Apple's new iPad Pro gets M4 power, advanced Tandem OLED screens

AppleInsider

Apple's refresh of the iPad Pro lines makes a major and long-awaited change to the tablet, with OLED, M4, and a thinner case.

iPad Pro with tandem OLED and M4

The rumored revamp of the iPad Pro has arrived, with Apple introducing the updated iPad Pro range after over a year without changes. A new display, landscape selfie camera, M4 processor, and thinner case design.

They have 11-inch and 13-inch displays, and the iPad Pro has been refined to make the cases slightly thinner than the previous generation. The size change also results in a small weight loss for both models.

The new iPad Pros are 5.3mm and 5.1mm thin, which is thinner than Apple's iPod nano. Apple says it is the thinnest device the company has ever shipped.

Partly driving the change is an overhaul in display technology Apple uses. While previously relying on LED and mini-LED backlighting, Apple has finally made the switch over to OLED, but in two layers with tandem OLED for better brightness.

OLED is a self-illuminating display technology that doesn't require backlighting, helping reduce the thickness of the tablets. It also offers higher levels of contrast, brighter pictures, and more accurate colors compared to traditional TFT LED screens.

New iPad Pro has 1,000 nits of brightness for SDR and HDR content. It has 1,600 nit peak brightness for HDR content.

A nano texture option is also available.

Making the leap to M4

Apple also included the M4 processor for a leap in performance. It has 4 performance and 6 effeciency cores.

Apple M4 processor

The M4 has a 10-core GPU with hardware accelerated ray tracing and mesh mapping. It enables more powerful pro apps and high-end game rendering.

The new neural engine can perform 38 trillion operations per second, 60x faster than first in A11.

Apple introduced Final Cut Pro 2 and Logic Pro 2 alongside the new iPads. Final Cut Pro 2 gets 4x more streams than M1 models, and Logic Pro 2 gets AI instruments.

Other changes

Around the back is Apple's Wide Camera at 12MP. Once again, Apple packs a LiDAR sensor into the camera bump.

New pro app updates and camera features for iPad Pro

The Ultra Wide Camera has been removed.

The TrueDepth camera at the front uses a 12MP Ultra Wide camera with a 122-degree field of view and depth mapping capabilities. It has been moved to the landscape side of the iPad, though this doesn't interfere with Apple Pencil charging.

Magic Keyboard now has a function row. Apple also introduced the Apple Pencil Pro, built with new iPad Pro in mind.

Pricing and availability

Both the 11-inch iPad Pro and 13-inch iPad Pro are available in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB configurations. Nano texture glass adds $100 to the total.

The 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $999, and the 13-inch iPad Pro starts at $1,299. Add $200 for the cellular modem option.

The Apple Pencil Pro is $129. The Magic Keyboard is $279 for the 11-inch model and $349 for the 13-inch model.

Pre-orders started May 7 and initial shipments will arrive on May 15.



Read on AppleInsider

Kierkegaarden

That’s a lot of power — I can’t help think that something else with be unveiled at WWDC to take advantage of this.  Maybe I’m completely off, 

dominoes

Pretty sure that the new iPad Pro no longer has an UW 10mp camera on the back. Is it just a covered hole now?

discountopinion

Woah.. NPU in M4 seems to be 2x of TOPS than M3... Memory bandwidth is also up 20%. GenAI here we go.

Can't wait to see an Ultra or Extreme version of this baby.

ndornquast

Some info to be aware of:

• 10 core processor only available on TB versions, 256 & 512MB versions get 9 cores (3e & 6p).
• 1TB option is $600 (60%) more than base option, $400 more than 512GB version.
• Textured nano glass requires TB option.
• Wide angle camera is dropped.. only one camera on rear.
• GPS still requires cellular version, which is $200 upgrade.

I am extremely disappointed Apple continues to bundle options.  Why should I have to buy storage I do not need to get the processor I want??

To get better processor and GPS, with AppleCare and tax is now $2,070.. and that doesn’t include any accessories.. and that’s the 11” version.

saarek

M4, that’s an interesting move. Especially considering the M3 isn’t even fully out yet with the Ultra chips (and hopefully the Extreme variant which the Mac Pro desperately needs to justify its existence).

Wonder why they’ve jumped so far forwards, it will simply put people off buying M3 Apple Macs, no one wants to buy last years tech at this years pricing.

melgross

Well, as usual I spent a lot of money I didn’t have to. So I bought the whole thing, 13”, keyboard and Pencil and also the nano glass. I hope the glass isn’t too difficult to clean as my iPad screen gets dirtier than my Apple monitor screen.

i was surprised that the rumor about the M4 was true. I’m willing to bet that there are two reasons for it. Apple has two things to contend with right now. The push in AI is one and the new SoCs from Qualcomm are the other. Apple know about both some time ago. They knew about the SoCs a good two years ago and I wouldn’t be surprised if the push to get the M4 on this, right now, before any PCs with the Qualcomm chip come out is a big reason we’re seeing it. Qualcomm is marketing their chip as being as, or even a bit more powerful than Apple;s M3. Whether that’s true or not, Apple needed to get ahead it it and with the specs for this M4 I believe they have.

anyway, I’m pretty excited to see this new one. It should be here between the 16th and the 20th. My wife’s, which doesn’t have the nano screen and 512GB instead of 1TB, will be here the 15th.

