M-powered for AI

Apple has made its most powerful device also its thinnest device ever! With an all-new chip, all-new screen and an all-new OS incoming, will this be the ultimate portable?

- Nishant Padhiar, Khumail Thakur

Not ever have I heard any of any “prosumer” or professional complaining about slow rendering or export speeds on an iPad Pro.

With every generation, it has outperformed the apps that were meant to be made for it. Apple has always kept enough headroom in the iPad Pro to outlast the user and yet, with every year, we expect the clockwork-like spec bump to newer processors and better screens.

On cue then, for 2024, the iPad Pro gets its first-ever OLED screen and a mighty processor that makes its debut with the iPad Pro and will be permeating to the rest of the MacBook range soon. Sizes remain at 11in and 13in, but with the higher storage variants, you get the option of an anti-reflective nano-textured glass and by default you get an additional performance core in the SoC along with double the memory.

Pushing the boundaries of what’s possible on a portable device, this is Apple’s strongest flex yet when it comes to packaging processing power. The second-gen, 3nm processor that the M4 SoC is carved from has AI in its crosshairs and with WWDC right around the corner, iPadOS is about to be inducted into the gen-next hall of fame.

The iPad Air moves to an M2, also a Pro-level chip from last gen and here’s what we found...

1 Peak pixels

The M4’s new display engine unlocks the realisation of a world-first double-stacked OLED panel that Apple calls Tandem OLED. The custom-made display tech is capable of an incredible 1000nits of full-screen brightness and 1600nits peak!

2 Son of a sun

Of course, you can’t look at the iPad Pro without looking at the gorgeous OLED screen and the way the bezels simply disappear into the black borders when you’re watching Netflix with 16:9 content. You’ll never be able to use more than 60% brightness.