Almost nine years ago, Apple introduced the first iPad Pro. It had three features that earned it the "Pro" name. First, it was the first large iPad, featuring a 12.9" screen that made it so much easier to work with documents without squinting. Second, it was faster than the regular iPad. And third, it added support for best-in-breed accessories: Apple's new Pencil and the Smart Keyboard. With the second-generation iPad Pro introduced in 2017, Apple added another new feature that has, since then, been a part of what makes the iPad Pro a Pro: a better screen. And of course, the iPad Pro has always had those nice-to-have but not essential additional features that improve the experience of using an iPad. For example, Face ID has only ever been used in the iPad Pro, not other iPad models.
Recognizing that many people want a larger screen but don't need the other features of an iPad Pro, this year, Apple added a 13" option to the mid-range iPad Air. That is a fantastic addition to the iPad Air that cements that model as the go-to device for just about any attorney or other professional who wants to get real work done with an iPad. The iPad Air features tons of features and design improvements that were first introduced with the iPad Pro, so it has Pro features without the Pro price.
Now that you can get a large iPad in a mid-range product, size is no longer a reason to need to pay more for an iPad Pro. But the other things that put the "Pro" in Pad Pro remain. The iPad Pro continues to have the nicest screen, the fastest processor, the best support for accessories, and the most nice-to-have but not essential features that make the experience of using an iPad more pleasant.
What this means is that the sales pitch for the iPad Pro is more simple than ever: this is the premium product. A regular iPad is great for simple needs and is inexpensive. An iPad Air is best for most folks because it has a perfect balance of features and price. But if you are someone who uses an iPad extensively, you may think that it is worth it to spend a few hundred dollars extra to get the nicest possible product. It's like paying more for a nice car if you drive extensively, paying more for airline lounge access if you fly extensively, paying more for better seats at a concert, sporting event, or stage performance if you are a big fan or otherwise want the best possible experience at the live event. We have all splurged on something at some point, and it can be fun when you do so.
Now that it is clear that the iPad Pro is the premium iPad for those folks who don't mind paying more to get more, Apple has done a great job of improving the features that truly let an iPad shine. The new iPad Pro has the best screen that Apple has ever used on any device, and that is a great feature to improve because the iPad is all about the screen; you look at it, you interact with it, and you hold it in your hand. The new iPad Pro is also thinner and lighter than any other product that Apple has ever made (even the iPod nano, which is rather astonishing) because it is nicer to have an object that you hold in your hands weigh even less. The new iPad Pro is the first product to use Apple's new M4, the best processor that Apple has ever made. The new iPad Pro also works with the Apple Pencil Pro and the newest Magic Keyboard, both of which are best-in-class accessories. And the new iPad Pro has other nice advantages. Different improvements will appeal to different iPad Pro users, but put them all together and this is unquestionably one of the nicest products that Apple has ever made in any product category. For those who will appreciate having a nicer iPad, the 2024 version of the iPad Pro is simply amazing.
Thin and light
If you are like me and you previously used a 12.9" iPad Pro, the first thing that you will notice is how much lighter this new iPad Pro is. I know from the official statistics that the iPad Pro 13" weighs almost a quarter pound less than the previous iPad Pro 12.9", but what I didn't know until I had one in my hands is how much of a difference this makes in actual life. Now, I can say: yes, this difference is noticeable. It is immediately noticeable. And you don't even have to use the new iPad Pro 13" for very long before you find that when you pick up your prior iPad Pro 12.9" it suddenly feels dramatically heavier.
Thus, when using this new iPad Pro, it isn't as heavy in your hand. That's a nice change.
Also, when you are walking around and holding the iPad Pro in your handâeither by itself or covered by the new Apple Smart Folioâthe device feels significantly lighter. It's like the change from walking while carrying two books to carrying just one book. While walking with this new iPad Pro, I would frequently look down at my hand in amazement at how much lighter it is.
To be clear, in the almost nine years that I have been using a 12.9" iPad Pro, I would occasionally envy the relative lightness of a "normal" sized iPad, but I was really fine with the weight. Nevertheless, reducing the weight and size is an appreciated feature of a premium iPad.
Improved screen
If you have a high-quality OLED television in your house that supports 4K and HDR, then you already know how incredible video can look on it. The screen on the iPhone 15 Pro is really nice too, but because it is so small, that greatly reduces the "wow" factor.
The screen on the new iPad Pro 13" M4 is astounding and, in my opinion, better than both of those. It is better than even a nice larger TV because when I am holding my iPad in my hand, the distance from my eyes to the iPad is much shorter than the distance from my eyes to my TV when I'm sitting on the couch. Thus, the iPad seems to take up more of my frame of view.
The 1,000 nits of normal brightness plus 1,600 nits of peak brightness of the new iPad Pro mean that when you have an HDR picture (like one taken by an iPhone) with bright lights or a bright sun, those areas that ought to be bright are incredibly bright. But other colors and details also look amazing, and the dynamic range between colors and levels of brightness is simply jaw-dropping.
When I look at a high-quality picture on my iPad Pro 12.9â (fifth generation) that I bought three years ago, the picture looks quite good. But then when I look at the same picture on my new iPad Pro, the picture looks much more lifelike. The Apple Vision Pro gives me a similar feeling, but that feeling comes not just from the displays but also from spatial videos that put video all around me. With this new iPad Pro, I'm getting a similar feeling even though I can clearly see the bezels of the iPad. I'm surprised at how much the pictures look like real life even though I can see the frame around the edges of the iPad Pro.
