I am planning on purchasing a new iPad Pro. I recognize it is not a MacBook but I want to include as much as I can on the new iPad. I have a 2 TB hard drive on my MacBook Pro and I am currently used about 500 GB. Should spring for 1 TB of storage on my new iPad Pro or is 512 GB enough? I would appreciate any and all opinions.
Keep in mind that the storage size in the new iPad Pros doesn’t just affect how much storage space you have. It also dictates which M4 chip and how much RAM the device has.
The 256gb and 512gb models come with binned M4 chips that have 9 cores (3 performance and 6 efficiency). The 1tb and 2tb models have 10 cores (4 performance and 6 efficiency). Similarly, the 256/512 models come with 8gb of RAM, while the 1/2tb models come with 16gb.
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I have 250GB storage on my 2020 iPP and normally use less than 100GB. Most of my data is in Google Drive and the files that I don’t want online are copied to iCloud, and immediately downloaded by Hazel to my Mac.
The ability of LumaFusion to edit video on an external drive has reduced my need for local storage.
I would ask myself if the files on my iPad Pro will be the same as those on my Mac, how do I plan to keep them up to date? And if they are different, how do I plan to back them up?
And if processor power is important I would consider what @ChrisUpchurch had to say.
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It depends on the intended usage. My iPad Pro has 256 GB and has 86GB free and the stuff that takes the most space are games, although my Photo library takes 10GB with storage optimisation. On mobile devices, my mantra is that everything is in iCloud. I have found that I don’t need everything at once. To be honest I could be using a iPad Air, but on its day I needed the 13’'.
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One thing to keep in mind is that like the Apple Silicon Macs, iPad storage is not upgrade-able after you buy it. So I always recommend to over-provision when buying iPad storage in case you need more later on.
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I go with one simple rule with any device purchase. Buy as much storage and memory as you can afford. Period.
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Do you have a current iPad? If so, how much storage are you using on it?
Base your thoughts from that point and add a percentage based on your future expected use and data growth.
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I agree with most of the comments above. I tend to go for as large as possible since I keep my iPad for a long time and also keep a lot of media downloaded. When helping family, if they have a current version of a device I generally say to take the amount you’re using and double it then round up. If you replace your devices often it’s easier to have less space since you’re less likely to out grow your storage. For iPads especially I would consider if you need all the documents on your Mac and how much media you want downloaded at any one time. Then consider how often you won’t have a reliable connection to download what you need. If you don’t carry much media and will have a connection most of the time then go smaller. If your budget allows and you feel you have the potential to use the space go larger.
Hope that helps! Looking forward to what you decide.
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I put in my order for the 1TB model, not because I need that much local storage, but for the 16GB of RAM. The extra spiffy M4 can’t hurt either (except for the price at checkout).
Hoping to get another good 5-6 years of service out of it, so for once I stretched the options more than usual.
Will be trying out the new Pencil Pro in-store before upgrading to that though. Not convinced how squeeze and roll will work in practice.
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I wasn’t planning to buy an Apple Pencil Pro until I learned that my second generation Apple Pencil won’t work with the M4 iPad.
Yeah… same. Just learned that on here today. Bummer…
Apparently due to the new location of the front-facing camera now being on top in landscape mode, and the Qi-charging thing needed to be relocated within the Pencil (if I understood that correctly).
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I have absolutely no need for 1tb but the 16gb of ram is enticing. I doubt it’s worth the upgrade for me. I’ve had 2 iPads with 128gb and my current 2020 model has 256. None of them have come close to running out of space.
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That’s my understanding, too.
Are you going for the latest model? If not I can tell you that I experienced that the price drop for older larger storage versions is relatively higher than for the entry level models. I ended up buying an 2TB iPad Pro (from the previous year) as that was actually cheaper than the 1 TB. And while of course still more expensive than the smaller iPads, the range between the cheapest and the most expensive models gets much more shallow when you look for older models.
If you don’t think the latest improvements (e.g. in processor speed) are important for your use case it might be better to invest in an older, larger model than in a newer smaller one.
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I ordered the 256GB then after a while I ordered the 1TB because of the 16GB and I am going to return the 256GB one, I don’t really care about the extra performance core, I doubt I will make use of that processor anyways. But RAM is absolutely a thing.
Hold in mind that if you would like the new nano texture screen you will need a 1 TB or 2 TB iPad.