Where's the day to day benefit of new devices?

[TheRealCBONE]

I'd like to see a review of these new devices against the old ones in something other than stupid canned benchmarks, which are always followed by proclaiming that the new chip is helluva faster than the old one.

In actual usage, apps are pretty much the same. Browsing is pretty much the same. The hardware is thinner or fancier, but that seems to be about it.

With new desktop cpus and gpus, you can see the benefits of an upgrade clearly without resorting to canned benches. It used to take 20 minutes to convert now it takes 12. Now this game can run 8xAA and never dip below 30 fps and the last chip could only do 2x in the same game. There are tangible benefits to the new hotness.

Are there legit things that the newer devices can do that the old ones can't aside from those due to hardware features like touchid or a higher resolution? What good is all the supposed power of new devices when all the apps run the same as on the old device?

I can't be the only one interested in seeing real comparisons. I'd do it if I ever kept consecutive generations of products.

 

[sdz]

It's the pen on the new Pro I guess.
But then, there is no real app supporting handwriting besides OneNote which is tied to Microsoft Cloud.

I think it is real money wasting upgrading the iPad every year.

 

[Macalway]

For me, it's an improvement for document content. I always thought the regular iPad was a hair small and wanted something like this. The iPad Air is fantastic (with it's document ratio, etc), but as i said, a tad small.

As a bonus, this Pro is great in other ways also. Should be fun.

Having said that, in true to Apple form, it's priced right at the cusp of "**** you Apple".

 

[sjleworthy]

for me performance and speed really are a clincher. it really is important. bench marks are not needed. when using an ipad1 to an air2 pretty much nothing is the same.
So the Pro is a very exciting prospect. I've no preconceived ideas and disappointments and laptop comparison thoughts, just the expectation of a huge powerful tablet which will have wonderful new apps designed specifically for it. Ok, these will probably not be desktop class like maybe the SP has, but the content i create certainly will be compatible i suspect
it's a tablet with it's own tablet os. this is how i'll treat it.

 

[pika2000]

IWhat good is all the supposed power of new devices when all the apps run the same as on the old device?

I can't be the only one interested in seeing real comparisons. I'd do it if I ever kept consecutive generations of products.

Chicken and egg, right? Developers won't push their apps beyond the hardware, and the hardware won't be improved if there's no apps taking advantage of it. Apple decided to push the latter, pushing the hardware to its limits, and see what developers can do with it.

It's the same thing with PCs. I can argue that even a Core 2 Duo is more than enough for the regular use of a computer. There are only few specific uses that push the need for performance, namely gaming, publishing, 3D/video rendering, etc. The lay user typing in MS Word and browsing Facebook won't notice much.

 

[Mystro]

Split window apps has already become a huge advantage for my office work. I am using the Air2 but I will be purchasing 3 iPad Pro for their larger screen size to work with a bigger split screen. At $1k a piece, they are practically disposable for what office equipment cost us.

 

[TheRealCBONE]

Chicken and egg, right? Developers won't push their apps beyond the hardware, and the hardware won't be improved if there's no apps taking advantage of it. Apple decided to push the latter, pushing the hardware to its limits, and see what developers can do with it.

I don't think that they really can take advantage of it. Not without making an older device look bad. If someone released an app that was silky-smooth on Air 2, but ran like stutter and lag fest 2K16 on iPad 4. It won't though, they'll run pretty much the same. Outside of the "I updated my old whatever to the new iOS whatever and now it runs like crap and I can't do most of the stuff they advertised, but the version number still changed to fulfill marketing needs" effect.

It's the same thing with PCs. I can argue that even a Core 2 Duo is more than enough for the regular use of a computer. There are only few specific uses that push the need for performance, namely gaming, publishing, 3D/video rendering, etc. The lay user typing in MS Word and browsing Facebook won't notice much.

That's why facebook and Office people aren't buying new computers. There's no reason to until your old one dies.
Realistically, if I got an iPad Pro (with no OS X, that name is stupid) I would read comics and pdfs and play the occasional SNES-Playstation level RPG. The only allure it has right now is the size. A game on the pro will just be bigger, it won't be faster or sharper or have higher-res textures. If Apple had released the iPad Plus with Air 2 guts and a 12.9 inch screen, and forgot about calling anything iPad Pro until they could get OS X running respectably on that form factor, that would have made more sense.

[RANT]What sense does it make to hamstring a "desktop-class" SoC by pairing it with a mobile OS? They're full of crap with that desktop-class foolishness. I think they didn't release a thin and light tablet with OS X because they tried and it ran like crap with terrible battery life so they threw this together to have something to show. They would have been better off just putting the "Pro" guts in an iPad Air 2 chassis calling it the Air 3 and releasing the Air 2 guts in the iPad Plus. Then you have the mini and plus a gen behind. The Air flagship, and the Pro with actual desktop-class guts and performance come next year.[/RANT]​