The 2021 Apple iPad Pro is definitely a computer NOW!
ShortCircuit
·ShortCircuit
·2022-05-05
·
1,930 words · ~9 min read
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- Oh Apple, always trying to convince people
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that iPads are computers, and no one listened, so then you got frustrated
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and finally put a desktop computer chip into an iPad.
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That's right. The iPad pro for 2021.
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Sorry, you want to see that Andy? I can't do this too much.
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The 2021 iPad pro has an M1 chip inside,
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processor, system on a chip, CPU and a GPU and memory.
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It's the same thing that's in the last year's
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Macbook Pro and Macbook Air, as well as the Macbook Mini and now the iMac as well.
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They're just sticking this M1 wherever it'll take.
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They're just throwing it at the wall and being like, that's a computer now.
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Like the iPads we've had in previous years were very impressive in the features
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that Apple added to them, both in terms of iPad OS and in terms of the physical changes
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they made to the iPad. So I'm actually pretty interested to do this
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unboxing today, even though the iPad is supposed to look very much similar to the previous iPads.
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There's a lot of changes here. So let's check it out.
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Please. As usual, this was sent to us by Dbrand.
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You know that I'm expecting a horrible shock when I open the box.
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Will it be unicorns? Will it be transformers fighting in a-
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anyways, let's find out. Ready? We'll find out together.
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Three, two, one. Oh.
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How do I make this dramatic? I'm not even looking.
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My fingers are going to leave a bunch of fingerprints.
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Whoa, that's crazy.
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- [Jono] That's prism. - I don't know what it is. Is that what it's called, Prism?
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- [Andy] That's the Damascus Skin. - Oh Damascus, like Damascus steel?
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Shimmer, shimmer, shimmer, shimmy yo, shimmy hey.
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Dbrand, every hour, every day. I can't rhyme.
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Nope. Okay, well that's the unboxing guys.
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Thanks for watching. Go to dbrand.com/shortlinus.
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Really, short Linus? Go check them out, get a Dbrand skin.
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We've got the same camera, square rounded corners module thing there,
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and I think that the back cameras are the exact same.
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There's like a regular field of view one and then an ultra wide and the LIDAR sensor that was there
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in the previous two models, I believe. But on the front we got a new ultra wide camera.
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Do you know about that Jono? It's got a 122 degree field of view,
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also 12 megapixels, but that uses Center Stage,
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and you can move around in the iPads, like I see you. You can't get away, Apple knows.
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What happens on the iPad stays in the iPad, because we took it.
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Wow, that screen is so bright Because they're like, oh, we use the same
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Mini LED technology that we had on the Pro XDR display,
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and we miniaturized it and put it in the iPad. That's their whole deal.
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So apparently this gets up to 1600 nits peak brightness.
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What country are we in again? They don't have North Korea.
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Why not? Whoa.
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Just to kind of give some context here, so this is the 12.9 inch model.
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It starts at $1099 with the M1 chip desktop class,
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sort of, it started with laptops. The smaller 11 inch model starts at $799,
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which you know, it's an iPad. So when you think about it as just a tablet,
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that's kind of expensive, but if you think about it as like, okay, it's a computer,
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like Apple wants you to think, maybe not that bad.
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Siri, oh what's in the box. What's in the box. That's what you guys do in ShortCircuit?
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It's a charger, USB-C.
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Actually, it's not just USB-C, it's Thunderbolt people.
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The 2020 iPad Pro has Thunderbolt 3. This one has Thunderbolt 4,
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which means we're allowed up to 40 gigabits.
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That M1 chip I've been talking about sporadically throughout this video, is supposed to perform 50% faster
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than the previous chip in the 2020 iPad Pro which was the Apple A12Z or Zed for Canadians,
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and 40% better GPU performance. Although I've taken a look around at some
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of the reviews that are out there so far, some people get a large difference in performance
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and other people are like, yeah, it's rendering this video like 30 seconds faster than the old one,
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and why is it so bright? Why is there so many nits? Because there's 10,000 Mini LEDs in here,
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with over 2,500 local dimming zones.
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I want to see that right away, before we get any further. Can I ask Siri to do it?
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How do you get Siri? - [Siri] Hi, I'm Siri. Hi, I'm Siri.
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- I like the old one. Hey Siri, turn on dark mode.
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- [Siri] Okay, dark mode is now on. - I actually did not expect that to work
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because I have not used Siri in a long time, and the last time I used Siri, she was kind of useless.
