Upgrade Air 2 to 9.7 iPad Pro?

[Marshall73]

As long as the phones etc all have 2gb of ram the 9.7 pro will be just fine, the only time you may have an issue is running 2 demanding apps side by side, I think that's the reason why they gave the 12.9 pro more ram. Single apps barely push 2gb ram on it at the moment.

 

[s2mikey]

As long as the phones etc all have 2gb of ram the 9.7 pro will be just fine, the only time you may have an issue is running 2 demanding apps side by side, I think that's the reason why they gave the 12.9 pro more ram. Single apps barely push 2gb ram on it at the moment.

"will be fine" certainly applies to the near future but we all know that apps and games and whatever else get fatter and fatter. They should. Ram is soooo incredibly cheap these days that there is no reason to skimp on it. They skimped on it with my Air 1 and while it still works OK its apparent that the 1GB of ram is very, very suspect. Certain things like browsing show the low ram.

Im just not buying another iPad unless I feel its more future-proof. The 12.9" Pro has the RIGHT amount of ram IMO. Not sure if Ill go for one of those or not. I do know that Im not buying the 9.7" Pro when the Air 2 is 98% the same tablet. Pencils dont concern me. True-tone screen gimmicks dont either. Slightly faster processor? Yeah but thats not enough to pay the fairly high upcharge. Not doing it.

 

[ZBoater]

...I do know that Im not buying the 9.7" Pro when the Air 2 is 98% the same tablet. Pencils dont concern me. True-tone screen gimmicks dont either. Slightly faster processor? Yeah but thats not enough to pay the fairly high upcharge. Not doing it.

Slightly? Ok. And the speakers? And the brighter/less reflective screen? And more storage? That's ok. Not for you.

 

[Talkingtoaster]

Ive not had an iPad since the iPad 2 (which still has its use as a permanetly installed MOTEC display for sim racing) and an iPad mini 2.

For me the Air 2 is perfect. I think the Pro option of a 32gb or 128gb is a joke. My 6s is 64gb, so why would I want a 32gb pro? so they force you to get the 128gb. And at £619 here its crazy expensive.

I don't want an apple pencil. i don't want the official keyboard connectivity. The screen on the Air 2 looks amazing to me, how much better is the pro? In all honesty is it worth it? The processor is faster but for day to day use os there going to be a massively noticable difference? Main thing I want is the 2GB of ram.

Can anyone else convince me to buy the PRO? It is for business use for get a 20% rebate. The difference in cost would end up being roughly 140 more for the pro.

Before tax, £429 64gb air 2 wifi. OR £619 128gb pro wifi. Take off 20%.

My macbook pro is 128gb with a 128gb extension memory card to store films. Other wise its used for university work.

Im aware 4K video takes more space but I rarely take videos. Also you can take a 4K video but unless your TV supports it, will you see a difference ?

If I'm misinformed please tell me. I do feel for my needs an Air 2 will be perfect. Any advice or opinions will be greatly appreciateda.

 

[rui no onna]

"will be fine" certainly applies to the near future but we all know that apps and games and whatever else get fatter and fatter. They should. Ram is soooo incredibly cheap these days that there is no reason to skimp on it. They skimped on it with my Air 1 and while it still works OK its apparent that the 1GB of ram is very, very suspect. Certain things like browsing show the low ram.

Im just not buying another iPad unless I feel its more future-proof. The 12.9" Pro has the RIGHT amount of ram IMO. Not sure if Ill go for one of those or not. I do know that Im not buying the 9.7" Pro when the Air 2 is 98% the same tablet. Pencils dont concern me. True-tone screen gimmicks dont either. Slightly faster processor? Yeah but thats not enough to pay the fairly high upcharge. Not doing it.

Safari has always had a RAM issue. With websites getting more multimedia heavy, I'm not sure even 4GB will fix that. I've got 4GB on my older 32-bit Windows 7 desktop and if not for the 4GB pagefile, Firefox and Chrome will be constantly crashing. Thank goodness for SSDs. If I only had HDD, performance every time the OS needs to hit the pagefile will be crap. Needless to say, all my new builds and laptops have at least 16GB RAM (and I can get away with just 1GB pagefile on SSD). I'd put in 32GB if I could but Mini-ITX motherboards and mainstream laptops tend to have only 2 RAM slots. At 16GB RAM, according to Windows task manager, Firefox typically sits around at 6GB while Chrome uses 150-300MB per tab.

