Great long term review. As an owner of a 2018 12.9 512GB and a 2018 11" 1TB model (plus a 2021 12.9 with M1) I can confim everything you said. Those 4GB RAM are the real bottleneck. For instance Davinci Resolve crashes often with the 4GB model while it works fine with 6. The 1TB version also reloads way less, and it would be virtually as good as the M1 if it had external monitor support. A couple of things to note vs the M1 is that the 2018 is thinner and lighter, therefore nicer to hold but that the audio in the M1 is much fuller and louder (maybe due to the thicker size or to different speakers, I don't know). The 2018 was barely louder then my old 2015 pro (now sold), but the M1 is noticeably louder (I guess the 11" model did not change instead). Personally I still keep the 2018 because I like to have one with a screen protector for writing, drawing and no reflections, and one without for better image (screen is much nicer without). Maybe the 2024 one will be thinner etc, but personnally I am not buying another one until Apple makes a different size (larger)
Hey there! Thanks a lot for watching and for your comment, I appreciate it c: It’s really frustrating because the 2018 iPad Pro is actually a fantastic device that gets bottlenecked by a problem Apple continues to perpetuate out of greed imo. It’s the same issue we see with each the base model MacBook Air having 8gbs of ram which is pretty inexcusable in 2024. It’s more infuriating considering the 6GBs of ram that the 1TB model gets often proves that having 4 is simply not enough to keep up today with more “professional” tasks. This video took about 6 times to export until I could find a setting that would work without running out of ram. Ended up being 1080P at 30mbps which wasn’t the ideal export settings I was hoping for. It’s interesting you mentioned the speakers were barely louder than the 2015 pro though, I would have thought them to be much better. I came from the smaller iPad pros, the 10.5 and 9.7, so I was used to the smaller speakers too, but the 2018 pro speakers have definitely been some of the best I’ve used on a tablet, so far. It makes sense the newer iPad pros with the thicker design though would allow for a much better speaker experience. Overall though, I’m glad I’m not the only one who shares the experience with the ram issues the 2018 iPad pros have. It’s just really sad considering how good they actually still are today, but I think the newer iPad pros now with the M series chips and starting with 8GBs of ram standard will hold up infinitely better.
@@TheTCTech Yeah I have the 9.7 too (still, could not sell it because of a screen issue) and the 12.9 is definitely louder, while the difference with the 10.5 and 11 is minimal (I have them all). You said in the video that iPadOS cannot take advantage of M1/M2 and yes CPU is overkill, but RAM is not, so in a way M1/2 are now necessary.... If this A12X had 8GB RAM there would be little need for M1 and it could run an external monitor with 8 apps with no issues. Fortunately with M series now iPads air and pro are much more future proof because of RAM and can be perfectly fine till the last supported OS and even beyond (at that point only battery could be the bottleneck, with Apple refusing to service it most of the time)
@@_Digitalguy yes, you pretty much touched all the points and feelings I have about the iPad Pro and its current OS situation with the ram it has. Obviously the chipsets are overkill for what the iPad is, so I really believe they need to make big moves to make iPadOS just as good as the chipsets they’re using now. The extra ram and speed will definitely make a difference in the M1 and M2 iPad pros for sure, and especially having that amount of ram. Even the iPhone 15 Pro finally switched to 8gbs this year, so I think we’re (hopefully) going to start to see 8gbs as the minimum for their “pro” mobile devices and tablets which should make a huge difference for longevity and support. As for battery, that’s one area that’ll be interesting to see as these devices become obsolete by apple’s standards. I had the battery replaced on the 9.7” pro back in 2021 by Apple and they just switch the whole device. Apparently if they don’t have the exact spec of your device in stock though, they sometimes switch it with the next generation model, so that could be a route they take with these iPads battery replacements possibly.
Great long term review. As an owner of a 2018 12.9 512GB and a 2018 11" 1TB model (plus a 2021 12.9 with M1) I can confim everything you said. Those 4GB RAM are the real bottleneck. For instance Davinci Resolve crashes often with the 4GB model while it works fine with 6.
The 1TB version also reloads way less, and it would be virtually as good as the M1 if it had external monitor support.
A couple of things to note vs the M1 is that the 2018 is thinner and lighter, therefore nicer to hold but that the audio in the M1 is much fuller and louder (maybe due to the thicker size or to different speakers, I don't know). The 2018 was barely louder then my old 2015 pro (now sold), but the M1 is noticeably louder (I guess the 11" model did not change instead).
Personally I still keep the 2018 because I like to have one with a screen protector for writing, drawing and no reflections, and one without for better image (screen is much nicer without).
Maybe the 2024 one will be thinner etc, but personnally I am not buying another one until Apple makes a different size (larger)
Hey there! Thanks a lot for watching and for your comment, I appreciate it c:
It’s really frustrating because the 2018 iPad Pro is actually a fantastic device that gets bottlenecked by a problem Apple continues to perpetuate out of greed imo. It’s the same issue we see with each the base model MacBook Air having 8gbs of ram which is pretty inexcusable in 2024.
It’s more infuriating considering the 6GBs of ram that the 1TB model gets often proves that having 4 is simply not enough to keep up today with more “professional” tasks. This video took about 6 times to export until I could find a setting that would work without running out of ram. Ended up being 1080P at 30mbps which wasn’t the ideal export settings I was hoping for.
It’s interesting you mentioned the speakers were barely louder than the 2015 pro though, I would have thought them to be much better. I came from the smaller iPad pros, the 10.5 and 9.7, so I was used to the smaller speakers too, but the 2018 pro speakers have definitely been some of the best I’ve used on a tablet, so far. It makes sense the newer iPad pros with the thicker design though would allow for a much better speaker experience.
Overall though, I’m glad I’m not the only one who shares the experience with the ram issues the 2018 iPad pros have. It’s just really sad considering how good they actually still are today, but I think the newer iPad pros now with the M series chips and starting with 8GBs of ram standard will hold up infinitely better.
@@TheTCTech Yeah I have the 9.7 too (still, could not sell it because of a screen issue) and the 12.9 is definitely louder, while the difference with the 10.5 and 11 is minimal (I have them all). You said in the video that iPadOS cannot take advantage of M1/M2 and yes CPU is overkill, but RAM is not, so in a way M1/2 are now necessary.... If this A12X had 8GB RAM there would be little need for M1 and it could run an external monitor with 8 apps with no issues. Fortunately with M series now iPads air and pro are much more future proof because of RAM and can be perfectly fine till the last supported OS and even beyond (at that point only battery could be the bottleneck, with Apple refusing to service it most of the time)
@@_Digitalguy yes, you pretty much touched all the points and feelings I have about the iPad Pro and its current OS situation with the ram it has. Obviously the chipsets are overkill for what the iPad is, so I really believe they need to make big moves to make iPadOS just as good as the chipsets they’re using now. The extra ram and speed will definitely make a difference in the M1 and M2 iPad pros for sure, and especially having that amount of ram. Even the iPhone 15 Pro finally switched to 8gbs this year, so I think we’re (hopefully) going to start to see 8gbs as the minimum for their “pro” mobile devices and tablets which should make a huge difference for longevity and support.
As for battery, that’s one area that’ll be interesting to see as these devices become obsolete by apple’s standards. I had the battery replaced on the 9.7” pro back in 2021 by Apple and they just switch the whole device. Apparently if they don’t have the exact spec of your device in stock though, they sometimes switch it with the next generation model, so that could be a route they take with these iPads battery replacements possibly.