Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
The 12.9 - in iPad Pro is the absolute good tablet Apple or anyone else has ever made . But with a starting price of $ 1,099 , it ’s hard to recommend corrupt it .
Best Prices Today: Apple 12.9-inch iPad Pro (6th gen, M2, 2022)
There ’s no denying that the 12.9 - inch iPad Pro is a gorgeous and incredibly hefty piece of hardware . It ’s easily one of the nicest art object of technical school I ’ve ever held and the fast iPad ever made , and it ’s hard to ideate any tablet released in the next five long time doing much to top it .
Of course , I could have written the same affair about the 2020 exemplar . The 2021 iPad Pro does n’t look all that much unlike than the example it exchange or the 2018 iPad Pro before that . And the upgrades the novel example brings — most notably , the Retina XDR presentation , 5 gee modem , and M1 processor — won’t be straight off noticeable to anyone using it . Unless you ’re liken it side by side to the 2020 model , in fact , you probably wo n’t be capable to tell which iPad Pro you ’re actually using .
The M1 iPad Pro ( right ) is impressive , but the improvements over the 2020 model ( go out ) are n’t forthwith obvious .
The M1 iPad Pro (right) is impressive, but the improvements over the 2020 model (left) aren’t immediately obvious.
Michael Simon / IDG
And even then , it ’s tough to tell them apart . That should n’t be the only reason not to grease one’s palms one , and if you ’re uncoerced to expend nearly $ 3,000 on a pad of paper , it absolutely wo n’t be . But since money will most likely be an aim , you ’ll be just as glad outgo less on last year ’s poser or just bribe an iPad Air .
Center of attention
It might be strange to start an iPad review by talk over the tv camera , but it represent everything that ’s great and frustrating about the iPad Pro . Apple insists on selling the iPad as a portrayal equipment like the iPhone , even though the natural inclination is to cull it up and hold it lengthwise .
After more than 10 days and gobs of iterations , I do n’t have a go at it when Apple is going to admit that the iPad is a landscape painting machine . I lost track of how many clock time I foot up the iPad Pro and block the tv camera with my pollex , thus blocking Face ID and draw me to either change my traction or input my passcode . When pick up horizontally , the iPad ’s camera is in the utter blot to be blocked and it ’s somewhat infuriating that no one at Apple seems to believe this is an offspring .
The camera on the new iPad Pro ( top ) is far superior to the 2020 variation ( below ) .
The M1 iPad Pro (right) is impressive, but the improvements over the 2020 model (left) aren’t immediately obvious.
IDG
As far as the front camera itself , Apple has upgraded it from a unmingled ƒ/2.2 7MP camera to an ƒ/2.4 12MP radical wide photographic camera with 2x optical zoom out . The difference is huge and if you take a fate of FaceTime calls both you and the person on the other end of the call will outright remark the conflict . It in conclusion bring the iPad Pro ’s selfie photographic camera up to the degree of the iPhone , which has had a gamey - timber camera since the iPhone 11 .
Since the camera is potential to be unnaturally located to the left wing of your regard while making a FaceTime call , Apple has found a fresh feature article called Center Stage that somewhat solves that issue . When you dislodge out of the center of the soma , the camera will tear apart and zoom to keep you in the center of the frame as if someone was filming you . It ’s a fantastic feature that works swimmingly and without distraction , and coupled with Attention Correction , it does nicely to hide the fact that most the great unwashed will be looking the incorrect way .
The M1 iPad Pro (right) is impressive, but the improvements over the 2020 model (left) aren’t immediately obvious.
But if that ’s the only charge I have about the iPad Pro ’s design , then Apple has gotten a raft right . Move the camera and rotate the Apple logotype , and the iPad Pro ’s design is fantastic , if not a little stale . The design of the iPad Pro has n’t change much at all since the 2018 Liquid Retina redesign , and there ’s a cause for that — it ’s basically consummate . It ’s a touch heavier and thicker than last class ’s simulation but not something mass are probable to notice , specially when the biotechnology are so good . It ’s so similar to the 2020 example , in fact , that the previous keyboard font folds just okay , even with 0.5 millimeter of superfluous girth .
The excogitation of the iPad Pro is a bit stale at this point , but it ’s hard to find much fracture with it .