Also, this is Apple we're talking about. They skimp on RAM and would only increase it when they absolutely have to. Chances are we might not see a new 9.7" iPad next year or if we do, it might still have 2GB RAM.

iPhone
Original: 128MB
3G: 128MB
3GS: 256MB
4: 512MB (3.5" retina)
4S: 512MB
5: 1GB (4" retina)
5s: 1GB
6/6+: 1GB (4.7/5.5" retina)
6s/6s+: 2GB

iPad
Original: 256MB (9.7", 0.8 megapixels, even less RAM than the iPhone 4)
2: 512MB
3: 1GB (9.7" retina, 3.1 megapixels)
4: 1GB
Air: 1GB (64-bit)
Air 2: 2GB
Pro 9.7": 2GB
Pro 12.9": 4GB (12.9" retina, 5.6 megapixels)

Don't upgrade because of "future-proofing". Upgrade because the device has features that are important to you when you buy it. By the time the future rolls around, it's quite likely you'll want something better.

 

[h00ligan]

Yah I really wish they offered a 64 gig I don't need 128 but I just started buying bigger than 32 last generation and consistently in over 32 on all my current devices.

I'm Considering maybe getting a 32 but I feel like it's not the right way to go. $150 more for 96 gigs is tough to swallow. On the 12 with sale pricing it's only $50 more right now. Less than a buck a gig.

 

[xoAnna]

Ive not had an iPad since the iPad 2 (which still has its use as a permanetly installed MOTEC display for sim racing) and an iPad mini 2.

For me the Air 2 is perfect. I think the Pro option of a 32gb or 128gb is a joke. My 6s is 64gb, so why would I want a 32gb pro? so they force you to get the 128gb. And at £619 here its crazy expensive.

I don't want an apple pencil. i don't want the official keyboard connectivity. The screen on the Air 2 looks amazing to me, how much better is the pro? In all honesty is it worth it? The processor is faster but for day to day use os there going to be a massively noticable difference? Main thing I want is the 2GB of ram.

Can anyone else convince me to buy the PRO? It is for business use for get a 20% rebate. The difference in cost would end up being roughly 140 more for the pro.

Before tax, £429 64gb air 2 wifi. OR £619 128gb pro wifi. Take off 20%.

My macbook pro is 128gb with a 128gb extension memory card to store films. Other wise its used for university work.

Im awake 4K video takes more space but I rarely take videos. Also you can take a 4K video but unless your TV supports it, will you see a difference ?

If I'm misinformed please tell me. I do feel for my needs an Air 2 will be perfect. Any advice or opinions will be greatly appreciateda.

I love my 128gb iPad Air 2 as well and was randomly wondering the same things as you at first. IMO, I think it all comes down to Apple just wanting two have more than one kind of iPad to offer the masses, much the same way as they offer both the iMac and Mac Pro, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, iPod (now just Touch) and iPod Nano's and Shuffles, etc. It comes down to Apple wanting to have more than one option (price point and more flexible options for people's differing reasons for using a device). Different strokes for different folks, etc. One isn't necessarily "better" than the other - it just depends on what you want to use it for and you decide which one is better for you.

Of course the shiny new thing is always touted as the next best thing but it's (usually) all subjective when it comes down to it.

I know this isn't what you were probably looking for but I had the urge to put my own 2 cents in. Hopefully someone else can answer your question a bit more scientifically.

 

[s2mikey]

Slightly? Ok. And the speakers? And the brighter/less reflective screen? And more storage? That's ok. Not for you.

Speakers? Yes, an upgrade for sure but I worry about bad vibrations which i what kept me from buying the Air 2. Brightness has never beena concern for me nor has reflectivity. Just not things that I find bothersome. More storage? Well, yes but you are paying for it. They did NOT increase the base storage they simply baked-in the $100 upcharge for the 32GB version. Hence $599. At $499? That would have been a real "deal" IMO.

Im sure the new processor will spec-out better than the Air 2 but in real world use I suspect it will be trivially better or not even noticeable. And.... that extremely pesky RAM issue that just wont go away. Lots of RAM is a must. I dont care how optimized the OS supposedly is. I own an Air 1 and while its been good to me overall I can tell its right up against the wall when it comes to RAM performance. It should have 2GB like th Air 2 does. The 9.7" Pro ought to have 4GB. Period.

Oh yeah - USB 2.0? REALLY? Facepalm/Fail

All good, I may end up with the big one. Not sure yet.

 

[UltraDean]

If you weren't so patronising, maybe your opinion would have more of an impact on the contributors of this thread.

