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For me, the biggest appeal compared to my 2018 iPad Pro, is the amount of RAM. 4GB vs 8 or even 16GB. The problem is, you have to pay DOUBLE the price of a base iPad Pro to get the 16GB of RAM.
 
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For me, the biggest appeal compared to my 2018 iPad Pro, is the amount of RAM. 4GB vs 8 or even 16GB. The problem is, you have to pay DOUBLE the price of a base iPad Pro to get the 16GB of RAM.
Agreed. I’d love 1 or 2 tb of storage but I don’t need it. Would rather they offered the 16gb ram as an option across the board.
 
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What I suspect will happen is that Apple will still stick with 1 version of iPadOS for their entire ipad lineup. Sales of iPad Pro’s likely isn’t high enough to justify further bifurcating iPadOS, and I don’t see macOS coming to the ipad either.

In this regard, we may not see Apple get too crazy with productivity features here.

What the improved specs will enable are full desktop-class mac apps to be ported over to the ipad. The interface will likely need some rethinking, but otherwise, it will still be the same features under the hood.
Agreed. Even the base iPad is pretty damn powerful already. So iPad versions of desktop software is a no brainer.

I also think that the reason a lot of this hasn't happened yet was because Apple has a lot of balls in the air (no pun intended) right now.

With the AS transition completed, I believe we'll see cross-platform development accelerate.
 
No doubt an M1X or M2 with better display support (and other additions) is coming either in summer or fall.
Yeah I'm waiting on that. But to hear everyone proclaim that it's faster than the best MBP i9, and its equivalent to an Nvidia gfx card (I forget the model), and then to only allow 1 monitor from my MBA or 2 on a Mac minis is pretty frustrating.
 
Yes. And in 4-5 years when the air is a paperweight; you can buy another air. With not only improvements to CPU and RAM, but potentially other hardware improvements and features not available on today’s M1 iPad Pro.

And even having bought that SECOND iPad, you’re still out less than an M1 iPad Pro.
That is a gamble I'm not willing to take. It took Apple 10 years to get the iPad where I wanted it to be, and that's ONLY the M1 ones right now.

If the Air gets a bigger screen, and 16GB of RAM at least, then I'll consider the lower-end.

This M1 iPad could (potentially) last as long as my MBPs, which ARE 10 years old.

That said, my wife would be happy with an Air (she uses a 6th gen exclusively) for quite a while. My needs are different.
 
That spec, in and of itself really doesn't mean much at all, especially when the iPad has to use a crippled OS that doesn't allow full use potential.
I think that trajectories of macOS and iOS/iPadOS are inevitably going to cross/merge. Big Sur came out with iPad-ish look, macOS runs now on M1, iPad Pro has M1. I don't see any reason, why on this WWDC (or the next one, if it's not ready yet) they wouldn't announce macOS on M1 iPad Pro. And then it would all make sense.

Microsoft hurried their Windows on tablets - which is crap. They didn't even take time to fully understand how people interact with tablets. I really like Apple's evolutionary approach, with major leaps forward from time to time.
 
Yeah I'm waiting on that. But to hear everyone proclaim that it's faster than the best MBP i9, and its equivalent to an Nvidia gfx card (I forget the model), and then to only allow 1 monitor from my MBA or 2 on a Mac minis is pretty frustrating.
I'm sort of in the same boat. Those M1 Macs are quite tempting already, but the 16 GiB RAM max feels too limiting at this point.

(For screens, I suppose I could get by with DisplayLink. It's what I've been doing lately, although there are warts to it.)
 
I hope you enjoy the new model.

Having the 11" 2020 pro, I can't justify the upgrade for the larger 12.9. For the price of a 12.9" with new Magic Keyboard, I would be well into new M series MacBook Pro price range. Granted, I put that much into my current pro set up but, now that I have the M1 MBA and a new MacBook, I am more inclined to wait for a possible refresh on the M series Air.
This is understandable.

