It will be interesting to see what might be coming in iPad OS at WWDC to make a dent in this ‘4x’ performance over M2.
Most likely, the answer is not much. iPadOS is what will be holding back this machine forever (and this is coming from someone who spent the last two years working only on the iPad Pro, except for the past few months, as now I have the M3 Pro MBP as well).
I fell into that trap once with the M1 iPad Pro, released in May 2021, bought immediately, with everyone impatiently waiting for WWDC to see what the iPad Pro might now get that it had the M1. It got nothing to show off the M1.
Very much agree. I find myself not doing things on my iPad that it could do just because it is such a hassle jumping through hoops with apps. Like the Files app will work with 3rd party cloud storage apps, but it is buggy. Sometimes iCloud files don’t sync right away, sometimes my 3rd party app won’t sync, sometimes it will. I have to force quit pass to get it to work. I think I really want a full Finder on my iPad.
I do not want touch enabled Macs, but I am at the point I wish iPadOS was a touch-enabled fork of macOS. Then I think of the Windows 8 Surface I had where MS tried to do that, and it kind of sucked too. But that sucked because MS didn’t put much effort into it, and 3rd party apps ignored it.
Interesting you should say that. I’ve been thinking again about possibly only using the iPad Pro for several months to see if I can do my work effectively and efficiently without needing the MBP. I tried this one before. It was able to get work, but for some work, it was not nearly as good. For instance, DTTG is a poor substitute for DT, bulk file management is much more complex (though this is only a periodic task), and many other tasks are more manageable on the Mac. In principle, I like the idea of having one and only one computer that can serve both as a laptop and tablet (I read, annotate, and write a lot on the iPad). The iPad is not an entertainment device for me; it is exclusively a work device. The new iPad Pro, Magic Keyboard, and Apple Pencil Pro tempt me. However, the limiting issue, as you point out, is iPadOS. I am hoping but not hopeful that significant improvements will come to iPadOS 18. We shall soon see.
I was able to make it work partly because I had no choice (I had to sell my M1 MBP as my business took a downturn due to the pandemic – but has since recovered – so I was left with the M1 iPad Pro, which was never meant to fill that role when I bought it) and partly because there are good resources out there (including lots I picked up from Federico Viticci).
As mentioned by @RunningBoris, the Files app is a significant pain point as this is so central to many workflows. The way it integrates with third-party cloud services, the way it decides to add dates and times to filenames (!) for no apparent reason when copying files to non-Apple cloud services, the way it freezes if you forget to eject the SMB shares (I reported this to Apple a million times), even corrupting files when using external storage (I think this was with iPadOS 15-16)…
And then there’s that way of thinking that forces you to use the share sheet and a zillion shortcuts to get data and files from here to there, constant thinking how to minimise taps and the switching of apps. My Share sheet is a complete and utter mess, so scrolling through all of that is now neither quick nor practical nor enjoyable.
For what I do, I could perfectly well continue working only on the iPad Pro now. Still, I feel Apple needs to clean up their act (the iPadOS) before developers start taking it more seriously as a productivity machine.
My (and others) conjecture. I do think that eventually MacOS and iPadOS will become closely linked to each other, if not MacOS can be run on the iPad. When? This year, next, 3 years from now? Don’t know but they seem to be taking steps forward in that convergence. The iPad will be what some want — MacBook Air with cellular. It’s hard to maintain 3 operating systems.
Really it’s only two. I’d guess the code for iPadOS and iOS is 98 to 99% the same.
Part of the reason Apple would like to move more people from macOS to iPadOS has likely been to lock them into the walled garden, But that calculus may change as antitrust opens things up.
I got my last 12.9" ipad pro in January of 2016. It still functioned for what I used it for-an 2nd laptop screen when traveling and reading illustrated books to my grandkids at bedtime. It finally died about 3 months ago-RIP. Over 8 years of use, not bad.
I actually traded in my 12.9" 2021 M1 iPad Pro for a 11" Pro last night. Bought the new keyboard, skipped the pencil. I might buy a pencil but I thought I would see if my existing pencil is enough. I don’t draw or sketch, so I bet there isn’t a lot of benefit to the new pencil for me.
I have been in a downsizing phase. I replaced my 15" MBP with a Studio for my desk. Then bought a 13" M2 air to carry for work. But when I would take my MB Air and my 12.9" iPad Pro it was a lot of weight still. Also, the 12.9" for my use cases is bigger than I need. I had hoped to make it a work computing device, but it has never worked for me that way. Hence the MBA 13", which is awesome.
Which model is your existing pencil? The new iPad Pros are only compatible with the new Apple Pencil Pro and the USB-C Apple Pencil that came out last year. They won’t work with the older Apple Pencil 2 (the first one with a flat side that magnetically attaches to the 2018, 2020, 2021, and 2022 models).
Normally I’d agree. However they always make a big deal about never touching the nano-texture surface, and now they put it on a touch-screen device??? Seems it would require using the pencil, the keyboard, or a pair of white gloves to keep from ruining it.
OTOH 1-2% can be a huge difference in all sorts of code. Humans are 99% the same as Bonobo Chimpanzees, Gorillas 98% and Orangutans 97% Keep in mind DNA is a language with a specific code so the comparison isn’t as far out of whack as you might think at first.
I’m studiously not looking at the new iPads. I don’t need one, really I don’t!
Sure, but I was responding to the claim that it’s hard for Apple to maintain 3 operating systems. iOS and iPadOS are really one operating system with some tweaks to optimize for the phone and tablet form factors.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the difference between the code is actually much less than 1%.
Binned chips, 8 gigs of memory still as standard, one camera gone, smaller battery, power adapters gone in Europe, eSIM only across the world… and now this:
The movement of the camera to the long side is the reason why the Pencil 2 cannot work with the new iPads.
And it stinks that if you have a Pencil 2 already, you can’t use it with a new iPad Pro or Air. But the mistake that prevents Apple from being able to offer just one Pencil has nothing to do with any of the Pencil models, but instead was the company’s yearslong resistance to moving the front-facing camera on iPads from the short side (like an iPhone) to the long side (like a laptop).
Same here. It’s a 9.7” from I guess ‘17 or ‘18. One thing I didn’t anticipate is that I can’t use gift cards to offset the financing through the website, so I need to go to the store on 5/15 and hope they have one in stock.
I’ll be getting the base model 11” since the base model 9.7” served me so well for so long, and I kinda think this one can last my needs for even longer. I’m passing on the keyboard for now and will only get the Smart Folio, but I’m excited to catch up to modern iPad hardware, even if the software still looks to be lagging behind.
