iPad Pro Minor design change on the 9.7

[rui no onna]

Also I know about the resolution difference in the iPhones versus iPads but did the A7 really wasn't powerful enough to drive that 2048x1536 resolution ? I highly doubt that. The only chip that was not powerful enough to drive the Retina display was the A5X. A6X and above were perfectly capable of pushing all those pixels so the first gen iPad Air should not perform like crap as it does now on iOS 8/9 (assuming it was indeed much better on iOS 7).

And the iPad 3 and 4 perform even worse than the Air when running iOS 8 and 9. System requirements don't stay the same forever. Like it or not, iOS has become more and more bloated as generations pass. The A5X may have been fine running iOS 5, A6X with iOS 6 and A7 with iOS 7 but there's no guarantee it'll run updated firmware well. Indeed the alternative is far more likely to occur.

I've got an iPad 4 running iOS 6 and in terms of responsiveness/UI, it actually compares favorably to the iPad Pro 9.7 running iOS 9. Too bad lots of apps have stopped supporting iOS 6 and there are quite a number of features I use (control center, call and SMS forwarding) missing from the older iOS version.

 

[iOSUser7]

Graphics buffers are backed by RAM. On a desktop, the GPU will have its own RAM. The iPad shares RAM between the CPU and GPU. When I create a view (say an image) the pixels of that view gets stored into a buffer. The GPU takes the buffers and composites all the views on the screen. The idea here is that I can move the views on the screen and only do another composite (don't have to redraw the views which is more expensive). The catch is that for everything on the screen, and even some things not on the screen, I need to spend RAM on pixel buffers backing everything. It also means that some parts of the screen are "covered" by multiple buffers.

Ah I see now. Thanks a lot for the great explanation, today I learnt something !

And the iPad 3 and 4 perform even worse than the Air when running iOS 8 and 9. System requirements don't stay the same forever. Like it or not, iOS has become more and more bloated as generations pass. The A5X may have been fine running iOS 5, A6X with iOS 6 and A7 with iOS 7 but there's no guarantee it'll run updated firmware well. Indeed the alternative is far more likely to occur.

I know that the more you update a device the more it's likely to lag but what you are saying is the opposite of what yegon said, that the iPad 3 was far more stable (stable, not faster) than the iPad Air.
Do you have/had an iPad Air on iOS 8 ? What was your experience with it ? Mine was horrible and I did a complete restore (with iTunes) 3 times with months of separation and without restoring from backup but it did not fixed my issues at all.

I've got an iPad 4 running iOS 6 and in terms of responsiveness/UI, it actually compares favorably to the iPad Pro 9.7 running iOS 9. Too bad lots of apps have stopped supporting iOS 6 and there are quite a number of features I use (control center, call and SMS forwarding) missing from the older iOS version.

Yeah app support is definitely a major problem on iOS 6. I also have a device running iOS 6, it's an iPhone 5, and while it's buttery smooth, app support is a big problem. Most of my apps work but they are using a very old version that lack a lot of features.

 

[yegon]

I sold the iPad 3 the moment my Air 1 arrived, so my experience was only of the iPad 3 up to that point. For browsing/email/podcast listening I found it slower, but more stable than the Air 1 with the same usage pattern, but the 3 was clearly bereft of features that came in later iOS x.0 updates.

I assume the iPad 3 ground to a snails pace as the iOS updates kept coming, but I'd long since sold it at that point.

 

[burgman]

Before the iPad Air 2, iPads with the current 2048x1536 resolution ran fine with only 1GB of RAM. The resolution of the larger iPad Pro is not even twice that - it's only 1.78x the pixels - yet it has 4x as much RAM.

You're sort of right. The higher resolution iPad Pro 12.9 does need more RAM to run as efficiently as the lower resolution iPad Pro 9.7, but it doesn't need a whole 2GB more. So still, 4GB in the 12.9" Pro is worth more than the True Tone Display.

Not sure I agree, the screen difference,once you compare both side by side can't be unseen. The ram issue isn't a problem for most people outside of Internet forums.

 

[Channan]

Not sure I agree, the screen difference,once you compare both side by side can't be unseen. The ram issue isn't a problem for most people outside of Internet forums.

What screen difference can't be unseen? You mean between the 9.7" and 12.9" iPads? If so, regardless of what the screen looks like, the resolution of the 12.9" iPad is still only 1.78x both smaller iPads. The larger iPad doesn't need an entire 2GB of RAM dedicated to the difference between the two resolutions, meaning there is still plenty of extra RAM to work with on the largest iPad.

 

[Newtons Apple]

I'm almost always staring at the front of my iPad, and almost never staring at the back of it. So, it doesn't matter to me either way.

This! Looks better on the 9.7 but I also tend to use the other side of the device and seldom see it.

 

[burgman]

What screen difference can't be unseen? You mean between the 9.7" and 12.9" iPads? If so, regardless of what the screen looks like, the resolution of the 12.9" iPad is still only 1.78x both smaller iPads. The larger iPad doesn't need an entire 2GB of RAM dedicated to the difference between the two resolutions, meaning there is still plenty of extra RAM to work with on the largest iPad.

I'm talking about True Tone, wider color gamut and screen reflection on the 9.7 vs 12.9 Again outside of the Internet echo chamber I don't see any complaints about ram on IOS products. For those whom it is a problem choices must be made, including moving on.

