For years, the iPad Pro has been Apple’s attempt to give creative professionals a way to do most of their work on a tablet rather than a laptop — but for the first time, the 2024 model actually features a more advanced CPU than the MacBook: the M4. While it may seem like a niche like any other, the fact that Apple has prioritized its tablet over its MacBooks is another step in the company’s quest to make the iPad a true laptop alternative. But it’s just not there yet.
Don’t get me wrong, the iPad Pro 2024 is clearly the best tablet I’ve ever used, but you shouldn’t look at this device as a true laptop alternative. But if a powerful tablet built around creative workloads is specifically what you’re looking for, I can’t think of many other tablets that do the job better than the new iPad Pro.
iPad Pro (2024) – Design and Features
I don’t need to tell you that the iPad Pro is a beautiful device, but it is. It’s incredibly thin, light and has a gorgeous display.
The big change is how much Apple has shaved off the chassis, slimming it down to 0.21 inches, which also drops the weight below 1 pound for the first time. That’s all well and good, and for the most part I love holding this 11-inch iPad in my hands, but there’s only so much chassis you can shave off the device before it starts to affect longevity. In one week with the new iPad Pro, I obviously didn’t break it, but I absolutely noticed that it was incredibly easy to bend the device, which simply makes me worried about how well it will hold up in the long run.
Of course, you can mitigate this risk by tossing it in a case, one of which Apple sent with the control unit, but that’s an extra $79 to throw into your shopping cart with an already expensive tablet.
Still, it’s hard to stay mad at the device’s flexibility when it has one of the most beautiful displays I’ve had the pleasure of looking at.
The sound on the iPad Pro isn’t as great as I expected. It uses a four-speaker system, located below the screen at the top and bottom of the device. And while it’s certainly acceptable for watching various YouTube videos, it doesn’t sound great with anything that has even a little bit of bass. This doesn’t mean you’ll get the jittery distortion that some other devices give you, but there are times when I’d rather have the bass sound straight out. not good than not hearing it at all, and that’s generally what happens with the iPad Pro.
But while Apple didn’t want to save too much space for awesome speakers, it certainly stuffed the iPad with more magnets than you can shake a stick at. You have magnets to hold the cases on your device, magnets to turn off the display when you cover it with certain accessories. You even have a magnet to attach the new Apple Pencil Pro – which is undoubtedly awesome. These are all nice features that are available and make for some really neat cases, keyboards, and other accessories, but if you don’t pair your iPad with any of these things, it’s basically a waste of space.
For accessories that aren’t magnetically attached to the thing, the iPad Pro still uses a USB-C port for charging and data, which supports Thunderbolt 4. This is great for anyone who uses the iPad for work, as it means the tablet is compatible with hubs , which significantly increase its compatibility.
The biggest thing missing, however, is the new Action button found on the iPhone 15 Pro, which is a new programmable button that replaced the Ring/Silent Switch on the new generation of phones. You’d think that Apple would want to push its cool new feature into all of its flagship mobile devices, but I really missed it here. First, if I want to turn off the notification sounds, I have to go to the action center and manually deal with it, whereas with the Actions button, I simply wouldn’t have to do that. Apple still puts the volume rocker on the iPad Pro – why not a button or switch to turn off notifications?
iPad Pro (2024) – Camera
The iPad Pro has two cameras, one on the front — which takes care of things like FaceID and selfies — and one on the back, which takes care of everything else. You get a 12MP shooter on either end, but the specific features change depending on which of these cameras you’re looking at.
Around the back, you get a wide-angle camera with f/1.8 aperture, which is incredible medium for mobile cameras in 2024. You still get nice features like 5x digital zoom and image stabilization, but lackluster image quality means you won’t be using the camera very often. When you look at what most mobile phones can do right now, it feels like you’ve stepped back in time a bit, no matter what features Apple has packed into the shooter.
On the other hand, the front camera isn’t particularly great either. Apple must have a decent front-facing camera for FaceID, which works extremely well on this device, but when you go to take a selfie, it’s extremely pixelated, even in bright lighting. Sure, most people don’t actually buy an iPad to use as their primary photography tool, but when you’re paying over a thousand bucks for a tablet, it’d be nice not to have a camera from 2014.
iPad Pro (2024) – Specs and performance
This is the iPad Pro we received for review
Display
11-inch OLED @ 2420 x 1668
iPad Pro 2024 comes with Apple’s latest M4 chip, skipping the M3 that currently powers it the best MacBooks. That means it’s technically the latest laptop processor in Apple’s lineup — and it’s not even in a laptop, no matter how much Apple sells the iPad Pro as such. And the M4 is an incredibly powerful processor, thanks to at least A 9-core processor paired with a 10-core GPU and 8GB of RAM if you opt for the 256GB or 512GB configuration.