I don't often comment here, as is evident from my posting history, but I do use these forums as a frequent source of info (community and "journalistic"), and I feel compelled to reply to this.

I've noticed that you've effectively hijacked every 9.7 iPP thread for your own means. While it may be argued that you're merely contributing to the forums as they are intended, I actually find them to be a disservice to the community and your arguements (if you are in fact genuinely trying to help). It's gotten to the point that your comments have become self-serving: a combination of passive aggressiveness, repition, and a complete distraction.

I especially find it funny that you attack other's behavior while failing to evaulate the means and methods you've used to voice your opinions. This particular comment is edpecially hypocritcal which is why I just had to interject.

I, myself, am somewhat disappointed in the device, and I check these threads in hopes of gaining OTHER'S thoughts. Unfortunately, you've effectively trolled every conversation as to render them almost useless.

If you are truly trying to be helpful, I'd suggest that you pay a little more time considering how you come off, as that is as important in communicating as the information that is presented itself.

 

[Talkingtoaster]

I love my 128gb iPad Air 2 as well and was randomly wondering the same things as you at first. IMO, I think it all comes down to Apple just wanting two have more than one kind of iPad to offer the masses, much the same way as they offer both the iMac and Mac Pro, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, iPod (now just Touch) and iPod Nano's and Shuffles, etc. It comes down to Apple wanting to have more than one option (price point and more flexible options for people's differing reasons for using a device). Different strokes for different folks, etc. One isn't necessarily "better" than the other - it just depends on what you want to use it for and you decide which one is better for you.

Of course the shiny new thing is always touted as the next best thing but it's (usually) all subjective when it comes down to it.

I know this isn't what you were probably looking for but I had the urge to put my own 2 cents in. Hopefully someone else can answer your question a bit more scientifically.

Appreciate your reply man, your totally right. Not sure dropping £600 big ones on a 'pro' is sensible. The AIR 2 is great but suddenly the PRO appears and its "oh the AIR 2 is old now and rubbish". Human nature , its all marketing. I think its the AIR2 for me. The only attraction to the PRO for me is the A9x chip. So now the A8 is 'rubbish'. So the average blind consumer will think.

I don't take pictures or videos on an iPad. Most of my time I'm at home studying. I have a desk and chair with a macbook pro. The iPad is for internet use in bed, such as forums. Right now I'm sat in a big leather chair, PS3 and PS4 linked up to a 55" TV. So i think to myself 'does an A9x chip justify a 'PRO'... no. If i goto a friends house or a weekend away I can take my iPad with a really nice logitech keyboard.

I think I just answered my own question. AIR 2, wifi (can tether if needed), 64gb for £343. Thats a steal IMO. Combined with a 6s+ 64gb.

The average consumer hears the word "PRO" and thinks if they don't have it they are a loser. Its like 'i must upgrade my car to the latest model'. I think a majority of people are blind sheep or follow marketing as opposed to their true needs.

I think apple has become another tech company now, adding words like PRO. OK the pencil and its ability of use on the PRO will be utilised by some people for WORK purpose and productivity. How many people will buy this because they CAN?

Apple used to be about innovation, every product was ground breaking back in the days of SJ. What do we get now, an iPhone 6 that is more about Jony Ives obsession with design over use. Its not nice to hold, its slippy, the camera stick out. How is this productive? SJ would not approve of any of this I'm sure of it. We got the Mac Air and it was amazing. Where is the evolution? Its like apple is lost now. Did SJ approve the 5S? I cant recall.

Look at the case extended battery pack, what the hell is that about? It looks......****.

Im probably just talking rubbish and I'm sure many people here would disagree. Yes the new macbook (its clearly the Air) is nice, but its design>use. I still adore apple and the eco system. I could never not use iOS or OSX but I'm worried they will turn into an average tech company. We get a 1 hour even showing a few watch bands, a 5s casing with new internals. A mini pro. And waffle about health apps.

Steve Jobs... where are you. "One more thing..."

Im not bashing Apple. Ive had every iPhone apart from the 5. But since SJ died its all felt a bit 'stale'.

TLDR: Ive had too much wine.

 

[rui no onna]

I own an Air 1 and while its been good to me overall I can tell its right up against the wall when it comes to RAM performance.

That's kinda the default for most Apple products. I know the 4GB RAM on the 12.9" iPP might seem like a lot right now but quite likely, with the increased resolution it's gonna show its weakness within a few firmware updates. Then we'd all be going around saying 8GB should be minimum or A9X should've been triple-core or something. Just saying.

