Apple has just announced its latest generation of iPads, featuring enhancements almost all across the board, making it one of the biggest upgrades to date for the iPad family. There is also a new iPad Air as well as the new M4 chip, but we will cover those in a separate article.
Apple’s new M series chips typically debut with new MacBooks, so it is interesting to see that it’s happening with the iPad Pros this time. This shows that Apple is betting big on these tablets.
The 2024 iPad Pros are offered in 11″ and 13″ sizes, and both are the thinnest Apple products to date, even beating the 7th gen iPod Nano in terms of thinness. The smaller 11″ model is 5.3mm thin while the bigger model is even thinner at 5.1mm. Both have aluminum bodies.
Apple has phased out the Mini LED and IPS LCD panels from previous generations in favor of OLED screens, but it is a new type of dual-layer OLED panel, meaning it is two OLED panels layered on top of each other to enhance brightness. It can hit 1000 nits of maximum brightness, but 1600 nits for HDR content.
The 120Hz refresh rate, which Apple calls ProMotion is variable down to 10Hz to save battery. The screen resolution on the 13-inch model is 2,752 x 2,064 px while the smaller model has a 2,420 x 1,668 resolution. An optional feature includes a nano-texture etching on the protective glass to minimize glare and reduce ambient light scatter. It costs $100 extra.
On the inside, the new M4 chip brings a 1.5x faster CPU compared to the M2 chip while the GPU features an impressive 4x boost. Power efficiency has made a significant jump as well since the M4 chip can deliver the same performance as the 2022 iPad Pros at half the power.
The 2024 iPad Pros also come with a new Apple Pencil Pro, which brings a new sensor that enables squeeze gestures. The squeeze can be used to trigger several functions such as quickly switching tools while drawing, which will be confirmed by a new haptic engine.
iPad Pro accessories such as the Magic Keyboard have seen a design upgrade as well. It is now thinner and lighter and has a bigger trackpad to replicate the experience of using a MacBook but on your iPad. There is also a function row at the top of the keyboard.
The iPad Pro 2024 has a starting price of $1000 for the 11″ model while the 13″ variant will go for $1300. The new Magic Keyboard costs $300 for the 11-inch model and $350 for the 13-inch model. The Smart Folio is priced at $80 for the 11-inch and $100 for the 13-inch versions. Additionally, the Apple Pencil Pro is available for $130.
