iPad Pro I’ve decided I’ll get the M4 iPad Pro if…

[Populus]

Sorry for the clickbait title, this sub-forum sometimes feels a bit quiet.

You’ve already read me before complaining about PWM on OLED iPhones. I bought the M2 iPad Pro, because it is the last iPad Pro with an LCD display, with all the features of an iPad Pro (FaceID, 4 speakers, 120HZ refresh rate display…). However, lately, a lot of theories and rumors have been floating around.

I use my iPad Pro a lot, but the 128GB of storage are becoming a small constraint. I can live with it, but I’d really appreciate a better iPad Pro with more storage… And I would also like to have the newer SoC, with the AV1 hardware decoder, better efficiency… However, all of that is not enough for me to replace my M2 iPad Pro, which I honestly love.

So here’s a list of features on the upcoming 2024 11” iPad Pro that will have to be met in order for me to (sell my current M2 iPP and) purchase it. This is somewhat a reminder for my future self, to not give into the temptation unless this requirements are met:

List of requirements, from more to less important:

— OLED display easy on my eyes. The next iPad Pro is supposed to use a double layer hybrid panel, combining a flexible OLED panel with a rigid one. Hopefully, this tech that has been in development for years, will combine two different flickering rates (PWM) with a high enough frequency to not bother my eyes. I mean, if we combine two different flickers, I guess the results can be different from what we have on iPhone. Or maybe, it gets even worse. Only trying it out I’ll be able to know, but this is the minimum requirement for me to jump to the next iPad Pro: Not having my eyes strained, hurt or irritated because of the OLED display.

— M4 SoC: Honestly, now that we have this rumors, and they seem pretty plausible, I’ve hyped myself to a point that if the next iPad Pro comes with an M3, I’m probably waiting until the next one. Because my M2 is already powerful enough, and the M3 is just a higher clocked M2, with the extra heat we get from it. And I want to preserve the iPad battery’s health, so if the SoC overheats, that’s a no for me (to be fair, if I push my M2 iPad Pro CPU and GPU, it already gets pretty hot).

— Improved external monitor experience with iPadOS 18. And no, I’m not saying necessarily having macOS on the external display when I plug it to the monitor (although that would be neat, and Apple already has patents with that). But a more desktop-like mode for when the iPad Pro is plugged to an external monitor, a keyboard and a pointing device. Better than Stage Manager (or even a much improved Stage Manager 3.0 would work for me). Something that allows my iPad Pro to become almost a Mac replacement, and that includes a better Files app (hopefully a more complex Finder), being able to download Open Source apps, and even apps that don’t meet the criteria of the App Store rules, or are no longer available such as Xbox Game Pass or Nvidia GeForce Now. If my next iPad Pro allows me to completely replace my 2014 Mac mini, I’m probably upgrading to it.

— 12GB of minimum RAM: This is the last, and less likely requirement, that’s why it is my least important one out of the four. I mean, it the previous 3 boxes are ticked, I won’t probably mind the base model being 8GB of RAM, although I’ll probably go to the 1TB model for the 16GB of RAM. Not that I’m noticing a lack of RAM on my 8GB M2 iPad Pro, mind you, but if I buy this new M4 iPad Pro, it will be a long time investment. That’s why I’ll also get Apple Care with it, probably.

Having such machine would allow me to finally replace my old Mac mini, and current M2 iPad Pro, which I use more than the Mac itself, for instance, I put the Mac mini on the shelf two weeks ago for cleaning, and I haven’t brought it out yet.

Having an easy way to connect to my Mac mini from my iPad Pro, wireless and seamlessly, would be ideal in order to use my Mac mini for those few tasks that I cannot or do not want to do on my iPad Pro. Maybe Sidecar could work, but my 2014 Mac mini doesn’t support Sidecar… And getting an M1 Mac mini just to do a few tasks over Sidecar from my iPad Pro isn’t something worth for me.

Now, are you set to get the next iPad Pro?
Are you like me, doubting?

What improvements have to come the next iPad Pro or iPadOS 18 with, for you to pull the trigger?

 

[sparksd]

What improvements have to come the next iPad Pro or iPadOS 18 with, for you to pull the trigger?

Lower prices.

 

[Populus]

Lower prices.

Okay, then I’m afraid you’ll stay with whatever you have right now lol.
Sorry. Apple’s gonna Apple.

 

[BanjoDudeAhoy]

I don't think I'd get another Pro at this point unless they significantly lowered the price and/or offered some more customization options like a choice of display type - I don't want or need 120 Hz and I don't want or need OLED.
Those options or lowered prices are not going to happen, though.

