Apple Ready [Press]: Apple iPad Pro 13-inch (M4)

Apple iPad Pro 13-inch (M4)

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The largest iPad Pro has long been a brilliant but hugely extravagant way to watch movies on the move, and that theme is taken to the next level by the new model. Arguably the biggest news from the launch event for the new iPad Pro was the announcement that it would feature a new M4 processor, essentially meaning that the iPad would surpass Apple’s MacBooks in terms of power – if only temporarily.

For us, though, the much bigger news was that the new Pro would be the first iPad with an OLED screen, potentially opening the door to a big upgrade in picture performance. Having finally laid our hands on a sample and put it through its paces over several days, we can confirm that, while owners of the previous iPad Pro 12.9-inch model shouldn’t feel the need to instantly throw it in the bin, the new 13-inch OLED iPad Pro is undeniably the new benchmark for movie-watching on the move.

Hardware and performance

This brings us to the heart of the premium device. Apple’s M4 chipset. A top-class chip. It offers significantly more computing and graphics power than the previous model or the iPad Air with the M2 chip. The area responsible for AI operations alone, the “Neural Engine”, can perform up to 38 trillion calculations per second. The iPad can get very warm when editing images or other graphics-intensive apps, especially with the Apple logo, which is presumably by Apple’s design.

The variants with 1TB or 2TB storage capacity even offer one more CPU core and benefit from the entire performance package of the iPad Pro. From the 1TB version upwards, 16 GB RAM is installed instead of 8 GB. It’s a shame that you can’t get the full features of the device with 512 GB. But Apple is now famous for this kind of sales pitch.

The interface is a USB-C 4.0 port, which, unlike the iPad Air, supports Thunderbolt 3. Apple uses FaceID as the security system on the iPad Pro, just like on iPhones. Incidentally, all other iPads only have the fingerprint sensor, which is less secure.

The iPad Pro is also at the top of the benchmark tests and is unbeaten in CPU and GPU performance. Samsung is left miles behind and the iPad Air ranks relatively evenly below the iPad Pro.

Apple iPad Pro 13-inch (M4)

Hardware and performance

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