The iPad Pros announced last April are the first in which the brand communicates the amount of available RAM. Buyers can opt for 8GB first, but only models with 128GB, 258GB, or 512GB are affected. Otherwise, the versions with the most storage (with 1 TB or 2 TB) come with 16 GB of RAM: a record for an Apple tablet. Except that those who received this edition noticed that the device does not actually take full advantage of it…
Certainly, there is nothing surprising that a product of this type is confined to a certain limit by calling on RAM. But here, only 5 GB would be used: it's really little. Procreate, one of the most popular apps for drawing on iPad, has confirmed this on forums but also on Twitter:
As of now, all M1 iPads have the same amount of RAM available. As soon as we have access to more, we’ll pass that on to you, too 💜
— Procreate (@Procreate)May 28, 2021
Disadvantages
In reality, it's not a big deal. Indeed, iPadOS 14 is already so fast that going from 5 to 16 GB of RAM shouldn't change much, even for the most greedy Internet users. In addition, the operating system has the chance to work in symbiosis with the M1 processor because it is designed by the same company.And according to most of the tests carried out so far, the results are simply striking: there is nothing to complain about in terms of velocity, just like on the iMac with a twenty-four-inch screen powered by the same CPU.
This failure, which has not found justification either at Apple or elsewhere for the moment, could however give fodder to the pro-Mac/iPad merger arguments. Many people therefore believe that the differences between these two ranges are now so slight that it would be more judicious to clarify things by combining them. One of the motivations behind this opinion is that tablets are now as powerful as PCs but still offer a “mobile” experience. But for Apple, the question does not even arise:all this will not happen, period.
What is RAM used for?
Note, however, that it is mainly third-party developers who cannot use all the RAM here, because Apple reserves the right to do so. This is what we see when looking at the operation of iPadOS, where the component in question allows a plethora of apps to run in the background.
