The bump’s still here!
The new iPad Pro with Apple’s new M4 processor is more than just a spec bump. It turned out to be a more exciting release than rumors might have had us to believe. A new, thinner form factor, a jump from the M2 up to Apple’s brand-new M4 chip, new Apple Pencil, new Magic Keyboard, and dual layers of OLED displays for great brightness, color, and contrast. It is, without a doubt, the best tablet Apple’s ever made. Maybe the best tablet ever.
But Apple’s still missing the mark.
iPadOS still doesn’t have the power of macOS. There isn’t as much you can do with an iPad that you can with a Mac. Can I build an Android app on an iPad? No. Can I move my windows around with precision? No. Keep many apps running at once? Nope. Download apps from anywhere, use better browsers than Safari, or, frankly, just do whatever I want? No. iPadOS still feels like a bigger version of iOS. As a result, it’s lacking. No amount of power will fix the fact that people can’t do what they want with it. But year after year, Apple upgrades the processor as if that’s the only thing wrong with the previous model. This year, they set their sights higher, but still focused on the wrong things.
Apple didn’t improve the battery life, but they did add a matte screen option. Though likely not for use with the Apple Pencil, but rather just to prevent glare. We’ll have to wait for hands-on reviews to see if it feels any different to write or draw on. It’s also Apple’s “thinnest product ever,” (if you ignore that it’s not) a fact that Apple decided they would market with an ad showing the crushing of what appears to be thousands of dollars of creative equipment, from guitars and trumpets, to paint kits and clay models. All the things artists love. Crushed down into an iPad. In a world that’s devaluing the creative arts (including writing!), smashing a bunch of expensive creative gear isn’t sending the message corporate megagiant Apple thinks it sends. It does, however, illustrate just how far Apple has gotten from its own consumers. Too big to remain relatable.
It’s an impressive iPad, but the lesson here is that Apple showed they don’t know how to listen to consumers. If they don’t know what we want, how can they give us what we need?
In This Article:
Thinner, But with the Same Terrible Battery Life
You know what? While we’re here, the Apple Pencil is too thin too!
One of the most frustrating things I’ve dealt with in both my iPad Air and my iPad mini is how frequently they need to be charged. I use them for notes throughout the day, like I used to use a Leuchtturm1917 notebook. I don’t have the screen on all the time, and in fact, have it turn off after just two minutes of inactivity. The problem is, I’m active a lot. I take notes in meetings, I write down what I’m working on to create documentation later. I write down details of reviews I’m working on. I always write things down. As an engineer, I know I’ll need these notes later, and as a reviewer, it’s a great way to track what I’m working on. The iPad is a vital everyday tool, but it can’t last even a full day.
The iPad Pro finally gave us an OLED display. These are more efficient than the LCD screens Apple was using. And what did Apple do with their potential battery savings? They made “the thinnest Apple device ever.” Which, it’s not, because it still has a giant camera bump on the back. On an iPhone, a camera bump isn’t as big of a problem. But on a device you put down on a desk, it makes it wobble. That means you need a case of some kind for the iPad, which means it’s never as thin as Apple says. It’s as thick as the camera bump. Not including that would be like not including the clip from the iPod Shuffle, and when you do Apple’s old iPod shuffle is almost as thin as Apple’s iPad Pro’s thinnest point.
What’s the point of a thin device you have to charge all the time? It’s not convenient! Apple swears these get 10 hours of battery life, but brand new, I’ve never seen more than 8 hours from one of these devices, just for note-taking! I’m not even doing anything complex like video editing or drawing all day. If I was, I’d likely have to keep it plugged in all the time, rather than charging it every two hours. Apple’s iPads will continue to disappoint as long as Apple refuses to understand how people actually use them. Yes, thinner is good. Know what’s better? Not needing another charger on my desk.
E-Wasteful
Apple’s continuing a trend their company has upheld for years now: greenwashing. Apple will argue something is good for the environment in one way, like their electricity usage in office spaces or their recycled aluminum, but they’ll also make much larger setbacks elsewhere. The Finewoven case, which becomes constant e-waste at the Apple Store and has largely been reviled by users, may actually create far more plastic waste than the harms of using leather. Apple could have introduced more eco-friendly leather, using dry tanning techniques, scrap leather, or leather that exclusively came as a byproduct of food production. They could have switched to apple or cactus leather, eco-conscious leather alternatives that feel like leather but come from plants. Instead, they introduced a far more wasteful product made of plastic that’ll be thrown away far more often than their leather products ever would be.
The iPad Pro is thinner, something no one was asking for, and now all your old cases won’t work for it. Your battery will degrade and require replacement faster due to its smaller size too. Apple could have used the M4 chip and OLED displays to give the iPad incredible battery life and keep the same size. Instead, it’s slimmer, and now you can’t use your old folios, cases, stands, or keyboard cases with it. All of it, junk now. And what is it for? A bragging point people would rather trade away for more battery life anyway? It’s flashy and makes for good marketing?
