The Apple iPad Pro gets the M1 treatment as well

It's lonely at the top: the iPad Pro continues running its solitary performance race with the latest update.

by Justin Choo

For those of us who don’t need to work with creative or engineering tools, the iPad Pro is possibly the sexiest thing that you don’t need right now.

The new iPad Pro gets the M1 treatment and is touted to be 50 per cent faster than its predecessor. It now boasts storage of up to 2TB, which should help content creators a lot. But as with all things, it’s the supporting cast that helps makes the iPad Pro a true workhorse, such as a full suite of cameras and LiDAR scanner to enable onsite visualisations for applications such as 3D tracking for video production or AR visualisations for architectural applications.

The two iPad Pros stand alone at the top of the tablet kingdom. Image: Apple

The two iPad Pros stand alone at the top of the tablet kingdom. Image: Apple

It’s also equipped with the latest ISP for improved photographs, and the front-facing TrueDepth camera is now a 12MP ultrawide camera (122 degrees FOV) with Center Stage – a tracking feature suited for presentations or live streaming as it tracks you and keeps your person in the frame (within reason of course).

The iPad Pro has always had the best display specs and this one is no different – it’s almost like a Pro Display XDR. The new Liquid Retina XDR features 1,000 nits full display brightness with a peak of 1,600 nits and a 1-million-to-1 contrast ratio. This is thanks to the debut of the mini-LEDs – and there are 10,000 in the new iPad Pro – that no doubt should be making their way to other Apple devices in future. However, do note that it’s only available on the 12.9″ model.

The Magic Keyboard remains relatively unchanged, except for one minor detail here. Image: Apple

The Magic Keyboard remains relatively unchanged, except for one minor detail here. Image: Apple

And to round up, the speakers support Dolby Atmos as well, and the sole port handles both Thunderbolt and USB 4, and you can hook up a Pro Display XDR with full 6K resolution for those who need to deal with high-resolution images. The iPad Pro is also 5G enabled, which is a helpful inclusion if your workflow demands it, and it also touts support for the latest Playstation and Xbox controllers, complete with haptic feedback, which I don’t know who asked for but hey, why not.

Almost reminiscent of the last white Macbook. Image: Apple

Almost reminiscent of the last white Macbook. Image: Apple

Most importantly, it’s now available in white. And don’t worry, there’s a Magic Keyboard in white as well.

The new iPad Pros will go on pre-order on 30 April and will be available in the second half of May. The 11" iPad Pro starts from $1,199 (Wi-Fi, 128GB of storage) while the 12.9" iPad Pro starts from $1,649 (Wi-Fi, 128GB).