7 years and Counting
I’ll admit, I was a loyal Apple fan for as long as I can remember. But when it was time to upgrade my seven-year-old iPad, something shifted. My current iPad looks and feels the same as the newly refreshed M5 iPad Pro, and this was then I knew I wanted something more. It turns out, the gap I was so sure existed between iPads & Android tablets had been quietly closing, and in some ways, had already flipped.
The Problem:
Based on their track record, it was expected that Apple would not make big changes to their current iPad lineup. But despite my iPad’s age, it still offers a similar user experience to the newer iPads, so I can’t help but ponder what is the point of getting a new iPad as a consumer as Apple’s current offerings are just refinements of last year’s model.
A Brief History Lesson and the Current State of iPads:
When the iPad was first conceptualized back in 2010, it looked more or less the same, as Apple stuck to the formula of having a front facing camera at the top, a square screen in the middle and a home button at the bottom. But throughout the years, Apple refined this formula by making it thinner, enlarging the screen slightly, while adding quality-of-life features like Touch ID and introducing the Apple Pencil in 2015. But it still stuck to the overall formula until the introduction of the 2018 iPad Pro, which set the tone for the future of iPad design. Gone was the iconic home button, and the screen now stretches edge-to-edge. The rounded design language of previous iPads has now been flattened, and Face ID has replaced Touch ID. To further take advantage of the new layout, Apple designed a new Pencil to dock magnetically at the side.
iPads prior to the 2018 redesign (Source: MKBHD)
New iPad design language debuted on the 2018 iPad Pro (Source: Creative Blog)
Fast forward another nine years, and the development of iPads plateaued. All iPads in Apple’s lineup have since adopted the new design language, while the new iPad Pro and Air gain the M series chips from Apple’s computers. It is an engineering marvel that Apple managed to squeeze such power into a thin and light device, but despite the power advantage, the user experience between old and new iPads is similar as the software has yet to catch up to its hardware to take advantage of its desktop-like power.
The current iPad lineup. (Source: Apple)
The current iPad Pro was refreshed on 15th October 2025, which is a further refinement of the M4 iPad Pro. When Apple refreshed the iPad Pro the previous year, Apple developed and debuted the new Tandem OLED displays, where two panels are fused together to provide insane brightness while providing an infinite contrast ratio as compared to the Mini-LED panels found in prior generations, matching Samsung’s offerings. With its new display, the aspect ratio remains at 4:3, which is great for notetaking, reading, and artists who use it to draw with the updated Apple Pencil Pro. Despite its similar form factor, the new Apple Pencil Pro builds upon what the 2nd Generation offered. It added a pressure sensor for a squeeze function, a gyroscope to detect rotation to mimic a real writing instrument and Find My functionality in case users forget where they left the pencil. Despite being cooled passively, the M5 chip offered in the latest iPad Pro proves more than sufficient performance for its users. According to this Reddit thread, most iPad Pro users use it to take notes during class or consume content, while some occasionally use it to edit photos on Photoshop or other applications.
Despite its almost yearly refinements, updates and powerful hardware, I still struggle to justify upgrading. Yes, the hardware is impressive, but that’s about it. You would think that after 8 years, there would be drastic changes that would make it worthwhile to upgrade, but there simply isn’t. Here’s why.
The New Kid on the Block
Samsung has been cooking in the tablet department. It started in 2022 with the introduction of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra. The Tab S8 Ultra had the biggest screen that any tablet had at that time, at a whopping 14.6 inches with smaller bezels as compared to the iPad Pro. And driving that massive display was the latest CPU / processor from Snapdragon, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 specifically, with either 8GB or 16GB of RAM. And software to take advantage of this power in the form of Dex. When it was first revealed, Dex provided a desktop environment with window management that was like a traditional PC, which provided users with more multitasking capabilities, despite lacking in the hardware department as it isn’t as powerful as the M1 chip found in the iPads of that time.
Samsung Tab S8 Ultra. (Source: The Verge)
Samsung released the Tab S11 Ultra last September. It is thinner at just 5.1 mm, matching Apple’s offerings while retaining its massive 14.6-inch display, now with a shrunken notch. Just like the M5 iPad Pro, the OLED panel gets impressively bright, sustaining up to 1000nits while delivering an infinite contrast ratio.
The new Samsung Tab S11 Ultra
While some argue that the 4:3 aspect ratio offered by iPads is better suited for content consumption, the 16:10 aspect ratio on the Tab S11 Ultra remains well-balanced for both productivity and media use. In terms of performance, Samsung has shifted from Snapdragon to MediaTek processors, providing comparable performance at a lower cost. Despite being perceived as an “inferior” option, the latest MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ paired with 12 GB of RAM proves sufficient for notetaking, YouTube, movie watching, and the occasional assignment writeup. Battery life further reinforces this adequacy: with an 11,600 mAh battery, the tablet can last up to three days of light use, and in practical daily use, I was able to leave for classes at full charge and return after four hours of back-to-back note-taking with roughly 65% battery remaining, even with the screen set at 30 ~ 40% brightness.
Battery life with light use
But Samsung giveth, Samsung also taketh. Samsung removed the Bluetooth functionality for their S-Pen, which means no more air gestures or camera control. Samsung also altered how Dex functions. In the past, Dex was like a hidden room that revealed itself after the press of a button, presenting a more desktop-like user interface. Currently, Dex is only accessible when plugged into an external monitor, and the version on the tablet is what Android natively offers, which is a blend of the older version of Dex and Android. It still pertains to multi-window management, but gone is the desktop arrangement similar to Windows. It’s disappointing for Samsung to remove or alter these features on their flagship tablet, as we consumers are paying the same price but for less.
