Apple has announced an update to its iPad Pro, bringing the powerful Apple M2 chip from the MacBook Air (M2, 2022) to the tablet. The new Pro tablet won’t get the fancy colors of the new iPad 10th-gen models, but it does offer some fancy new features for the Apple Pencil 2, as well as enhancements to media recording and playback, thanks to the M2. The iPad Pro is available for pre-order now and will hit store shelves on October 26.
The iPad Pro is powered by the Apple M2 chip, which will include new image processing and media engines that can enhance video capture and editing. The iPad Pro will be able to capture ProRes video, but the camera itself hasn’t gotten an upgrade from the previous model’s Pro camera array. You still get the same 12MP main camera and 10MP ultra-wide-angle lens, with a 12MP selfie camera on the front.
The Apple Pencil 2 gets some new tricks with the updated iPad Pro. When the Pencil is 12mm above the screen and closer, the iPad Pro can detect its presence and enable a new hover feature. These seem to be aimed primarily at the art and drawing genres, but Apple says the iPad Pro will grow a text box when it detects a pencil, giving you more room to write.
Thanks to the performance of the new Apple M2 chip, the new iPad Pro will convert writing to text faster. Processing cores will only be 15% faster, which is a modest upgrade, but there will also be a more significant boost in Neural Engine performance. The Neural Engine is part of a chipset that handles machine learning tasks, including tasks such as speech recognition and handwriting detection.
Apple has made a major upgrade to the iPad‘s networking capabilities. The new tablet will support Wi-Fi 6E, a “fast lane” flavor of Wi-Fi 6 that uses its own radio frequency band. Even the iPhone 14 Pro lacks this Wi-Fi capability, but other new phones like the Google Pixel 7 Pro support it. The iPad Pro also gets more radio frequency bands for 5G compatibility.
The iPad Pro is an expensive beast, sitting at the top of Apple’s massive tablet pyramid. Prices start at $799/£899/AU$1,399 for the 11-inch model, or you can buy it for $999/£1,079/AU$1,649 over 5G. You can get started for just $1,099 / £1,249 / AU$1,899 for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, or $1,299 / £1,429 / AU$2,149 for 5G.
The 12.9-inch iPad Pro gives you a more advanced display than the 11-inch iPad Pro. You get Apple’s XDR branding, which includes a mini-LED backlight with local dimming. Both monitors have the same 264ppi pixel density.
Analysis: iPad Pro updated to support premium OS
The iPad Pro update isn’t the most exciting. The processor is only slightly faster. The pen hover feature is similar to what we saw on Samsung Galaxy Note II phones in 2012, and we didn’t find them useful at the time either. So what’s new?
The Apple M2 chip isn’t a bragging chipset, but it will power the major new features in iPad OS 16.1. The new Stage Manager feature will make multitasking useful on the iPad, a historic struggle. New external monitor support will let you connect a monitor to your iPad instead of just using the iPad as an external monitor.
Apple has long said the iPad is a full-fledged computer, and now we’re seeing them get closer in newer operating systems. Of course, all new iPads will get the same iPadOS, but the new iPad Pro will only do a better job of helping the iPad tablet get closer to the iPad desktop status.
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