I never got around to finishing a personal video essay comparing my three iPad Pros, but this thread could probably do with a sprinkling of the mental notes I’ve kept.
I’m sure as others do, when they stumble across a great product, they’ll buy & deploy as needed. Thus the iPads I’ve accumulated skip a few generations til I find reason to buy again. I’ll give a run-down of each from back to front:
2015 iPad Pro - 1st Generation
A9X processor
Apple Pencil (1st Gen)
Lightning Connector
2020 iPad Pro - 4th Generation
A12Z processor (prior to M1 Apple Silicon)
Apple Pencil 2
USB-C Connector
2024 iPad Pro - 7th Generation
M4 Apple Silicon
Apple Pencil Pro
USB-C Connector
I can state that even the inaugural 2015 iPad Pro is capable of sculpting within the parameters of a beginner-to-intermediate budding sculptor. At this stage, there are PLENTLY of fundamentals to go through & develop before a sculpting project starts to really push the machine.
The purpose of snapping the picture was to load one of my heavier sculpts on all three machines and create a torture test. The dragon’s body segments consisted of 188 repeated instances and the entire scene has almost all the render/post-effects turned on. (Moody shadows & reflected glints from the spotlights)
The torture part of this test is laying a finger on the snout and dragging it around at moderate speed. For Nomad, this is configured to rotate the object. When it has to calculate the relationship of all 188 segments AND render a visual effect, it should be understandable that a decade-old iPad Pro lags considerably in this unrealistic task. On the 2020 iPad Pro, there are many magnitudes of improvement, but when really scrutinizing, it’s still not quite locked into following the finger. On the latest M4 Apple Silicon of the 2024 iPad Pro, it’s locked flexing what a beast the processor is. Extrapolate as necessary when considering all the model years in-between.
Can meaningful sculpting work take place with a huge project file/scene on the 1st gen iPad Pro? Of course! Most sculptors keep the Rendering/Post-Effects deactivated until needed at the end.
With understanding that some very old iPads permit a considerable amount of sculpting freedom, there ARE other more practical reasons to avoid digging too far into past models…
As it relates to Nomad Sculpting, interacting with the stylus is an important one. With iPads, this means the 3 main generations of Apple Pencil. The very first Apple Pencil was used by 1st & 2nd gen iPad Pros. (2015-2017) The pencil was decent, but their method of charging this first design was simply asinine. An easily-lost cap reveals the lightning plug meaning it pokes straight onto the end of the iPad for it’s charge duration. 3rd through 6th gen of iPad Pros (2018-2023) used the Apple Pencil 2. This was a much needed revision bringing a more convenient magnetic charging as well as additional functions when tapping the barrel. In the current revision called the Apple Pencil Pro for the 7th gen (2024) iPad Pro, it accumulated all the previous features (pressure sensitivity, hover, angle, barrel tap) and topped it with barrel rotation, barrel squeeze and FindMy location tracking. These Pencil generations cannot be mixed with iPad Pros outside their range. Stay away from third-party styluses or Pencil clones. It’s likely they omit pressure-sensitivity; the fundamental trait most artists seek.
The year of a particular iPad determines its CPU. This in turn matters in two significant areas… the iPadOS cut-off. My 2015 iPad Pro is no longer eligible for the latest iPadOS update and is now at version 16.7.10. The 2020 and 2024 iPad Pros are on iPadOS version 18.2 (latest). More and more apps may adopt an OS cut off and refuse to install at a certain version. Stephane is amazing for bucking this in making Nomad eligible to quite an extended past. Don’t expect other current or future art apps to continue this exception. In another trend, some apps specify a minimum CPU… specifically, it demands an Apple Silicon iPad. Octane X, FinalCutPro & a slew of games either has an iPadOS or CPU requirement.
The final point to close out this tome is Battery Health. An iPad that’s been used for years is certain to have an aged battery that may not take a full charge or last anywhere as long as it once did. Even a “refurbished” iPad resold by any vendor is VERY UNLIKELY to have undergone the arduous process of prying out the glued-in battery cells. For the most current iPads & iPhones, it’s easy to find. Settings > Battery > Battery Health
Maximum Capacity is the parameter to look for. Apple considers anything below 80% to require replacing if it’s still within warranty.
For whatever reason I haven’t looked up, Battery Health isn’t detailed on my older iPad Pros. Googling “Battery health on older iPads” brings up the steps to pry it from deep analytics. For my 2020 iPad Pro, it’s still respectable at 95% (undisclosed footnote)
And on the 2015 iPad Pro, it claims 81% though I’m quite dubious as it’s nowhere near as useful when untethered from power.
The summary point is that it’d be great to see the battery health, but this doesn’t seem to be a routine step from the eBay vendors I’ve checked on. If they did, you’d have to suspect they’re grabbing & forwarding the images above to cheat their way to a sale.
As Holger hints at the end, a non-Pro iPad could still be a useable model for a young student. Particularly, a 2022 iPad Air (5th Gen) would probably be one to consider…
It’s the year that gets you into the M1 Apple Sillicon CPU. By comparison, the 2021 iPad Pro (5th Gen) started getting the M1 chip a year earlier, but the additional “Pro” features will always kick it up to a higher price compared to the “Air”. General point of reference, the 64GB storage of the base Air models is pretty dreary. Anything beyond 256GB starts to be acceptable given the various sculpt projects and reference images it’ll accumulate.
If you subscribe to the mindset that this may be a stepping-stone iPad during the first several years, then I don’t think having an M1 to repel obsolescence is crucial. The criteria then would be an even older iPad that still deploys the Apple Pencil 2. For the Pro variants, this means 2018 (3rd Gen) and later. I’m certain there are tons of users in this forum rocking a 2018 iPad Pro.