Old Dex (Source: Samsung CARE)
New Dex which is a blend of Android & Old Dex
Now I may not be able to speak for the majority of users, but the performance and efficiency offered by this tablet are more than sufficient, which brings the discussion back to an earlier question, despite the removal of certain functions and features: why do users need the power of Apple’s M-series, desktop-class chips in iPads when most are unable to fully take advantage of it?
Challenging the Status Quo
Although both have their positive and negative aspects, it ultimately depends on the needs of each user.
iPads have quickly dominated the mainstream tablet market, cementing themselves as the default choice. Nowadays, everyone from restaurant managers, teachers, students and pilots uses iPads for their needs. The default choice for many because of the way Apple markets it. Since the dawn of time, iPads have been marketed as recreational devices that slot between iPhones and Macs. Parents purchased iPads for their kids to keep them entertained, who then grow up being loyal to the brand, through familiarity and availability heuristics, further cementing Apple iPads as the mainstream tablet of choice.
Furthermore, when Android tablets were first launched, it was rushed to compete with Apple’s offerings, which resulted in poor app optimization as apps were just enlarged versions of their mobile phone counterparts, and the underpowered hardware further made the Android tablet experience slow and laggy, which infuriated consumers. This lack of polish in the software was what drew consumers to purchase iPads, and the factors mentioned above led consumers to associate Android tablets with slow and laggy devices with no clear vision of what it wants to become, while Apple’s offers a vast ecosystem of optimized apps with comparable performance.
But ever since the launch of the Tab S8 Ultra, Samsung has been challenging this status quo by offering something more unique and appealing while allowing customers to do more with a Samsung tablet despite the power advantage of iPads. And with every release, the Samsung Tab Series slowly eats away at the iPad’s market share.
For starters, file management on One UI is more cohesive compared to what is offered on iPadOS. It’s got a dedicated unmount button to ensure external drives don’t get corrupted when removing them, and when accessing files on devices, you are able to see the path of files and how much storage is available on the device, whereas Apple allows for dragging and dropping between folder locations and folder tagging, which improves the overall flow and organization of files.
However, Samsung Tablets offer microSD expansion slots, which allow for a cheap and instant alternative to increase storage, as iPads don’t.
Why Aren’t People Switching?
With the feature set offered by its OneUI, you would think people would switch over to Samsung tablets, but consumers are still sticking to iPads. Why is that? One of the many reasons includes the track record of Android tablets mentioned above and how it shaped the perception of consumers on Android tablets. Another is familiarity, combined with how individuals fear change. It is understandable as to why humans fear change, as we are wired for stability. This is because stability is often predictable, and predictability often creates a sense of safety. When switching to a different operating system, there is a learning curve for figuring out where things are and what each button means. This process of figuring things out disrupts predictability and familiarity, which is often avoided by individuals, as humans are cognitively lazy in nature, especially the older, less tech-savvy folk.
What about the younger generation? Why are they still sticking to iPads? Well, familiarity definitely plays a role, but also possibility due to availability heuristics. Since their childhood, iPads have been everywhere. This primed their minds to associate iPads as the default tablet of choice, and combined with Apple’s marketing, the iPad cemented itself as the default choice. Furthermore, apps on the iPads are just more optimized since the beginning, which made the user experience much more pleasant on the iPad, as Android tablets had a rough start when they were first launched.
With this in mind, consumers just continued to use iPads as they are more predictable, safe and familiar, and iPads also plug seamlessly into the “Apple Ecosystem”, which further deters consumers to make that change as you can make & receive calls, use Handoff, and access files on iCloud Drive.
The Real Question to Ask
Would iPads remain as the status quo? Based on what we discussed, iPads will remain the status quo for the foreseeable future as there’s no better alternative for regular consumers. Samsung Tablets are definitely an option, but realistically, who would want to relearn the basics of navigating an operating system to watch YouTube or read books when iPads already offer a comparatively more polished experience?
When there is a lack of competition, corporations don’t have a reason to innovate because there isn’t a driving force to push them to do better. As a result, there’s no incentive to do better or improve their products. This leaves consumers with devices that cost more, but their user experience doesn’t justify the price tag. A good example was Intel’s 4th Gen to 7th Gen CPUs that were released between 2013 and 2017. During this period, AMD was struggling, which meant Intel had no real competition. As a result, the Intel Core i7 4700K & 7700K were similar in terms of raw performance, despite being three generations apart. Other than support for DDR4 RAM and the new LGA 1151 socket on the 7700K, they were similar in terms of core architecture. Similarly, this is happening with Apple’s iPads. Android tablets are getting better, but they’re nowhere near as sophisticated as iPads. Just like Intel in 2013, Apple has already cemented itself as the default choice, and consumers are just purchasing what Apple is offering since there is no alternative. See the problem?
So, should iPads remain as the status quo? Personally, I don’t think any company or product should be the status quo. Because it creates monopolies, businesses don’t innovate, and consumers are left to suffer. If iPads remain as the status quo, and to a certain extent a monopoly, Apple doesn’t see the need to innovate. But I also understand why the status quo exists, as “all humans are cognitively lazy”, a quote from my intro to psychology lecturer, Mr Selvan. Why is this relevant, you may ask? Well, iPads have been established as a tablet that just works, with great app support, a whole ecosystem of accessories, and powerful hardware, so why would consumers question Apple’s offerings? If it ain’t broke, why fix it? That just means consumers are left with devices that look and feel similar to each other.
So would you consider switching to a Samsung Tablet? Or would you still continue to buy iPads?
Written by: Sean Tan
Edited by: Sherman
