Poll: *** The official 2021 iPad Pro thread (it has the M1 chip and everything!) ***

The new M1 iPad Pro - Are you getting one?


  • Total voters
    97
Soldato
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They will never straight up merge the two completely, but you'd be a fool to think that iPadOS and macOS won't eventually share a lot in terms of the way they work and the under the hood code

And besides, even if they did go as far as merge the two completely, an iPad will never replace a proper laptop/desktop for a lot of workflows. As much as XCode/Visual Studio being on iPad is top of my wishlist, it will never prevent me doing the majority of my development on desktop simply because the form factor, keyboard etc just don't lend themselves to proper coding
I agree with that and in those situations I suspect people will bypass the MBA and buy the MBP.
 
Soldato
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Really hoping for big improvements on external monitor support - if I could have Remote Desktop app open on 1 screen for my work desktop and iPad still functional for other stuff on the other it would be a game changer.
 
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I read this recently about iPads running macOS and thought it made perfect sense.

Absolutely, but I don't think anyone is asking for macOS on iPad, or at least they shouldn't be

All I'd like to see is a proper file management system, proper multitasking and (broken record time), open up the limitations on allowing code to compile/run on the OS. I mean, Swift Playgrounds already allows it to a small extent so it shouldn't be too difficult. The thought of running VS Code on iPadOS gives me a semi, because I'm sad in that way, but that to me is when the iPad Pro really becomes a Pro device.
 
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Under the hood, code changes to unify things a bit, but I agree, I don't think convergence will happen in that they will bring MacOS experiences to the iPad/iOS as one unified system. And I don't want it to happen either.

These devices, and the tablet form factor itself, should try to intelligently move us away from the existing status quo of what we expect from computers.

App-based experiences, where your sole focus is on one specific task or content, is the key to a more mobile version of computing. I don't want to care about file structures, extensions, or what program I'm using for what. I want to get from A to B. I want to look at a photo and send it to a mate. etc etc. The computer should just do it, and I don't think you'll get that if you are firing up a desktop environment. It just too complicated.

If you all want these devices to 'do more' then just... get a laptop?

Because all that seems to be different here now is that this is a nice, small form factor and has a detachable screen. Eventually, the laptops will get there or there about (the Air's are super lightweight but powerful already).

Perhaps there is a dual boot system, but I would prefer two polished and optimised OSes over some attempt to shoehorn them onto devices that have the form factor to properly work (ie touch screen UI elements on a laptop).
 
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Absolutely, but I don't think anyone is asking for macOS on iPad, or at least they shouldn't be

All I'd like to see is a proper file management system, proper multitasking and (broken record time), open up the limitations on allowing code to compile/run on the OS. I mean, Swift Playgrounds already allows it to a small extent so it shouldn't be too difficult. The thought of running VS Code on iPadOS gives me a semi, because I'm sad in that way, but that to me is when the iPad Pro really becomes a Pro device.

File management and photo storage I think is the perfect example of where Photos does a better job than I would ever do with manual folder structures, even with smart tags and the such.

If we just left everything to be managed by folders, we wouldn't end up with the innovation we have today.

I would LOVE to never care about where I have saved something or version control, I'd happily let the system take over for me if 'somehow' it was intelligent enough to do this. "Hey Siri, bring up that spreadsheet with the patent costs. The one with where we added in the North American region'.... this would be amazing. Hopefully one day we get there.
 
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Battery life compared to the older Pro is a bit turd. Judging from the posts on the MacRumors forums, it's just the M1 chip being pretty power hungry. But I'm noticing the battery percentage drop a lot faster doing the same tasks than it did on the Pro I replaced it with
 
Soldato
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Battery life compared to the older Pro is a bit turd. Judging from the posts on the MacRumors forums, it's just the M1 chip being pretty power hungry. But I'm noticing the battery percentage drop a lot faster doing the same tasks than it did on the Pro I replaced it with
Was just about to post similar... 15 mins sat in bed this morning checking email/news drained 5% (and it also lost a few % over night whilst idle and in airplane mode). Not too thrilled with that.
 
Soldato
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Mine is still having issues with the WiFi so have arranged a return for refund which was a pain with Amazon. I’m going to keep my A12Z model and buy the wife an Air and maybe look at the next model to upgrade.
 
Soldato
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Also finding the screen isn't exactly as amazing as we were led to believe. It's not very bright outside and unless watching and HDR film just the same as normal led on previous gen. Also it doesn't fare that we'll in the dark apparently due to the glow though that's not really a big deal imo.
Why couldn't apple have just used oled? Samsung manage it... Reasonably sure apple could and not have to take these compromises.
 

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Also finding the screen isn't exactly as amazing as we were led to believe. It's not very bright outside and unless watching and HDR film just the same as normal led on previous gen. Also it doesn't fare that we'll in the dark apparently due to the glow though that's not really a big deal imo.
Why couldn't apple have just used oled? Samsung manage it... Reasonably sure apple could and not have to take these compromises.

It's first gen so it's not surprising it has some things to be worked out. Unless Apple open up iPadOS to use the extra capabilities then I'd say a discounted 2020 iPad Pro 12.9 is a great buy right now. I paid £640 for a 2020 12.9 iPad Pro 128gb cellular, open box, a few weeks ago for example.
 
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Also finding the screen isn't exactly as amazing as we were led to believe. It's not very bright outside and unless watching and HDR film just the same as normal led on previous gen. Also it doesn't fare that we'll in the dark apparently due to the glow though that's not really a big deal imo.
Why couldn't apple have just used oled? Samsung manage it... Reasonably sure apple could and not have to take these compromises.

I'm pretty blown away by the screen tbh. At first, I thought similar, in that other than HDR content, which is stupidly good, it didn't seem much better, but I think that's because I expected it to be like the HDR experience 100% of the time, which is just silly. As I've used it more, I've just been more and more impressed. It's just such a nice and vibrant screen, especially when working with any dark background apps like coding on web apps with a black background, the fact it's actually black now rather than grey. The colours in general as well are just so much more punchy
 
Soldato
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I'm pretty blown away by the screen tbh. At first, I thought similar, in that other than HDR content, which is stupidly good, it didn't seem much better, but I think that's because I expected it to be like the HDR experience 100% of the time, which is just silly. As I've used it more, I've just been more and more impressed. It's just such a nice and vibrant screen, especially when working with any dark background apps like coding on web apps with a black background, the fact it's actually black now rather than grey. The colours in general as well are just so much more punchy
Have you tried using it outside yet? Maybe my expectations are a bit unrealistic but at full brightness i felt it should be brighter.

Separately - anyone know if there is a way to force the front facing camera to be ultrawide when using Zoom (with centre stage disabled)? It seems to default to a cropped output for some reason.
 
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Soldato
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I'm pretty blown away by the screen tbh. At first, I thought similar, in that other than HDR content, which is stupidly good, it didn't seem much better, but I think that's because I expected it to be like the HDR experience 100% of the time, which is just silly. As I've used it more, I've just been more and more impressed. It's just such a nice and vibrant screen, especially when working with any dark background apps like coding on web apps with a black background, the fact it's actually black now rather than grey. The colours in general as well are just so much more punchy
Out of interest do/did you have a 2018 or 2020 model? Just curious what your thoughts are on comparison between the screens.
It’s interesting that @Rimsy claims there is a negligible difference in day to day use.
I’d have no interest in watching films or the such on my iPad (HDR or not) - I have a TV for that.
So I do genuinely wonder would the Mini LED be wasted one someone such as myself who just browses the web and does some light photo editing.
 
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