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All iPads Every 2nd model has always been the longevity model.

K

Kendo

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 4, 2011
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Going by history, does anyone think the latest iPad is the non-longevity model? I won't bother posting the benefits of the iPad 2, 4, Air 2, 10.5 since everyone knows these are the long lasting models.

iPad 1 - Crippling low 256GB of RAM.
iPad 2
iPad 3 - A5X was underpowered, same CPU as iPad 2 but had to push 4X the pixels with the Retina Display.
iPad 4
iPad Air - A7 (not an A7X) and only 1GB of RAM.
iPad Air 2
iPad Pro 9.7 - Only 2GB of RAM.
iPad Pro 10.5
iPad Pro 11 - Only 4GB of RAM for mainstream models, same amount of RAM as the iPad Pro 12.9 in the year 2015. Also A12X is barely a step above an A10X.

I think it is pretty much guaranteed that the next iPad will elevate the base RAM to 6GB and the A13X will have true "S" level performance bumps. If the new iPad is released in 2019, that'll be 4 years since it has kept 4GB of RAM which isn't likely.
 
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Lobwedgephil said:
Lol. A12X is a massive performance improvement, but yes, the next version will likely be better, and possibly have more Ram.
Click to expand...

A10 to A11 only had a 25% CPU bump and 30% GPU bump. A11 to A12 didn't have huge gains, only in multi-core activity. They even kept the Bionic name since the architecture is still similar. Just saying for a 2 generation CPU jump (A10 to A12), we didn't see enormous gains like in the past.
 
To look at it another way, waiting till the second version has pretty much always meant you were waiting an extra year to get the major leaps forward in tech and design.

IPad to iPad 2 - yes, the 2 had the longer life but at the time of release, there was nothing else available like the original iPad.

IPad 3 got the retina screen.

IPad Air got the significantly reduced bezels and thickness.

IPad Pro 9.7 got the first truly excellent stylus ever available on any tablet.

IPad Pro 11 - fantastic new slim bezel design and improvements to the Pencil.
 
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Life is short. If you can afford what you like, just buy it. Don't waste time on waiting. ;)
 
iPad Pro 11” and 12.9” are on a 3 year upgrade track.
Next years model if there even is one in November 2019 will be a minimal spec bump same case design.
November 2020 will likely bring OLED and I don’t want to be a first gen OLED buyer.
November 2021 finally a second Gen OLED 4K HDR Display that’s when I hope to buy.

Heck I wish I had held into my 9.7” Pro it would have easily lasted 1 more year.
 
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The next update to the iPad Pro probably isn’t coming until Spring of 2020 if you go by the usual 1 1/2 yr upgrade cycle. And the current iPad Pro will last you a very very long time considering how powerful the things are. Heck, the current software can’t even take full advantage of that power yet. So sure, the 13X chip will be faster. But so is the 12x faster than the previous chip. No surprise there. I think anyone who buys one of the current iPad pros will have a very future proof iPad for a long long time.
 
Kendo said:
Going by history, does anyone think the latest iPad is the non-longevity model? I won't bother posting the benefits of the iPad 2, 4, Air 2, 10.5 since everyone knows these are the long lasting models.

iPad 1 - Crippling low 256GB of RAM.
iPad 2
iPad 3 - A5X was underpowered, same CPU as iPad 2 but had to push 4X the pixels with the Retina Display.
iPad 4
iPad Air - A7 (not an A7X) and only 1GB of RAM.
iPad Air 2
iPad Pro 9.7 - Only 2GB of RAM.
iPad Pro 10.5
iPad Pro 11 - Only 4GB of RAM for mainstream models, same amount of RAM as the iPad Pro 12.9 in the year 2015. Also A12X is barely a step above an A10X.

I think it is pretty much guaranteed that the next iPad will elevate the base RAM to 6GB and the A13X will have true "S" level performance bumps. If the new iPad is released in 2019, that'll be 4 years since it has kept 4GB of RAM which isn't likely.
Click to expand...
If never heard the iPad 4 described as a long lasting model. Compared to the woeful iPad 3, yes, but its longevity is not comparable to the iPad 2 or iPad Air 2 (the two models I’ve had, happily enough).
 
Lobwedgephil said:
Lol. A12X is a massive performance improvement, but yes, the next version will likely be better, and possibly have more Ram.
Click to expand...

But in real world performance that most focus on? I notice no difference. Both have a long life ahead of them. The lack of RAM with these new models might become a problem at some point.
 
