I've gotten 7 years out of my 2018 iPad Pro and, for my use case of video, browsing, and Procreate, it feels like new. And I believe a big part of that is that the A12X was wildly overpowered when I bought it.

I think someone deciding between an M4 and an M5 today should consider its value 5 years down the road, rather than its value today.

Same. Also have a super old iPad Pro, and it still works amazing. I always ponder upgrading, knowing that I’ve gotten so much use and enjoyment out of it, but then get wrapped around the axle about how the CPU is absurdly overpowered for what I do with it (YouTube, podcasts, music, drawing/note taking, reading). It’s my main device at home, too, so I never feel like I need to upgrade my phone - it’s definitely saved me money in that regard, too. :P

My partner still uses iPad 2 (2011) in the kitchen to look up recipes.

My cheap Samsung tablet can do all that with a low powered exonous chip, and when it gets Android 16 it will be able to run a Linux VM.

I don't know why Apple is putting full M series chips in their iPads but limit the software they can run. Either open it up to desktop apps or just put a cheaper A series chip in them.

They want to force people to buy two devices, people have to check that outside specific countries, Apple doesn't have the market share that they think they do.

Thanks for mentioning the non-secure backup in the UK, I missed the memo on that, and fyi, for any one else who did: https://support.apple.com/en-us/122234

You're not far off, as over the years it grew into a capable gaming machine:

https://github.com/albertquiroga/awesome-ios-game-ports?tab=...

It's $10,000 worth of tires on a $500 car. IOS is so crippled, it's complete overkill.

iPad is also the best ebook reader in my opinion, which is pretty much the only reason I have one.

Reading books on a LCD is miserable compared to e ink.

This seems like one of those things some people are more sensitive to than others. To my eyes, an LCD or an OLED is just as good as e-ink for reading, except in very bright sunlight.