iPad Pro Not upgrading to iPad Pro 9.7" from Air 2.

[masotime]

I'm seriously considering upgrading my iPad 4 to the Pro 9.7. As a sweetener, going to get my other half a mini 2 to replace her aging original mini. I take it that 4 to 9.7 is a sufficiently significant upgrade to make it worthwhile?

Yes please upgrade. Not only will you be happier, all the app developers will be happy they have one less to worry about supporting older iPads....

 

[gobikerider]

Yes please upgrade. Not only will you be happier, all the app developers will be happy they have one less to worry about supporting older iPads....

Seriously, No why would some one spend 600+ dollars to upgrade from a perfectly capable iPad 4. That's like saying please upgrade your 2012 MacBook Air to the 2015 model. There is no need for that upgrade and it is a giant waste of money since the iPad 4 will perform well for at least 2 more years if not longer. I mean who thought the iPad 2 would get to iOS 9 know imagine how far a iPad 4 could go with 3x the amount of power.

 

[azentropy]

Seriously, No why would some one spend 600+ dollars to upgrade from a perfectly capable iPad 4. That's like saying please upgrade your 2012 MacBook Air to the 2015 model. There is no need for that upgrade and it is a giant waste of money since the iPad 4 will perform well for at least 2 more years if not longer. I mean who thought the iPad 2 would get to iOS 9 know imagine how far a iPad 4 could go with 3x the amount of power.

No, I don't agree with that comparison. The 2012 to the 2015 MacBook Air you might see a 20-30% performance improvement (less than that CPU but greater than that storage) and not that many other improvements (TB2). While going from an iPad 4 to an iPad Pro 9.7 you see 300+%. Plus many other improvements (thinner, lighter, smaller bezels, better screen, touch id) even if you don't care about pencil or smart connector.

I'm not saying the iPad 4 is bad, just saying there is a much bigger different between an iPad 4 -> iPad Pro 9.7 than there is going from a MBA 2012 to MBA 2015.

 

[gobikerider]

No, I don't agree with that comparison. The 2012 to the 2015 MacBook Air you might see a 20-30% performance improvement (less than that CPU but greater than that storage) and not that many other improvements (TB2). While going from an iPad 4 to an iPad Pro 9.7 you see 300+%. Plus many other improvements (thinner, lighter, smaller bezels, better screen, touch id) even if you don't care about pencil or smart connector.

I'm not saying the iPad 4 is bad, just saying there is a much bigger different between an iPad 4 -> iPad Pro 9.7 than there is going from a MBA 2012 to MBA 2015.

Lol I completely forgot about the design differences. I still would just wait until my iPad no longer served its purpose effectively then upgrade because the longer your wait to upgrade the better the upgrade will be.

 

[Aluminum213]

Or if you have no iPad.. But I agree, I'd be thinking hard about not upgrading if I already got an Air 2, but then, that's why I and others held out for the latest model.

Performance wise I can't comment on the iPad Air 2 vs. iPad Pro 9.7" because I haven't used the former in real world use enough, if at all, however I would be extremely surprised if "performance wise, it behaves and stutters exactly like Air 2 at the exact same places". Can you give actual examples of that? The benchmarks are what I've reviewed, and performance wise, the iPad Pro 9.7" is clearly superior with a faster chip, x2 generations removed from it.

However a lot is made of the RAM being only 2GB. Sure, 3 or even 4GB would be nice, or even preferable, to keep the RAM fans appeased, "hey, it's got 4GB RAM, check out my package".. but Apple is being Apple here. They have done what they do, and developed a chip to work with their OS in an optimal way. For them, it doesn't 'need' the extra RAM to run the OS, and run things smoothly. I've used my pro in split screen, played intensive games on it like Assassin's Creed, and it's great so far. The benchmarks sort of support this as they're comfortably close to the iPad Pro 12.9" which they obviously deem 'needs' the RAM boost owing to all the extra pixels being push on the larger screen size.

If the situation changed where the OS changed significantly to 'need' more RAM then this is the point people would have cause to bemoan lack of 4GB RAM in an iPad Pro 9.7" in my opinion.

iPad Pro 9.7 doesn't NEED 2GB RAM either, by your own logic Apple should have just stuck with 1GB RAM

 

[Vincanss]

iPad Pro 9.7 doesn't NEED 2GB RAM either, by your own logic Apple should have just stuck with 1GB RAM

Sure, if it made it work to Apple's liking, why not?

 

[Aluminum213]

Sure, if it made it work to Apple's liking, why not?

Haha

 

[rui no onna]

Seriously, No why would some one spend 600+ dollars to upgrade from a perfectly capable iPad 4. That's like saying please upgrade your 2012 MacBook Air to the 2015 model. There is no need for that upgrade and it is a giant waste of money since the iPad 4 will perform well for at least 2 more years if not longer. I mean who thought the iPad 2 would get to iOS 9 know imagine how far a iPad 4 could go with 3x the amount of power.

The iPad 2 may be able to run iOS 9 but it doesn't mean it can run it well. The iPad 4 might be doing OK for the most part but I've seen it struggle with web browsing on multimedia heavy webpages.

Personally, at this point in time I consider the iPad 4 and Air as too slow for my usage and performance requirements, hence why I've upgraded. Probably could've waited another year if I had the Air 2 (although I doubt it since I want the 256GB storage).

 

[TrueBlou]

Yes please upgrade. Not only will you be happier, all the app developers will be happy they have one less to worry about supporting older iPads....

What? After all the effort we go to to make sure apps work on older devices. No, no, no. Downgrade to an iPad 2 to make that effort worthwhile

 

[Math889]

They MUST NOT! It is forbidden! And I'm glad that Air 1 users have your permission to upgrade.

I do feel bad about the Air 2 users wanting to use the Pencil, though. You know - that single most important reason to get the iPad Pro....

I really don't care for Apple Pencil Air 2 user