Which is considerably worse, the monitor or the iPad?
Comparing this:
12.9” mini-LED Liquid Retina XDR display
2732x2048 resolution at 264 pixels per inch (ppi)
2D backlighting system with 2596 full‑array local dimming zones
120 Hz refresh ProMotion technology
Wide color display (P3)
True Tone display
Multi‑Touch input
Apple Pencil input w/ pressure and tilt sensitivity
Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
Fully laminated display
Antireflective coating
1.8% reflectivity
SDR brightness: 600 nits max
XDR brightness: 1000 nits max full screen, 1600 nits peak (HDR content only)
1,000,000:1 contrast ratio
… to what’s available on Amazon in 4K or 5K screens with no computer (iPad or iMac) attached, I can mostly only buy the LGs for $1400 to $1700, and they don’t work with a stylus. The comp isn’t really a monitor anyway, it’s a Wacom Cintiq Pro.
Have you ever used an iPad Pro with Sidecar - ie, as an external moniyor? I have! You're going to be compromising heavily. Bye bye to 120hz, you're going to be struggling to hit 60hz sometimes. Hello to video compression, so all those pixels are going to be far from what they can actually do.
Any real external monitor is, I'm sorry to tell you, going to blow it out of the water in image quality, and it's not even close. Especially if there is any movement or if you're going to be pushing more frames. It's just the name of the game.
It's real competition isn't external displays, because it really can't compete there. It's laptops with pen support. And it can't compete against those either. Believe me, I tried to make it work, it just can't.
You clearly haven't seen a modern iPad Pro screen if you think it's inferior 'in every way' to other portable monitors. 120Hz refresh, super high pixel density, amazing color replication, I could go on. they're beautiful.
What high-refresh rate OLED travel monitors are you comparing it to?
Have you tried using it as an external monitor? It can't even hit 60fps reliably, and there is noticeable lag and compression. As an external monitor, it really sucks.
As a monitor of a machine into its own, at 12.9", I'm comparing it to the OLEDs in the new Vivobooks, which have even higher pixel density, better contrast, very comparable colors, and inherently better motion performance.
