Last week, Apple announced the release of its upcoming new line of iPads for 2024 and a new Apple Pencil Pro. This announcement follows Apple’s standard formula of releasing regular updates to all its devices. However, this time around, we have something worth talking about: the new iPad Pro duel OLED screen, the crazy fast proprietary M4 chip with powerful AI capabilities, all the while somehow being the thinnest and lightest tablet ever released by the brand (yes, even thinner and lighter than the new iPad Air). Let’s get into it!
Before last week’s announcement and this week’s release of the new iPad lineup, the fastest iPad on the market was the Pro with M2. Apple’s flagship tablet utilizes the M4, a technological leap that doubles the previous iPad’s chip power. The new iPad Pro also comes in two colours, silver and space black finishes, and in two sizes: a big baddie 13-inch model and a more standard-sized 11-inch model. The crazy part is just how thin these new iPads are, with the 11-inch model being 5.3 mm thin, and the bigger 13-inch model is actually thinner at 5.1 mm. In fact, these iPad Pros are thinner than the iPad Airs, which hilariously creates a paradox within the naming convention; if you find that kind of thing funny, that is.
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No matter what size or colour you get, the new iPad Pro features the brand’s new breakthrough Ultra Retina XDR display, which works in tandem with the two OLED technology screens. Yes, two OLED panels combine the light from both to provide full-screen brightness and support about 1000 nits of full-screen brightness for SDR and HDR content with 1600 nits for HDR. The Tandem OLED technology allows sub-millisecond control over the colour and luminance of each pixel, making images and videos appear even brighter, with more detail in shadows and low light. This is a great benefit for all iPad video and image editors. So whether you’re a pro user or a casual TikTok video editor, your work is about to take taken up a notch.
In addition to the vividness of the screen, the iPad Pro M4 gets a low-key assist with the release of the all-new Apple Pencil Pro. The new Pencil Pro features a new sensor in the barrel, which allows users to “squeeze” the pencils where they grip them, bringing up a tool palette for quickly switching between tools, line weights, and colours. A custom haptic engine inside the pencil gives users a physical acknowledgement of their changes when they squeeze, double-tap, or snap to a Smart Shape. A gyroscope inside allows users to roll the Apple Pencil Pro to change the orientation and shape of the pen and brush tools, just like pen and paper. It also comes with Find My for the first time on an Apple Pencil, which is good if you accidentally misplace your Pencil Pro. The only downside so far discovered with the new Apple Pencil Pro is that it is not backwards compatible and will only work on the new iPads released alongside it.
The new iPad Pro with M4 also features Apple’s most powerful Neural Engine which is capable of 38 trillion operations per second. This means that the iPad Pro with M4 has a series of AI-enabled tasks that make the tablet experience even faster. The super buff AI backed by M4 makes tasks like isolating a subject from its background in a 4K video in Final Cut Pro a simple task or, intuitively, adding a rhythm section to the instrumental you’re making on Logic Pro for iPad. Apple says that this advanced level of performance from the Neural Engine in M4 is more powerful than any neural processing unit in any AI PC today. We can’t attest to that, but what we saw and experienced with the AI on the iPad is taking everything to the next level.
Lastly, and honestly not that important because who actually uses their iPad for photography, the new iPad Pro M4 features a 12MP back camera and an Ultra Wide 12MP front-facing camera. But seriously, don’t be out there at concerts or events snapping pictures on your 13-inch iPad.
If you’re in the market for a new iPad, then this release is for you. They are thin, lightweight, powerful, and as close to a sci-fi tablet/computer system as it’s going to get. The new iPad Pro and Apple Pencil Pro are available to order now and will be in stores starting Wednesday, May 15, 2024.