iPad Pro M4 review: Top screen, performance beast!

1. iPad Pro M4 design: Thinnest, most beautiful!

This year, Apple has emphasized that the new iPad Pro is not a redesign, but completely new. At first glance, it is true that we will feel that it is not much different from previous generations, but only when we hold it in our hands will we know that Apple is not lying this time. This is truly a new iPad Pro design, and it’s absolutely amazing.

Apple has made the 11-inch iPad Pro only 53mm thick and the 13-inch iPad Pro version is even thinner, only 51mm. This is the thinnest device the company has ever produced to date, it’s even thinner than the latest iPod Nano. And it’s thin, but it’s very strong.

Additionally, another change from the previous model is that the front camera is now positioned horizontally instead of vertically. Because most of us use tablets in landscape mode, this will be the most convenient position to use, helping us focus more on voice calls, while also making it easier to use Face ID.

2. OLED screen: The most beautiful on tablets!

As OLED gradually invades the market, Apple fans have always been looking forward to an iPad Pro using this panel, and Apple has finally satisfied fans. But more specifically, they use two OLED panels stacked on top of each other, as we understand it, it’s ‘parallel OLED’, but Apple calls it Ultra Retina XDR, and it helps improve the problem. The biggest of OLED screens – brightness.

Accordingly, Apple claims that this screen has a standard brightness of 1000 nits, and HDR brightness is 1600 nits. Although the actual measurement is not like that, the brightness on 25% of the SDR screen area is less than 1000 nits, and HDR is only about 1500 nits. In full screen mode, the brightness still cannot approach 500 nits. But putting these hype aside, overall the iPad Pro 2024 still feels brighter than the previous version, and it’s more than enough for use indoors or outdoors.

Furthermore, Apple also applies new ProMotion technology with an adaptive frequency range from 10Hz – 120Hz, enough for all iPad uses. P3 Extended Color Gamut and True Tone add accurate colors to the parallel OLED panel, however, if you need this tablet for photo and video editing, you should not use this color palette, as it is not necessary. set. The reason is because Apple has also brought Reference Mode to iPad Pro M4 to make it more suitable for professional photo editing needs, which includes standards including BT.709, sRGB, HDR10 (BT.2100 PQ ), BT.2100 HLG for Dolby Vision 8.4, Dolby Vision 5 configuration, and many other configurations.

It must be said that the screen of this year’s iPad Pro M4 is truly a masterpiece, and remember that it is just a tablet. Although we know that today’s technology is developing at breakneck speed, no matter how familiar we are with this speed of innovation, this screen can still surprise us. And if there is a vote for ‘tablet with the best screen in 2024’, there is no doubt that the iPad Pro M4 is the candidate for the number 1 position.

3. Apple M4 processor: Extremely powerful processing performance!

Launching the M4 chip with the iPad Pro this year seems too early, because the M3 has only been released with the Macbook Pro since the end of 2023. Because in terms of parameters, it has more than the real M3, but still feels just like a performance upgrade, not much like new generation hardware.

The M4 is a system-on-a-chip with a 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, and a neural engine (aka NPU). The performance of an NPU and its usefulness as an AI device is measured in TOPS (trillions of operations per second). Apple’s new M4 Neural Engine has 38 TOPS. To help you compare, the new Intel Core Ultra chip has an NPU that is usually only about 10 – 11 TOPS, while Qualcomm claims that the NPU on the new Snapdragon X Elite chip is capable of reaching 45 TOPS. In fact, we won’t really notice the AI ​​capabilities of this new tablet, or at least not yet. Because even Apple’s older M series included neural engines in them, Apple just didn’t have the need to talk about them.

Apple claims that the M4’s pure CPU power is 1.5 times that of the M2, and to optimize the performance of video games and graphics applications, the M4 also incorporates software-accelerated ray tracing. hardware, a function that debuted on the M3 last year. It also includes hardware decoding of the AV1 codec, used by online video platforms such as Netflix or Youtube. This way, we save a lot of battery when watching videos.

However, the CPU and GPU capabilities of the M4 certainly give the iPad Pro 2024 a boost. In Geekbench 6, the M4 scored 1,000 single-core scores and approximately 4,5000 multi-core scores. In the 3D Mark graphics test, it performed 23% better than the iPad Pro M2 model.

And because it is intended to be a professional tablet for professional users, the iPad Pro M4 will need to be very strong in rendering capabilities. Testing rendering a video in Octane X software, this 6th generation iPad Pro only takes 1 minute and 53 seconds to complete. If your purpose of using your iPad is to handle rendering tasks, this year’s new hardware will certainly help a lot in that regard.