Kendo said:
Going by history, does anyone think the latest iPad is the non-longevity model? I won't bother posting the benefits of the iPad 2, 4, Air 2, 10.5 since everyone knows these are the long lasting models.

iPad 1 - Crippling low 256GB of RAM.
iPad 2
iPad 3 - A5X was underpowered, same CPU as iPad 2 but had to push 4X the pixels with the Retina Display.
iPad 4
iPad Air - A7 (not an A7X) and only 1GB of RAM.
iPad Air 2
iPad Pro 9.7 - Only 2GB of RAM.
iPad Pro 10.5
iPad Pro 11 - Only 4GB of RAM for mainstream models, same amount of RAM as the iPad Pro 12.9 in the year 2015. Also A12X is barely a step above an A10X.

I think it is pretty much guaranteed that the next iPad will elevate the base RAM to 6GB and the A13X will have true "S" level performance bumps. If the new iPad is released in 2019, that'll be 4 years since it has kept 4GB of RAM which isn't likely.
Click to expand...

I disagree ever second model has been the red headed step child.
Imagine a second gen 10.5” a year later all the huge improvements.

Imagine a IPhone 8’s Plus and a year later the XsMAX.

These are pretty huge improvements.

If you bought an 8s Plus last year and a 10.”5 iPad Pro last year.
Vs. the same options in 2018
A 6.5” XsMAX OLED and a 11” iPad Pro with an 8 Core A12X
These are huge Updates.

I always buy not on the Second Gen but on the Redesign.

IPad Air 2 amazing device lasted 2 year. October 2014-October 2016
IPad Pro 9.7 even more amazing lasted 2 year October 2016- October 2018
IPad Pro 11” stunning in every way. October 2018-October 2021 I am gonna try and make it last 3 years.
 
I think for me it’s a trap to anticipate the longest life cycle. I’m a proffessional that really does use the ipad truly for my proffession, and honestly probably upgrade way too much already. That said, I had planned on keeping that 10.5 pro for years. I maxed it out and had two cases and then this new form factor comes down the pipeline and was too much to resist.
 
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Nobody can take you seriously after you said "A12X is barely a step above an A10X."

The A12X is rivaling Core i7 quad-core desktop performance. Barely a step above? I'd say this is one of the more significant processor years for the iPad. It's actually pretty insane. Many people thought that Apple's chip team would slow down considerably as they approached desktop level performance. Turns out, at least for now, they're chugging full steam ahead with no sign of slowing. I always thought they would catch up, just not quite this soon, and I certainly didn't think they would surpass desktop performance, but in some ways they are, and it's quite possible that these could end up being the fastest chips period within a few more years—especially if they make a Mac version with a higher TDP.

It's also important to remember that the A12X GPU is about the same as the Xbox One S in a device that is a fraction of the size. I think that's about twice as fast as it was before. The One S is on the slower side of modern consoles, but given the size and power limits it's pretty amazing.

I'll give you an argument for RAM, but the CPU and GPU are incredible. And even so, the RAM isn't bad, especially when you consider how lightweight iOS is when it comes to multitasking and the memory compression they utilize. I think it will most hurt professionals who are working with huge image files in Photoshop, which on iOS, at least for the next several years, won't be very many people at all. It may hurt with regard to a missing feature or two iOS 14 or 15, though. With the ~1.5 year cycle we seem to be on now, these iPads will get everything new in iOS 13, which should include a major overhaul to make it better for productivity and professional workflows, if the rumors are to be believed. This could add some memory overhead, so if you want to buy an iPad and have it last for 5-6 years, buy the 1TB model with 6GB of RAM. Moving forward I'm planning on upgrading every other time, so about every three years, and don't see many issues with RAM cropping up within that timeframe. Especially since the regular 2018 iPad just shipped this year with 2GB, and Apple seems to be supporting their devices for 5-6 years now. So it will last that long, just might not get all the bells and whistles after 3 or 4 years.
 
macduke said:
Nobody can take you seriously after you said "A12X is barely a step above an A10X."

The A12X is rivaling Core i7 quad-core desktop performance. Barely a step above? I'd say this is one of the more significant processor years for the iPad. It's actually pretty insane. Many people thought that Apple's chip team would slow down considerably as they approached desktop level performance. Turns out, at least for now, they're chugging full steam ahead with no sign of slowing. I always thought they would catch up, just not quite this soon, and I certainly didn't think they would surpass desktop performance, but in some ways they are, and it's quite possible that these could end up being the fastest chips period within a few more years—especially if they make a Mac version with a higher TDP.
Click to expand...