Wesley Hilliard

dominoes said:

Pretty sure that the new iPad Pro no longer has an UW 10mp camera on the back. Is it just a covered hole now?

I've done some digging. There's the Camera, then the big black circle at the bottom is the LiDAR sensor. Then the Flash and under that is the Mic. The only thing I can't figure out and Apple hasn't shared is what the top right black dot is. I'm assuming its a light sensor.

charlesn

Kierkegaarden said:

That’s a lot of power — I can’t help think that something else with be unveiled at WWDC to take advantage of this.  Maybe I’m completely off, 

Hello? Did you see the new Live Multicam capabilities with four iPhones?! I'm sure more is coming at WWDC, but that alone is INSANE. 

HOWEVER... Mark Gurman really nailed the crux of the issue in his most recent Power Up column: Apple has intentionally held back the iPad from becoming a true laptop replacement by hobbling it in iPadOS. How else to explain that they can pull off a near miracle like Live Multicam but the simple task of multitasking on an iPad remains a kludge? This much is clear: the new iPad Pros, at first blush, might be the best hardware Apple has ever produced--they are at least in the running for that title. But will Apple FINALLY provide an iPadOS as good as the hardware? We'll soon see... If they do, I'd trade in my MBA M2 immediately. 

danox

Kierkegaarden said:

That’s a lot of power — I can’t help think that something else with be unveiled at WWDC to take advantage of this.  Maybe I’m completely off, 

The hardware needs to be built first and released before software particularly third party software can can made?

retrogusto

ndornquast said:

Some info to be aware of:

• 10 core processor only available on TB versions, 256 & 512MB versions get 9 cores (3e & 6p).
• 1TB option is $600 (60%) more than base option, $400 more than 512GB version.
• Textured nano glass requires TB option.
• Wide angle camera is dropped.. only one camera on rear.
• GPS still requires cellular version, which is $200 upgrade.

I am extremely disappointed Apple continues to bundle options.  Why should I have to buy storage I do not need to get the processor I want??

To get better processor and GPS, with AppleCare and tax is now $2,070.. and that doesn’t include any accessories.. and that’s the 11” version.

After I ordered mine, I also noticed that the 1TB and 2TB models have 16GBof RAM, whereas the other models have 8GB. I was surprised that they didn’t make this more clear in the marketing, because some people certainly would have upgraded the storage just to get the extra RAM. 

Stabitha_Christie

charlesn said:

Kierkegaarden said:

That’s a lot of power — I can’t help think that something else with be unveiled at WWDC to take advantage of this.  Maybe I’m completely off, 

Hello? Did you see the new Live Multicam capabilities with four iPhones?! I'm sure more is coming at WWDC, but that alone is INSANE. 

HOWEVER... Mark Gurman really nailed the crux of the issue in his most recent Power Up column: Apple has intentionally held back the iPad from becoming a true laptop replacement by hobbling it in iPadOS. How else to explain that they can pull off a near miracle like Live Multicam but the simple task of multitasking on an iPad remains a kludge? This much is clear: the new iPad Pros, at first blush, might be the best hardware Apple has ever produced--they are at least in the running for that title. But will Apple FINALLY provide an iPadOS as good as the hardware? We'll soon see... If they do, I'd trade in my MBA M2 immediately. 

It's worth noting that the Live Multicam feature doesn't do full resolution, you can do a preview and then replace the media with the full res versions once you have completed recording. It also doesn't appear to be M4 dependent. 

omasou

ndornquast said:

Some info to be aware of:

• 10 core processor only available on TB versions, 256 & 512MB versions get 9 cores (3e & 6p).
• 1TB option is $600 (60%) more than base option, $400 more than 512GB version.
• Textured nano glass requires TB option.
• Wide angle camera is dropped.. only one camera on rear.
• GPS still requires cellular version, which is $200 upgrade.

I am extremely disappointed Apple continues to bundle options.  Why should I have to buy storage I do not need to get the processor I want??

To get better processor and GPS, with AppleCare and tax is now $2,070.. and that doesn’t include any accessories.. and that’s the 11” version.

The TB option doubles the RAM from 8GB to 16GB.

Will be interesting to see Apple announce their AI initiatives @ WWDC and how the on device LLMs will leverage (require?) the increased RAM and performance core.

