• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

Apple Introduces Next-Generation iPad Pro, Supercharged by the M2 Chip

TheLostSwede

News Editor
Joined
Nov 11, 2004
Messages
17,486 (2.40/day)
Location
Sweden
System Name Overlord Mk MLI
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Motherboard Gigabyte X670E Aorus Master
Cooling Noctua NH-D15 SE with offsets
Memory 32GB Team T-Create Expert DDR5 6000 MHz @ CL30-34-34-68
Video Card(s) Gainward GeForce RTX 4080 Phantom GS
Storage 1TB Solidigm P44 Pro, 2 TB Corsair MP600 Pro, 2TB Kingston KC3000
Display(s) Acer XV272K LVbmiipruzx 4K@160Hz
Case Fractal Design Torrent Compact
Audio Device(s) Corsair Virtuoso SE
Power Supply be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 850 W
Mouse Logitech G502 Lightspeed
Keyboard Corsair K70 Max
Software Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores https://valid.x86.fr/yfsd9w
Apple today announced the new iPad Pro with the M2 chip, delivering the ultimate combination of portability, versatility, and unbelievable performance. The new iPad Pro features a next-level Apple Pencil hover experience and superfast wireless connectivity, along with the world's most advanced mobile display, pro cameras, Face ID, Thunderbolt, and a four-speaker audio system. New features in iPadOS 16—including Stage Manager, full external display support, desktop-class apps, and Reference Mode—take pro workflows on iPad even further. Enabled by its advanced hardware and iPadOS 16, iPad Pro has an incredible ecosystem of powerful pro apps unlike any other device of its kind. The new iPad Pro is available to order starting today, and in stores beginning Wednesday, October 26.

"The next-generation iPad Pro pushes the boundaries of what's possible on iPad, bringing even more versatility, power, and portability to the ultimate iPad experience," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "Powered by the M2 chip, the new iPad Pro features incredible performance and the most advanced technologies, including a next-level Apple Pencil hover experience, ProRes video capture, superfast wireless connectivity, and powerful iPadOS 16 features. There's nothing else like it."




Breakthrough Performance from the M2 Chip
M2, the start of Apple's next generation of M-series chips, brings even more breakthrough performance and capabilities to iPad Pro, with industry-leading power efficiency, a unified memory architecture, and custom technologies.

M2 features an 8-core CPU—up to 15 percent faster than M1—with advancements in both performance and efficiency cores, and a 10-core GPU, delivering up to 35 percent faster graphics performance for the most demanding users. Combined with the CPU and GPU, the 16-core Neural Engine can process 15.8 trillion operations per second—40 percent more than M1—making iPad Pro even more powerful when handling machine learning tasks. The M2 chip also features 100 GB/s of unified memory bandwidth—50 percent more than M1—and supports up to 16 GB of fast unified memory, making multitasking and working with large assets even more fluid.

The performance of M2 turbocharges even the most demanding workflows, from photographers editing massive photo libraries and designers manipulating complex 3D objects, to healthcare professionals taking advanced imaging and analysis, to gamers enjoying graphics-intensive games. The power of M2 also extends to the new media engine and the image signal processor, which combined with the advanced cameras, enable users to capture ProRes video for the first time and transcode ProRes footage up to 3x faster. This means content creators can capture, edit, and publish cinema-grade video from a single device out in the field.

A Next-Level Apple Pencil Hover Experience
Powered by the new iPad Pro and iPadOS 16, hover with Apple Pencil (2nd generation) provides a completely new dimension for users to interact with their screen. Apple Pencil is now detected up to 12 mm above the display, allowing users to see a preview of their mark before they make it. This also allows users to sketch and illustrate with even greater precision, and makes everything users do with Apple Pencil even more effortless. For example, with Scribble, text fields automatically expand when the pencil gets near the screen, and handwriting converts to text even faster. Third-party apps can also take advantage of this new feature to enable entirely new marking and drawing experiences.

Superfast Wireless Connectivity
The new iPad Pro supports the fastest Wi-Fi connections with support for Wi-Fi 6E, so users who need fast connections can take their demanding workflows with them everywhere. Downloads are up to 2.4 Gb/s, 2x faster than the previous generation. Wi-Fi + Cellular models with 5G (sub-6 GHz and mmWave) now support more 5G networks around the world, so users can access their files, communicate with colleagues, and back up their data in a snap while on the go.

