Apple has announced the new iPad Pro with M1 Chip. While the device features the same design as the previous generation the insides of the device have changed significantly.
Biggest changes introduced in the new iPad Pros include the new chip, 5G technology on the cellular models, a new Thunderbolt port, ultra wide front camera and exclusively on the 12.9-inch model a new Liquid Retina XDR display. Read on to learn more about these new features.
Perhaps the biggest highlight of this event as far as iPad Pro is concerned is the arrival of M1 chip on the iPad Pro. Previously M1 chip was only found on the Mac, with Apple also announcing the new M1 iMac at the same event today.
Apple says the new M1 chip on the iPad Pro offers a “huge jump in performance” by offering a 8-core CPU design. The iPad Pro delivers up to 50 percent faster CPU performance than the A12Z Bionic found on previous generation. The 8-Core GPU also offers 40 percent faster GPU performance.
Apple has also boosted the memory on the iPad Pro by offering a high bandwidth memory architecture with up to 16GB of memory. The new iPad Pro also comes with 2TB storage option that is 2x faster than before.
The 12.9-inch iPad Pro exclusively comes with a Liquid Retina XDR Display that has an all new mini-LED dseign. The new LED display features 10,000 LEDs across the back of the display and can deliver up to 1000 nits of full screen brightness. 12.9-inch iPad Pro features 1600 nits of peak brightness a 1 million-to-1 contrast ratio.
Both 12.9-inch iPad Pro and 11-inch iPad Pro offer ProMotion, True Tone, P3 Wide Color support as well as support for HDR and Dolby Vision content.
Both iPad Pros come with cellular models equipped with 5G, making these the first ever iPads to feature 5G. Users can expect to get the same download and upload speeds that they are experiencing on their 5G equipped iPhones.
The USB-C port on the new iPad Pro is now Thunderbolt and USB 4. This means users can take advantage of up to 4x more bandwidth for wired connections. Thunderbolt on the iPad Pro features 10Gbps Ethernet support allowing for faster external storage support and higher resolution displays. Now iPad Pro users can connect their iPads to Apple’s Pro Display XDR at full 6K resolution.
Apple has upgraded the front camera on the iPad Pros, which now has a 12-megapixel Ultra Wide front camera. It also has the new ‘Center Stage’ feature for video calls, which uses a larger field of view. When user moves the camera uses machine learning to move the frame and keep user in the center. If they move around, the camera can also pan to keep user in the shot. Center Stage can also detects when more than 1 people are in the frame and zooms out so everyone can fit in the view.
Apple Pencil has also received new features via iPadOS 14.5. This includes support for new languages, which will now work with Scribble and Smart Selection features. The iPadOS 14.5 will also bring new emoji, support for latest gaming controllers and other features.
The 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $799 while the 12.9-inch iPad Pro with Liquid Retina XDR display starts at $1099. Both will be available to order on April 30 and ship in second half of May 2021.