The same is true for videos, and indeed, for videos, the effect is even more dramatic. I notice this in my own home videos taken with an iPhone 15 Pro Max. Additionally, if you go to YouTube and watch one of the many videos shot in 4K HDRâsuch as this one I randomly came across called The Craziest Dolby Vision - 4K HDR Video ULTRA HD 120 FPS, it looks pretty good on my fifth generation iPad Pro, but it looks completely lifelike on my new iPad Pro. I feel like I should be able to reach through the screen and touch the feathers of a colorful bird.
When I'm doing other things on the iPad Pro, such as reading email, taking notes, or checking off items on my to-do list, the nicer screen doesn't make a difference. So the nicer screen isn't something that I notice all of the time. But for high-quality photos and videos, the brightness, vividness, color range, and overall picture quality is astounding.
M4 Processor
It is nice knowing that the processor in this new iPad is faster and more powerful than the processor in any other device that Apple currently sells. It is also nice knowing that this new iPad has the power to handle sophisticated tasksâincluding, perhaps, some of the AI-on-device that many of us expect to see Apple announce next month at its WWDC conference.
So far, I have mostly used the iPad to do mundane tasks. For those tasks, the new iPad seems very snappy, but not in a dramatic way. There has been one exception. I frequently use an app called LogMeIn to use my iPad to connect to my work computer, essentially turning my iPad Pro into the PC located in my office. I was delighted to learn that everything in that app was noticeably faster on the new iPad Pro, making it seem much more like I was actually sitting in front of my work computer instead of remotely controlling it from miles away. Of course, this is exactly what you want when you use remote access software. It had never even occurred to me that processor speed had been limiting how quickly that app could run.
UPDATE: As another test of speed, I used the powerful TranscriptPad app to sync a video to the transcript of a deposition, a process that uses AI. For a short deposition of around 30 pages / 25 minutes, the process took 1:45 using my fifth generation iPad Pro with an M1 processor, and took only 1:00 using the new iPad Pro with an M4 processor. So with a longer deposition and/or multiple depositions, this speed increase could be really useful. The 1.75x speed increase from the M1 to the M4 that I saw is right in line with the Geekbench speed tests that Jason Snell of Six Colors ran as a part of his review.
Over the upcoming weeks and months, I'm sure I'll discover other things on my iPad that are noticeably better thanks to the faster processor.
Accessories
I have never used the Magic Keyboard for iPad, although I hear from initial reviews that the improved version that works with the iPad Pro is fantastic, with a feel very similar to a MacBook Air.
I do have the new Apple Pencil Pro, but I haven't yet used it very much. I especially love the new haptic feedback. When I double-tap the Pencil to switch between the pen and the eraser tool, that feedback instantly tells me that the Pencil registered my tap. And the new squeeze gesture seems to work really well. But as someone who has used an Apple Pencil almost every day for years to annotate documents and take handwritten notes, the Pencil is a very important accessory to me. I want to spend more time using the Pencil Pro and then I'll write a more comprehensive review. I will say now that it is nice to see that the Goodnotes app is already updated with full support for all of the new features of the Apple Pencil Pro.
I also have the new Apple Smart Folio, and I need to spend more time with this one too. My immediate reaction is that I do not like the different way that it uses magnets to attach to the iPad in multiple different positions because I find it slipping when I put pressure on the iPad Pro. I find myself wishing I could go back to my prior Apple Smart Folio. Again, I want to spend some more time with this before I render an opinion on whether I recommend it.
Other changes
I haven't yet joined a videoconference or participated in a FaceTime call. However, I did open the FaceTime app and it was immediately apparent that having the camera on the top of the iPad when it is in landscape orientationâthe way that I use my iPad 99% of the timeâis a vast improvement over having the camera on the left edge.
The new iPad Pro 13" has a few more pixels as compared to the prior iPad Pro 12.9". There are an extra 20 pixels on the long end and an extra 16 pixels on the short end. The first time that I open any app that I previously opened on my older iPad Pro, I notice that there is a little bit of extra space surrounding the window of the app. In other words, it is not quite full-screen. Here is an example:
Once I use the handle at the bottom right corner of the window to make the window even larger, it quickly snaps to the full-size screen. I suppose my iPad is remembering the old screen size and trying to show me the exact same view, and I need to tell it to take advantage of the very slightly larger screen on this model.
I've only tried scanning a few documents, but I have noticed that the new Adaptive True Tone flash system reduces instances when a portion of the scan would be darker because the iPad itself cast a shadow. This may cause me to start doing more scans with my iPad Pro instead of my iPhone.
Conclusion
With the nice new improvements to the iPad Air, very few users will have a reason to say that they truly need the iPad Pro versus the iPad Air. But anyone who enjoys using an iPad and does so regularly will have a reason to want a new iPad Pro because it is simply a better overall experience. The core of using an iPad is holding a screen in your hand and interacting with it. Making the iPad thinner and lighter, making the screen better, and giving you new accessories that improve the interaction with the screen are all improvements to the most important parts of the iPad. Add to that the M4 chip for even snappier performance and the other improvements and there is simply a lot to love. I'm sure that many people will decide to save several hundred dollars and go with an iPad Air, and that is a perfectly reasonable choice. It is even the choice that I would recommend to most attorneys. But if you are OK with spending more money for a premium experience, the new iPad Pro is not just the best iPad ever, it is one of the best Apple products ever. The iPad Pro 13" M4 is incredible.