Unmatched Pro Features Enabled by iPadOS 16
In addition to big updates to Messages, new tools in Mail and Safari, the new Weather app, and more ways to interact with photos and video with Live Text and Visual Look Up, iPadOS 16 also introduces powerful productivity features that elevate the iPad Pro experience:
  • Stage Manager is an entirely new multitasking experience that automatically organizes apps and windows, making it quick and easy to switch between tasks. Later this year, Stage Manager will unlock full external display support with resolutions of up to 6K, so users will be able to arrange the ideal workspace, and work with up to four apps on iPad and up to four apps on the external display.
  • Desktop-class apps enable new capabilities optimized for the display on iPad Pro—making apps more capable with new elements and interactions, including a consistent undo and redo, a redesigned inline find-and-replace experience, a new document menu, customizable toolbars, and the ability to change file extensions, view folder size in Files, and more.
  • Reference Mode enables the 12.9-inch iPad Pro with Liquid Retina XDR display to match the color requirements in workflows like review and approve, color grading, and compositing, where accurate colors and consistent image quality are critical. That means pro users, including photographers and videographers, can edit HDR images and videos with every true-to-life detail right in their hands, and cinematographers on set can preview content in a color profile that represents the final capture.

iPad and the Environment
The new iPad models are designed to minimize their impact on the environment and include 100 percent recycled gold—a first for iPad—in the plating of multiple printed circuit boards, as well as recycled aluminium, tin, and rare earth elements. All iPad models meet Apple's high standards for energy efficiency and are mercury-, BFR-, PVC-, and beryllium-free. Redesigned packaging in the new iPad Pro eliminates the outer plastic wrap, and 99 percent of the packaging is fiber based, bringing Apple closer to its goal of completely removing plastic from all packaging by 2025.
Today, Apple is carbon neutral for global corporate operations, and by 2030, plans to be 100 percent carbon neutral across the entire manufacturing supply chain and all product life cycles. This means that every Apple device sold, from component manufacturing, assembly, transport, customer use, charging, all the way through recycling and material recovery, will have net-zero climate impact.

Pricing and Availability
  • The new iPad Pro is available to order beginning today, October 18, at apple.com/store and in the Apple Store app in 28 countries and regions, including the US, with availability in stores beginning Wednesday, October 26.
  • The new 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro will be available in silver and space gray finishes with 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB configurations.
  • The 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $799 (US) for the Wi-Fi model and $999 (US) for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model; the 12.9-inch iPad Pro starts at $1,099 (US) for the Wi-Fi model, and $1,299 (US) for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model.
  • Apple Pencil (2nd generation), available for purchase separately, is compatible with the new iPad Pro for $129 (US).
  • Magic Keyboard is available in black and white for $299 (US) for the new 11-inch iPad Pro and $349 (US) for the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro, with layouts for over 30 languages.
  • The Smart Keyboard Folio for the new iPad Pro is available for $179 (US) for the new 11-inch iPad Pro and $199 (US) for the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
  • The Smart Folio is available in black, white, and marine blue for $79 (US) for the new 11-inch iPad Pro and $99 (US) for the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
  • Education pricing is available to current and newly accepted college students and their parents, as well as faculty, staff, and home-school teachers of all grade levels. The new 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $749 (US), and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro starts at $999 (US). The second-generation Apple Pencil is available for $119 (US), and the Smart Keyboard Folio is available for $159 (US) for the 11-inch iPad Pro and $179 (US) for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. The Magic Keyboard will be available at $279 (US) for the 11-inch iPad Pro and $329 (US) for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source
 