Until recently I had a 2018 12.0" Pro but I sold it and got an iPad 10 instead. Serves my needs just fine and there are very few things I truly miss - FaceID being right at the top of the list, followed by the Display Zoom option that's afaik only found in the M* chip iPads.

If there was an iPad Air with FaceID, I'd probably consider getting that over a Pro. But it would depend on the price again because it's not such a must that I'd pay hundreds just to have FaceID.

TLDR: I don't see myself getting a pro again. I'm sticking with my non-Pros.

 

[Populus]

I don't think I'd get another Pro at this point unless they significantly lowered the price and/or offered some more customization options like a choice of display type - I don't want or need 120 Hz and I don't want or need OLED.
Those options or lowered prices are not going to happen, though.

Until recently I had a 2018 12.0" Pro but I sold it and got an iPad 10 instead. Serves my needs just fine and there are very few things I truly miss - FaceID being right at the top of the list, followed by the Display Zoom option that's afaik only found in the M* chip iPads.

If there was an iPad Air with FaceID, I'd probably consider getting that over a Pro. But it would depend on the price again because it's not such a must that I'd pay hundreds just to have FaceID.

TLDR: I don't see myself getting a pro again. I'm sticking with my non-Pros.

I can completely get it, and if I didn’t use my iPP so much on a daily basis, or had a 12” MacBook to buy, I would do the same and get an iPad 10.

 

[sparksd]

Okay, then I’m afraid you’ll get with whatever you have right now lol.
Sorry. Apple’s gonna Apple.

Yep. I'll stick with my M1 12.9 and my next investment will be a high-end laptop, more versatile and useful for me - the iPad is a luxury, not a necessity for me and it's getting too pricey for that niche.

 

[Populus]

Totally agree with you @sparksd the iPad Pro is getting harder and harder to justify.

 

[Shirasaki]

M1 on my iPad Pro seems ok for my use case in terms of performance but I definitely can feel it is getting slower. M4 would be nice if CPU and most importantly GPU performance jumps up.

OLED to me is nice to have but the cost increase is hurting more than what nicer screen can benefit me.

More RAM is good, but iPadOS makes 12GB of RAM less important, unlike macOS.

With that being said, I would still go for an iPad Pro instead of iPad Air or even base line iPad. Face ID is likely going to be exclusive to iPad Pro for a few more years, and that's hard to miss.

 

[Populus]

M1 on my iPad Pro seems ok for my use case in terms of performance but I definitely can feel it is getting slower. M4 would be nice if CPU and most importantly GPU performance jumps up.

OLED to me is nice to have but the cost increase is hurting more than what nicer screen can benefit me.

More RAM is good, but iPadOS makes 12GB of RAM less important, unlike macOS.

With that being said, I would still go for an iPad Pro instead of iPad Air or even base line iPad. Face ID is likely going to be exclusive to iPad Pro for a few more years, and that's hard to miss.

I’m curious, how are you noticing the M1 getting slower? I know there’s a thread about that on the forum but I think that’s not from you.

 

[Alameda]

I think you hit the nail on the head. I just bought an iPad Pro, so I won’t upgrade. I don’t upgrade any of my hardware annually. But I would like to see the improvements you’ve mentioned. I think that text selection is particularly problematic on the iPad. It’s not great on iPhone either, but I tried editing a Word document on my iPad, and marking text can be extremely frustrating, unless you use a mouse.

I feel as though the iPad walled garden holds advanced applications back. Or, I suppose if you draw, iPad is a great platform, but if you produce using a keyboard and mouse, it’s not as powerful a platform as a Mac, even when using a keyboard and mouse.

I’m traveling again next week, and I will bring only my iPad, along with my card reader, USB hub and SSD drive, so that I can backup my digital photos every day. It would be nice to be able to upload them to my Synology server, but I am doubtful that I will be able to move 30+ GB of files overnight.

My iPad Pro is the 11” screen, so if and when I upgrade the hardware, I want a better screen. The color reproduction on the 11” iPad Pro screen isn’t as good as I’d like. If I understood this better, I would have bought the 12.9” model instead. For day to day use, the 11” screen is perfectly fine, but for editing RAW photos in Lightroom and trying to white balance, it’s not to my personal liking. I have no idea whether an OLED screen would be better in this respect.

 

[darngooddesign]

Sorry for the clickbait title, this sub-forum sometimes feels a bit quiet.

You’ve already read me before complaining about PWM on OLED iPhones. I bought the M2 iPad Pro, because it is the last iPad Pro with an LCD display, with all the features of an iPad Pro (FaceID, 4 speakers, 120HZ refresh rate display…). However, lately, a lot of theories and rumors have been floating around.

