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iPad Can the 9.7 pro handle new multitasking features?

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freddisier

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 11, 2016
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The 9.7 pro is giving me flashbacks of the iPad 3 (first retina edition), which I also got and it became crippled after just 2 iOS iterations. The 9,7 is quite limited in terms of hardware power, and as someone has pointed out in another thread, it doesn't work well at all when he tried to open 3 apps in the split view mode. Now the new multi task features really excited me but can my 9.7 handle it well? What do you guys think? Probably we 9.7 owners need to be very careful about whether we'd want to upgrade it to iOS 11. I'm not here for upgrading my iPad to have those features with the user experiences being badly affected (like laggy transition, longer app loading time, even worse battery life...)

Ugh, to think that the 2 iPads I got get the same treatment (low balled hardware, short shelf life...).
 
Abazigal said:
Our 9.7" iPad pros just became second-class citizens.
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That's typically always been the case when a new model is released (e.g. Siri support in iPhone 4S but not iPhone 4).

Buy a device based on performance and features at the time of purchase. Don't count on updates to add new features, etc. because there are no guarantees that the device you purchased will support them.
 
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freddisier said:
ugh, this is sooo frustrating. Why do i have such bad luck with iPads. I got the iPad3 and now this....
Click to expand...

Seriously overreacting if you’re getting flashbacks of the iPad 3

That was only on market for 6 months, the 9.7 Pro over a year.

iPad 3 had an a5x chip which was underpowered when it came out relative to display it was pushing (despite it being close in power to the a6 in the iPhone 5, the Retina display on the iPad was too many pixels to push) , the A9X has no trouble whatsoever pushing the iPad Pro 9.7 display at all. It’s still an incredibly speedy iPad.

The 9.7 pro is still fine. Not to mention it is still more powerful than the “2017” standard iPad which Apple just released and will support for years. The a9x is a beast chip and just because a new one comes out doesn’t suddenly make it obsolete solely because it has 2GB of ram.

My mini 4 runs fantastic on iOS 11 beta, and it “only” has a regular A8 chip.
 
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rui no onna said:
That's typically always been the case when a new model is released (e.g. Siri support in iPhone 4S but not iPhone 4).

Buy a device based on performance and features at the time of purchase. Don't count on updates to add new features, etc. because there are no guarantees that the device you purchased will support them.
Click to expand...

The 12.9 was released even earlier but it will have those features. This is just not fair at all. Obviously 9.7 was just a money grab strategy. I'm so pissed right now.
[doublepost=1496722172][/doublepost]
nordique said:
Seriously overreacting if you’re getting flashbacks of the iPad 3

That was only on market for 6 months, the 9.7 Pro over a year.

iPad 3 had an a5x chip which was underpowered when it came out relative to display it was pushing (despite it being close in power to the a6 in the iPhone 5, the Retina display on the iPad was too many pixels to push) , the A9X has no trouble whatsoever pushing the iPad Pro 9.7 display at all. It’s still an incredibly speedy iPad.

The 9.7 pro is still fine. Not to mention it is still more powerful than the “2017” standard iPad which Apple just released and will support for years. The a9x is a beast chip and just because a new one comes out doesn’t suddenly make it obsolete solely because it has 2GB of ram.

My mini 4 runs fantastic on iOS 11 beta, and it “only” has a regular A8 chip.
Click to expand...

I have no doubt it will run smoothly on existing features but potentially the new features (that are exciting and will make a lot of differences) won't be so smooth.
 
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rui no onna said:
That's typically always been the case when a new model is released (e.g. Siri support in iPhone 4S but not iPhone 4).

Buy a device based on performance and features at the time of purchase. Don't count on updates to add new features, etc. because there are no guarantees that the device you purchased will support them.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I kinda knew the 2gb of ram would come to bite me in the behind when I bought the 9.7" iPad pro last year, but I really wanted the Apple Pencil, and the 12.9" iPad Pro was too bulky for a mobile solution in the classroom. It's been an awesome 1+ year with the 9.7" iPad Pro nevertheless.

In the very least, I will still get the drag-and-drop functionality, the updated multitasking UI and the file manager, the A9x processor should keep everything running smoothly and the 12 mp camera is no slouch (yes, I am one of those people who uses the iPad camera on a regular basis).
 
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Far too early. No one knows what limitation IOS has yet,beta or not, nor how much ram the new 10.5 IPad has either for that matter.

So best to let thing settle down and some answers to come officially, rather then made judgements based on speculation.
 
