Company Apple today significantly innovated its range of iPad tablets and one of the new products is iPad Pro. It brings several interesting new features. One of them is the M4 processor, which was discussed in past news. This processor has 10 CPU cores in a 4P+6E configuration, but this only applies to versions with 1TB or 2TB storage. A lot of units sold will probably come with 256GB or 512GB of storage, and these will have a 9-core processor (3P+6E). But they will also differ significantly in RAM capacity. While the 9-core will have 8 GB of RAM, the 10-core will improve to 16 GB of RAM. The transition from M2 to M4 also brought a powerful 10-core GPU with support for ray-tracing, mesh-shading, we also have a Media Engine with support for H.264, H.265, ProRes, ProRes RAW (up to 8K) and AV1 decoding. The Neural Engine has 16 cores and a performance of 38 TOPS. Unified memory throughput increased slightly from 100 to 120 GB/s.
The big attraction is the new display Tandem OLED also called as Ultra Retina XDR. The iPad Pro tablet comes with an OLED display for the first time, but Apple solved the problem that OLED displays can’t be bright enough (they can do it locally, but not across the board). That’s why we have a tandem display, i.e. two OLED displays below each other. Since there are two of them, together they can achieve a much higher brightness and thus not be a step back from the previous versions. In SDR, they reach a brightness of 1000 nits (previously 600 nits), in XDR also 1000 nits, and that over the whole area, then 1600 nits locally. The contrast is 2M:1, they support ProMotion with a variable refresh rate of 10 to 120 Hz, and in the 1TB and 2TB versions it is possible to order a version with a nanotexture to minimize reflections. Apple sells an 11″ version, it has a resolution of 2420×1668 pixels, the larger model has slightly improved from 12.9″ to 13″. Its resolution is 2752×2064 pixels.
It is interesting that despite the two displays below each other, it is the screen that made it possible to further reduce the thickness of the tablets. The 11″ version is thus only 5.3 mm and the 13″ variant even only 5.1 mm. As for the dimensions, the smaller version measures 249.7×177.5×5.3 mm and weighs 444 grams (446 grams in the Cellular version with 5G connection support). The 13″ variant measures 281.6×215.5×5.1 mm and weighs 579 and 582 grams, respectively. For comparison, the previous generation was 6.4 mm and weighed 682 grams. Apple thus saved more than 100 grams between generations.
We still have a 12MP wide-angle camera capable of shooting 4K video at 60 fps. But it is interesting that the new generation lost the ultra-wide-angle camera that was in the predecessor. But we have LiDAR and a new auxiliary light for better lighting, e.g. when scanning documents. The selfie camera with 12 MPx has now moved to the longer side of the tablet, supports TrueDepth and centering the shot. We still have USB-C 4/Thunderbolt (40 Gbps) and one 6K/60Hz output. The new iPad Pro supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, Cellular models have eSIM support with 5G (you can’t insert a physical card here). The Li-Pol battery holds 31.29 Wh or 38.99 Wh, and lasts for 10 hours of work (9 hours for Cellular) in both variants.
However, iPad Pro tablets are definitely not among the cheap ones. Extreme performance and equipment is reflected in high prices, so the 11″ version starts at 29,990 CZK13″ variant then on 39,990 CZK with VAT. At first glance, it is 4-4.5 thousand CZK more than its predecessors, but these models started with 128GB of storage. You will not get a new product with less than 256GB, and if you compare the prices of the 256GB version, then the new products have become more expensive by CZK 1000-1500. For the 512GB version, you will pay an additional 6,000 CZK (36/46,000 CZK), the 1TB version is an additional 12,000 CZK (48/58,000 CZK) and the 2 TB version will increase the price by another 12,000 CZK to a final 60/70,000 CZK. If you want the Cellular version, prepare an additional 6,000 CZK, and Apple wants an additional 3,000 CZK for glass with a nanotexture. The best combination (13″ iPad Pro with 2TB storage, Cellular and nanotexture) will cost CZK 78,990 including VAT.
A new pen is also new Apple Pencil Pro, which reacts to the amount of pressure, it can call up a palette of tools. It is also sensitive to a specific rotation angle and now supports the Find function (reports the position in case of loss). Magic Keyboards are now thinner, with controls to adjust the brightness or sound volume. The Smart Connector takes care of both power and data transfer without the need to use Bluetooth. Apple Pencil Pro costs 3,790 CZK, Magic Keyboard costs 8,690/9,990 CZK.