I use my iPad Pro a lot, but the 128GB of storage are becoming a small constraint. I can live with it, but I’d really appreciate a better iPad Pro with more storage… And I would also like to have the newer SoC, with the AV1 hardware decoder, better efficiency… However, all of that is not enough for me to replace my M2 iPad Pro, which I honestly love.

So here’s a list of features on the upcoming 2024 11” iPad Pro that will have to be met in order for me to (sell my current M2 iPP and) purchase it. This is somewhat a reminder for my future self, to not give into the temptation unless this requirements are met:

List of requirements, from more to less important:

— OLED display easy on my eyes. The next iPad Pro is supposed to use a double layer hybrid panel, combining a flexible OLED panel with a rigid one. Hopefully, this tech that has been in development for years, will combine two different flickering rates (PWM) with a high enough frequency to not bother my eyes. I mean, if we combine two different flickers, I guess the results can be different from what we have on iPhone. Or maybe, it gets even worse. Only trying it out I’ll be able to know, but this is the minimum requirement for me to jump to the next iPad Pro: Not having my eyes strained, hurt or irritated because of the OLED display.

— M4 SoC: Honestly, now that we have this rumors, and they seem pretty plausible, I’ve hyped myself to a point that if the next iPad Pro comes with an M3, I’m probably waiting until the next one. Because my M2 is already powerful enough, and the M3 is just a higher clocked M2, with the extra heat we get from it. And I want to preserve the iPad battery’s health, so if the SoC overheats, that’s a no for me (to be fair, if I push my M2 iPad Pro CPU and GPU, it already gets pretty hot).

— Improved external monitor experience with iPadOS 18. And no, I’m not saying necessarily having macOS on the external display when I plug it to the monitor (although that would be neat, and Apple already has patents with that). But a more desktop-like mode for when the iPad Pro is plugged to an external monitor, a keyboard and a pointing device. Better than Stage Manager (or even a much improved Stage Manager 3.0 would work for me). Something that allows my iPad Pro to become almost a Mac replacement, and that includes a better Files app (hopefully a more complex Finder), being able to download Open Source apps, and even apps that don’t meet the criteria of the App Store rules, or are no longer available such as Xbox Game Pass or Nvidia GeForce Now. If my next iPad Pro allows me to completely replace my 2014 Mac mini, I’m probably upgrading to it.

— 12GB of minimum RAM: This is the last, and less likely requirement, that’s why it is my least important one out of the four. I mean, it the previous 3 boxes are ticked, I won’t probably mind the base model being 8GB of RAM, although I’ll probably go to the 1TB model for the 16GB of RAM. Not that I’m noticing a lack of RAM on my 8GB M2 iPad Pro, mind you, but if I buy this new M4 iPad Pro, it will be a long time investment. That’s why I’ll also get Apple Care with it, probably.

Having such machine would allow me to finally replace my old Mac mini, and current M2 iPad Pro, which I use more than the Mac itself, for instance, I put the Mac mini on the shelf two weeks ago for cleaning, and I haven’t brought it out yet.

Having an easy way to connect to my Mac mini from my iPad Pro, wireless and seamlessly, would be ideal in order to use my Mac mini for those few tasks that I cannot or do not want to do on my iPad Pro. Maybe Sidecar could work, but my 2014 Mac mini doesn’t support Sidecar… And getting an M1 Mac mini just to do a few tasks over Sidecar from my iPad Pro isn’t something worth for me.

Now, are you set to get the next iPad Pro?
Are you like me, doubting?

What improvements have to come the next iPad Pro or iPadOS 18 with, for you to pull the trigger?

You'll probably have to wait until 2025 or 6 because unless they are released with or after the M$ Macs, the 2024 iPads will get the M3. I do think the M4 will start at 12GB instead of 8GB.

 

[Populus]

You'll probably have to wait until 2025 or 6 because the 2024 iPad Pro will get the M3. I do think the M4 will start at 12GB instead of 8GB.

Even if it came with the M4, it’s not my only requirement. Not even the most important one. I’d say iPadOS 18 has a lot to say in that regard.

We’ll see how Apple tries to appeal us to purchase it. Otherwise I’m sticking with my M2 iPP even if I have to use external SSDs to export my documents and files.

 

[darngooddesign]

Even if it came with the M4, it’s not my only requirement. Not even the most important one. I’d say iPadOS 18 has a lot to say in that regard.

We’ll see how Apple tries to appeal us to purchase it. Otherwise I’m sticking with my M2 iPP even if I have to use external SSDs to export my documents and files.