dgianstefani

TPU Proofreader
Staff member
Joined
Dec 29, 2017
Messages
4,990 (2.00/day)
Location
Swansea, Wales
System Name Silent
Processor Ryzen 7800X3D @ 5.15ghz BCLK OC, TG AM5 High Performance Heatspreader
Motherboard ASUS ROG Strix X670E-I, chipset fans replaced with Noctua A14x25 G2
Cooling Optimus Block, HWLabs Copper 240/40 + 240/30, D5/Res, 4x Noctua A12x25, 1x A14G2, Mayhems Ultra Pure
Memory 32 GB Dominator Platinum 6150 MT 26-36-36-48, 56.6ns AIDA, 2050 FCLK, 160 ns tRFC, active cooled
Video Card(s) RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition, Conductonaut Extreme, 18 W/mK MinusPad Extreme, Corsair XG7 Waterblock
Storage Intel Optane DC P1600X 118 GB, Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB
Display(s) 32" 240 Hz 1440p Samsung G7, 31.5" 165 Hz 1440p LG NanoIPS Ultragear, MX900 dual gas VESA mount
Case Sliger SM570 CNC Aluminium 13-Litre, 3D printed feet, custom front, LINKUP Ultra PCIe 4.0 x16 white
Audio Device(s) Audeze Maxwell Ultraviolet w/upgrade pads & LCD headband, Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, Razer Nommo Pro
Power Supply SF750 Plat, full transparent custom cables, Sentinel Pro 1500 Online Double Conversion UPS w/Noctua
Mouse Razer Viper Pro V2 8 KHz Mercury White w/Tiger Ice Skates & Pulsar Supergrip tape
Keyboard Wooting 60HE+ module, TOFU-R CNC Alu/Brass, SS Prismcaps W+Jellykey, LekkerV2 mod, TLabs Leath/Suede
Software Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC 24H2
Benchmark Scores Legendary
£1250 to move from 128 GB to 2 TB.
Just Apple things.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2021
Messages
3,092 (2.52/day)
System Name daily driver Mac mini M2 Pro
Processor Apple proprietary M2 Pro (6 p-cores, 4 e-cores)
Motherboard Apple proprietary
Cooling Apple proprietary
Memory Apple proprietary 16GB LPDDR5 unified memory
Video Card(s) Apple proprietary M2 Pro (16-core GPU)
Storage Apple proprietary onboard 512GB SSD + various external HDDs
Display(s) LG UltraFine 27UL850W (4K@60Hz IPS)
Case Apple proprietary
Audio Device(s) Apple proprietary
Power Supply Apple proprietary
Mouse Apple Magic Trackpad 2
Keyboard Keychron K1 tenkeyless (Gateron Reds)
VR HMD Oculus Rift S (hosted on a different PC)
Software macOS Sonoma 14.7
Benchmark Scores (My Windows daily driver is a Beelink Mini S12 Pro. I'm not interested in benchmarking.)
No surprises here. This is very much in line with their previous pricing structure.

It should be pointed out that the $799 to $1199 price increase traverses five storage capacities, two screen sizes, and the addition of cellular data capabilities (which has been a ~$130 premium since the earliest iPad days). And most importantly, this is their premium tablet line, so there's an upcharge to have their best.

And they released new (regular) iPads too which covers the lower price points. You can't get the entry iPad with 2TB of data, but no one sane expected them to offer that.

The new iPad Pro looks like a very capable device, even a credible notebook replacement for some individuals. I'm happy to stick with my smaller iPad mini though for my usage cases.

As an indirect AAPL shareholder, I hope they sell lots of them.

:)
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2021
Messages
3,092 (2.52/day)
System Name daily driver Mac mini M2 Pro
Processor Apple proprietary M2 Pro (6 p-cores, 4 e-cores)
Motherboard Apple proprietary
Cooling Apple proprietary
Memory Apple proprietary 16GB LPDDR5 unified memory
Video Card(s) Apple proprietary M2 Pro (16-core GPU)
Storage Apple proprietary onboard 512GB SSD + various external HDDs
Display(s) LG UltraFine 27UL850W (4K@60Hz IPS)
Case Apple proprietary
Audio Device(s) Apple proprietary
Power Supply Apple proprietary
Mouse Apple Magic Trackpad 2
Keyboard Keychron K1 tenkeyless (Gateron Reds)
VR HMD Oculus Rift S (hosted on a different PC)
Software macOS Sonoma 14.7
Benchmark Scores (My Windows daily driver is a Beelink Mini S12 Pro. I'm not interested in benchmarking.)
Is it soldered using gold?

Usually the internals are pretty much the same apart from NAND chips and the optional cellular module so any precious metals would be used on all of the SKUs within the same base model.

Wait for an iFixIt teardown to see inside since Apple does not post such imagery.
 
Joined
Mar 7, 2011
Messages
4,501 (0.90/day)
Usually the internals are pretty much the same apart from NAND chips and the optional cellular module so any precious metals would be used on all of the SKUs within the same base model.

Wait for an iFixIt teardown to see inside since Apple does not post such imagery.
that 1250 GBP price increase for 2TB SSD is not worth unless its actually soldered or has heatsink made from gold. These days you can get flagship class 2TB M.2 SSDs for under US$250.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2021
Messages
3,092 (2.52/day)
System Name daily driver Mac mini M2 Pro
Processor Apple proprietary M2 Pro (6 p-cores, 4 e-cores)
Motherboard Apple proprietary
Cooling Apple proprietary
Memory Apple proprietary 16GB LPDDR5 unified memory
Video Card(s) Apple proprietary M2 Pro (16-core GPU)
Storage Apple proprietary onboard 512GB SSD + various external HDDs
Display(s) LG UltraFine 27UL850W (4K@60Hz IPS)
Case Apple proprietary
Audio Device(s) Apple proprietary
Power Supply Apple proprietary
Mouse Apple Magic Trackpad 2
Keyboard Keychron K1 tenkeyless (Gateron Reds)
VR HMD Oculus Rift S (hosted on a different PC)
Software macOS Sonoma 14.7
Benchmark Scores (My Windows daily driver is a Beelink Mini S12 Pro. I'm not interested in benchmarking.)
that 1250 GBP price increase for 2TB SSD is not worth unless its actually soldered or has heatsink made from gold. These days you can get flagship class 2TB M.2 SSDs for under US$250.

