Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Don't buy 9'7" iPad pro if you're not going to use the pencil with it! (It's only an advice...)
- Thread starter joscejrod
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Artists do. I've sunk over $250 trying to get the perfect active iPad stylus before the Apple Pencil was on the scene. My Wacom tablet cost way more than my previous IPad..
The pencil only has a few usage scenarios (note taking, art, etc) - but it's the most interesting Apple tech in ages for me. The reason I'm excited for the Pro at all is that it enables the stylus. We have the technology, finally..
It's also really damn reassuring to see Apple cater to any niche, even if it is a pretty big one. Creatives have felt pretty burnt with the Aperture cancellation, the weird final cut and Mac Pro situations etc.
Last edited:
But don't buy it unless you'll be using the pencil! ;-)
Last edited:
True. But I draw on a white piece of paper, scan into adobe and can do the exact same thing.
im intrigued as to what you meant by this. How is drawing on a piece of paper and scanning into adobe" anything like doing the entire workflow, from pencils through inks to colouring/painting on a tablet with a good stylus? That's nothing like the same thing so I'm guessing you mean something else?
As I've said before -
"So take a pass on it already.
There are a hell of a lot of others who have upgraded from older iPads and we've upgraded to the latest and greatest iPad that Apple has to offer at THIS . POINT . IN . TIME.
And for now, my iPad is superior to your iPad in every respect - even how it writes to that 2GB of RAM that you so despise."
Basically, people are not saying "ipad pro sucks". People are saying "Something out there offer similar performance which cost a lot less."
iPad air 64G with 2G ram cost $100 bucks cheaper than ipad pro 32G with 2G ram. The CPU in real world usage won't see much difference as most ipad air 2 > ipad pro users said in this forum. In every single IOS release in the past, upgrading to newer IOS version always kill older device with less ram, but not older device with slower CPU. If any future newer IOS version that will kill the ipad air 2, it will definitely kill the ipad pro as you can see in the video link above, the speed difference is talking about 1-3 seconds MAX in real world testing....
iPad air 2 offer pretty close CPU performance +2G ram. If people are not planning to use the pen or keyboard, "Something out there offer similar performance which cost a lot less."
Last edited:
That video actually showed a more noticeable difference than I expected. I've spent what most will likely consider an insane amount to equip all my computers with SSDs in order to get near instantaneous response times. I'm seeing that same level of performance with the Pro 9.7.
Not really. Maybe back when iOS devices shipped with 128-256MB RAM, that may have been true. At 512MB+, the CPU/GPU has become far more important for single app performance. Case in point, iPad 2, 3 and 4. The iPad 2 (512MB) and 4 (1GB) handled subsequent iOS releases better than the iPad 3 because of more suitable CPU/GPU relative to hardware being supported. Same with the iPhone 4 and 4S.
Last edited:
Wait, you made this thread about how the iPad Pro isn't worth it and then went out and bought one anyway? Weird.
Tomorrow, I'm going to return it! When I created the post, I wrote based on theory and my thoughts. Now, my opinion is based on my own experience.
Make sure you post a thread commanding everyone to return theirs too.
*unless you are going to use the pencil, then you have permission to keep it.
It also represents the end of an era when you didn't have to pay a premium to get the latest iPad. Instead it can be sold as a "Pro" version wth a higher price.
I will stick with my Air 2, as I'm not a really serious iPad user. I haven't even bothered to update from the factory install of 8.4.1 on it yet, runs very smoothly.
Actually, no. Please see the video here.
Newer IOS ALWAYS kills older device with less ram, even running the same app. The test was a iphone 4S with 512M ram. You can clearly see the speed difference on newer IOS is WAY slower. Starting at IOS 7, you can see it lagging, which IOS 7 was started to built for 1G ram device.
Running the same app across different IOS should be the same speed given CPU is the same, however, that's not the case. Newer IOS killed those device with less ram.
The video uses the same iPhone model so same CPU and same amount of RAM so it doesn't actually prove your point regarding RAM being the cause of the slowdown. New iOS versions require more system resources. That's not exactly news.
What would have been a better comparison is iPhone 4 vs 4S (A4 vs A5, both 512MB RAM) or iPhone 5 vs 5s (A6 vs A7, both 1GB RAM) running the same iOS version.
The video is great, it shows the evolution of iOS, across a single device. Just wish we could install older versions on our phones, but I can understand why Apple doesn't allow it. Though, they should allow you to upgrade to the last iteration, of the iOS erosion you are on.
As I said before, if it is running the same app on two different IOS version, the speed should be the same because the app should consume exact amount of CPU power no matter what IOS u are running. The video show that running same app, apps tend to run and open faster in older version of IOS.
New iOS version require more system resources, yes. But once you open the the app and within the app, CPU usage is dedicate to one single app, CPU usage should be same across iOS version within the app. And this can be confirmed by SSH into the iphone if u are jaikbreaked. If the app run slowly within the app, the only variable left is because newer iOS use more RAM in general and leaving less memory for the app to use which slow down the app in newer iOS version
And thats why I said if newer iOS kills ipad air 2, it will kill ipad pro 9.7 as well.
Last edited:
Increased OS overhead is a factor and that can be CPU, GPU, RAM, storage or any combination of the four. Another thing, a number of the "apps" tested in the video are embedded into the OS. It's quite possible that the versions of apps embedded into newer iOS firmware are more resource-hungry compared to ones on older iOS. Mind, if you go back to when he ran Geekbench in the video, scores are actually pretty close across all firmware versions.
RAM helps via caching so you don't have to continuously pull data from slower storage or even slower internet and so the CPU/GPU doesn't have to redo tasks over and over. Yes, newer iOS versions use more RAM but the CPU/GPU and memory bandwidth plays a bigger role when it comes to performance.
I have an iPad 3, 4 and Air all of which come with 1GB RAM. The iPad 3 was practically unusable past iOS 6 (although things have improved somewhat with iOS 9). Meanwhile, barring my high expectations, both the 4 and Air have actually been doing decently enough on iOS 8 and 9.
For comparison with the same amount of RAM, the earlier video you posted is actually more relevant.
Funnily enough, the differences between iPad 3 and 4 on iOS 5/6 were similar to the above video. The strength of the A6 chipset didn't really become quite apparent until later after a few firmware upgrades (iOS 7-9).
That said, the Air 2 is still a fairly capable tablet and since most developers tend to cater to the lowest common denominator, I reckon it's still got quite a bit of life left for most users.
Watching this video made me realise how much I miss iOS 5 and 6 fun skeumorphism.