Really hoping the iPad finally becomes a full fledge development platform.

netrox

retrogusto said:

ndornquast said:

Some info to be aware of:

• 10 core processor only available on TB versions, 256 & 512MB versions get 9 cores (3e & 6p).
• 1TB option is $600 (60%) more than base option, $400 more than 512GB version.
• Textured nano glass requires TB option.
• Wide angle camera is dropped.. only one camera on rear.
• GPS still requires cellular version, which is $200 upgrade.

I am extremely disappointed Apple continues to bundle options.  Why should I have to buy storage I do not need to get the processor I want??

To get better processor and GPS, with AppleCare and tax is now $2,070.. and that doesn’t include any accessories.. and that’s the 11” version.

After I ordered mine, I also noticed that the 1TB and 2TB models have 16GBof RAM, whereas the other models have 8GB. I was surprised that they didn’t make this more clear in the marketing, because some people certainly would have upgraded the storage just to get the extra RAM. 

I vaguely remember that they did benchmarking on iPad Pros with bigger RAM chips that came with 1TB and found no performance boost at all. It's likely the bigger RAM was used for 1TB disk performance and not for CPU/GPU performance. 

johnwhite1001

So disappointing.  Apple had to make it so thin.  That means it has a much smaller battery than it could have had.  OLED screens typically have higher power demands.  In reality it will probably only get 6 hours or so.

danox

charlesn said:

Kierkegaarden said:

That’s a lot of power — I can’t help think that something else with be unveiled at WWDC to take advantage of this.  Maybe I’m completely off, 

Hello? Did you see the new Live Multicam capabilities with four iPhones?! I'm sure more is coming at WWDC, but that alone is INSANE. 

HOWEVER... Mark Gurman really nailed the crux of the issue in his most recent Power Up column: Apple has intentionally held back the iPad from becoming a true laptop replacement by hobbling it in iPadOS. How else to explain that they can pull off a near miracle like Live Multicam but the simple task of multitasking on an iPad remains a kludge? This much is clear: the new iPad Pros, at first blush, might be the best hardware Apple has ever produced--they are at least in the running for that title. But will Apple FINALLY provide an iPadOS as good as the hardware? We'll soon see... If they do, I'd trade in my MBA M2 immediately. 

Apple is in league of their own they don't need to double back and do what Microsoft is doing with the Surface, new software and upgraded software will be introduced to take advantage of another step forward for Apple who has again cemented the iPads place as the best tablet in the world.

Note: Samsung tried to talk Apple out of tandem OLED but LG stepped up and said yes we can and they are building the screen for the 13" model.

https://www.oled-info.com/tags/tandem-architecture

siretman

Very impressive especially the leap to M4. I pulled the trigger right after Tim Cook signed off and will be getting it on May 15. 

danox

melgross said:

Well, as usual I spent a lot of money I didn’t have to. So I bought the whole thing, 13”, keyboard and Pencil and also the nano glass. I hope the glass isn’t too difficult to clean as my iPad screen gets dirtier than my Apple monitor screen.

i was surprised that the rumor about the M4 was true. I’m willing to bet that there are two reasons for it. Apple has two things to contend with right now. The push in AI is one and the new SoCs from Qualcomm are the other. Apple know about both some time ago. They knew about the SoCs a good two years ago and I wouldn’t be surprised if the push to get the M4 on this, right now, before any PCs with the Qualcomm chip come out is a big reason we’re seeing it. Qualcomm is marketing their chip as being as, or even a bit more powerful than Apple;s M3. Whether that’s true or not, Apple needed to get ahead it it and with the specs for this M4 I believe they have.

anyway, I’m pretty excited to see this new one. It should be here between the 16th and the 20th. My wife’s, which doesn’t have the nano screen and 512GB instead of 1TB, will be here the 15th.

Maybe but what is the lead times for putting Tandem OLED and a M4 SOC into a iPad two-three years? I don't think Qualcomm or AI hype figured into the equation if anything the drag probably was the development of Tandem OLED which isn't cheap..

amusingfool

Just the ability to do nano texture on a touchscreen is very interesting.  I'm drooling a bit, but not upgrading anytime soon.

StrangeDays

johnwhite1001 said:

So disappointing.  Apple had to make it so thin.  That means it has a much smaller battery than it could have had.  OLED screens typically have higher power demands.  In reality it will probably only get 6 hours or so.

Apple historically under promises on battery life, not over promises. The point of OLED is to eliminate backlighting which is more wasteful of energy than only illuminating the pixels needed. 

apple4thewin

So 9 core cpu for 256 and 512 gb option 8 gb ram and 10 core cpu for 1tb+ with 16gb of ram. So is $600 worth an extra performance core, extra 8 gb of ram and an extra 800gb of storage? 🤔 Also still can’t find anything about the second black sensor it might be a way to improve LiDAR and flash