iPad Pro's M4 Chip Outperforms M3 by Up to 25%

[ninetyCent]

So an insanely thin ipad is faster than a macbook pro from just a few months ago...

 

[whitby]

This is a bit of a detour but... Yes, failure of imagination is common in anti-evolutionists. You frequently read/hear arguments like "The eye is way too complex to have evolved! I can't imagine it developing through random chance!". True, there is a lack of understanding, usually a willful one (it ignores the selection half of the variation/selection team), but it truly is a failure of imagination as well. (Fun fact: the eye has independently developed over 40 times.) The same disability drives flat-earthers - the ones that aren't publicity-seekers, anyway.

I think this is an apt comparison to statements like "the iPad as currently implemented, which includes its software, does not require an M4". That's true for you, with your use cases. (It's also true for me with my use cases.) But it's not true for everyone, and your inability to recognize that is the failure of imagination.

To be clear, I agree with you (and many others) that the iPad is too hobbled. I would love it to be able to dual-boot. (Perhaps if a jailbreak is found, some enterprising hacker will make that happen.) But it is what it is. And for some people, more CPU/GPU, even in an iPad, is better.

I think we can agree to differ on the issues of imagination and understanding. I do agree with you that there are some people to whom the M4 may be a significant upgrade, hence my point about the use cases Apple use to demonstrate the capabilities of the iPad Pro. I think we are basically saying the same thing here, albeit from a different viewpoint. The only reason that I cannot 'imagine' using the M4's capabilities in an iPad for anything better than older models is basically due to the lack of an OS environment that allows me to make good use of it.

As I pointed out, I am hoping that Apple is pointing this device towards something that makes much better use of the M4 than today, and, in order to do this, they have must have been working on it for a while. And I do not mean AI for which I have a healthy disrespect. If that is truly all it is, then I am really more than a little disappointed. I would love to have a single sheet of glass that can replace my laptop and tablet and on which I can do all I can do today and more. We live, as always, in interesting times.

 

[HylianKnight]

They barely talked about the CPU as well. I’m unsure why they downplayed it (they mostly sold the M4 as “much better than the M2, with more AI focus and a better display controller”), but it probably boils down to wanting to focus on iPads, which never came with the M3. Perhaps WWDC will give us a deeper dive into the M4.

At least this year they had a reasonable excuse to compare it to an older process than the previous one. Though we all know that Apple often will compare a new chip to something much older. “Look how great our M10 is compared to an Intel Core 2 Duo…”

I jest a bit, and I don’t mean to imply that the m-series chips aren’t amazing, because they are. But people, maybe only nerds like me, want to know the generational uplift. Thankfully, there are people doing the lords work and posting benchmarks fairly early on.

 

[HylianKnight]

I do understand what you’re saying but I believe you (and others) are reading too much into the M4 iPad Pro. It is about making it thin, with a large OLED display and maintaining a long battery life. Apple needed a new chip to accomplish this. So do they make a custom iPad chip or do they take a chip already in development and make it a “jack of all trades”? Hence the M4. Many of the M4 processing improvement features are wasted in an iPad (I do agree with you) but it was the most efficient means to bring a thin OLED Apple tablet to market quickly. And as long as the processing enhancements are there, it make for convenient marketing.

I would like to add that I am pretty sure the process node that the M4 is on is more cost effective than the node the M3 is on

 

[Confused-User]

I would like to add that I am pretty sure the process node that the M4 is on is more cost effective than the node the M3 is on

This is known to be correct. They are using N3E, and that is cheaper than N3B.

 

[jido]

Ars Technica: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/m4-ipad-pro-review-well-now-youre-just-showing-off/

 

[DeepIn2U]

This is true but with WWDC only a month away, it's clear they're saving the AI / iPadOS story for that conference. Let's just see what they have to say in a month.

Although past performance is not a guarantee of future results, its been about a decade and when did Thunderbolt get support on iPad with the M1 or the M2?

 

[Tagbert]

Although past performance is not a guarantee of future results, its been about a decade and when did Thunderbolt get support on iPad with the M1 or the M2?

I think with the 2021 M1 3rd Generation

iPad Pro, 11-inch (3rd generation) - Technical Specifications - Apple Support

support.apple.com

 

[paradox00]

While your comment is tongue in cheek, the criticism is true. But, my commentary to the criticism, though is that we've had a Desktop / Laptop replacement tablet for over a decade in the x86 MS Surface Pro tablets. More recently, SΛMSUNG DeX has been a thing for the better part of a decade. And neither have lit the world on fire, much less, amount to anything other then a rounding error.

Someone prove me wrong. I don't see Apple being the one "holding back" because Microsoft and Samsung have proven the concept to be nothing more then a niche.

Samsung's or Microsofts tablets haven't lit the world on fire, period. This applies equally to devices that were intended as purely as tablets and hybrid devices equally. The issue for both lies on the tablet side, not the hybrid nature of their devices. They haven't been indicative of the iPad's success, why do you think it would be indicative of the success of a hybrid device from Apple?

Adding support for Mac apps wouldn't hurt iPad sales because it could they could implement it in a manner where they offer exactly the same tablet experience as now, just with the option of using non-touch optimized apps too (could be set up the same way as a visualized desktop is in standalone app called Mac to make it even simpler). If it doesn't hurt iPad sales, why doesn't Apple do something as simple as that? Because they fear it will hurt Macbook sales, which would only happen if Apple's hybrid devices were to become popular....

Us readers don't have to prove anything to you, Apple already has. They've said time and time again that they want people to buy both a laptop and an iPad, that's the whole story in a nutshell.