Not worth it to you.

It's worth it to someone. They always sell some of their high end models. My guess is that a lot of these high-capacity iPad Pros are bought up by content creators doing stuff like 4K video production for a living.

If you don't do that for a living, I can see how the 2TB model isn't "worth it" to you. But not everyone has your exact usage case.

Remember that you can't just buy a Samsung 4GB 2.5" SSD, pop it into a cheap USB enclosure, attach it to your iPad and write to that directly. And even if you could, some people might not want to have a peripheral dangling off the end of their tablet all the time.

I wish more people online would understand that their usage case isn't the only one in the universe.
 

Hxx

Joined
Dec 5, 2013
Messages
300 (0.08/day)
I don’t see any major changes from the M1 iPad Pro outside of the processor which is not anything substantial. I’m surprised to see no difference in screen or other hardware changes . Mind as well grab the M1 variant and save some money
 
Joined
Nov 17, 2010
Messages
131 (0.03/day)
Location
My Computer
System Name Itty Bitty
Processor 5800X3D
Motherboard Asus x570 Tuff Wifi
Cooling 1860mm worth of rads
Memory G Skill Sniper 3600mhz 64gig
Video Card(s) EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra
Storage Gigabyte Aorus 1TB NVME
Display(s) ASUS ROG Swift PG259QNR 360hz + LG CX55 + Sanyo Z3 on a 10ft screen
Case Coolermaster NR600
Audio Device(s) Optical to home theatre amp, EPOS 670
Power Supply Deepcool PQ1000m
Mouse Roccat Kone Pro
Keyboard Roccat Vulcan Pro
Software Win10
$1899 Australian Dollarydoos for the base 12.9" or $3129 for the 1TB with the extra 8gig ram. Rather get a 4090 if im going to spend that much and i think even that is more than double the price of what its really worth
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2021
Messages
3,092 (2.52/day)
System Name daily driver Mac mini M2 Pro
Processor Apple proprietary M2 Pro (6 p-cores, 4 e-cores)
Motherboard Apple proprietary
Cooling Apple proprietary
Memory Apple proprietary 16GB LPDDR5 unified memory
Video Card(s) Apple proprietary M2 Pro (16-core GPU)
Storage Apple proprietary onboard 512GB SSD + various external HDDs
Display(s) LG UltraFine 27UL850W (4K@60Hz IPS)
Case Apple proprietary
Audio Device(s) Apple proprietary
Power Supply Apple proprietary
Mouse Apple Magic Trackpad 2
Keyboard Keychron K1 tenkeyless (Gateron Reds)
VR HMD Oculus Rift S (hosted on a different PC)
Software macOS Sonoma 14.7
Benchmark Scores (My Windows daily driver is a Beelink Mini S12 Pro. I'm not interested in benchmarking.)
I don’t see any major changes from the M1 iPad Pro outside of the processor which is not anything substantial. I’m surprised to see no difference in screen or other hardware changes . Mind as well grab the M1 variant and save some money

The biggest hardware difference is the much higher machine learning performance of the M2 SoC. That enables it to accomplish certain tasks better. Apple demonstrated some of these ML dependent features in one of their recent keynotes. Apple frequently withholds new functionality from previous hardware though to incentivize people to purchase the new hardware.

Some of these capabilities won't show up in a traditional quantitative measurement like Geekbench. I think Apple is calling a new multi-tasking feature something like Stage Manager which really can't be measured by a benchmark tool.

A lot of the machine learning capabilities are difficult to quantitatively assess. Even DLSS can be measured in terms of framerate increase, but the image quality differences end up being a subjective judgment.

The M2 does have significantly higher memory bandwidth. While that performance superiority won't show up if you're typing an e-mail or surfing the Internet, it probably would be noticeable during intensive tasks like video editing.

Regardless, owners of M1 iPads will be able to install the upcoming version of iPadOS when it is released.

The fact that there were no other major hardware changes is probably why they chose to launch the product via a press release instead of holding a hosted event.