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yeah it was a good 1 year with my 9.7 too, i absolutely love it. I wish I had bought the 12.9 though cos now I'm doing a lot of note taking on the 9.7 in split view and the screen is just too small. Also, the new features will be OK on the 12.9 :( ugh. I should never trust myself with deciding on buying a new ipad ever again.
 
Not sure what all the whining is about. Running three apps is something you do in a pinch......it hardly looks very productive even in that screenshot.
 
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freddisier said:
The 12.9 was released even earlier but it will have those features. This is just not fair at all. Obviously 9.7 was just a money grab strategy. I'm so pissed right now.
[doublepost=1496722172][/doublepost]

I have no doubt it will run smoothly on existing features but potentially the new features (that are exciting and will make a lot of differences) won't be so smooth.
Click to expand...

To your first point, one could argue every product is a money grab. The 9.7 pro did have features the 12.9 inch model didn't have, notably the true tone display

To your second point, other than 3 app multitasking and apple pencil features, everything else showed off today seems to work on my mini 4.

there will always be new features. The iPhone 6s came out a year after the iPhone 6, and was a serious spec upgrade from the camera to the ram to the processing power to the radio and wifi chips used to the alloy used, and notably to 3D touch. This new iPad is a much more incremental upgrade than that, and it came out over a year later from the previous gen.....if you want to look at the 12.9 model, the new gen came out even later than that (late 2015 to mid 2017)...this is just the natural cycle of products

but its just not correct to say the 9.7 pro is a an iPad 3 situation
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freddisier said:
yeah it was a good 1 year with my 9.7 too, i absolutely love it. I wish I had bought the 12.9 though cos now I'm doing a lot of note taking on the 9.7 in split view and the screen is just too small. Also, the new features will be OK on the 12.9 :( ugh. I should never trust myself with deciding on buying a new ipad ever again.
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Why not just sell your 9.7 while it has some value and put that as a payment towards t he new 12.9 inch model?

I do this every so often with my products and it shaves off purchase price and makes the "upgrade cost" more affordable
 
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maratus said:
But..... iOS uses RAM "differently".... and we don't need more than 2GB RAM :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D (where are those apologists right now, huh?!)
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Back in 2016 you pretty much had the following:

9.7" iPad Air 2: A8X/2GB
9.7" iPad Pro: A9X/2GB
12.9" iPad Pro: A9X/4GB

If you wanted a 10" class iPad, you had no choice but to go 2G. Meanwhile, software just wasn't there yet to take advantage of the 12.9" iPad.

Personally, I'm happy with my decision to get the 9.7" iPP in 2016 and delay purchase of the 12.9" iPP. The $100-200 savings by getting the Air 2 just wasn't worth it to me considering I was getting the fully loaded model (top capacity LTE). Also, I use my iPad a lot for Excel and until my brother recently got an Air 2 to replace his iPad 3, I hadn't realized how much slower Excel was on the Air 2 than on the iPad Pro so that was an unexpected boon.

The 12.9" benefits more from iOS 11 than the 9.7" does and the hardware improvements (CPU and GPU) would certainly help performance. With the 512GB capacity bump, now certainly seems a good time to jump in. :)


freddisier said:
The 12.9 was released even earlier but it will have those features. This is just not fair at all. Obviously 9.7 was just a money grab strategy. I'm so pissed right now.
Click to expand...
Grass is always greener. I'm sure there were plenty of 12.9" iPad Pro 128GB early adopters who were pissed that 12.9" 256GB was released just a few months later and that the 9.7" model had TrueTone but the 12.9" did not.


BorderingOn said:
There's really no excuse for shorting the RAM on the 9.7. I'm sure many of these features were on the road map when the 12.9 was released.
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There isn't but it's something I've come to expect from Apple. They've been skimping on RAM for years. I'm sure if the display on the 2015 12.9 iPad Pro didn't require more RAM, they'd have skimped there, too. :rolleyes:
 
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Abazigal said:
Yeah, I kinda knew the 2gb of ram would come to bite me in the behind when I bought the 9.7" iPad pro last year, but I really wanted the Apple Pencil, and the 12.9" iPad Pro was too bulky for a mobile solution in the classroom. It's been an awesome 1+ year with the 9.7" iPad Pro nevertheless.

In the very least, I will still get the drag-and-drop functionality, the updated multitasking UI and the file manager, the A9x processor should keep everything running smoothly and the 12 mp camera is no slouch (yes, I am one of those people who uses the iPad camera on a regular basis).
Click to expand...

The 9.7 Pro is still a powerhouse iPad and even with 2 GB of Ram, it does not disappoint at all. The A9X is more than enough powerful to handle its capabilities and multitasking support.
 