My goal is to line up my three Macs, look them in the FaceTime cam, and say:

"Thanks for the fun over the years fellas, but I don't need you anymore"

That said, if I had my way, I'd have an M1 15" or 17" iPad Air or Pro (I want the Pro Motion display) with at least 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, and a matching Magic Keyboard.

I would not hesitate to plunk down ~$3K for that.

I know that would trigger some people here, for sure. ;)
 
It's great for people who use the iPad as their main computer, but I only use it for light scrolling and I find my latest generation iPad Pro to already be overkill for that 😅

Safari is more snappy on the M1.
 
I'm late to this thread...

I bought the iPad Air ($559 on Amazon) recently and wondering now if it's worth me spending the $200 (using Education program) to buy the new iPad Pro at $749. I am going to use it very lightly, mainly to run the Dreamlab app from Vodafone to find cures for Cancer and Covid. I'm only going to be on wifi.

From what I gather at the Apple website that compares the 2 iPads, the $200 for improvements are:

128GB storage instead of 64GB
better front facing camera (interesting Apple no longer calls it "Facetime" on iPad Pro...any reason why?)
better rear facing camera
possibly better looking display
M1 vs A14 chip (Will the M1 actually have any real improvement for the Dreamlab app? anyone here running Dreamlab on the new iPad Pro?)


I really love my iPad Air but I do have time to swap it out if anyone here thinks the $200 is worth it. I wish there were some iPad benchmarks of the M1 vs. A14 but I haven't seen them on MR.

Major question: Am I forced to use Face ID with the Pro? Can I enable Touch ID or something that does not require facial recognition?

Thanks if you have any input!
 
Apple really shocked me with this one. The new screen is one thing and I knew that was coming for a while, but putting the M1 in the iPad and also increasing the RAM in a big way are just game changing. I probably don’t even use 5% of my current iPad’s power on a daily basis and I’m lusting for the M1 version.

How do they keep doing it? It’s like every year I downplay what Apple is going to make and then when it comes out and is better than I expected I just have to have it!
 
Kind of pointless as long as it’s running iPadOS.
It's like saying it's pointless to drive a Lamborghini since you have a speed limit on the highway. Sometimes the user experience is important even if there is a limit on what can be achieve with the OS.

Imagine if they keep the processor in par with the OS, then the OS team would say :
It's pointless to improve the OS, the processor won't take it.
Then the processor team would say : it's pointless to have a more powerful processor, the OS won't be able to use all the power

Then we stay stagnant in performance improvement on both OS and processor until we die...

Or would you prefer to have a full blown OS on the iPad with a mediocre processor instead of the other way around?
 
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The thing with the iPad is that most people use 1 app at a time so the issues that something like a Mac has in terms of memory management are really not much a problem.
Most people use one app at a time on macOS, too. Switching to one window, copy, to another window, paste. macOS doesn’t even allow you to control two windows at once where on iPad I can independently scroll two Safari windows simultaneously. If I REALLY want to get fancy, pull up a third window on slide over and manipulate that one, too. That’s a level of multitasking that’s impossible on a Mac.
 
The M1 is in some cases equal to an Intel i9 processor. And in some cases the i9 beats the M1
Plus you can add way more memory to an i9 processor. not limited to just 16GB
And by the way Intels new 10nm chips released like yesterday for laptops show a 20 percent gain over the i9

So NO the M1 no longer SMOKES Intel
Intel has caught up.
Intel’s highest end latest processors barely edge out Apple’s lowest end, lowest clock speed processors. WAY TO GO INTEL! YOU’RE SUCH A GOOD BOY! YES YOU ARE! YES YOU ARE!
 
It's like saying it's pointless to drive a Lamborghini since you have a speed limit on the highway. Sometimes the user experience is important even if there is a limit on what can be achieve with the OS.

Imagine if they keep the processor in par with the OS, then the OS team would say :
It's pointless to improve the OS, the processor won't take it.
Then the processor team would say : it's pointless to have a more powerful processor, the OS won't be able to use all the power

Then we stay stagnant in performance improvement on both OS and processor until we die...

Or would you prefer to have a full blown OS on the iPad with a mediocre processor instead of the other way around?