Or, perhaps not.
The Commercial
I cringe when I see a musician smashing their guitar on stage. I remember how much I wanted a guitar as a kid and couldn’t get one. How much I wanted to learn to make music. But I was a kid, and my family didn’t have the money to spend on what they assumed wouldn’t be a large part of my life. To want something so bad, and see someone treat it like it’s nothing, is so hurtful. Give that to someone if you don’t want it! Let someone else learn the joy and catharsis of making music. There were few things that showed me how self-centered and out of touch a person could be as watching them smash a guitar. A punk smashing a guitar just showed how far they got from the garage or basement their genre is known for. It’s like bragging about being a sell-out.
Apple, too, was started in a garage. It started with a hacker ethos, making highly customizable machines that would grow to challenge the status quo. Now that Apple has become the status quo, they’re ready to turn their backs on the creative community that bolstered them completely, and smash some instruments. A trumpet, guitars, piano, mixing equipment, speakers, paints, an old-school arcade game cabinet, and much more. It’s heartbreaking. These are all things that, if you’re a creative type, you aspired to get at some point. I have my first guitar hanging on my wall. It’s not great, but it’s what I played my first chords on. You never forget the joy of finally getting the tools you need to be creative for the first time. Seeing someone just crush them like they’re nothing is like watching the most cartoonishly evil rich villains in a movie. It’s a quick way to make you hate someone, seeing them squander something when others are in need.
And Apple thought it would be a good way to advertise?
Not Even Original
When I first saw it, I remembered another ad that always sat wrong with me. The best ad for the Pokémon franchise was always the anime. Seeing the adventure played out, the hope, determination, and love the characters had for their Pokémon made those pixels on the screen come to life. One Christmas, my brother and I finally got our first Game Boys, the Game Boy Color, and Pokémon Red (my brother), and Yellow for me. I loved those little critters, and still pick up a Pokémon game on occasion. Apple’s commercial reminded me of an older Pokémon commercial, which really wanted to show how you could cram 150 monsters into a single tiny game cartridge.
Yeah, you can figure out where this is going.
All those cute little beloved critters being squished down by some creepy bus driver? Kidnapped, crushed, and trapped? It was horrifying, and always rubbed me the wrong way. Enough that two and a half decades later, I still remembered it, not with fondness, but disgust. Why on earth would Apple make the same mistake?
Lost Creative Vision
The commercial is exemplary of all the issues with the new iPads. The iPad Air isn’t the lightweight iPad it should be. The iPad Air should be as thick as the new iPad Pro, with the “same 10-hour battery life.” It’s the one people get for occasional iPad use, not pro usage, and it’s okay if its actual battery life is closer to 5 hours. The Pro model? The one you need to take with you to work, use on photo shoots, or draw for hours on end on? That’s thin, something no one really asked for. It’s a tool, why take away something like all day battery life and make a worse tool just for some bragging point? The MacBook Air is the lightweight and less powerful Mac, the MacBook Pro is the more powerful one, but it’s thicker. That works perfectly for the Mac, why would Apple try something different with the iPad lineup? Because “pro” doesn’t mean “professional” anymore. It’s just the “best” iPad that Apple’s trying to push on you. The one most likely to drive profit margins.
Oh, and it’s not Apple’s thinnest device ever. It has a giant camera bump that will require you get a case if you’re drawing with it. You’ll need a keyboard folio if you’re using it as a laptop replacement. It’s Apple’s “thinnest” device in the same way my MacBook Pro’s monitor is Apple’s “thinnest” device. It’s incomplete. You need to add an accessory to use it that will make it thicker and heavier. Apple could have shrunk the relative size of the camera bump with the additional battery life people who actually use these devices all day crave, but instead, Apple just wanted another feather in their cap. They made the thinnest device and crushed a bunch of creative gear. Yeah, Apple really knows what consumers want.
Mini isn’t Minor!
Apple really doesn’t get this. For years, the camera industry didn’t get it either. They thought their DSLR cameras deserved all the attention. But mirrorless cameras were more compact. There were, initially, some differences in shutter speed, but many picked the more compact mirrorless cameras anyway. It took some time to drag camera makers kicking and screaming into a mirrorless world. Smaller. Is. Better. The best camera is the one you have with you, and you’re far more likely to carry a camera with you everywhere if it’s small. I’ve noticed this myself. I have both a full-sized Polaroid Now+ Gen2 and a smaller Polaroid Go. And yet, despite taking larger, better photos, I still take the tiny little Polaroid Go with me more places than my obviously better camera. Why? It’s smaller. It even fits in some of my cargo jeans pockets! The best camera is the one you have with you.
