For me personally I have a iPad with 128gb and 1meg of ram... Works just fine for what I do. AND the iPad Pro was a big Draw but did not push me over the top to have one... Now its rumored that the IPAD air 3 will have 4K. For me to buy one it would HAVE to HAVE 4K...
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IS 4K UHD a Must have for upgrading?
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for mr.average user, 4K certainly isnt a must. more a curiosity. more cons than pros imo. great for certain applications and certain users i can see, but very niche, especially considering the Pro is most niche in the first place.
I'm on the fence about it. My iPad 3 is sitting in a drawer because its so laggy and frustrating to use it's basically useless. However, the current resolution just isn't keeping up. I'm skeptical Apple would release a 4K display this cycle--though probably the next upgrade will have it.
I'd love to be wrong though and a 4K iPad would be an automatic buy for me.
I'd love to be wrong though and a 4K iPad would be an automatic buy for me.
If they indeed do the 9.7" iPad Pro (which they likely will, since 4 speakers have been confirmed) then I bet they'll have a ~4K display too. They are going to be increasing the price, so that warrants a significant spec upgrade, which would include higher res, as the 12.9" iPad Pro has.
Where have you read that four speakers have been confirmed. As far as I'm aware no specs for the new iPad have been confirmed yet. It's all rumours at this point.
This doesn't really make sense. You're saying that you're frustrated by the performance of your iPad 3 (which is 3 (soon to be 4) generations old), yet you want a higher resolution? You're aware that it was precisely because of the higher resolution that contributed to crippling of the performance of the initial retina iPads?
There is no 4K tablet out there now that runs at an acceptable performance level / battery level. Even desktops don't really handle 4K resolution well unless they're decked out with the most advanced and expensive graphics cards, possibly in parallel with 1000W power supplies.
The iPad, especially at the 9.7" form factor, doesn't really need 4K. The current iPad Pro's resolution of 2732 x 2048 is more than sufficient at a projected 350 PPI, if a resolution upgrade is really needed. The iPad isn't the iPhone, you're not going to hold it right next to your eyes....
Sorry I was writing that in my own personal opinion on the term. It is not confirmed at all, it is indeed simply a rumor.
If you analyze things appropriately though, you'll know that the analysis of that rumor very strongly suggests that the 9.7" Pro is very much a thing, and apple is either going to release it, or not release it. Given the fact that we've been shown very detailed information about it (and given apple's recent neglect of releasing an iPad Air 3) it seems very very likely to me.
There are other factors, like asking what apple is going to do with the waning iPad market, etc. etc. that point to the "Pro" series as being their current move/shift for iPads.
Resolutions were originally upped to allow for greater workspace real estate and legibility. I jumped in at the point where 1024x768 was the standard in laptops, then came various resolutions with the best being 1920x1200 in the 17" Macbook. Then came Retina making it so we didn't see as many pixels. The native resolution is 2560x1600 pixels on 13" screen, try working on a screen at 'Native' retina resolution, it is just too small. Moving this on to iPads, when they went Retina at generation 3 it was for one of the two reasons, brilliant for legibility and not so much for real estate as nothing changed, screen assets and the UI was the same, things were just 'cleaner'.
Now on to 4k resolution, what will that bring? Greater legibility, not really as the current 264 PPI is fine on iPads. It won't bring greater workspace, as the physical screen size is small at 9.7. It will just drain processor resources. Now where they can improve is colour depth, they could keep the resolution the same but make the screen OLED, deeper blacks, richer experience, lower power drain and thinner screens.
In terms of screen tech I've seen 55" OLED 1080p LG vs 4K UHD Samsung (both curved) side by side and all day long prefer the OLED, the blacks were outstanding and the colours popped.
So for me it is quality of screen beats the number of pixels, I'd rather use the processing power to manage Homekit devices, Apple Watches, Apps and other background processes over having 4k.
Now on to 4k resolution, what will that bring? Greater legibility, not really as the current 264 PPI is fine on iPads. It won't bring greater workspace, as the physical screen size is small at 9.7. It will just drain processor resources. Now where they can improve is colour depth, they could keep the resolution the same but make the screen OLED, deeper blacks, richer experience, lower power drain and thinner screens.
In terms of screen tech I've seen 55" OLED 1080p LG vs 4K UHD Samsung (both curved) side by side and all day long prefer the OLED, the blacks were outstanding and the colours popped.
So for me it is quality of screen beats the number of pixels, I'd rather use the processing power to manage Homekit devices, Apple Watches, Apps and other background processes over having 4k.
Thanks for the clarification. I agree it is likely to be the case. That said personally I will wait until there is an official announcement detailing the actual specs. I do hope the new iPad is a 9.7" version of the Pro as I like the features of the Pro but can't really justify the size or the cost.
Your description of desktops not being able to handle it is a little far-fetched, but it is definitely not considered easily handled atm. I would say current graphics can handle 2K fine, without any real difference in performance (1080p would be a boost to current graphics at this point), but 4k does stress current graphics.
The thing is, Apple has boosted graphics significantly and if you look at the iPad Pro, it does push these pixels without any real issue, so from that standpoint, you have a moot argument. If the iPad Pro only had a 2k display, would it be even faster? Definitely. But I wouldn't consider it to be crippled atm due to the high res screen. The proposed 9.7" iPad Pro will have the same processor as the 12.9" iPad Pro, probably just clocked slightly lower.
