charlesn

First things first: what an incredible piece of review work, Wesley! Smart, exhaustive, thoughtful and clear. Congrats on penning a "must read" for anyone considering a purchase of or even just interested in knowing more about the new iPad Pro M4. 

No one can convince me that Apple is incapable of correcting the shortcomings and frustrations of iPadOS. I believe they continue to exist for just one reason: Apple's stubborn desire to have us continue buying two devices, not one. Not that many people aren't finding IPad to be the only device they need, but I am one of many more than that who'd be happy to ditch my Macbook for an iPad Pro but can't abide the frustrations and kludginess around simple common tasks like window and file management and multitasking. 

I think the new iPad Pro M4 is one of the all-time greatest pieces of hardware ever released by Apple--stunning and a true hall of famer. But it has been met with uniformly tepid reviews like yours, not because of the hardware, but because, as you put it so perfectly, it's "hardware of the future running software of the past." Or, somewhat less eloquently, "like a Ferrari on a golf course" per Joanna Stern in her WSJ review. 

I'll be curious to see what WWDC brings in the way of the next gen iPadOS. Is Apple finally ready to give us an operating system worthy of the hardware? Or will the bean counters win out yet again, looking at the 50% of Macbook owners who also own some model of iPad and deciding it's better to keep iPadOS hobbled than allow Apple buyers a genuine choice of one or the other. 

"In a Monday report from TrendForce discussing the foldable smartphone market, analysts believe that foldable devices could control 5% of the market by 2028."

And THIS is why Apple doesn't have and will not have a folding screen phone. There's no market. Samsung debuted its folding screen phone five years ago. Google and others have since followed. And now, if you choose to believe the rosiest, most baseless predictions of what could happen, foldables--all of them!--might have nearly 5% of the market in four more years--the bolded emphasis is what TrendForce actually says in the report. Of course, this doesn't speak to the profit margins on these phones or whether they will even be profitable at all. 

But the report is even far flimsier if you know how to dismantle this kind of bullshite. "Analysts believe..." is nonsense. The idea is that you assume "analysts" means "experts" with insider knowledge. But which analysts? How many? What's their track record on prior predictions? Oooops! Sorry! Can't reveal all our secrets! Just trust us!

If you follow any investor sites that actually track the success rates of analysts by name, what you quickly learn is that most of them do worse--far worse--in the accuracy of their predictions vs a simple coin flip. In a famous 1999 experiment, a chimp "picked" a portfolio of ten stocks by throwing ten darts at a board with the names of over 100 internet companies. The chimp's portfolio outperformed those of more than 6000 "pro" money managers. 

"Analysts believe..." is meanlingless bullshite mostly used to feign non-existent knowledge and expertise unless you know who the analysts are and what their success rate is with predictions and recommendations in a particular sector and with specific companies.  

Makes sense--fight to remove maybe an extra quarter-millimeter of the already barely there bezel, but leave us with Dynamic Black Hole Island floating in the middle of our screens. It's Apple's way of punishing us for hating on the Notch. 

"Apple has shifted from the dreaded notch to the more loved Dynamic Island..."

More loved? Ummm, that would be a NO for me. At least the notch was integrated into the overall bezel design. Does Nothing Island just sits there like a pill-shaped black hole sucking out all the light and usefulness from the upper middle of your screen. It's clearly destined for the trash heap next to Touch Bar, 3D Press and other rejected Apple interfaces and that can't happen soon enough for me. I honestly don't mind that Apple tries new things out, but I wish they'd ditch the failures like Does Nothing Island more quickly. 

This might be the Most Bizarro Showdown that I've ever read. As someone who has owned a few generations of the Mini in addition to my iPhone--currently a Mini 6 and 15 Pro--it seems nonsensical to me to compare two dissimilar products in this way. 

First, let's get the wifi only Mini out of the way. If you're a person who has no need to call, text or get online unless you have an open wifi signal available, then you'd have no reason to even consider an iPhone in the first place, so there's no need for a comparison between these devices. Just go buy a Mini. 

So that leaves us with a comparison between the Mini w/cellular and iPhone 15, with a difference of $100 in favor of the Mini if you spec up both devices to 256GM of storage. Obviously, you get the bigger screen with the iPad Mini. But what you lose if you were seriously considering the Mini as your "mobile device" is very significant: 

1) The Mini is not in any way pocketable except maybe in large, winter parka-sized pockets. And it's going to take up a helluva lot more room than an iPhone in any bag. 

2) The Mini weighs 75% more than an iPhone--that's not nothing! 

3) The Mini, even with cellular, cannot make or receive voice calls.

4) The Mini requires two hands to use it -- it's too big for one-handed operation. 

5) Not only does the Mini's screen lack the resolution of the iPhone's, it also has only HALF the brightness: 500 nits vs. 1000 nits (plus peak brightness of 2000 nits for the iPhone) That's a huge difference when using these devices outdoors, where mobile devices are often used! 

6) The Mini has a crappier camera system. 

In short: the iPad Mini sucks in crucial ways that matter a lot for a mobile device that's meant to be carried on your person. But I didn't intend this as a take down of the Mini: I love my Mini 6 and the two generations I've owned that preceded it. The larger screen size is great for media consumption and the 6th gen is easily powerful enough to handle average business tasks--just toss it in a bag and it can serve as your "quick weekend away" laptop, especially with a small keyboard.