The same is true of phones, tablets, and everything else.
I use my in-ear headphones on the go instead of my AirPods Max. Why? Because they fit in a pocket or small hip sling, and the AirPods Max require that I bring along a backpack. I can use the iPhone 13 mini with one hand on the train without interruption. Why? Because it’s small enough to fit in a hand, so I’m more likely to use it. And I’m more likely to take my iPad mini with me somewhere because it can fit in a large hip sling or slim backpack. The fact that you can toss it in a small bag, while the iPad Air or iPad Pro requires a large bag will change how often you use your iPad. You will use an iPad mini more often than the other iPads, simply because it’s easier to carry it around.
And it’s not just about carrying it around, either! I have limited desk space. With the iPad mini, I have more space for a larger lamp on my desk, which I’m happy to have. Before, I couldn’t use that space, because the iPad Air I used to take notes was too large. If I had a desk at an office, instead of working from home, I’d likely have even less space, because they really like cramming workers into tiny areas at corporations.
You can slide your keyboard away slightly and take away the wrist rest you’re using with it to make room for the iPad mini to use as a drawing tablet, perfect for photo editing and drawing on your computer using your iPad as a drawing tablet. The iPad has had this feature for years, first through Astropad, and later through Apple itself. But if your iPad’s too large to fit in your desk space, what’s the point? Wacom, the leader in drawing tablets, has always understood this. They make their tablets in multiple sizes, with the same features across sizes because they understand that artists don’t all like to use the same tools. Some prefer a smaller tablet, either for holding it or propping it up, desk size, or just ensuring they use less area. Their smaller sizes are sometimes smaller than even an iPad mini! That doesn’t make them less “pro,” it just means people need tablets in different sizes.
A painter who uses a 24″x32″ canvas isn’t more “pro” than someone who prefers an 8″x10″.
So why the hell does Apple still not treat their mini products like professional equipment? Since I got my iPad mini, I hardly use my iPad Air. I put my iPad Air by my coffee table and sometimes use it when I don’t feel like walking over to my MacBook. But the iPad mini? Always by my side at my desk and often by my side on the couch. I put it in a little holder and watch TV shows while I wash dishes, I use it for FaceTime more. It’s just the better size for a “do everything” tablet, so I use it more.
That includes using it for work far more than I used my iPad Air for work.
The iPad mini is a pro device. The iPhone 13 mini was too. Apple just didn’t think of these smaller devices as things “Pros” would want because they, for some reason, think we also like watching our beloved creative equipment crushed. Apple’s out of touch with their own users. They don’t understand that technology is supposed to be a seamless augmentation of what we’re doing. They just don’t understand what we use their products for, and it’s never been more obvious than right now. They’re stuck in a marketing world, where they think larger is better and we’re too dumb to make our own choices.
It’s Not All Bad!
I wanted to end this on a more positive note. Obviously the new iPad Pro and barely new iPad Air aren’t all bad! The new tandem OLED screen, with stacked OLED displays for ultimate brightness and contrast is fantastic. It’s something the iPad has needed for years and fantastic to see they’re finally introducing OLED on the iPad. The nano-textured display will be wonderful for those who like to use their iPad anywhere, and need glare reduction. Maybe it’ll even feel nicer to write on? Plus, for those looking for a laptop replacement, the iPad now comes in a larger screen size that might be perfect for some people. And while it’s not something anyone actually wants, being thinner and lighter is good, just not at the cost of battery life. It’s unfortunate that Apple decided to keep the same disappointing battery life for the iPad, just to make it thinner. I don’t think any pros would have made that trade-off. However, it is nice to have a device that’s not as difficult to hold up, even if you’ll use it less because of that battery life.
While the iPad may not have the power to actually do things, like a Mac can, there are some uses of that additional power the M4 chip provides. 3D modeling, video editing, and even some more complex photo editing will be faster on the new iPad Pro than the old one.
Then there’s the new Apple Pencil Pro. The squeeze gesture makes tool selection easier than ever, and the tilt controls could make refined brush strokes easier as well. It’s a great set of new features. It’s just a shame Apple ensured it couldn’t work on older devices. I’ve even seen my iPad detect my pencil when it’s hovering, proving that the capability to run these advanced features on older iPads is there, Apple’s just blocking it to force an upgrade.
The new iPad Pro is Apple’s best iPad ever. The only problem is, Apple may have forgotten what people actually use their tools for, and the design is starting to take a toll as a result. Unfortunately, due to Apple’s monopoly on the platform and strong staying power of the Apple ecosystem, you’re not going to get a better choice any time soon. Apple’s too big to fail, and you’ll just have to put up with getting almost what you need out of tech products for the foreseeable future.
Tech used to be exciting. Now it’s so disappointing I often wonder why I even write about it. Boredom? Habit? Hope? Apple’s not giving me much of a reason for that.