Apple has done this before (e.g., release new product outside of an event).
 
Last edited:
Joined
Sep 15, 2015
Messages
1,063 (0.32/day)
Location
Latvija
System Name Fujitsu Siemens, HP Workstation
Processor Athlon x2 5000+ 3.1GHz, i5 2400
Motherboard Asus
Memory 4GB Samsung
Video Card(s) rx 460 4gb
Storage 750 Evo 250 +2tb
Display(s) Asus 1680x1050 4K HDR
Audio Device(s) Pioneer
Power Supply 430W
Mouse Acme
Keyboard Trust
Apple make something in devices (connection ports) who no one uses. Over valued corporation.

Do you want to buy me one apple for 5 euro?
 
Joined
Dec 28, 2012
Messages
3,813 (0.88/day)
System Name Skunkworks 3.0
Processor 5800x3d
Motherboard x570 unify
Cooling Noctua NH-U12A
Memory 32GB 3600 mhz
Video Card(s) asrock 6800xt challenger D
Storage Sabarent rocket 4.0 2TB, MX 500 2TB
Display(s) Asus 1440p144 27"
Case Old arse cooler master 932
Power Supply Corsair 1200w platinum
Mouse *squeak*
Keyboard Some old office thing
Software Manjaro
Not worth it to you.

It's worth it to someone. They always sell some of their high end models. My guess is that a lot of these high-capacity iPad Pros are bought up by content creators doing stuff like 4K video production for a living.

If you don't do that for a living, I can see how the 2TB model isn't "worth it" to you. But not everyone has your exact usage case.

Remember that you can't just buy a Samsung 4GB 2.5" SSD, pop it into a cheap USB enclosure, attach it to your iPad and write to that directly. And even if you could, some people might not want to have a peripheral dangling off the end of their tablet all the time.

I wish more people online would understand that their usage case isn't the only one in the universe.
The problem with that line of thinking is that a single use case (in this case hardware that cannot be repaired or upgraded sold for stupid levels of money) is being forced upon everybody. When you do that you're going to piss people off.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2021
Messages
3,092 (2.52/day)
System Name daily driver Mac mini M2 Pro
Processor Apple proprietary M2 Pro (6 p-cores, 4 e-cores)
Motherboard Apple proprietary
Cooling Apple proprietary
Memory Apple proprietary 16GB LPDDR5 unified memory
Video Card(s) Apple proprietary M2 Pro (16-core GPU)
Storage Apple proprietary onboard 512GB SSD + various external HDDs
Display(s) LG UltraFine 27UL850W (4K@60Hz IPS)
Case Apple proprietary
Audio Device(s) Apple proprietary
Power Supply Apple proprietary
Mouse Apple Magic Trackpad 2
Keyboard Keychron K1 tenkeyless (Gateron Reds)
VR HMD Oculus Rift S (hosted on a different PC)
Software macOS Sonoma 14.7
Benchmark Scores (My Windows daily driver is a Beelink Mini S12 Pro. I'm not interested in benchmarking.)
Do you want to buy me one apple for 5 euro?
I dunno. Five euros for a piece of fruit? Someone might. After all, in Japan there are $150 melons.

As for begging for handouts, I'm not sure if that matches this site's focus.
 
Joined
Dec 28, 2012
Messages
3,813 (0.88/day)
System Name Skunkworks 3.0
Processor 5800x3d
Motherboard x570 unify
Cooling Noctua NH-U12A
Memory 32GB 3600 mhz
Video Card(s) asrock 6800xt challenger D
Storage Sabarent rocket 4.0 2TB, MX 500 2TB
Display(s) Asus 1440p144 27"
Case Old arse cooler master 932
Power Supply Corsair 1200w platinum
Mouse *squeak*
Keyboard Some old office thing
Software Manjaro
that 1250 GBP price increase for 2TB SSD is not worth unless its actually soldered or has heatsink made from gold. These days you can get flagship class 2TB M.2 SSDs for under US$250.
Those 2TB M.2 drives are also 2280 form factor. The storage on an ipad is the size of a m.2 2230, of which no 2TB versions exist. You CAN get them for $250 in 2242 form factor, with no DRAM cache, of course. Even so, these drives use 4 NAND chips, the ipad uses 2 that are far denser, and that costs cash. Those drives also wont compare to the speed of an ipads.

