For years, Apple’s 2018 iPad Pro has been almost too capable.
That didn’t happen.
But now the 2018 model is back, baby, and just as powerful as ever.
Lifewire / Charlie Sorrel
“The 2018 has been keeping up with the M1 in all things audio with no problem.
And the A12Z was just anA12Xwith one extra GPU core.
It was, essentially, the same as the 2018 model.
Lifewire / Jordan Provost
Then, at the 2022 WWDC,Apple announced Stage Manager.
Set the Stage
Stage Manager brings windows to the iPad.
But the UI has always been based on filling the screen.
Apple
With Stage Manager, you could group up to four apps at a time in overlapping windows.
Further, you’ve got the option to create several of these groups and quickly switch between them.
For most of Summer 2022’s run of betas, Stage Manager has been M1-only.
Finally, a hardware feature that was too taxing for the A12X.
But last week,Apple changed that, extending Stage Manager compatibility back to the 2018 model.
2018 iPad Pro user Nimoy said ona MacRumors forum thread.
“Bad news for the cynics who think Apple artificially limits software features just to drive sales.”
It is also historically important.
Then again, some of this is down to Stage Manager itself.
And given the prices of the latest M2 iPads Pro, Im going to suggest a third option.
Stick with your 2018 model, and buy a MacBook Air for multi-window computing.