I bought a used 1TB 13" cellular M1 so I don't need to upgrade iPads for a while. OLED isn't even the killer app for me since the little bit of blooming I see in some videos doesn't bother me much.

 

[xxFoxtail]

One thing on my list is a second USB-C port. My monitor has a USB hub built in, but it's kind of slow when transferring files, and I don't think it has enough power for things. My Pebble USB speakers lose power if I turn them up too high, or my Elgato Capture Card works, but loses a lot of frames. Both I have no issues with connected directly to the iPad. I'm sure a dedicated USB hub would work too, but I think a second USB-C port would be welcome by a lot of people, even if it's just built into the next Magic Keyboard accessory - which I'd hope gets proper ports for data connection.

 

[TechnoMonk]

When my M1 IPad Pro stops working, or is too slow for my needs. I will probably upgrade to M7 or may be M6 iPad Pro.

 

[Populus]

One thing on my list is a second USB-C port. My monitor has a USB hub built in, but it's kind of slow when transferring files, and I don't think it has enough power for things. My Pebble USB speakers lose power if I turn them up too high, or my Elgato Capture Card works, but loses a lot of frames. Both I have no issues with connected directly to the iPad. I'm sure a dedicated USB hub would work too, but I think a second USB-C port would be welcome by a lot of people, even if it's just built into the next Magic Keyboard accessory - which I'd hope gets proper ports for data connection.

Yep, I would certainly appreciate a second Thunderbolt port, for sure!

Now, because Apple prioritizes design, they could put one on each side of the landscape orientation… Or maybe be practical an put both of them on the same side.

But sadly, I don’t think that’s happening, and it is neither a prerequisite for me to but it. Just a nice addition.

 

[iPadified]

More RAM is good, but iPadOS makes 12GB of RAM less important, unlike macOS.

Actully the opposite. Reload of apps is common on iPadOS so more RAM is better.

 

[klasma]

OLED, landscape camera, and (hopefully) lighter weight will be enough for me. While there’s a lot more I would like, I have no illusions about Apple catering to my preferences.

 

[Jamie0003]

One thing on my list is a second USB-C port. My monitor has a USB hub built in, but it's kind of slow when transferring files, and I don't think it has enough power for things. My Pebble USB speakers lose power if I turn them up too high, or my Elgato Capture Card works, but loses a lot of frames. Both I have no issues with connected directly to the iPad. I'm sure a dedicated USB hub would work too, but I think a second USB-C port would be welcome by a lot of people, even if it's just built into the next Magic Keyboard accessory - which I'd hope gets proper ports for data connection.

You could get a better usb hub?

 

[Shirasaki]

I’m curious, how are you noticing the M1 getting slower? I know there’s a thread about that on the forum but I think that’s not from you.

Very simple. By playing games.
Newer games are more demanding and I can see lots of dropped frames.
Now, some games do allow users to lower graphics quality, but others do not, or even if it does, barely makes any difference.
This leaves upgrading to M4 the most obvious choice to mitigate slowdown issue: having a more powerful processor.

 

[Torty]

What improvements have to come the next iPad Pro or iPadOS 18 with, for you to pull the trigger?

Maybe M4

 

[Populus]

Very simple. By playing games.
Newer games are more demanding and I can see lots of dropped frames.
Now, some games do allow users to lower graphics quality, but others do not, or even if it does, barely makes any difference.
This leaves upgrading to M4 the most obvious choice to mitigate slowdown issue: having a more powerful processor.

True, some M1 and M2 based games allow to change graphical settings on the macOS platform, but not on the iPad, and devs should change that.

 

[Populus]

OLED, landscape camera, and (hopefully) lighter weight will be enough for me. While there’s a lot more I would like, I have no illusions about Apple catering to my preferences.

I don’t have them either, but I’m writing down what could make me jump to a newer iPad Pro.

By the way, having a lighter iPad Pro would be amazing. But I’d prioritize durability, and if the body is too thin, and easily bendable, I’d prefer a more robust design.

Maybe they use titanium to make it more durable, who knows.

 

[SamRyouji]

If they come with another color options other than Silver or Space Gray. I know that's silly, but my life is already pretty monochromatic. I need colors in my life.

 

[schneeland]

I'd like to see the larger model move to 14" instead of 13" - it's not very portable anyway, and that way it would have an ideal size for reading and annotation A4 and letter PDFs, and would also be still a bit nicer for sketching.
In the same spirit, I'd like to see Apple include different tips (with varying friction) in the package.
To be fair, the probability for both is not that high, and certainly these things would not arrive this year.

Also, just for the record: I would buy an iPad Mini Pro if it ever came into existence.