The price is a bit obscene, yeah, but the apple tax has always been there. AFAIK there is no windows device outside of the similarly expensive surface pros that come close.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2021
Messages
3,092 (2.52/day)
System Name daily driver Mac mini M2 Pro
Processor Apple proprietary M2 Pro (6 p-cores, 4 e-cores)
Motherboard Apple proprietary
Cooling Apple proprietary
Memory Apple proprietary 16GB LPDDR5 unified memory
Video Card(s) Apple proprietary M2 Pro (16-core GPU)
Storage Apple proprietary onboard 512GB SSD + various external HDDs
Display(s) LG UltraFine 27UL850W (4K@60Hz IPS)
Case Apple proprietary
Audio Device(s) Apple proprietary
Power Supply Apple proprietary
Mouse Apple Magic Trackpad 2
Keyboard Keychron K1 tenkeyless (Gateron Reds)
VR HMD Oculus Rift S (hosted on a different PC)
Software macOS Sonoma 14.7
Benchmark Scores (My Windows daily driver is a Beelink Mini S12 Pro. I'm not interested in benchmarking.)
The problem with that line of thinking is that a single use case (in this case hardware that cannot be repaired or upgraded sold for stupid levels of money) is being forced upon everybody. When you do that you're going to piss people off.

People get pissed off for all sorts of reasons, sometimes none.

If you don't like Apple's offerings, you are free to purchase a touchscreen tablet from someone else, like Samsung. Note that you can't repair their devices any substantially easier and Apple's iPads have much better resale value than Android tablets.

It's also worth pointing out that Apple has been selling iPads since 2010 and have turned it into a substantial business unit (about 10-15% of total company revenue). Sure there are people who don't/won't buy an iPad. But there are enough who do for Apple to continue sticking with it as a marketable product.

Someday people's interests may change and they'll stop buying iPads. Apple killed off their iPod product line and even their full-sized HomePod.

As for the lack of upgradeability, people have been complaining about this for years about Macs, iPhones, iPods, iPads, and now other devices and yet their customer base seems to be able to take it in stride. Despite a few small and vocal minority, it doesn't look like Apple will be putting in m.2 2280 SSD slots into their MacBooks anytime soon and they aren't going to put a microSD card slot into an iPad either.

Some of these devices can accept common external storage options and to Apple, that's sufficient for their regular customer base.

If you don't like the iPad vote with your dollars. Don't buy it.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Dec 28, 2012
Messages
3,813 (0.88/day)
System Name Skunkworks 3.0
Processor 5800x3d
Motherboard x570 unify
Cooling Noctua NH-U12A
Memory 32GB 3600 mhz
Video Card(s) asrock 6800xt challenger D
Storage Sabarent rocket 4.0 2TB, MX 500 2TB
Display(s) Asus 1440p144 27"
Case Old arse cooler master 932
Power Supply Corsair 1200w platinum
Mouse *squeak*
Keyboard Some old office thing
Software Manjaro
People get pissed off for all sorts of reasons, sometimes none.

If you don't like Apple's offerings, you are free to purchase a touchscreen tablet from someone else, like Samsung. Note that you can't repair their devices any substantially easier and Apple's iPads have much better resale value than Android tablets.

It's also worth pointing out that Apple has been selling iPads since 2010 and have turned it into a substantial business unit (about 10-15% of total company revenue). Sure there are people who don't/won't buy an iPad. But there are enough who do for Apple to continue sticking with it as a marketable product.

Someday people's interests may change and they'll stop buying iPads. Apple killed off their iPod product line and even their full-sized HomePod.

If you don't like the iPad vote with your dollars. Don't buy it.
Thank you for demonstrating my point: this attitude of "well everything works like apple, just dont buy it! Hoho I'm so smart!" gets under people's skins.
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2013
Messages
7,473 (1.77/day)
The biggest hardware difference is the much higher machine learning performance of the M2 SoC. That enables it to accomplish certain tasks better. Apple demonstrated some of these ML dependent features in one of their recent keynotes. Apple frequently withholds new functionality from previous hardware though to incentivize people to purchase the new hardware.

Some of these capabilities won't show up in a traditional quantitative measurement like Geekbench. I think Apple is calling a new multi-tasking feature something like Stage Manager which really can't be measured by a benchmark tool.

A lot of the machine learning capabilities are difficult to quantitatively assess. Even DLSS can be measured in terms of framerate increase, but the image quality differences end up being a subjective judgment.

The M2 does have significantly higher memory bandwidth. While that performance superiority won't show up if you're typing an e-mail or surfing the Internet, it probably would be noticeable during intensive tasks like video editing.

Regardless, owners of M1 iPads will be able to install the upcoming version of iPadOS when it is released.

