Is the M1 iPad Pro the most disappointing Apple product of 2021?

2021 has been a stellar year for Apple product launches in my opinion. New releases ranging from iPhones to iPads to Macs and even AirPods, it’s been one of the most exciting years for Apple releases in recent memory. Especially so for the M1 chip which was already a game changer when it came out at the end of 2020, Apple continued to strengthen its lineup in 2021 with the 24” iMac, and the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips in the new 14” and 16” MacBook Pros. 

Then we have that M1 iPad Pro. Let’s talk about that.

Is it the most disappointing of 2021?
For those of you who want the answer immediately, long story short, yes the M1 iPad Pro is the most disappointing Apple product of 2021 to me and here’s why.

I’ve had an iPad ever since the first one was released in 2010 to much controversy. I’ve had several others along the way, some I bought myself while others were generously gifted. I started using the initial ones purely out of curiosity and then got the later ones for productivity, so I’ve definitely been on the ride with Apple’s peddling of the idea that iPads will one day entirely replace PCs/Macs for the average user. And to be fair, we’re not very far off that becoming a reality for a large number of people. Then comes the iPad Pro.

As a consumption device, it’s not hard to argue that iPads are in fact better at it than Macs and PCs. But it gets tricky when it comes to professional users. For my line of work at the time, I was very attracted to the battery life and portability of the first iPad Mini and I just had to have it. I pretty much brought it everywhere and it was an absolute companion, I loved it. But even though it lasted all day(in a time when laptops only lasted 4-5hrs on idle) the OS was never powerful enough to completely replace my laptop.

Then we got the first iPad Pro.

Pro hardware
Equipped with the keyboard folio, Apple Pencil and the speedy A9X (in 2016 of course), it gave the promise of doing away with my 2012 13” Classic MacBook Pro once all those pro apps got up to speed. Right? No. 

Nothing really changed apart from a much more convenient keyboard and the ability to conveniently sign and draw stuff. Don’t get me wrong, these were excellent hardware innovations(bar that Apple Pencil charging solution), however it was still the same underlying iOS with tedious file management and not the most reliable cloud syncing. It certainly did help a lot for the times I wasn’t able or willing to lug around the 2012 MacBook Pro but it could never achieved the level of productivity that I was able to on the Mac. After being generously gifted a 2017 13” MacBook Pro(yes the butterfly one) I finally put my attempts to go iPad only to rest.

That M1 surprise
So imagine my excitement when Tim Cook teased the M1 in an iPad Pro literally out of nowhere. It certainly took me by surprise and I was ecstatic. The prospect of running actual Mac apps like Final Cut Pro on an iPad Pro was finally here and I told everyone to expect it at WWDC 2021. We all know how that went. 

Apple gave us nothing and today we still have the same iPadOS as before. Yes it has a bit more customisation to the Home Screen and a form of mouse support and some other forgettable stuff, but it still runs perfectly well on practically every other iPad without an M1 chip. There was literally no improvement to the underlying ability of an iPad to truly replace a Mac, and especially not one that takes advantage of that M1 chip. But I also suspect that’s really not what they wanted to happen given how successful the M1 Macs proved to be.

M1 battery life?
But what about that legendary M1 battery life? If the M1 MacBook Pro can last 20 hours, battery life on the iPad Pro should be phenomenal right? No, in fact it only gets 10 hours or just half of what the M1 MacBook Pro gets. Now it’s probably down to the size of the battery and that XDR display which I can understand, but when a MacBook has better battery life than an iPad, you really have to stop and think for awhile. And this only gets worse when you realise that both M1 MacBooks come out cheaper than the 12.9” M1 iPad Pro with a magic keyboard(not even including the Apple Pencil). You really have to dig deep to find a value proposition for the M1 iPad Pro over literally every other iPad.

I couldn’t.

I’ve since gotten my 13” M1 MacBook Pro and never looked back. The prospect of an iPad only life has been a rollercoaster leaving me utterly disappointed with the 2021 M1 iPad Pro. While the idea itself is brilliant, the execution of it has been dismal and that is why it is the most disappointing Apple product of 2021 to me. 

Maybe we’ll get it in 2022 though…