Mini-cooler wrote:
I have a small business, 2 staff and I use my iPad and phone, for spreadsheets, to manage stock, banking in and out, I don’t use it to prepare accounts for submission but it reduces my payment to my accountants as everything required is easily accessible. I also use it for contacting suppliers and customers. I have a small website, which I really use to sign post to the shop.
Then personal, emails, videos, socials. I don’t tend to download a lot, apart from books, I walk and listen for downtime.
So basically,
- Spreadsheets
- Banking
- Email
- Possibly word processing and/or reading .DOC and .PDF documents generated by others
- Updating a Web site
- Social media
- Listening to audiobooks
Some of these things (banking, social media) might have dedicated apps on an iPhone or iPad, but not on a Mac (or Windows PC), where you'd be expected to access services through a Web browser.
I have a iPhone 17 pro max, but my iPad 10, is struggling with my work load. I don’t keep personal photos on my iPad, only on my phone.
The iPad (10th generation) came out in October 2022, and is recent enough that it can run the current version of iPadOS.
Looking at benchmarks, the iPad (A16) and MacBook Neo are faster, but I'm getting the feeling that it's probably RAM, storage, or app availability that's causing the "struggling", not raw CPU power. (By "app availability", I mean, are there apps that you want to run that are only available for Macs and/or Windows PCs, not for iPads? That question can also work the other way around, but you did say specifically that it was the iPad that was struggling.)
- iPad (10th generation): 4 GB of RAM. 64 or 256 GB of storage. CPU benchmarks: 2077 / 4806.
- iPad (A16): 6 GB of RAM. 128, 256, or 512 GB of storage. CPU benchmarks: 2529 / 5876.
- MacBook Neo (13-inch, A18 Pro): 8 GB RAM. 256 or 512 GB of storage. CPU benchmarks: 3440 / 8397.
- iPhone 17 Pro Max: 8 GB of RAM. 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB, or 2 TB of storage. CPU benchmarks: 3787 / 9811.
- M5 MacBook Air: 16, 24, or 32 GB of RAM. 512 GB, 1 TB, 2 TB, or 4 TB of storage. CPU benchmarks: 4152 / 16655
I don't know how big your spreadsheets are, or how memory-hungry your spreadsheet app is, but your iPhone 17 Pro Max and the MacBook Neo both have twice as much RAM as your iPad (10th generation). I've also thrown in the M5 MacBook Air for comparison. It would have been the entry-level Mac notebook in the current lineup if the Neo had not come along.
Bottom line is, I need a new iPad or MacBook Neo. In the UK you can still get a 256GB
Hope that gives more of an insight as to my question.
The iPad, including the Magic Keyboard and 256GB is double the price of the Neo £600 against £1,200 big difference.
How much storage does your 10th-generation iPad have, and how much of that are you using?
Whether you get an iPad or a Mac, if one of the problems that you are facing with your current iPad is insufficient storage, you do not want to compound the problem by buying a new device which does not have enough storage, just because it has the lowest initial cost. ("Penny wise but pound foolish" costs more in the long run.)