Apple held a 30-minute event on May 7, 2024, focusing on the new iPad Pro and Apple Pencil Pro.
For a full summary of everything announced at the event, you can check out the list on MacRumors.
It’s been a long time since Apple released an update to the iPad series. This time, Apple didn’t disappoint my disappointment—the new iPads are essentially a hardware refresh. However, the Apple Pencil Pro is something interesting.
Let’s start by discussing the new iPads.
New iPad Airs
The new iPad Air series, following Apple’s tradition, inherits a few features from previous iPad Pro generations. This time, Apple has swapped the M1 chip for the M2 chip, which has an 8-core CPU with four performance cores and four efficiency cores—similar to the M1. However, the M2 has 10 GPU cores compared to the M1’s eight. The RAM remains the same at 8GB. The new iPad Air’s storage starts at 128GB, and it has moved the webcam to the landscape bezel side—a practical adjustment considering typical iPad usage.
For the first time, the iPad Air comes in a larger size. Apple now offers an 11-inch and a 13-inch model.
That’s about it. It’s just a spec upgrade; nothing groundbreaking has been added to the iPad Air. Notably, it supports the new Apple Pencil Pro, which we’ll discuss later.
The new iPad Air starts at $599 for the 11-inch model and $799 for the 13-inch model.
New iPad Pros
Now, onto the iPad Pros. This is where Apple showcases its top-tier efforts and technological achievements.
This year’s slogan for the iPad Pro is “iPad Pro. Thinpossible.” As the slogan suggests, Apple unexpectedly reduced the thickness of the iPad Pro, making it Apple’s thinnest device ever: 5.3mm for the 11-inch version and an impressive 5.1mm for the 13-inch version, even thinner than the iPod nano (6.5mm).
Apple included a new M4 chip, which it claims offers up to 50% faster CPU performance and 4x faster GPU performance than the previous M2 chipset. The M4 features a 9-core CPU, a 10-core GPU with hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and a 16-core neural engine for AI workloads. Apple claims it can achieve the same performance output as the M2 chip with half the power consumption.
The iPad Pro now features an OLED display. OLED displays offer stunning contrast and deep blacks, but brightness has traditionally been an issue on larger screens. Apple addressed this with its new “Tandem OLED” display technology, which essentially stacks two layers of OLED. The M4 chip simultaneously outputs the same image to both layers, achieving up to 1000 nits of full-screen brightness for SDR and HDR content, and 1600 nits peak brightness for HDR.
There is also a new nano-texture matte option for improved reflection control on the iPad Pro screen. However, this comes at the cost of slightly reduced sharpness and contrast and an additional $100.
The new iPad Pro starts at $999 for the 11-inch model and $1299 for the 13-inch model.
The new Magic Keyboard is lighter, has a larger trackpad, and includes a function row. While useful, it’s extremely expensive at $349.
Apple Pencil Pro
The Apple Pencil Pro might be the highlight of the entire event. The new Apple Pencil Pro looks identical to its predecessor. However, despite the “Pro” label, it still lacks an eraser, which is disappointing, but Apple has included other new features.
The pencil now includes a haptic feedback motor and a gyroscope, making it rotation-sensitive. This feature, demonstrated in the event, provides more precise control over brush strokes and line orientation for artists. Additionally, the pencil now has a squeeze sensor along its barrel.
All these features come at a cost of $129, the same as the Apple Pencil (2nd generation). However, the Apple Pencil Pro is only compatible with the new iPad Air (M2) and iPad Pro (M4) due to a redesigned magnetic array accommodating the new webcam placement on the iPad’s landscape side.
“Why can’t they just move it to the other side for charging? I don't know. Maybe that makes too much sense.” - MKBHD
Apple is essentially pushing users to upgrade their hardware if they want to use the Apple Pencil Pro.
So, ultimately, it’s iPadOS?
Despite the powerful hardware improvements on these iPads, the main limitation remains: what can you do with iPadOS? In the end, it’s still iPadOS. Few applications currently exist that can fully utilize these advanced processors. Apple’s plans for AI integrations will arrive with iPadOS 18 this summer. For now, we’re left with these spec-heavy iPad Pros, waiting for software that can make the most of them.
We’ll just have to wait and see.