But that is only on paper and in multi-core which iOS isn't even robust enough to do heavy multi-tasking like macOS. So yes in benchmarks it screams on multi-core but it isn't a huge gain in single-core which most people use their phone for (open up a game, open up Facebook, open up Safari).
[doublepost=1543346189][/doublepost]
PBG4 Dude said:
“Only” 25% gain. Show me the last time Intel had a generational leap of 25%. I’ll wait.
Click to expand...

Compared to Intel desktops which have matured in the past decade, no Intel doesn't have 25% gains. But I'm doing an apples to apples comparison (Apple vs Apple, not Apple vs Intel). So yes, compared to prior A chip increases, the A11 and A12 aren't huge gains.

A4 to A5 - 100% CPU and 900% GPU (900% is not a typo)
A5 to A6 - 100% CPU and 100% GPU
A6 to A7 - 100% CPU and 100% GPU
A8 to A9 - 70% CPU and 90% GPU
A9 to A10 - 40% CPU and 50% GPU
A10 to A11 - 25% CPU and 30% GPU
A11 to A12 - 15% CPU and 50% GPU
 
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Kendo said:
But that is only on paper and in multi-core which iOS isn't even robust enough to do heavy multi-tasking like macOS. So yes in benchmarks it screams on multi-core but it isn't a huge gain in single-core which most people use their phone for (open up a game, open up Facebook, open up Safari).
[doublepost=1543346189][/doublepost]

Compared to Intel desktops which have matured in the past decade, no Intel doesn't have 25% gains. But I'm doing an apples to apples comparison (Apple vs Apple, not Apple vs Intel). So yes, compared to prior A chip increases, the A11 and A12 aren't huge gains.

A4 to A5 - 100% CPU and 900% GPU (900% is not a typo)
A5 to A6 - 100% CPU and 100% GPU
A6 to A7 - 100% CPU and 100% GPU
A8 to A9 - 70% CPU and 90% GPU
A9 to A10 - 40% CPU and 50% GPU
A10 to A11 - 25% CPU and 30% GPU
A11 to A12 - 15% CPU and 50% GPU
Click to expand...
Ummm…not sure if you realize this, but the old iPad ran the A10X and the new one runs the A12X. Within the context of iPad Pro, you can't compare generations A11 to A12. There was never an A11X and we're talking about the A12X.

Geekbench hasn't updated their charts yet (weird) but the old iPad Pro got 3914. Looking at the new benchmarks, it seems to be averaging around 5025. That's an increase of 28.4% for single core only. And yes, many professional apps are using multiple cores. Grand Central Dispatch has been around for a long time! It can also be useful for multitasking on the iPad, and allows for more background processing of images and machine learning with iCloud photos, or for faster rendering of video for sending or saving out to another service.

Of course in the early days you would have bigger increases every year. But you were also going from Geekbench scores of 808 in the iPad 4th gen to 1326 in the iPad Air. Meanwhile MacBook Pros at that time were maxing out around 4200 single core in Geekbench. What's important to note is that the 2018 iPad Pro is getting single core scores better than the mid-2018 MacBook Pro, and similar scores to the base model iMac Pro. It's 5.9mm thin. That is pretty impressive, and based on the rumors floating around, Apple seems to have some big updates in store for iOS 13 to make the iPad better suited for professionals. I'm looking forward to what they've cooked up since they didn't do much on the iPad last year as the rumors said they decided to hold it for a bigger overhaul. To me, the switch to USB-C is a clear indication that they want to move this thing into the same productivity category as the MacBook Air but with more processing power. Hope I'm not wrong.
 
So many threads with people trying to predict Apple’s upgrade cycle. The 10.5 was a new iteration last year, and when I bought it I was thinking we likely wouldn’t see any changes for at least one more cycle.

If you think you can predict Apple’s upgrade cycle, you’re likely wrong. Either use what you have, or sell it and get a new version.

11incher on its way!
 
Kendo said:
A4 to A5 - 100% CPU and 900% GPU (900% is not a typo)
A5 to A6 - 100% CPU and 100% GPU
A6 to A7 - 100% CPU and 100% GPU
A8 to A9 - 70% CPU and 90% GPU
A9 to A10 - 40% CPU and 50% GPU
A10 to A11 - 25% CPU and 30% GPU
A11 to A12 - 15% CPU and 50% GPU
Click to expand...
You do know, that in absolute numbers these 15 % could mean actually more than the 100 % in the beginning?
Example: Let's start with a score/figure/geekbench value or whatever with 100.
A4: 100 / 100
A5: 200 / 900
A6: 400 / 1800
A7: 800 / 3600
???
A9: 1360 / 6840
A10: 1904 / 10260
A11: 2380 / 13338
A12: 2737 / 20007
Just a thought...
 
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