Apple announced the new iPad Pro series, which seems like the biggest upgrade to an iPad in years, at its Let Loose event on May 7. It brings an all-new processor, design, and display. The new iPad Pros still come in two sizes — 13 inches and 11 inches — and they now carry the “thinnest Apple product ever made” badge. It’s a big achievement, considering Apple is dubbing the tablets’ M4 processor as a “PC chip.” In short, it’s a bit more impressive than today’s iPad Air news.
The new iPad Pros feature an OLED display for per-pixel brightness precision and greater contrast. It also allows for better immersion in content consumption. The displays can reach 1,000 nits of sustained brightness and 1,600 nits of peak brightness for supported HDR content.
The new displays have a matte finish called “nano-texture coating,” which is precisely etched at a nanometer scale, maintaining image quality and contrast while scattering ambient light for reduced glare. At 5.1mm thin for the 13-inch iPad Pro and 5.3mm for the 11-inch model, these are Apple’s thinnest devices ever. The duo is built out of 100% recycled aluminum.
Apple has skipped the M3 chip to go with the M4 processor on the new iPad Pro tablets to make it more appealing for professionals and artists.
It is said to deliver the same powerful performance as the M2 chip and better thermal performance, while using half the power simultaneously. The M4 chip is built on 3nm architecture, and as per the company, it enables the new iPad Pro to deliver the same performance as a thin-and-light PC while using only a quarter of the power.
You can also now easily isolate a subject from its background in 4K video with just a tap using Scene Removal Mask in Final Cut Pro, thanks to the new Neural Engine that’s meant to help with AI tasks. Apple has also updated the camera system on the new iPad Pro to capture better color, improved textures, and more detail in lowlight. The front camera in landscape orientation also brings better video-calling capabilities. The device supports Thunderbolt 3 and USB 4 for up to 40Gb/s file transfer.
There’s also a new Apple Pencil Pro ($129) and a refreshed Magic Keyboard to take advantage of the enhanced capabilities of the new iPad Pro. You can buy the 11-inch iPad Pro for $999 (Wi-Fi model) and $1,199 (Wi-Fi + Cellular model). As for the 13-inch iPad Pro, the prices are $1,299 (Wi-Fi model) and $1,499 (Wi-Fi + Cellular variant).
