Soooo... I recently got a new iPad with M2 SoC. No, not the new iPad Air 2024 but the iPad Pro 2022 instead.
The new Air is 10% lighter and supports the new Pencil, but IMHO the "old" iPad Pro has a lot of advantages:
- miniLED instead of IPS display (better blacks, higher brightness, HDR)
- 120 Hz instead of 60 Hz
- 4 instead of 2 speakers... great sound!
- 16 GB RAM (2 TB model) instead of 8 GB RAM
- a few percent faster according to benchmarks
- Face ID
- better cameras
Of course I connected a bluetooth controller and tested the demo versions of Resident Evil 7, Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Assassin's Creed Mirage and Alien Isolation (Death Stranding doesn't have a demo version).
They all perform good (for a mobile device)... but most of these games I prefer to play on my Steam Deck OLED.
Sure, the M2 iPad renders Resident Evil Village in 1920x1440 with maxed settings and good fps, the Steam Deck only in 1280x720, but the lighting on the Steam Deck OLED is still better (both were running HDR mode):
And the problem for most iOS games is: hardware released after the game doesn't get adjuted game settings. For example my favorite iOS game of 2018: "The Room: Old Sins". The PC port has much better lighting, the iOS version is stuck to the old game settings:
And of course, most AAA games aren't ported to iOS... or only as inferior version:
A PC handheld for a fraction of the price has a much much bigger library of supported AAA games. And when you upgrade that PC handheld, you can play most games in higher settings instantly.