It's just a shame that all that power sits around doing nothing on an iPad.

Although to be frank that is also true of most of the Macs for the past 10 years. The difference on the Mac is there aren't any limitations in your way to using all that power. You can shave a slice of that CPU or RAM off and devote to running another OS in a VM. Or render video while running a VM. Or compile your app while rendering video while running a VM. Run a web server instance to test your new website before pushing to production. Or even use VLC as your default video player app. None of this is possible on an iPad, even though the hardware has been there for years now - even more so with the M1.
 
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Most people use one app at a time on macOS, too. Switching to one window, copy, to another window, paste. macOS doesn’t even allow you to control two windows at once where on iPad I can independently scroll two Safari windows simultaneously. If I REALLY want to get fancy, pull up a third window on slide over and manipulate that one, too. That’s a level of multitasking that’s impossible on a Mac.

There is a difference in multitasking like you're saying and background processes which is what most people are talking about I think. Background processes are not allowed on iOS with very rare exception.
 
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Although to be frank that is also true of most of the Macs for the past 10 years. The difference on the Mac is there aren't any limitations in your way to using all that power.
Well, for most folks, the knowledge on how to do those things is the limitation.

Anyone:
“Hey, average-person-on-the-street, I know you are looking at that iPad Pro, but you should really get a Mac because you can shave a slice of that CPU or RAM off and devote to running another OS in a VM. Or render video while running a VM. Or compile your app while rendering video while running a VM. Run a web server instance to test your new website before pushing to production. Or even use VLC as your default video player app.”

Average-person-on-the-street:
“What’s a VM?”
 
There is a difference in multitasking like you're saying and background processes which is what most people are talking about I think. Background processes are not allowed on iOS with very rare exception.
Ah, just like folks talking about the “file system” when of course it has a file system. It wouldn’t be a computing device without one. :)

They mean background processes as a very specific type of multitasking (one that likely doesn’t factor into most people’s computer use). Like, if you ask if they need “background processes” in their primary computing device and their eyes gloss over, just give ‘em the iPad!
 
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What I'm interested to know is if the M1 is downclocked in the iPad Pro or not. Heck in the MacBook Air although it has exceedingly strong showing the M1 still throttles and the laptop bottom may become very warm.

In the 6.4mm frame of the iPad pro with its mini led display I have a hard time imagining the M1 being at full throttle there.
 
Unlikely that the 3.2 GHz clock could be sustained when even the MacBook air has a hard time doing it consistently and it has a more accommodating frame with thermal pad. For the 6.4mm iPad pro with its mini led display, for the SOC put directly behind it, would have been more likely that the iPad pro M1 is downclocked to reduce power consumption and consequently keep thermals in check
8% faster in single-threaded tasks, and 73% faster in multi-threaded tasks (with 4+4 instead of 2+4 cores).

This is largely explained by the slightly higher 3.2 GHz vs. 3 GHz clock.
 
Unlikely that the 3.2 GHz clock could be sustained when even the MacBook air has a hard time doing it consistently and it has a more accommodating frame with thermal pad. For the 6.4mm iPad pro with its mini led display, for the SOC put directly behind it, would have been more likely that the iPad pro M1 is downclocked to reduce power consumption and consequently keep thermals in check
Yeah, but that’s probably true of the previous iPad Pro as well.
 
Well, for most folks, the knowledge on how to do those things is the limitation.

Anyone:
“Hey, average-person-on-the-street, I know you are looking at that iPad Pro, but you should really get a Mac because you can shave a slice of that CPU or RAM off and devote to running another OS in a VM. Or render video while running a VM. Or compile your app while rendering video while running a VM. Run a web server instance to test your new website before pushing to production. Or even use VLC as your default video player app.”

Average-person-on-the-street:
“What’s a VM?”

The difference of course is Apple markets the iPad Pro as a Pro device (and charges Pro prices for them), but there aren't really any professionals that can actually use it besides maybe illustrators and YouTubers. Anyone else is going to run out of runway real quick with iPadOS as it sits today.
 
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