Apple iPad Pro 2024: Thinner and lighter than ever, with M4 chip inside
Apple's iPad Pro was last updated nearly two years ago; it was high time for an update, and Apple delivered.
On Tuesday, the company launched the new iPad Pro in two sizes: 11 and 13 inches.
The new iPads have a new, super-thin design; Apple says they're thinner even than the iPod nano, making them the thinnest Apple product ever. More prcisely, the 11-inch version is just 0.21 inches thick, while the 13-inch version is even thinner, at 0.20 inches.
They're also quite light, with the smaller, 11-inch model weighing 0.98 pounds, and the 13-inch variant weighing 1.28 pounds.
As rumored, the new iPad Pro devices have an OLED display, which should improve contrast, color, and energy efficiency, reducing battery drain. Apple upped the ante by using new display tech called Tandem OLED, combining light with two OLED panels into one to get even better fullscreen brightness.
The display's Apple name is Ultra Retina XDR, and it's coming to both iPad Pro models. Apple calls it the "world's most advanced display."
Some specs for the new displays: 2,420 x 1,668 pixel resolution for the 11-inch model, and a 2,752 x 2,064 pixel resolution for the larger version. Peak brightness (while watching HDR content) goes up to 1,600 nits, and the contrast ratio is 2,000,000:1 for both models. If you opt for the 1TB or 2TB model of either the 11-inch or the 13-inch iPad Pro, you can also get the optional nano-texture glass display.
The new iPad Pro devices also sport Apple's latest M4 chip, skipping one number (the previous iPad Pro had the M2 chip inside). It has up to 4 performance cores, and 6 efficiency cores, with up to 50% faster performance than the M2. It also has a 10-core GPU. with dynamic caching, mesh shading, and ray tracing. Finally, the new chip has a new neural engine, which Apple claims is the most powerful neural processing unit in any personal computer today.
The iPad Pro starts with 256GB of storage, which can be increased to 2TB. It comes in two colors: Space Black and Silver. The 11-inch version starts at $999, while the 13-inch version starts at $1,299.
If you want your iPad Pro to be a little more like a laptop, you should probably consider the new Magic Keyboard, which will set you back $299. There's also an all-new Apple Pencil Pro, which costs $129.
The iPad Pro 2024 can be ordered today, and it will be available next week.
Stan is a Senior Editor at Mashable, where he has worked since 2007. He's got more battery-powered gadgets and band t-shirts than you. He writes about the next groundbreaking thing. Typically, this is a phone, a coin, or a car. His ultimate goal is to know something about everything.