The fact that there were no other major hardware changes is probably why they chose to launch the product via a press release instead of holding a hosted event.

Apple has done this before (e.g., release new product outside of an event).
And if you've tried Stage manager you should know it is a horror show right now, especially on the (Mx) iPads :shadedshu:

Regardless of future (OS) updates the fact that they charge easily 2-4x the memory or NAND upgrades, as it would probably cost them, is just worth of derision!
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2021
Messages
3,092 (2.52/day)
System Name daily driver Mac mini M2 Pro
Processor Apple proprietary M2 Pro (6 p-cores, 4 e-cores)
Motherboard Apple proprietary
Cooling Apple proprietary
Memory Apple proprietary 16GB LPDDR5 unified memory
Video Card(s) Apple proprietary M2 Pro (16-core GPU)
Storage Apple proprietary onboard 512GB SSD + various external HDDs
Display(s) LG UltraFine 27UL850W (4K@60Hz IPS)
Case Apple proprietary
Audio Device(s) Apple proprietary
Power Supply Apple proprietary
Mouse Apple Magic Trackpad 2
Keyboard Keychron K1 tenkeyless (Gateron Reds)
VR HMD Oculus Rift S (hosted on a different PC)
Software macOS Sonoma 14.7
Benchmark Scores (My Windows daily driver is a Beelink Mini S12 Pro. I'm not interested in benchmarking.)
And if you've tried Stage manager you should know it is a horror show right now, especially on the (Mx) iPads :shadedshu:
Nah, I don't run beta Apple software.

Hell, I don't even install the release software when made available. I usually wait six months before upgrading to the newest version of iOS/iPadOS/macOS. So I'm still running 15.7 on my iPhone and iPad mini; my Mac mini 2018 will stay on Monterey until April 2023. Next April is when I'll upgrade to iOS/iPadOS 16.

And besides, Stage Manager won't be supported on my iPad mini anyhow. At some point they will get it working correctly for Mx devices. Apple clearly admitted to delaying the iPad release for extra software development time. Your description of Stage Manager's current status is echoed elsewhere (Apple rumor sites). My guess is that Stage Manager will be rather rocky for the next few months.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Oct 8, 2009
Messages
2,047 (0.37/day)
Location
Republic of Texas
Processor R9 5950x
Motherboard Asus x570 Crosshair VIII Formula
Cooling EK 360mm AIO D-RGB
Memory G.Skill Trident Z Neo 2x16gb (CL16@3800MHz)
Video Card(s) PNY GeForce RTX 3090 24GB
Storage Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB NVMe | Intel 660p 2TB NVMe
Display(s) Acer Predator XB323QK 4K 144Hz
Case Corsair 5000D Airflow
Audio Device(s) Objective2 Amp/DAC | GoXLR | AKG K612PRO | Beyerdynamic DT880| Rode Pod Mic
Power Supply Corsair AX 850w
Mouse Razer DeathAdder Elite V2
Keyboard Corsair K95 Platinum RGB "Cherry MX Brown"
VR HMD Oculus Rift
Software Window 11 Pro
Some of you just don't get it, ur not only paying for device ur also paying for ecosystem (it simply works with other apple devices), how long does other tablet support their device and keep the OS up to date? and Ipads has better resale value than any other tablets.
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2013
Messages
7,473 (1.77/day)
The last Samsung flagship tablets will be updated for 5 years, with 4 major OS updates ~ so about the same with arguably much better specs in display/storage/memory et al, apart from (just) the SoC which is inferior to Ax or Mx chips.

And at this point I'd argue Android is a better platform, at least more versatile one.
 
