This new iPad Pro is thinner than the iPod Nano and the best performing tablet around
11in and 13in models pack the latest M4 chipset and a slate of other refinements
Apple’s latest iPad Pro has landed! After a year of no refreshes to the iPad line-up, the tech giant’s top-tier model has come rushing out the gate. And what’s it got to show for itself? You’ll find the best performance around thanks to the M4 chipset, shiny new OLED displays, and a whole slate of other improvements that make this Apple’s pro-iest (and thinnest) tablet yet.
The new iPad Pro is the thinnest device Apple has ever made, at just 5.1mm and 5.3mm (depending on the size). It’s even thinner than the iPod Nano! You can pick between an 11-inch model and a new, larger 13-inch model. Round front, there’s a new OLED display that can crank up to 1000 nits of brightness. It can hit 1600 nits of peak brightness for HDR. In fact, it uses a new type of OLED called Tandem OLED to get even brighter. It’s called the Ultra Retina XDR. There’s also nano-textured glass for a matte finish – it’ll be less prone to reflections.
Inside, Apple is jumping straight to the M4 chipset, skipping out the M3 processor altogether. It’s built on the 3nm process, so will be super efficient. There’s a new CPU and GPU, coming a step forward from M3. The CPU has four performance cores, and 6 efficiency cores. It’s up to 50% faster than the M2 processor from the last iPad Pro, and the GPU can render 4x faster.
It’s got Apple’s most powerful neural processor inside – gearing the device up for AI processing. Apple claims its faster than any neural processor in any AI PC to date. Copper on the Apple logo is a subtle way of cooling things down, making things even faster. There’s now just one camera on the back, which is 12MP. The adaptive flash has a new feature that uses AI to help scan in documents. Plus, the 12MP front-facing camera is also on the side, like iPad (10th Gen), and now supports Face ID.
But software is just as important, and Apple has cooked some new things up here in iPadOS. Final Cut Pro 2 and Logic Pro 2 are getting big upgrades. Live Multicam lets you connect and preview up to four cameras at once in the app. You’ll need the new Final Cut Camera app on your other iPhone or iPad devices, but they include pro control options. You can also now edit from external devices.
The new Session Players feature in Logic Pro 2 has been built on AI to give you extra instrument options. If you don’t have the original stem, the app will now extract the voice, bass, drums, and other instruments to give you a starting point to remix. All this is before the reveal of the next major update (iPadOS 18) at WWDC 2024 in June.
Apple’s last iPad Pro model debuted in October 2022. That update included the M2 chipset and the Apple Pencil hover feature as new. But the design otherwise remained unchanged from the M1 iPad Pro. The iPad Pro previously offered a Liquid Retina XDR display in the 12.9-inch model, bringing a 120Hz refresh rate and mini-LED backlighting.
You can bag the new iPad Pro in silver or space black. There’s a new magic keyboard with a function row available as an accessory. It, too, is thinner and lighter, like the new iPad Pro. The trackpad is more similar to that of a MacBook, and it starts at $299. The 11-inch model starts at $999/£999, while the 13-inch option starts at $1299/£1299. It’ll be available to order today, and will ship out next week.
Connor Jewiss