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Yeah call me biased as well, because I would never buy a device as big as the 12.9" iPad Pro, but I am in the market for a new Air3/9.7" Pro, and would very much enjoy the 4 speakers. Everything else would just be a bonus. The price of course is going to really suck
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You wouldn't see any difference in sharpness from 'retina' to 4K at that screen size unless you held it under a magnifying glass as the pixels are just too small for you to see. I can understand the need for more performance if you play games, but for everything else there's no need. I have a retina iPad and it's fine for movies, web, email, books, etc. in terms of resolution
720p: "So crisp, you can't perceive any pixels on the screen"
1080p: "FULL HD, resolution at its maximum"
2k: "So densely packed you can't locate any pixels on the screen"
4k: "No matter what usage, no pixels can't be seen"
5k: "Eyes will only see crispyness everywhere"
There is always going to be marketing for and against a product. I happen to witness rare circumstances where I can see pixels/"screen" when looking at the iPad Air 1/2. Is it rare? Absolutely, and it only occurs when the iPad is in my lap or in my hands holding it close to my face - but it's still there. Do I ever do anything while it's that close to my face? No. But it's still there, without a magnifiying glass. I'll believe people who say "pixels can't be seen" when we get to 8K screens. Until then, the more the better. Just have to wait until graphics can handle it more efficiently, but the iPad Pro does a great job already.
For the everyday consumer, who says the iPad 4 running iOS 8 is "perfectly fine" though, I would certainty agree, that nothing noticeable will really occur.
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I'm not arguing the point that my iPad is outdated--but the question posed by the OP specifically mentioned the possibility of a 4K display. Yes, the iPad 3 was underpowered for the resolution it had--but as you'll recall Apple released a rare and early off cycle update which solved the issue in the iPad 4. I'd be happy for a moderate boost in resolution--doesn't really need to be 4K.
Obviously, Apple would need to make sure the hardware could handle the resolution this time.
4k is overkill. The tablet needs thinner bezels and better software and accessories, not useless specs.
I realized that I needed to clarify what I meant by 4K. I do not consider either the current 2048x1536 or even the current iPad Pro's 2732 x 2048 anywhere near 4K. 4K would, for me, require a minimum horizontal resolution of 3840 pixels - for the iPad's 4:3 ratio, that means a final resolution of 4096 x 3072.
What this essentially means is that you're going from 3 megapixels to 12 megapixels - this is a huge jump in resolution and will necessarily require an enormous amount of computing power. Even as you say, @VanillaCracker, 4K resolution does stress current mainstream graphics - in a portable device, I don't think current graphics hardware is really up to the task unless you restrict viewing to text or other non computationally intensive output.
On the other hand, I think "2K" (by which I assume around 2560 x 1600, or otherwise similar to the iPad Pro's 2732 x 2048) is actually very reasonable. I actually think a 4K screen on the 12.9" iPad Pro would be great, but of course, it should not come at the cost of overall performance and battery life.
4K is not the standard resolution on many products. The current iPad Pro's 2732 x 2048 resolutions is superior to many. The iPad Pro's display comes close to the Macbook Pro 15 Retina's resolution of 2880 x 1800, which is amazing.
Agreed. I think internals are working hard to meet this though, as the push for higher and higher res carries on, so do the graphics processors increase annually (macro and micro goals, the micro I believe atm to be meeting the demand of higher res devices [as they become the standard]). Not quite caught up, but it's heading in that direction. Two more years and we'll definitely be on the cusp of 2K standard, and 4K viable option.
The iPad Pro even has a higher PPI, due to the slightly smaller screen.
Yes, but not by much. The iPad Pro has 264 ppi while the MacBook has 220. Their still sharp and unnoticeable
4K was a must on the Apple TV 4, not a must on a iPad, the screens are already great.
I guess my concern is developers being expected to support yet another iPad resolution. The iPad and iPad Mini have the good fortune of sharing the same resolution, so no extra work needs to be done there. Many apps still haven't been updated to the new iPad Pro resolution yet (including Google apps and Apple's own iWork's suite, if I am not mistaken), and you want Apple to release a new resolution into the fray?
I think Apple will just stick with the current resolution as is and save everyone some trouble for the time being.
I think Apple will just stick with the current resolution as is and save everyone some trouble for the time being.
At this moment for me I'd like it to have 4k BUT there isn't a great deal of 4k content around at the moment.
I mean you could use the work 'future proofing' but lets face it in about 3 years (a guess right there) when 4k is near on the average, that 'future proofed iPad' will be slow as its to outdated by tech.
So at this moment there probable isn't much point for it.
I mean you could use the work 'future proofing' but lets face it in about 3 years (a guess right there) when 4k is near on the average, that 'future proofed iPad' will be slow as its to outdated by tech.
So at this moment there probable isn't much point for it.
I hate how apps always have to be updated for new resolutions whenever new devices come out. After Apple started using new sizes for the iPhone 5 and iPad, then adding higher resolutions, I wish they would have just created a way for developers to make one app that would scale to whatever screen size and resolution you had on your device. Applications on Windows, OS X, and Android don't need to be updated every time a new resolution is added.