Joined
May 9, 2012
Messages
8,508 (1.87/day)
Location
Ovronnaz, Wallis, Switzerland
System Name main/SFFHTPCARGH!(tm)/Xiaomi Mi TV Stick/Samsung Galaxy S23/Ally
Processor Ryzen 7 5800X3D/i7-3770/S905X/Snapdragon 8 Gen 2/Ryzen Z1 Extreme
Motherboard MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk/HP SFF Q77 Express/uh?/uh?/Asus
Cooling Enermax ETS-T50 Axe aRGB /basic HP HSF /errr.../oh! liqui..wait, no:sizable vapor chamber/a nice one
Memory 64gb Corsair Vengeance Pro 3600mhz DDR4/8gb DDR3 1600/2gb LPDDR3/8gb LPDDR5x 4200/16gb LPDDR5
Video Card(s) Hellhound Spectral White RX 7900 XTX 24gb/GT 730/Mali 450MP5/Adreno 740/RDNA3 768 core
Storage 250gb870EVO/500gb860EVO/2tbSandisk/NVMe2tb+1tb/4tbextreme V2/1TB Arion/500gb/8gb/256gb/2tb SN770M
Display(s) X58222 32" 2880x1620/32"FHDTV/273E3LHSB 27" 1920x1080/6.67"/AMOLED 2X panel FHD+120hz/FHD 120hz
Case Cougar Panzer Max/Elite 8300 SFF/None/back/back-front Gorilla Glass Victus 2+ UAG Monarch Carbon
Audio Device(s) Logi Z333/SB Audigy RX/HDMI/HDMI/Dolby Atmos/KZ x HBB PR2/Moondrop Chu II + TRN BT20S
Power Supply Chieftec Proton BDF-1000C /HP 240w/12v 1.5A/4Smart Voltplug PD 30W/Asus USB-C 65W
Mouse Speedlink Sovos Vertical-Asus ROG Spatha-Logi Ergo M575/Xiaomi XMRM-006/touch/touch
Keyboard Endorfy Thock 75% <3/none/touch/virtual
VR HMD Medion Erazer
Software Win10 64/Win8.1 64/Android TV 8.1/Android 13/Win11 64
Benchmark Scores bench...mark? i do leave mark on bench sometime, to remember which one is the most comfortable. :o
they did not learn a lot from the MacBook Air M2 13.6" ... cooling fiasco

oh well ... an iPad is mostly for light task (so is the MB Air M2 ... since anything too heavy and it overheat like mad ) so, it should be fine ... (it will not be ... buyer do not buy a M2 device for light tasks nonetheless ... or at least they are convinced they will be able to do more than that ... )

The last Samsung flagship tablets will be updated for 5 years, with 4 major OS updates ~ so about the same with arguably much better specs in display/storage/memory et al, apart from (just) the SoC which is inferior to Ax or Mx chips.

And at this point I'd argue Android is a better platform, at least more versatile one.
and given that the real life usage on average is the same ...
 
Joined
Nov 26, 2021
Messages
1,600 (1.49/day)
Location
Mississauga, Canada
Processor Ryzen 7 5700X
Motherboard ASUS TUF Gaming X570-PRO (WiFi 6)
Cooling Noctua NH-C14S (two fans)
Memory 2x16GB DDR4 3200
Video Card(s) Reference Vega 64
Storage Intel 665p 1TB, WD Black SN850X 2TB, Crucial MX300 1TB SATA, Samsung 830 256 GB SATA
Display(s) Nixeus NX-EDG27, and Samsung S23A700
Case Fractal Design R5
Power Supply Seasonic PRIME TITANIUM 850W
Mouse Logitech
VR HMD Oculus Rift
Software Windows 11 Pro, and Ubuntu 20.04
Those 2TB M.2 drives are also 2280 form factor. The storage on an ipad is the size of a m.2 2230, of which no 2TB versions exist. You CAN get them for $250 in 2242 form factor, with no DRAM cache, of course. Even so, these drives use 4 NAND chips, the ipad uses 2 that are far denser, and that costs cash. Those drives also wont compare to the speed of an ipads.

The price is a bit obscene, yeah, but the apple tax has always been there. AFAIK there is no windows device outside of the similarly expensive surface pros that come close.
If it's only using 2 chips, then it's likely to be slower than a fast 2TB drive like the Western Digital SN850. The price difference is obscene, but most companies charge a premium for higher storage capacities.
 
Joined
Oct 28, 2012
Messages
1,184 (0.27/day)
Processor AMD Ryzen 3700x
Motherboard asus ROG Strix B-350I Gaming
Cooling Deepcool LS520 SE
Memory crucial ballistix 32Gb DDR4
Video Card(s) RTX 3070 FE
Storage WD sn550 1To/WD ssd sata 1To /WD black sn750 1To/Seagate 2To/WD book 4 To back-up
Display(s) LG GL850
Case Dan A4 H2O
Audio Device(s) sennheiser HD58X
Power Supply Corsair SF600
Mouse MX master 3
Keyboard Master Key Mx
Software win 11 pro
The last Samsung flagship tablets will be updated for 5 years, with 4 major OS updates ~ so about the same with arguably much better specs in display/storage/memory et al, apart from (just) the SoC which is inferior to Ax or Mx chips.

And at this point I'd argue Android is a better platform, at least more versatile one.
But Android doesn't have the same version of adobe illustrator/photoshop who are getting close to the desktop version, or octane X and resolve...the iPad pro is odd, it's becoming a like a surface, but Apple doesn't want to make it a like a surface and just put OSX on it.
 
Top