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The Pro 9.7 may not support the full ios11 feature set.

It's still a relatively fine iPad as things considered. If you have one, I wouldn't rush to upgrade just yet.

But the 10.5 does have some improvements.

If you paid full price on your Pro 9.7"...well, that was unwise.
 
I bought the 9.7 Pro, but could see the writing on the wall early and decided it was best to sell early and see how the next iteration played out. I was hoping for much more advanced multitasking features and knew that 2GB of ram would not cut it. 4GB minimum if you want to get the full iOS 11 experience.
 
I have a 9.7 pro and all of the multitasking features seem to work the same as any other model. cant see any features that are missing so I really wouldn't worry too much
 
Abazigal said:
I doubt it.

https://twitter.com/stroughtonsmith/status/871827846938980354

His tweet seems to suggest that the more advanced multitasking features will only be available on iPads with 4gb ram.

Our 9.7" iPad pros just became second-class citizens.
Click to expand...

If this is true it is a scandal. I really hope Apple is not trying to fraqmentize it's iOS by playing this idiotic Ram lottery game. Putting IPP 9.7" 2gb and IPP2 12.9" 4gb (not confirmed yet)is just awful.

I'm starting to get iPad3 flashbacks and I believe I'm not alone.
 
jumpingjackflash said:
If this is true it is a scandal. I really hope Apple is not trying to fraqmentize it's iOS by playing this idiotic Ram lottery game. Putting IPP 9.7" 2gb and IPP2 12.9" 4gb (not confirmed yet)is just awful.

I'm starting to get iPad3 flashbacks and I believe I'm not alone.
Click to expand...
read the replies to that tweet. I think he was basing it off of the simulator and not an actual device. Somebody with a 12" pro said yes they can open 3 apps, but you cannot control all 3, only the one that is in slideover, which is the same as what you can do with the 9.7 pro, so it doesn't seem that there is any difference
 
kendo88 said:
read the replies to that tweet. I think he was basing it off of the simulator and not an actual device. Somebody with a 12" pro said yes they can open 3 apps, but you cannot control all 3, only the one that is in slideover, which is the same as what you can do with the 9.7 pro, so it doesn't seem that there is any difference
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That twitter thread is unfortunately making the rounds. We need to wait to see what actual hands-on from reliable sources have to say. It shouldn't take more than a few days.
 
Abazigal said:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ipad/comme...reen_while_an_app_on/?st=J3LP66K3&sh=629b4521

One poster on Reddit installed iOS 11 on his iPad Air 2 and found that it supports having three apps onscreen at the same time. Looks like I was mistaken in thinking that you needed 4 gb of ram for this, but it also means the 10.5” iPad will likely not come with 4 gb ram either. Maybe 3 gb?
Click to expand...

That's the same behaviour I'm seeing on the 9.7" Pro when I open a 3rd app. The first 2 in split screen go inactive / inaccessible while the 3rd is on top:

IMG_B4D8A1B42680-1.jpeg


kendo88 said:
I have a 9.7 pro and all of the multitasking features seem to work the same as any other model. cant see any features that are missing so I really wouldn't worry too much
Click to expand...

Only difference I can see is what was mentioned above (when bringing a 3rd app on screen the first two go inactive). Really not a big deal though I'd say.

kendo88 said:
read the replies to that tweet. I think he was basing it off of the simulator and not an actual device. Somebody with a 12" pro said yes they can open 3 apps, but you cannot control all 3, only the one that is in slideover, which is the same as what you can do with the 9.7 pro, so it doesn't seem that there is any difference
Click to expand...

On the 12.9 (and the 2017 Pros) it seems that you can interact with all 3 apps that are on screen (I'm trying to find it, but I saw a video of someone moving content in all 3 apps simultaneously). So it does seem different than the 9.7" Pro. Overall though not a huge issue, just a single use case when really pushing the device. And the 9.7" screen is going to start to feel cramped for 3 apps.

Also, here's another screenshot from Steve Troughton-Smith. He's a great follow on twitter, always posting interesting stuff. Quite sure this is on his 12.9" iPad, and not a simulator:

https://twitter.com/stroughtonsmith/status/871972439642845185

1.jpeg
 
I've just tried with my gen 1 12.9 iPad Pro and can have three apps active at the same time - Safari, GoodReader and a video streaming app all going together and functioning fully. Is this what people are referring to by having three apps together? This is in iOS 10, by the way.

ETA - I see people are posting about iOS 11 specifically...
 
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