And does it with the best OLED display we’ve ever seen.
Apple’s iPad series of tablet computers had a huge impact on the computing landscape.
That’s where the latest generation of iPad Pros comes in.
So how does the M4 iPad Pro fare as a general purpose computer?
And does it turn in satisfactory results when put up against the recent crop of demanding iPad console ports?
I purchased the 11-inch mode and it feels like it’s just barely there.
The second item of note is the OLED display, which is a first for any larger-screened Apple rig.
It offers perfect black levels, great off-axis viewing, and 120Hz support for silky smooth animation.
This display isn’t using a typical OLED panel, because it’s actually using two OLED panels.
In practice, it looks a lot like other mobile OLED displays, just with noticeably better brightness characteristics.
A lot of the other basic specs are pretty similar to other iPads.
The speakers are pretty great for a rig of this size, for instance.
Voice content sounds great, while music is a little less so as it lacks some bass definition.
Camera quality on the iPad Pro is perfectly fine for a tablet equipment.
Compared to my iPhone though, the rear camera is substantially grainier in low-light lighting conditions.
So that’s a rundown of the specs then - but how does it actually fare in real-world use?
The iPad continues to be an excellent gadget for the basics of computing.
A lot of this comes down to the iPad’s multitasking model.
It just feels like windowed operating systems are more flexible.
Perhaps recognising this, Apple introduced a feature called Stage Manager a couple of years ago.
It’s an interesting solution, but the implementation doesn’t feel fully baked.
It can be useful, but I found myself opting for the traditional full-screen view more often than not.
iPadOS does have reasonable support for external devices - but again, you do see some limitations.
Plus, some apps don’t work properly with cursors at all times.
External monitors are supported, but you’re limited to one external display at a time.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get very far.
Production on a Mac is exponentially easier, even on a lower end machine.
I don’t know exactly where that ends, but the solutions at the moment feel imperfect.
Let’s takeAssassin’s Creed Mirageas a sort of representative example on the iPhone 15 Pro.
On the M4 iPad Pro, these issues are totally resolved.
Plus, the autosave pauses we observed before don’t seem to pop up at all on iPad.
The experience is just vastly improved, to the point where Mirage feels quite comfortable on iPad hardware.
The same is true ofResident Evil 4on iPad.
There’s a nigh-on locked 30fps here with no issues, even in the demanding village fight scene.
It’s a night and day difference, dramatically favouring the M4-powered iPad.
The iPhone again suffers from some quite severe performance issues.
There’s obviously a big gulf in specs between my selected iPhone and iPad.
The iPhone 15 Pro’s CPU, for instance, has just two higher-performance CPU cores.
I believe this is the largest limiting factor behind the iPhone’s poor performance.
There are other factors as well, of course.
Here, the iPad Pro simply has far greater resources and delivers far greater results.
I’m of two minds about the iPad Pro.
This is an extremely finely engineered, ultra-premium machine with some of the best mobile hardware on the market.
