Picked up a new iPad Pro at the Apple Store today, and am impressed by how nicely it works with my existing Thunderbolt setup: a CalDigit TS3 Plus dock with an LG Ultrafine 5K plugged into it, along with a Magic Trackpad and Satechi keyboard (all in wired mode), along with some drives. All of these things worked immediately - 5K resolution, keyboard/trackpad, accessing drives in Files. it’s finally easy to switch between my MBP and iPad Pro from my desk and be able to use all my peripherals alongside it.
Unfortunately it’s not possible to select between different audio inputs from the dock (e.g., the TS3 input /output vs the UltraFine mic and speakers). It defaults to the LG speakers and mic.
Anyway, I think the thunderbolt aspect of the new iPad Pros is a bit underappreciated at this point, in part because of the software constraints of external displays etc. Still, it’s a very nice improvement!
Amen brother! The iPad software needs to be on par with the awesome new hardware, and at the moment it isn’t. Hoping for good things at WWDC this year.
It seems like even in this thread the addition of thunderbolt is still under appreciated.
Without any major overhaul to the operating system, As far as I can see thunderbolt allows the iPad Pro to be used with a monitor with multiple drives and get powered simultaneously, oh and high speed networking. Maybe that is enough for now? It’s pretty darn good.
I plugged in the iPad to my thunderbolt dock and I have to say I’m underwhelmed. The mirroring of the iPad display leaves two big black bars on my LG 5K monitor. I sure hope this is going to change in iPadOS 15. I will leave my criticism to the side until after WWDC, but I can’t imagine they would add this feature without some big plans.