During Apple’s “Let Loose” event in London, we got our hands on the company’s biggest and brightest – the iPad Pro M4 and Apple Pencil Pro for a quick test run, and the little time we spent has us now looking forward to upping our productivity game in the years to come, thanks to the power of the M4 chip.
Thinnest Apple Product Ever!
Upon seeing the 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pros for the first time, right after the keynote announcement, we were immediately blown away at how thin they were. The 11-inch iPad Pro is at a mere 5.3 mm thin, while the larger 13-inch model is even thinner, at 5.1 mm! You’ll have to see it to believe it but make no mistake – these are now the thinnest Apple products ever!
The 11-inch model weighs 445g, while the 13-inch model weighs 579g, which is over 100g lighter than the previous iPad Pro. The iPad Pro feels oh so thin and comfortable in our hands, while still projecting a sturdiness. Both iPad Pros come in either a silver or space black finish and alas, as beautiful as the finishing is, it is still prone to fingerprints, so keep that microfibre cloth handy at all times!
That Ultra Retina XDR OLED Display
Apple claims that the iPad Pro has the world’s most advanced display, and they are definitely holding true to that claim as seeing is believing, and it’s unbelievably beautiful. The device’s new Ultra Retina XDR display is a sight to behold, achieved with the use of not one, but two OLED panels, which Apple calls “Tandem OLED”. With the combined light from both panels, the iPad Pro is able to produce 1,000 nits of full-screen brightness for SDR and HDR content, with 1,600 nits peak for HDR. The specular highlights in photos are bright and surreal, the blacks are blacker than ever, and the details in shadow and low light are unmatched.
M4 Chip Performance & AI Capabilities
According to Apple, the new M4 chip, which makes its debut here, can deliver the same performance using just half the power compared to the M2 chip used in the previous generation of iPad Pro. The M4 has a neural engine capable of 38 trillion operations per second, which is 60x faster than Apple’s first neural engine in the A11 Bionic chip. With the new iPad Pro, we were able to carry out AI-enabled tasks faster than ever, like easily isolating a subject from its background in a 4K video with just a tap of the Scene Removal Mask in Final Cut Pro. And you’ll be amazed at how it easily scans an audio recording, and can instantly split the vocals and various instruments into individual editable tracks via Stem Splitter in Logic Pro for iPad 2.
The iPad Pro also supports cloud-based solutions that tap into the power of AI, such as Copilot for Microsoft 365 and Adobe Firefly. Though our time with the device was limited during the event, we are looking forward to testing it all out in the coming weeks.
Camera Upgrades Galore
The upgraded camera system on the iPad Pro is no slouch either! Apart from the 12MP Rear Camera that captures vibrant Smart HDR photos and video, it now has a new Adaptive True Tone Flash that takes document scanning to a whole new level. The iPad Pro uses AI to automatically detect that it is snapping a photo of a document (from within the Camera app itself), and instantly takes multiple photos with the new adaptive flash when it detects a shadow, because we’ve all come across that irritating shadow. After that, it stitches the scans together into one image that eliminates the shadow entirely. All we can say is, it’s time to trash that document scanner at home or in the office.
As for the front of the iPad Pro, the camera has moved from the usual portrait location to the landscape location, and with its Ultra Wide 12MP Front Camera, perfect for video conferencing and ensuring all subjects are captured in view.
The Apple Pencil Turns Pro
The new Apple Pencil Pro may look the same as previous generations, but it has actually packed in with four new features. We tested them out on the Freeform app on the iPad Pro, and the tool palette can be instantly brought up with just a squeeze of the barrel, allowing for quick switching between line weights, brush tips, colours and more. Users can now also receive subtle confirmations thanks to the new haptic feedback when squeezing, double-tapping or simply moving an object to snap to alignment. This is delivered via a light tap sensation on the pencil, which feels very natural and intuitive, and is simply a joy to use, knowing you are on the right track.
Thanks to the inclusion of a gyroscope, you can now roll/rotate the Apple Pencil Pro, which is what Apple calls a barrel roll, and change the orientation of a shaped pen or brush tool instantly by simply hovering over the iPad Pro and visually see the exact orientation of a tool before laying it down to draw. Check out our video below to have a better idea of how it works.
And lastly, the Apple Pencil Pro now supports Find My, so users will have no trouble locating one of the most easily misplaced accessory. Otherwise, everything is the same as before, as it pairs, charges and docks on the side of the iPad Pro magnetically.
The 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro is available in silver and space black finishes in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB configurations. The 11-inch iPad Pro starts at S$1,499 for the Wi-Fi model, and S$1,799 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. The 13-inch iPad Pro starts at S$1,999 for the Wi-Fi model, and S$2,299 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. The Apple Pencil Pro is available for S$199. Pre-orders for the devices are up now and start shipping on 15 May onwards.
Yonk is a geek who is fortunate enough to have an equally geeky Star Wars fan for a wife, who owns a LEGO Millennium Falcon encased in a glass coffee table as their home’s centre-piece.
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