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Wait, but now it's dark. So now I can. So some people were saying there's a blooming issue
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with this screen, which is one of the things that the Mini LED display
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is supposed to prevent specifically, because Mini LEDs with all of these like tiny individual
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LEDs and their local dimming zones, it's supposed to prevent white stuff
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on a black background from having this like blooming effect, but I'm not noticing it here or am I?
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This is funny because this is not something I would do with a regular screen, you know,
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but because Apple has all these bold claims like, oh a Mini LED, its perfect contrast.
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1 million to 1 contrast ratio. In the vast majority of cases,
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you're not going to see any sort of blooming effect, but you know people pick apart these Apple devices.
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Hey Siri, take a screenshot.
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Can we turn the lights off? Oh, maybe I do see it now. I feel like I see a little bit of blooming.
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Yeah, who knows and importantly who cares?
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Let's move on to, ah, jeez Louise.
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Okay. One of the other cool things about this year's iPad
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is the fact that unlike previous models, Apple is actually telling you how much RAM
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is in it, which again, signals them trying to tell pros
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of various sorts that this is something they could use.
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It's a computer. - What's a computer? - What's a computer.
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The other thing about that memory thing is that there's more memory.
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There's 8 gigs and 16 gigs, which makes iOS's already
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stellar memory management even better. I feel like I'm talking a lot
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about the iPad and not using it. Wait, do I have to go into,
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I probably have to go to FaceTime to use Center Stage.
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No you idiot.
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I feel like I should not take photos just to discourage people from using the iPad as a camera.
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Hi guys. On the front, we have the same two cameras.
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So this is the wider view, but we can also switch to the back
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and now we can do the same thing. Oh, I can't get you all.
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It's hard to get you all in there this way, but what if I,
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I mean, that's nice though. If they should have an ultra wide camera on anything,
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it should definitely be with an iPad, because this is like a big unwieldy square.
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Selfie with the rear camera because I'm so crazy.
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What do I do now? The reason that this ultra wide camera
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is necessary and cool is because when you go to FaceTime it will be able to kind of do this Facebook Portal
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sort of thing, where it doesn't use this wide shot,
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it zooms in on one area, and then it'll kind of like follow you around
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as you're moving around the scene. Yeah, so Center Stage in FaceTime,
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I think will let you use that but I'm not using FaceTime
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because I'm not signed into an account, because this is ShortCircuit. It's supposed to be short,
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and I'm taking way too long Jono, I'm so sorry. This is something you can do in previous iPad Pros.
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Makes it a little bit more like a desktop where you have kind of have icons closer together
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and then you can have customizable widgets on this side. Oh, I'm a professional.
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I have an iPad pro. So I'm checking stocks. I'm riding the style of the house.
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How's crypto these days? But yeah, you can you can have your
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desktop widgets and stuff. This is going to be the question for me.
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Every time I've done an iPad video, it's the question of can this be a computer?
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To remind us of that, let's see if it fits in the old magic keyboard.
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The thing that will play into whether it can be your main computer is whether they change
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iPad OS enough to make the people who are skeptical
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about this, happy. The file manager they've improved a ton,
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the overall interface, it has mouse and keyboard support, but there are some people are still not happy
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with the way that like Files is implemented. You can connect to servers
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but like often the servers will disconnect, and that's annoying to me personally, big server lover.
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On the plus side, there was some talk when they first announced this that it wouldn't fit with the older Magic Keyboard model
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that's meant for the 2020 version, but I mean, as you can see
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it goes in there and it closes.
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I don't understand what's different about it.
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I feel like that's more sturdy. Look, it goes on there Jono, aren't you impressed?
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That's definitely a computer. No comment, wow.
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Battery is supposed to be around the same, from what I hear, 10 hours I think.
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I mean, the speakers are the same, I believe. So this is the real test of a
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XDR Retina Display Mini LED screen
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Crab Rave. Rave, rave, rave, rave, rave, rave.
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(upbeat music) I think this is about the same thing we said last time
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where we're like it's a tablet, but the speakers are really good for a tablet at least.
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I don't know about other things as comparison points, but it's pretty good for a tablet.
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As usual, you know, we hear about this having this like really
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amazing new display and it definitely looks nice I mean, at first glance,
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but the question is once you compare it to the previous iPad models
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and to other things that have apparently really nice displays,
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which I will do in the LTT review, you wouldn't be not subscribed to Linus Tech Tips
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