on display which was nice but not enough to make me want to upgrade.
 
Please cite where you found this. From what little I can find, A12 performs quite well under crushing loads.

That fella wrote some weird app with a bug they couldn't reproduce on other devices, concluded the A12 CPU is at fault, and has been talking about it ever since.
 
Wonderful... so what I've ordered is essentially the exact same 12.9" iPad I already have with SLOWER RAM???? I would be ok with the minor improvement in other areas, but the slower RAM is absolutely unacceptable. I will have to do some testing of my own.

  1. Why did you renew a product if you don't have any needs?
  2. We need to wait for iOs 13.4 before jumping to the conclusion
  3. The memory may be slower in benchmark due to dual-channel issue when you don't have RAM parity, but real usage improvement is waited, if prefer a lower antutu score and a more stable safari
 
  1. Why did you renew a product if you don't have any needs?
  2. We need to wait for iOs 13.4 before jumping to the conclusion
  3. The memory may be slower in benchmark due to dual-channel issue when you don't have RAM parity, but real usage improvement is waited, if prefer a lower antutu score and a more stable safari

Hi there... I actually do use my iPad for music production. In fact, every single and an entire album I released last year was conceived on the iPad then exported into Ableton for further arrangement and editing. (and yes my music is actually on the store fronts etc.) The speed at which that export occurs impacts my workflow. My HOPE was that this new processor would offer a performance boost of some sort so I could save some time on the export.

HOWEVER, if the RAM is slower then that entire notion goes out the damn window.

And, in the future, please try and be courteous instead of asking snarky questions like "why did you upgrade if you had no needs?" Comments like those just pollute and distract from the conversation.

Next time instead of assuming just ask “why did you want to upgrade?”
 
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...a small percentage of owners experience a bend...

Perhaps.

Let's see. Apple shipped about 11.4 million iPads in the first quarter when the 2018 model was released. If only 1/2 of 1% of them had bending issues, that's 57,000 units right out of the chute.

Many people here on this very forum have posted about their bent iPad Pros, and the poster's here are rabid Apple fans and a very small subset of the overall market. It's not an imaginary issue. Word of this has also impeded many -- like me -- from upgrading from the Gen 2 model. That's a number that is unknown.

If only 1/2 of 1% of the users has experienced this (a made-up number by me for sure, but it's a "small percentage", and it very well could be higher), what do you say to those 57,000 customers who bought a $1200 piece of equipment that they perceive as faulty? They don't matter?

I'll wait. I'm looking to upgrade. The specs on the new unit are better than mine, but as a superuser who travels extensively and uses my iPad heavily, I'll look to what people are saying when the shipments start showing up on their doorsteps.
 
Definitely won’t be upgrading my 2018 11” iPad Pro...but if Apple had added an iPad Pro mini, I would have upgraded my 2019 ipad mini 5 in a heartbeat. I would love a flat edged ipad mini with slimmer bezels that I could share my apple pencil 2 with my 11” ipad pro. But alas, it was not to be. Hope Apple offers one down the road.
 
I never had an iPad 3 or 4, but I think it was more the GPU. The 3 was the first one with Retina Display, so the framebuffer suddenly quadrupled.



Still using an iPad mini 2 with A7 here. It's sluggish, but plays video (except for H.265) and scrolls through Twitter just fine.



mini-LED is gonna be good, but I don't understand people waiting for that specifically. There will always be new tech around the corner. And the first generation of it might not be that great.
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The iPad Pro not moving to OLED makes more sense to me, due to color accuracy. Mini-LED is a better option there.

I'm not aware of pricing. What are your sources?
The GPU was beefed up with the A5X but that didn't really help that the A5 series overall didn't fare well on iOS versions after 6. 7 was ok and 8 and 9 were very bad (I had a 3 myself). Overall though I still think the 3 was the better buy than the 2 at the time I bought it, the performance was about the same but you go the retina display into the deal. I still managed all the way up to the release of the first iPad Pro 12.9 with it though, despite the fact it was very laggy and slow on iOS 8/9. I regularly had that famous typing lag where you'd type something out and the keyboard would fall behind you!

I think the extra HDR hit mini LED will allow will be quite a big difference for content consumption, so that's why I'm content to wait. As with my 3 and 12.9 gen 1 I will be keeping this for several years, so I think if I were to get the just-released model (which otherwise I would be more than happy with) I would be wanting mini LED when it arrives, so for me personally I think it's better to wait and get it.
 
Apple for some time has indicated the use case for iPad is a computer replacement for most. The keyboard with touchpad launch is the key to this spec bump. With that keyboard I would now agree that for most this solution is a computer replacement.

My guess, the spec bump was because, "why not?" the real gem here for Apple was the new keyboard, and I note that it is backward compatible indicating to me that Apple knew most with the current model wouldn't be triggered to upgrade, but may add the keyboard and completely move to iOs for their daily needs. If one is obtuse to the iPad idea for what it is they still have the MBA. My creative pursuits still work better for me with MBP, but that gap is clearly narrowing as time marches forward.
 
The speed at which that export occurs impacts my workflow. My HOPE was that this new processor would offer a performance boost of some sort so I could save some time on the export.

Fair enough. But this is just the 2018 CPU with some minor tweaks (one more GPU core, and that's about it).

HOWEVER, if the RAM is slower then that entire notion goes out the damn window.

I wouldn't put too much thought into that single benchmark. It could be a bug on the benchmark's end, it could be something Apple will fix in 13.4.1, etc. I can't think of a reason why memory speed would have changed significantly one way or another.

And, in the future, please try and be courteous instead of asking snarky questions like "why did you upgrade if you had no needs?" People with your attitude pollute and distract from the conversation.

I think it's a valid question. Upgrading a $1k+ computer after a year and a half without having a specific reason is an unusual choice. Apple didn't say this came with a significant performance boost, and from the CPU branding, the clear suggestion is that it doesn't.

Either way, this one isn't for you. The major changes to the hardware involve the camera, and the added LiDAR, not the CPU. Wait this generation out.
 
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Definitely won’t be upgrading my 2018 11” iPad Pro...but if Apple had added an iPad Pro mini, I would have upgraded my 2019 ipad mini 5 in a heartbeat. I would love a flat edged ipad mini with slimmer bezels that I could share my apple pencil 2 with my 11” ipad pro. But alas, it was not to be. Hope Apple offers one down the road.
Probably whenever the Pros are next redesigned the Air will inherit the 11" design (maybe sans some high end features like the quad speakers) and the mini will be redesigned to match it in a smaller size and maintain feature parity. Not likely to be soon though.
 
I don't think it's an easy decision for everybody. People will determine their own buying strategies.

I think it should be, though. Year-over-year upgrades are rarely worth the money. The MacBook Air moving from Amber Lake to Ice Lake, from 14nm to 10nm, from two cores to four cores (except for the i3), and everything else that came with it, is an exception, not the rule.
 
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