4. Apple Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil Pro

To get the most out of the 2024 iPad Pro, you’ll need its two main accessories: the Apple Magic keyboard and the Apple Pencil. Both of these accessories have also been upgraded to be more compatible with the 6th generation iPad Pro, and it can significantly increase the experience compared to older generations.

First of all, the Magic Keyboard will have an additional palm rest, and its trackpad is quite spacious, covered in an aluminum finish that looks quite similar to the Macbook. This keyboard can be summed up as very high-end, it feels lighter and does not add much weight to the iPad Pro, we can take them together anywhere, and turn it into one device. Work productively at any time.

Apple Pencil Pro, as the name suggests, is similar to Apple Pencil 2 but has some interesting features to make it more useful. Such as ‘squeeze’ to display a new color palette, quickly switch between tools, line thickness and color; ‘rotate the pen body’ for more precise control of the pen and brush tool.

5. Camera: There are a few small changes!

Both the external and internal cameras have 12MP resolution. Although the main rear camera can record 4K video at 60FPS, it doesn’t seem very professional compared to the iPhone 14 or iPhone 15 Pro. In general, there aren’t too many expectations for a tablet’s camera, but at least this year the iPad Pro 2024 will have a bit of innovation.

First, in the rear module cluster, Apple has removed a lens, replacing it with a flash. Apple says that this change is intended to maximize one of the most used functions on the iPad – document scanning.

In fact, Apple’s CamScanner document scanning software is very convenient and easy to use. Just point your iPhone or iPad’s camera at a piece of paper, take a photo and perform a few operations and you’ll have a scan file that can be saved in many different file formats. On the iPhone, it doesn’t say anything, but on the iPad, its biggest problem when scanning is lack of light. Therefore, adding a flash to the iPad Pro M4 can be said to be quite reasonable.

As for the front camera, as mentioned above, Apple has moved it from the familiar position to the horizontal edge to better serve the purpose of video calling.

6. Battery life: Enough for a working day!

The battery life of Apple devices is generally somewhat stronger than that of other electronics brands. With this iPad Pro Gen 6, Apple claims 10 hours of battery life, but as always, the actual time we get will be a bit lower than that number.

Under the conditions of use with basic office tasks, this tablet can last more than 8 hours, and when combined with playing games, watching videos, rendering and typing, it takes about 7 hours to charge. again. Overall, this is still very good battery life, you need to know that its screen alone has quite high power consumption.

7. iPadOS 18: Many utilities support the experience, but do not exploit the raw power of iPad Pro M4!

At Apple’s recent WWDC event, the iPad was updated with the new iPadOS 18 platform, previously it was still using iPadOS 17. With this new platform, the iPad will receive more new features, such as classification. Smart email with Mail app, and iMessage can schedule messages, application icons on the home screen can be customized as desired, new tab bar makes navigation easier…

iPad Pro 2024 also has access to Apple Intelligence, a personal AI system for Apple devices that makes Siri smarter. In addition, it also has a new Game Mode and a personalized spatial audio feature when used with AirPods.

And there are many improvements and new features on iPadOS 18. However, the key is that all of these features seem generic and good for the iPhone rather than exploiting the power and flexibility of the new iPad Pro. That suddenly puts today’s best tablet in a strange situation: a lot of power, but not being used effectively, and what the iPad Pro M4 can do, older iPad models (are iPadOS 18 support) can also do it.

8. Conclusion

Without a doubt, the iPad Pro M4 is the most impressive tablet Apple has ever created (so far). It’s incredibly powerful, has a super nice screen, is super light and super thin, it’s almost at the peak of what a tablet can do, and it’s what we’ve been waiting for.

But no matter how impressive the hardware is, it is only half the story, the remaining 50% is software and iPadOS 18 currently cannot do that well. This is a very common thing on the iPad and it’s like a cyclical cycle: a new iPad is thinner than ever, lighter than ever, more powerful than ever, but ultimately disappointing because some things it cannot do, or it can do but in extremely difficult ways.

Finally, the price of this tablet is really expensive, the 11-inch iPad Pro M4 version has a starting price of 29 million VND, the 13-inch iPad Pro M4 version starts from 49 million VND. Overall, its price is also suitable for professional working needs, but if you are considering a tablet for daily entertainment, perhaps the iPad Air 6 will be more suitable.

Above are Websosanh.vn’s reviews of the new iPad Pro M4 2024. Hopefully these shares will help readers have a more comprehensive view of this tablet and make the right shopping choice for themselves.