The bezels are belittled enough to not be distracting yet wide enough to hold ( thanks to top - mountain pass edge rejection ) , and the curved corner on the display nicely reflect the configuration of the gadget itself . I would n’t be opposed to a Modern colouring — once again , silver and space gray are the only options — but the design of the iPad Pro is still great twelvemonth later .
The camera on the new iPad Pro (top) is far superior to the 2020 version (below).
A fantasticer display
If you ’ve used the largest iPad Pro before , the screen is run short to seem very alike . It ’s the same 12.9 inches as it ’s always been and does n’t appear to be much unlike at first glance , even though Apple is now using mini - conduct tech and changes $ 100 more .
That ’s not necessarily a criticism . Although the prior iPad Pro video display were all LCDs , they were among the best in the clientele , rivaling some competitors ’ OLED screens . While you may certainly see the difference in the Retina XDR display when you compare it side by side to the Liquid Retina showing on the previous role model , the ocular divergence is n’t nearly as stark as the specs would have you consider .
Unless you ’re directly comparing the 2021 iPad Pro ( top ) against the 2020 modelling ( bottom ) , it ’s highly difficult to see the melioration .
The design of the iPad Pro is a bit stale at this point, but it’s hard to find much fault with it.
It ’s by all odds promising ( Apple say it can hit 1,600 nits but I could n’t get it to go past 900 no matter how bright the surround lightness was ) , though most hoi polloi will likely keep it at a much more visually toothsome level . There ’s also far better direct contrast that ’s in short letter with OLED quality ( 1,000,000:1 versus 1,800:1 ) , but again , unless you ’re doing very specific task or watching very specific HDR movie scenes , you probably wo n’t notice .
The upgrade will likely be more noticeable for creative professionals who use the Apple Pencil often and whose eyes will appreciate the kind of terse color accuracy the Retina XDR display provides . If you have the penury — and more importantly , the money — the 12.9 - inch iPad Pro ’s display wo n’t be a disappointment , but it also wo n’t be the tremendous visual promote the bounce to Retina or OLED was on the iPhone .
Speed to spare, literally
The other upgrade Apple brought to this twelvemonth ’s iPad Pro is an M1 CPU just like the one in the Apple silicon Macs . And just like the one in the Apple atomic number 14 Macs , it ’s half-baked fast .
If you ’ve go steady benchmark for the24 - column inch iMacor13 - inch MacBook Pro , you ’ll be intimate exactly what the iPad Pro brings . Compared to the A14 in theiPad Air , it ’s even faster than a hypothetical A14X , with a wonderful all - around speed , peculiarly in Geekbench ’s Compute tests . And the M1 completely blew away the previous iPad Pro when it comes to graphics .
Despite the new cow chip , however , you ’re not getting much better electric battery life . Apple has rated every iPad it ’s ever made by the same 10 time of day of stamp battery life , give or take an minute or so , and the iPad Pro falls firmly within that orbit in my testing . That ’s to say you wo n’t need to worry about plugging it in unless you use it for hours on destruction or leave it unplugged for day .
Unless you’re directly comparing the 2021 iPad Pro (top) against the 2020 model (bottom), it’s extremely difficult to see the improvements.
Speaking of plug it in , you ’ll get the same 18W tight charging as you did on the 2020 modeling — sadly there ’s no radio charging or MagSafe yet — but the port now supports Thunderbolt machine for truehearted information transfers and high - answer monitors . The only trouble is Apple still has n’t upgrade iPadOS to gibe , specially when it comes to international displays . The only choice is to mirror the iPad Pro ’s display to a 2d proctor , which is a less - than - idealistic experience that fall woefully short of a double - cover workstation .
This year ’s cellular model uses a 5 G modem rather of an LTE one , so stop number will be quicker in areas where 5 G networks are available . That ’s nice to have but not all that necessary , especially if you have an iPhone 12 nearby . I test Verizon ’s 5 G web and with top speeds around 80Mbps , it was faster than last year ’s LTE mannequin . But I have the results using my iPhone 12 ’s hotspot , so I ’m not sure the extra expense and monthly fee is worth it now . It ’s nice to have and offers a fleck of future - proofing , but much like the screen , it ’s not essential — or worth the $ 200 upgrade fee Apple is shoot down ( versus $ 130 previously ) .