If you upgrade it to 1TB or 2TB of storage, Apple will allow an additional CPU core (increasing it to 10 cores) and increase the RAM to 16GB. This is a significantly more powerful option, just by doubling the RAM on offer, so be aware that if you don’t pony up the cash for more storage, you’ll end up with a slower tablet overall. And especially if you’re using an iPad Pro, you know professional for workloads, the 8GB of RAM in the base model really slows you down when editing photos and videos.
Fortunately, no matter which model you get, you get the same 10-core GPU, and let me tell you: this thing is great for gaming.
Playing games on the iPad Pro is incredible. Even brand new games like Wuthering Waves and AFK Journey run like a dream and don’t seem to really push the M4. Even after hours of gaming, the iPad Pro didn’t get too hot, making it probably the most comfortable gaming tablet on the market right now. And if you have a case with a stand, you can connect a controller and play almost any game on the beautiful display through Xbox Game Pass. The way I see it, if you’re going to put up with the added lag that game streaming inevitably brings, you might as well do it on a beautiful display, and the iPad Pro is the most beautiful display on the market right now.
What is a computer?
Apple has gone to great lengths to make the iPad Pro look like a workstation, especially when paired with the Magic Keyboard. The company says this tablet, when paired with a keyboard accessory—which requires an additional $299—surpasses the best notebooks as creative workstations. The thing is, with an M4 processor and a gorgeous display, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
The problem comes with the price of entry. Again, you’re paying at least $999 for the 11-inch model, but for that price you only get 8GB of RAM, which isn’t enough for heavy creative work like photo and video editing. You can bump that up to 16GB of RAM by upgrading to the 1TB model, but that brings the price to $1,599 to start with. Add in the $299 Magic Keyboard and you’re looking at an entry-level price of $1,899 for a device that’s comparable in specs to the identically equipped $1,699 MacBook Air — albeit with an M3 instead of an M4.
However, many creative workflows can really take advantage of the iPad Pro’s unique form factor. Illustrators and photographers alike will love the new Apple Pencil Pro and how it works with this tablet. I can’t imagine a better device for professional artists.
Apple has also made great strides to make iPadOS more comparable to a desktop operating system. Navigating the iPad Pro using the touchpad on the Magic Keyboard is great, but there are a lot of things that the tablet and the MacBook can’t do. One of the biggest is the missing Finder. You get the same “Files” app as the iPhone, but it’s still nowhere near as flexible as the macOS file browser. You also don’t get Terminal access, which limits how much you can configure the system to your needs.
None of this is to say that the iPad Pro isn’t a great tablet. In fact, it’s the best tablet on the market right now. I’m just saying that it would be awesome if Apple allowed you to run macOS on the iPad, even if it’s something you have to choose when you sign out of the device. That, and it would be great if the Magic Keyboard wasn’t so expensive.
iPad Pro (2024) – Display
The iPad Pro has always looked good, but the 2024 model is on another level. Last year’s model had a 1668p display that could reach 600 nits of brightness and cover the P3 color gamut. This year, the resolution is the same, but Apple has finally moved the display up to OLED, with a maximum brightness of 1600 nits in HDR content (and 1000 nits in SDR). It’s a night and day difference and I can’t tell you how much I’ve scrolled on this device just because tweets look at it better.
The quality of the display has a direct effect on who it is intended for. There are many tablets that artists can create with, but the color accuracy and brightness of this display takes photo and video editing to another level – helped further by the powerful M4 chip.
Even for people who don’t enjoy creating media, the iPad Pro is one of the best devices out there consume it. My first night with the new iPad Pro, I stayed up practically all night reading the Star Wars: The High Republic comics, mostly because I was excited for The Acolyte, but also because it was such a great experience to read them on that screen. Even watching movies and shows was amazing, and I’m usually a fan of having a solid soundbar and giant TV when watching my shows.
But it’s more than just a look. The iPad Pro also supports ProMotion technology, which is a fancy way of saying “variable refresh rate.” iPad Pro will intelligently move between 10Hz and 120Hz depending on what you’re doing with your device. For example, if the iPad detects that there is a lot of movement going on, it will increase the refresh rate up to 120 Hz. This makes the display incredibly smooth and is especially amazing when playing games allow for a higher frame rate.
Annoyingly though, ProMotion can’t be turned off to lock the display to 120Hz. You can turn off the technology and limit the frame rate to 60 fps, but if you want to force a high refresh rate all the time, you’re out of luck. This is probably for the best as it eliminates any possibility of screen tearing, but it would be nice to have the option.