 

[rui no onna]

I know that the more you update a device the more it's likely to lag but what you are saying is the opposite of what yegon said, that the iPad 3 was far more stable (stable, not faster) than the iPad Air.

Looks like yegon already answered this query. My guess is he only used the iPad 3 up to iOS 6 which is pretty darned stable in comparison to later iOS versions.

I sold the iPad 3 the moment my Air 1 arrived, so my experience was only of the iPad 3 up to that point. For browsing/email/podcast listening I found it slower, but more stable than the Air 1 with the same usage pattern, but the 3 was clearly bereft of features that came in later iOS x.0 updates.

I assume the iPad 3 ground to a snails pace as the iOS updates kept coming, but I'd long since sold it at that point.

You assume correctly.

Do you have/had an iPad Air on iOS 8 ? What was your experience with it ? Mine was horrible and I did a complete restore (with iTunes) 3 times with months of separation and without restoring from backup but it did not fixed my issues at all.

Yup, I've used an iPad Air on iOS 8. More prone to crashes and resprings than iOS 7 (I always get the "webpage has reloaded" message on MacRumors when trying to Mark Forums Read). However, since majority of the websites I visited prior to the last 4 months have been fairly lightweight (AO3, FF.Net), it wasn't really an issue I encountered frequently until more recently (tumblr, MacRumors). That said, it's not like the 32-bit iPad 4 (much less the iPad 3) on iOS 8/9 is doing any better than the Air. Quite the opposite in fact. As RAM-starved as the Air may be, it still provides a better experience than the iPad 4 on iOS 9.

 

[bufffilm]

I completely disagree. The Air 1 was the worst iPad I've owned. It was a worse experience than my iPad 3 - the 3 was slower, but faaaar more stable thanks to 32bit/1gb ram.

Apple should never have released 64bit devices with only 1gb ram. It was enough for single app performance, but the moment you press that home button and do something else, bam, it was a crap shoot what happened to your last opened app. Fine example is podcasts - I'd bring up CC to pause podcast, answer an email or visit a website, bring up CC to unpause podcast....only to find podcast app flushed, and it defaults to music playing. Equally, I had to copy any text I'd inputted on a webpage or email, because it was nearly always gone when I returned. Terrible. This didn't happen to my much older iPad 3.

Same negative applies, to a lesser extent, to the 6 Plus.

The 64bit 5S was passable with 1gb ram, I have memories of it as a good experience.

Completely agree.

And if iPad 3 owners had left their iPad 3 on ios 6...theyd be sitting pretty. I think the iPad 3 gets an exaggerated bad rep sometimes.

It didn't run as well on ios7 (whereas the ipad2 did), but that's a different matter.

 

[yegon]

I think the iPad 3 gets an exaggerated bad rep sometimes.

Definitely. As much as it was a half step into retina and was seen as the runt of the litter, I have good memories of it. The Air 1 felt like a faster but more stupid younger brother in comparison, and I did not like the plasticky feeling screen that was introduced with the Air 1 that thankfully wasn't the case with the Air 2.

Perhaps I've got good memories because what I actually used it for - and this still largely applies to my tablet usage - wasn't the most demanding in terms of GPU usage (beyond UI animations), where the iPad 3 really fell down. I always have a few games on there but I rarely play them tbh, and the iPad 3 was probably pretty ropey for gaming. The Air 1 will have absolutely smoked it in this regard, and indeed for single app performance the Air 1 was clearly superior (aside from the crashes and resprings).

 

[rui no onna]

Definitely. As much as it was a half step into retina and was seen as the runt of the litter, I have good memories of it. The Air 1 felt like a faster but more stupid younger brother in comparison, and I did not like the plasticky feeling screen that was introduced with the Air 1 that thankfully wasn't the case with the Air 2.

Perhaps I've got good memories because what I actually used it for - and this still largely applies to my tablet usage - wasn't the most demanding in terms of GPU usage (beyond UI animations), where the iPad 3 really fell down. I always have a few games on there but I rarely play them tbh, and the iPad 3 was probably pretty ropey for gaming. The Air 1 will have absolutely smoked it in this regard, and indeed for single app performance the Air 1 was clearly superior (aside from the crashes and resprings).

Interesting poem:
http://michellekpoems.tumblr.com/post/76145415352/

Nostalgia is a dirty liar that insists things were better than they seemed.

Right now, we have the following in our household:
iPad 3 64GB + iOS 6
iPad 3 64GB + iOS 9
iPad 4 128GB + iOS 6
iPad 4 16GB + iOS 9
iPad Air 16GB + iOS 9

After using the iPad 3+iOS 6 for some web browsing, I'd take the Air+iOS 9 over it every single time. That said, iPad 4+iOS 6 wins over Air+iOS 9 (or really Air+any supported iOS version).

 

[Commy1]

I prefer the new design, it matches the current iPhones and looks more economical while still providing better speeds. The old one is so bulky looking, obvious and out of place in my opinion.

 

[yegon]

Not nostalgia on my part. I'm sure it came to pass that the Air 1 was superior in all regards to the iPad as the iOS updates kept on coming. I'm not arguing against that.

I can say with certainty that I enjoyed using the iPad 3 during the 18 months I had it. I did not enjoy the Air 1, evidenced by the fact that when I was at home that year there was a massive resurgence in my laptop usage. I remember installing InsomniaX on my mbp during that time so I could prevent sleep when closing the lid, so I could continue listening to podcasts while I toted it around the house, a role previously performed strictly by my iPads.