 

[Tminusg]

With the price of the pro 9.7" starting at 799$ here and Canada it's a no brainer to just go with the Air 2. I'm coming from an iPad 3 so I picked up a 64gb air 2 open box from Best Buy for 550$ CAD. I am happy with my purchase. There's no way I could justify the price of the pro (799$ plus 13% tax here in Ontario). Overall I'm happy with my purchase considering I got double the memory to what was offered in the pro for 250$ more. Learned my lesson with the iPad 3, the pro 9.7" will be crippled far sooner then most would expect.

 

[s2mikey]

That's kinda the default for most Apple products. I know the 4GB RAM on the 12.9" iPP might seem like a lot right now but quite likely, with the increased resolution it's gonna show its weakness within a few firmware updates. Then we'd all be going around saying 8GB should be minimum or A9X should've been triple-core or something. Just saying.

You may be right. Ugh. The never-ending RAM saga still plagues Apple

 

[haruhiko]

While I like everything about the iPad Pro 9.7" (I wanted to get the LTE version, I chose the WiFi version 12.9 inch since it's not that really portable), the reduced RAM is really unfortunate, this is "sad" (c.f. Schiller). When the iPad Air 2 came out, 2GB of RAM was a big surprise and obviously overkill at that time. However, with the release of iOS 9 with all the multitasking stuff, it is obvious that 2GB is the thing that enabled all of these. Not to mention the increased price point.

I love the Smart Keyboard on the 12.9 Pro so much that I wished to use it on the 9.7.

 

[rui no onna]

When the iPad Air 2 came out, 2GB of RAM was a big surprise and obviously overkill at that time.

Overkill? Not at all. More like long overdue. If you read the posts from November 2013, you'll find plenty of people griping about no RAM upgrade on the first Air (myself included).

 

[haruhiko]

Overkill? Not at all. More like long overdue. If you read the posts from November 2013, you'll find plenty of people griping about no RAM upgrade on the first Air (myself included).

How could I not know, the Air 1 couldn't even hold more than 2 tabs in RAM

But since the iPhone 6/Plus was released before the iPad Air 2 with only 1GB of RAM, I didn't expect Apple to increase the RAM on the Air 2 for no obvious reasons.

 

[dumastudetto]

Appreciate your reply man, your totally right. Not sure dropping £600 big ones on a 'pro' is sensible. The AIR 2 is great but suddenly the PRO appears and its "oh the AIR 2 is old now and rubbish". Human nature , its all marketing. I think its the AIR2 for me. The only attraction to the PRO for me is the A9x chip. So now the A8 is 'rubbish'. So the average blind consumer will think.

Yeah you have to go through the list of new features and decide how many of them are worthwhile for you. It is marketing, and the longer the list of new things you can stuff into the brain of the potential customer - the better the chance you have of converting them into a paying customer.

If you don't use the camera, have no use or interest in the pencil, and you won't buy a smart connector keyboard - you've already crossed quite a few related items off big Phil's list. Add in the protruding camera and suddenly one of the touted upgrades can become a negative for you.

I'm sure the new display tech is great. The new processor, graphics and faster RAM a very nice speed bump, but if you're not using particularly complex apps (and there aren't many that will really tax even the Air 2 right now) then all you're getting is some neat benchmark scores with very limited real world benefit.

Apple is doing their job with the marketing. You have to do yours in applying some critical thinking to establish what in the powerful marketing messages is meaningful to you.

 

[rui no onna]

How could I not know, the Air 1 couldn't even hold more than 2 tabs in RAM

But since the iPhone 6/Plus was released before the iPad Air 2 with only 1GB of RAM, I didn't expect Apple to increase the RAM on the Air 2 for no obvious reasons.

No obvious reasons? The reason is Apple has already squeezed all the performance they could out of 1GB RAM on the iPad front. They've used 1GB for 3 iPad generations (3, 4 & Air). Continuing to use 1GB RAM would likely have adversely affected performance with the new iOS version. Really, the Air should've gotten 2GB to go along with the 64-bit chip but of course Apple wanted to save money and delay upgrading until they absolutely had to.

Meanwhile, the issue with 1GB RAM isn't as pronounced on the iPhones due to their lower resolution.

Interestingly enough, back when the iPad Air was released, people were saying to wait for the Air 2 with 2GB RAM because it's better for multitasking and split-view. Now that multitasking and split-view are here, people are saying you need 4GB RAM. While the Air 2 will no doubt enjoy good longevity, I think it's safe to assume that newer hardware released alongside the latest iOS version will always be better suited and better equipped for running that iOS version.

