We knew that the new iPad Pros will have a chipset similar to the M1, but it’s not just similar, it is the M1. Compared to the A12Z, CPU performance is up 50%, the GPU is 40% faster. You can configure this tablet with up to 16GB of RAM and up to 2TB of storage (the storage is also twice as fast as on the previous generation). And to make these tablets even more computer-like, you get a Thunderbolt port. It has a peak transfer speed of 40 Gbps and allows you to hook up external monitors of up to 6K resolution as well as super fast external storage. And if you somehow have 10 gigabit Ethernet, it can handle that too.
While you can connect an external display,
you may have trouble tearing your eyes away from the iPad’s own display – the
rumors were right, Apple has equipped the iPad Pro 12.9 with a mini-LED panel
(the 11” model still uses regular LCD). It calls it the Liquid Retina XDR
display, similar to the Pro Display XDR desktop monitor. It’s super bright,
peaking at 1,600 nits and achieving 1,000 nits full-screen brightness. And it
supports all the high quality imaging formats (HDR10, Dolby Vision, HLG). The
heart of mini-LED is the new backlight, which consists of 10,000 tiny LEDs
grouped into 2,500 local dimming zones (for comparison, the previous iPad Pro
12.9 had only 72 LEDs).
Both the 11” and 12.9” have ProMotion, aka
adaptive 120Hz refresh rate. The 11” panel is old school Liquid Retina,
however, meaning only 600 nits peak brightness. It still supports True Tone and
uses the DCI-P3 color gamut, though. While they can rival some desktops in
terms of performance, the iPad Pros are still mobile products and they now have
optional 5G connectivity, a first for the series. In the US this includes
mmWave, which can hit 4 Gbps under ideal conditions. The 5G slates have an
eSIM, so you can quickly sign up for a new plan.
The new iPad Pros have an updated
TrueDepth camera with a 12MP sensor and an ultrawide-angle lens. Its 122º field
of view enables a feature dubbed Center Stage – when in a video call, the
tablet can zoom in and pan to keep you in the center of the frame. And if
someone else sits beside you, it will zoom out so that both of you are in
frame. The dual camera on the back got its own improvements. It still has a
12MP main and 10MP ultrawide modules, plus a LiDAR scanner. Most of the
improvements actually come from the faster ISP and NPU found inside the M1
chipset. They enable Smart HDR 3 and in low-light the LiDAR helps with
autofocus. The tablet can also insert digital imagery and keep as background to
create impressive virtual environments.
You can pre-order the iPad Pro 11” and
12.9” this Friday, the first units will be available on Friday. You better sit
down for the pricing, though. The new Apple iPad Pro 12.9 starts at US$ 1,100, 5G
connectivity is US$ 200 on top of that. The smaller 11” model starts at US$ 800. Note
that the RAM capacity is tied to choice of storage.
