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How is iPadOS 26 performance on Pro 2018 11”?

P

Princess C.

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Debating whether or not to update to iPadOS 26 because I’m afraid performance might slow down or is laggy.

To those who have the Pro 2018, how has performance, including the battery, been on the 7 year old A12x bionic chip?
 
Curious as well from a 2018 13in iPP owner's perspective. I think I will hold off. My iPad has slowed down significantly recently and I think iPad OS 26 could be the nail in the coffin.
 
I don’t really use my old 2018 since I replace it, but I did upgrade it to 26 and after using it for a few minutes I’d say it’s usable, but stutters at times. Note this is with no third party apps on it as I wiped it before updating. I dumped it during iPadOS 18 because of apps constantly being dumped out of memory. I expect that got worse in 26.
 
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I can't say I've pushed it but it seems to run ok. I have the 64GB variant with a busted screen that I really only use as a bedtime reader. The battery already sucks, so I can't really say if it's worse on iPadOS 26.
 
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Princess C. said:
Debating whether or not to update to iPadOS 26 because I’m afraid performance might slow down or is laggy.

To those who have the Pro 2018, how has performance, including the battery, been on the 7 year old A12x bionic chip?
Click to expand...
It seemed ok to me, but I only used it for a bit before buying a new iPad because I wanted external monitor support.

I still have the 2018 and I use it for a tiny number of use cases now, but it seems ok… except the Journal app… oh boy does that not run good
 
It's an absolute disaster. I couldn't downgrade to iPadOS 26 because Apple stopped signing it hours before I decided to, so now my iPad looks ******** than ever.
 
TigerMSTR said:
The device overheats regularly, battery is terrible, animations are super glitchy, Springboard crashes, WiFi disconnects and crashes, Safari freezes the entire operating system. All on the M4.
Click to expand...
None of this on my M1. What you describe what what I experienced in the first 2 betas, but since August it has been great (now I am out of beta on 26.0). My M4 is still on 18.
 
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iPadOS 26 is running fine on my 2018 11" iPad Pro. It runs just as fast as it did with iPadOS 18 and I have not noticed any difference in the battery drain.

The only reason I decided to upgrade is the fact that the 2018 does not support Apple Intelligence which means that not all iPadOS 26 features are available.
 
DO NOT under ANY circumstances upgrade to ipadOS 26. It’s a searing mess already on the M1. I wish so much I could downgrade!!!!
 
mabaker said:
DO NOT under ANY circumstances upgrade to ipadOS 26. It’s a searing mess already on the M1. I wish so much I could downgrade!!!!
Click to expand...

Not much information here. Performance was completely fine on my M1 from DB3 all the way until PB2. My son has it now and has had no issues with it. My wife upgraded her M1 Air and has had no issues.

My son also briefly tried PB1 on his 2018 12.9 IPP before I gave him my M1 and he had no issues with it. We only upgraded because I didn't think his 2018 would last 4 more years. He should have no problem with the M1.
 
Not what you asked, but my Wi-Fi 12.9" A12Z gen.4 is working better than it was, and battery isn't draining as fast.
I think the main reason is I did a full reset and fresh install of 26, not a lay over.
The System Data was at 13GB before reset and now it's 4.6GB.
 
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Genelec8341 said:
Not what you asked, but my Wi-Fi 12.9" A12Z gen.4 is working better than it was, and battery isn't draining as fast.
I think the main reason is I did a full reset and fresh install of 26, not a lay over.
The System Data was at 13GB before reset and now it's 4.6GB.
Click to expand...
I had not considered that. Maybe i'll roll the dice and try a clean install of 26 this weekend on my 2018 A12X iPP. Thanks for the idea.
 
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gusping said:
I had not considered that. Maybe i'll roll the dice and try a clean install of 26 this weekend on my 2018 A12X iPP. Thanks for the idea.
Click to expand...
Update: 2018 iPP seems to be running pretty well on iPad OS 26. Maybe a touch better than on iPad OS 18, but again, could just be due to a clean install. Hopefully this will last another year or so until the next iPad Air (with promotion maybe) comes out.
 
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