Held back by the same constraints
For the first time Apple is listing RAM specification for the iPad Pro and it bulge at the same 8 GB as the alkali M1 Macs with 16 GB available at the 1 GB and 2 GB storage tiers . That ’s a mass of RAM for an iPad — previously iPad Pro mannikin topped out at 6 GB and the iPad Air only has 4GB — and like the silver screen and the microchip , I ’m not quite certain all that memory is involve .
The 2021 iPad Pro has the same rear photographic camera regalia as the 2020 model .
On a Mac , more RAM is always good , but iPadOS is n’t macOS . Apps are currently circumscribe to 5 GB of RAM each , and even though iPadOS 15 will alter that for some apps , it ’s unlikely you ’re ever go to do so much with your iPad Pro that you need 16 GB of RAM . And with simplified multitasking , it ’s unlikely for the system to ever habituate anywhere near the useable memory . Some mass will scoff at that notion , but the fact continue that you’re able to do as much on the iPad Air , which has less eyeglasses and costs C less .
Apps open in an second , scrolling is fabulously smooth , and Safari feels exceedingly snappy . So the 2021 iPad Pro certainly is tight — but so is the 2020 exemplar . With benchmarks and specs that dead screw up away the previous model , the 2021 iPad Pro should be leap and bound better than its harbinger . The reasons why it ’s not are n’t necessarily a weakness of the iPad Pro but rather the direction Apple has limit up iPadOS . Despite breaking it forth from the iPhone two years ago , the iPad ’s operating organization is still stuck in something of a oestrus , with no actual benefit to pro exploiter or gamers . The iPad Pro will hunt down everything intimately , but the speed and art boosts just do n’t make as much of a dispute as they could .
The M1 iPad Pro ( top ) is very like to the 2020 modeling , but the USB - atomic number 6 port wine is now Thunderbolt and the antenna billet support 5 G meshing .
And other than raising RAM limit , the iPadOS 15 update fails to take advantage of the tremendous speed in the iPad Pro . We ’re still waitress for professional apps like Final Cut Pro and Xcode , and Apple does n’t give power user any compelling reason to jump to the Pro . Some may argue that Face ID , the rear camera organisation and large screen justify the cost , but the fact stay on that the tangible welfare that you get when using a Mac Pro instead of a Mac miniskirt just is n’t there when switching between an iPad Air and iPad Pro .
Should you buy a 12.9-inch iPad Pro?
The 12.9 - inch iPad Pro is undoubtedly the adept pad of paper Apple has ever made . There ’s a deal to like about it — the display is gorgeous , the processor is background bore and the front tv camera is quite good — but it also more expensive than ever .
Yes , you ’re getting more speed and pixels for your money , but whether that ’s evident in your Clarence Shepard Day Jr. - to - day use is another question . If you do n’t mind spend $ 1,099 and up on a pad , the 12.9 - in iPad Pro is the absolute cream of the tablet crop with more power , pixels , and execution than you ’ll ever need . There really is n’t anything in the 12.9 - inch iPad Pro ’s class , including its 11 - inch sibling . Quite honestly , the 12.9 - in iPad Pro has reached a point where Apple could take a breakout from updating it for three age and it would still guide circle around any other pill .
The 2021 iPad Pro add up in silver and space Louis Harold Gray , which are start to palpate a little stale .
The 2021 iPad Pro has the same rear camera array as the 2020 model.
But despite few negatives and a 4 - star grievance in this recap , I would n’t actually recommend the 12.9 - in iPad Pro to anyone who was n’t already dead set on buying one . The screen is nice but not noticeably better than last twelvemonth ’s . The chip is fast but not observably faster than last twelvemonth ’s . The front tv camera is improved but not noticea — OK , the front tv camera is a pile better . But that ’s not really a reason to drop a thousand - plus buck to upgrade .
If you desire one , get one . If you need to stretch out your budget to afford one , however , just get last twelvemonth ’s model . Or better yet , get an iPad Air .
The M1 iPad Pro (top) is very similar to the 2020 model, but the USB-C port is now Thunderbolt and the antenna lines support 5G networks.
The 2021 iPad Pro comes in silver and space gray, which are starting to feel a little stale.
