Did Apple just introduce a tablet with a better camera and screen than the iPhone 12 and current iMac range? It sure feels that way. The new iPad Pro featuring the M1 chip might be a hydrogen bomb in the tablet world. Sorry Microsoft.
We do think it’s interesting that Apple is still refusing to add touch screen capabilities to the iMac range.
Apple today announced the most powerful and advanced iPad Pro ever, pushing the limits of what’s possible on iPad. The addition of the Apple-designed M1 chip delivers a massive leap in performance, making iPad Pro the fastest device of its kind.
The 12.9-inch iPad Pro features a new Liquid Retina XDR display that brings extreme dynamic range to iPad Pro, offering a stunning visual experience with more true-to-life details to the most demanding HDR workflows.
Cellular models with 5G deliver even faster wireless connectivity when on the go, and to provide users with pro-level throughput for high-speed accessories, iPad Pro now includes support for Thunderbolt.
Additionally, an all-new Ultra Wide front camera enables Center Stage, a new feature that automatically keeps users perfectly framed for even more engaging video calls.
The new iPad Pro is available to order beginning Friday, April 30, on apple.com, and will be available in the second half of May 2021.
“The revolutionary M1 chip has been a breakthrough for the Mac, and we’re incredibly excited to bring it to iPad Pro,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
“With M1’s huge jump in performance, a groundbreaking extreme dynamic range experience on the 12.9-inch Liquid Retina XDR display, up to 2TB of high-speed storage, Thunderbolt expansion, a four-speaker audio system, pro cameras with LiDAR Scanner, blazing-fast 5G connectivity, an amazing video-calling experience with Center Stage — combined with the advanced features of iPadOS and a powerful pro app ecosystem all in a device users can hold in one hand — there’s nothing else like iPad Pro.”
M1 Comes to iPad Pro
The breakthrough M1 chip takes the industry-leading performance of iPad Pro to an entirely new level. The 8-core CPU design features the world’s fastest CPU cores in low-power silicon — delivering up to 50 percent faster CPU performance than A12Z Bionic. The 8-core GPU is in a class of its own, delivering up to 40 percent faster GPU performance.
This combination of CPU and graphics performance on iPad Pro widens its lead as the fastest device of its kind. Powerful custom technologies, including a next-generation 16-core Apple Neural Engine, an advanced image signal processor (ISP), a unified, high-bandwidth memory architecture with up to 16GB of memory, 2x faster storage, and up to 2TB capacity, make iPad Pro more capable than ever.
The industry-leading power efficiency of M1 enables all of that amazing performance along with all-day battery life in the thin and light design of iPad Pro. Because M1 shares the same fundamental architecture of A-series chips, iPadOS is already optimized to take full advantage of the powerful technologies in M1 to easily handle everything from simple navigation to the most demanding workflows.
12.9-inch Liquid Retina XDR Display Brings Extreme Dynamic Range to iPad Pro
The new Liquid Retina XDR display is a game-changer. No doubt about it. We’re rather excited to see how Roon works on the new iPad Pro and being able to ditch the MacBook Pro and walk around the house controlling all of our Roon endpoints this way.
The new Liquid Retina XDR display brings the stunning front-of-screen performance of the Pro Display XDR to the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. Engineered with a new cutting-edge mini-LED design that uses over 10,000 LEDs across the entire back of the display, the Liquid Retina XDR display features up to 1000 nits of full-screen brightness, 1600 nits of peak brightness, and a phenomenal 1 million-to-1 contrast ratio to enhance creative workflows.
The result is a stunning visual experience that reflects what can be seen in the real world by capturing the brightest highlights and the most subtle details in even the darkest images. Now creative professionals, including photographers, videographers, and filmmakers, can view and edit true-to-life HDR content on a large display they can take anywhere.
The new Liquid Retina XDR display includes other advanced technologies that can also be found in the 11-inch iPad Pro, including ProMotion, True Tone, and P3 wide color support, delivering an unmatched mobile cinematic viewing experience for HDR and Dolby Vision content.
Improved Video Calls
The TrueDepth camera system on iPad Pro features an all-new 12MP Ultra Wide front camera designed specifically for iPad, enabling Center Stage, a new experience for video calls. Center Stage uses the much larger field of view on the new front camera and the machine learning capabilities of M1 to recognize and keep users centered in the frame. As users move around, Center Stage automatically pans to keep them in the shot. When others join in, the camera detects them too, and smoothly zooms out to fit everyone into the view and make sure they are part of the conversation. So whether whiteboarding with coworkers or attending a virtual family gathering, the experience of connecting is now more engaging than ever.
Thunderbolt Comes to iPad Pro
Support for Thunderbolt and USB 4 makes the USB-C port on iPad Pro the fastest, most versatile port ever on an iPad, with 4x more bandwidth for wired connections than the previous iPad Pro — up to 40Gbps. Thunderbolt supports 10Gbps Ethernet and opens up a massive ecosystem of high-performance accessories, like faster external storage and even higher resolution external displays, including the Pro Display XDR at full 6K resolution, all connected using high-performance cables and docks. With support for more peripherals than ever, iPad Pro now fits even more seamlessly into creative workflows.
Pricing and Availability
- The new iPad Pro is available to order beginning Friday, April 30, 2021 on apple.com and in the Apple Store app in 31 countries and regions, including the US. iPad Pro will be available in Apple Store locations in the second half of May.
- The new 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro will be available in silver and space gray finishes. iPad Pro is available in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB configurations — providing pro customers more room for their apps and content.
- The 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $799 (US) for the Wi-Fi model and $999 (US) for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model, and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro starts at $1,099 (US) for the Wi-Fi model and $1,299 (US) for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model.
- Education pricing is available to current and newly accepted college students and their parents, as well as faculty, staff, and homeschool teachers of all grade levels. The new 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $749 (US), and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro starts at $999 (US). The second-generation Apple Pencil is available for $119 (US), and the Smart Keyboard Folio for the new iPad Pro is available for $159 (US) for the 11-inch iPad Pro and $179 (US) for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro for college students. The Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro will be available for college students at $279 (US) for the 11-inch iPad Pro and $329 (US) for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. For more information visit apple.com/us-hed/shop.
- The second-generation Apple Pencil is available for $129 (US). The Magic Keyboard for the new iPad Pro will be available in Black and White for $299 (US) for the 11-inch iPad Pro and $349 (US)for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, with layouts for over 30 languages. The Smart Keyboard Folio for the new iPad Pro is available for $179 (US) for the 11-inch iPad Pro and $199 (US) for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. The Smart Folio for the new iPad Pro is available in five colors for $79 (US) for the 11-inch iPad Pro and $99 (US) for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
- Customers in the US can trade in their eligible device for an Apple Gift Card or credit toward their purchase. If the device isn’t eligible for credit, Apple will recycle it for free.
- For a limited time, customers in the US can get up to $200 back when they buy a Wi-Fi + Cellular iPad Pro model and activate it with AT&T, T-Mobile/Sprint, or Verizon.