As I see it, consumers have the following options:

1. Upgrade yearly or whenever a new version is released (Apple will love this)
2. Upgrade when Apple releases hardware with specs you think the device should have (you're likely gonna end up waiting forever)
3. Upgrade when new hardware has features you want or when your current device becomes too slow or when the apps you use stop supporting your device
   
4. Switch to a different platform

I've done option 1 and it gets to be pretty pricey (I don't like to deal with the hassle of selling my device). I've also done option 2 and given the way technology moves, by the time Apple puts in all the stuff from my laundry list, I've already added/changed things in the list. I've spent thousands of dollars over the years trying to go with option 4. At this point in time, I've accepted the fact that Apple's never gonna upgrade what I want them to when I expect them to so now I just do option 3.

 

[ahostmadsen]

I'm seriously considering this upgrade. Have the Air 2. To me the whole reason is the Apple pencil support. I use a pen on my Air 2 very often. It works OK, but palm rejection is always a problem. I would love to have the Apple pencil. Yet, if I upgrade just to get the pencil, that's a hell of a lot expensive pencil. That's $1000 for a pencil!

 

[George Dawes]

Not trying to troll , but tbh what exactly is the point of this new iPad ?

Reminds me of the infamous iPad 3 - I bought one of those , just before the superior 4 came out , that was a mistake..

This thing looks like a 'stop gap'. Hope there's not a new one out in 6 months ...

 

[MacBH928]

Not trying to troll , but tbh what exactly is the point of this new iPad ?

Reminds me of the infamous iPad 3 - I bought one of those , just before the superior 4 came out , that was a mistake..

This thing looks like a 'stop gap'. Hope there's not a new one out in 6 months ...

I am on the opposite of you, I am thinking if I don't buy this now, I just don't see any possible hardware upgrades in the future except for more RAM and I doubt they will introduce a new iPad featuring just more RAM.

I also have an Air 2 and if I buy the PRO I will just gain pencil support and thats one expensive pencil upgrade!

 

[ZBoater]

Not trying to troll , but tbh what exactly is the point of this new iPad ?

To make Apple lots of money.

 

[Smoovejayy]

I am thinking of upgrading as well. I bought mine for $599 (found a great deal on eBay) and try to use it daily as a notebook for school but I haven't found a stylus that is as precise as the Apple Pencil is. I would really love to be able to easily write notes, etc on my iPad with the AP but to buy another iPad (probably go with 32GB) plus an AP is $700 before tax! I don't think I want to cough up that much money when I am already getting a MBP this year, pending the specs/hardware changes.

 

[AlliFlowers]

I'm seriously considering this upgrade. Have the Air 2. To me the whole reason is the Apple pencil support. I use a pen on my Air 2 very often. It works OK, but palm rejection is always a problem. I would love to have the Apple pencil. Yet, if I upgrade just to get the pencil, that's a hell of a lot expensive pencil. That's $1000 for a pencil!

I hadn't really thought about that. I ordered the small iPP because I wanted an LTE iPad. I use my current Air 2 constantly for taking handwritten notes using ZoomNotes. It would be nice not having to keep sliding the "wrist rest" up and down. Maybe there is a point to those of us who aren't graphic artists or engineers getting a pen after all.

 

[rui no onna]

Reminds me of the infamous iPad 3 - I bought one of those , just before the superior 4 came out , that was a mistake..

This thing looks like a 'stop gap'. Hope there's not a new one out in 6 months ...

Honestly, aside from release date, I'm not seeing how this is similar to the iPad 3.

The iPad 3 had 4x pixels, 2x RAM, 2x GPU and 1x CPU. It's the CPU/GPU that killed performance, not the RAM. iPad 4 and Air both also have 1GB RAM and they're doing pretty okay.

While the iPad Pro 9.7" may have the same amount of RAM, it does feature a faster CPU and GPU (and 9 times out of 10, I reckon faster dual core beats slower tri/quad-core). I'm just not seeing how this will be worse than the Air 2 given it's got better hardware all around and unlike the iPad 3, doesn't need to drive a much higher resolution that will task available resources.

Admittedly, there's not much reason to upgrade if you already have the Air 2 but if you go and read old reviews, that's also been said of all previous generation iPads. It's typically 2 generations for significant upgrades.
[doublepost=1459003314][/doublepost]

To make Apple lots of money.

I reckon that's the goal for all devices that they release. It's not just the 9.7" iPad Pro.