Apple Introduces Next-Generation iPad Pro, Supercharged by the M2 Chip

[TheLostSwede]

Apple today announced the new iPad Pro with the M2 chip, delivering the ultimate combination of portability, versatility, and unbelievable performance. The new iPad Pro features a next-level Apple Pencil hover experience and superfast wireless connectivity, along with the world's most advanced mobile display, pro cameras, Face ID, Thunderbolt, and a four-speaker audio system. New features in iPadOS 16—including Stage Manager, full external display support, desktop-class apps, and Reference Mode—take pro workflows on iPad even further. Enabled by its advanced hardware and iPadOS 16, iPad Pro has an incredible ecosystem of powerful pro apps unlike any other device of its kind. The new iPad Pro is available to order starting today, and in stores beginning Wednesday, October 26.

"The next-generation iPad Pro pushes the boundaries of what's possible on iPad, bringing even more versatility, power, and portability to the ultimate iPad experience," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "Powered by the M2 chip, the new iPad Pro features incredible performance and the most advanced technologies, including a next-level Apple Pencil hover experience, ProRes video capture, superfast wireless connectivity, and powerful iPadOS 16 features. There's nothing else like it."




Breakthrough Performance from the M2 Chip
M2, the start of Apple's next generation of M-series chips, brings even more breakthrough performance and capabilities to iPad Pro, with industry-leading power efficiency, a unified memory architecture, and custom technologies.

M2 features an 8-core CPU—up to 15 percent faster than M1—with advancements in both performance and efficiency cores, and a 10-core GPU, delivering up to 35 percent faster graphics performance for the most demanding users. Combined with the CPU and GPU, the 16-core Neural Engine can process 15.8 trillion operations per second—40 percent more than M1—making iPad Pro even more powerful when handling machine learning tasks. The M2 chip also features 100 GB/s of unified memory bandwidth—50 percent more than M1—and supports up to 16 GB of fast unified memory, making multitasking and working with large assets even more fluid.

The performance of M2 turbocharges even the most demanding workflows, from photographers editing massive photo libraries and designers manipulating complex 3D objects, to healthcare professionals taking advanced imaging and analysis, to gamers enjoying graphics-intensive games. The power of M2 also extends to the new media engine and the image signal processor, which combined with the advanced cameras, enable users to capture ProRes video for the first time and transcode ProRes footage up to 3x faster. This means content creators can capture, edit, and publish cinema-grade video from a single device out in the field.

A Next-Level Apple Pencil Hover Experience
Powered by the new iPad Pro and iPadOS 16, hover with Apple Pencil (2nd generation) provides a completely new dimension for users to interact with their screen. Apple Pencil is now detected up to 12 mm above the display, allowing users to see a preview of their mark before they make it. This also allows users to sketch and illustrate with even greater precision, and makes everything users do with Apple Pencil even more effortless. For example, with Scribble, text fields automatically expand when the pencil gets near the screen, and handwriting converts to text even faster. Third-party apps can also take advantage of this new feature to enable entirely new marking and drawing experiences.

Superfast Wireless Connectivity
The new iPad Pro supports the fastest Wi-Fi connections with support for Wi-Fi 6E, so users who need fast connections can take their demanding workflows with them everywhere. Downloads are up to 2.4 Gb/s, 2x faster than the previous generation. Wi-Fi + Cellular models with 5G (sub-6 GHz and mmWave) now support more 5G networks around the world, so users can access their files, communicate with colleagues, and back up their data in a snap while on the go.

Unmatched Pro Features Enabled by iPadOS 16
In addition to big updates to Messages, new tools in Mail and Safari, the new Weather app, and more ways to interact with photos and video with Live Text and Visual Look Up, iPadOS 16 also introduces powerful productivity features that elevate the iPad Pro experience:

• Stage Manager is an entirely new multitasking experience that automatically organizes apps and windows, making it quick and easy to switch between tasks. Later this year, Stage Manager will unlock full external display support with resolutions of up to 6K, so users will be able to arrange the ideal workspace, and work with up to four apps on iPad and up to four apps on the external display.
• Desktop-class apps enable new capabilities optimized for the display on iPad Pro—making apps more capable with new elements and interactions, including a consistent undo and redo, a redesigned inline find-and-replace experience, a new document menu, customizable toolbars, and the ability to change file extensions, view folder size in Files, and more.
• Reference Mode enables the 12.9-inch iPad Pro with Liquid Retina XDR display to match the color requirements in workflows like review and approve, color grading, and compositing, where accurate colors and consistent image quality are critical. That means pro users, including photographers and videographers, can edit HDR images and videos with every true-to-life detail right in their hands, and cinematographers on set can preview content in a color profile that represents the final capture.

iPad and the Environment
The new iPad models are designed to minimize their impact on the environment and include 100 percent recycled gold—a first for iPad—in the plating of multiple printed circuit boards, as well as recycled aluminium, tin, and rare earth elements. All iPad models meet Apple's high standards for energy efficiency and are mercury-, BFR-, PVC-, and beryllium-free. Redesigned packaging in the new iPad Pro eliminates the outer plastic wrap, and 99 percent of the packaging is fiber based, bringing Apple closer to its goal of completely removing plastic from all packaging by 2025.
Today, Apple is carbon neutral for global corporate operations, and by 2030, plans to be 100 percent carbon neutral across the entire manufacturing supply chain and all product life cycles. This means that every Apple device sold, from component manufacturing, assembly, transport, customer use, charging, all the way through recycling and material recovery, will have net-zero climate impact.

Pricing and Availability

• The new iPad Pro is available to order beginning today, October 18, at apple.com/store and in the Apple Store app in 28 countries and regions, including the US, with availability in stores beginning Wednesday, October 26.
• The new 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro will be available in silver and space gray finishes with 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB configurations.
• The 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $799 (US) for the Wi-Fi model and $999 (US) for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model; the 12.9-inch iPad Pro starts at $1,099 (US) for the Wi-Fi model, and $1,299 (US) for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model.
• Apple Pencil (2nd generation), available for purchase separately, is compatible with the new iPad Pro for $129 (US).
• Magic Keyboard is available in black and white for $299 (US) for the new 11-inch iPad Pro and $349 (US) for the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro, with layouts for over 30 languages.
• The Smart Keyboard Folio for the new iPad Pro is available for $179 (US) for the new 11-inch iPad Pro and $199 (US) for the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
• The Smart Folio is available in black, white, and marine blue for $79 (US) for the new 11-inch iPad Pro and $99 (US) for the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
• Education pricing is available to current and newly accepted college students and their parents, as well as faculty, staff, and home-school teachers of all grade levels. The new 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $749 (US), and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro starts at $999 (US). The second-generation Apple Pencil is available for $119 (US), and the Smart Keyboard Folio is available for $159 (US) for the 11-inch iPad Pro and $179 (US) for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. The Magic Keyboard will be available at $279 (US) for the 11-inch iPad Pro and $329 (US) for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[dgianstefani]

£1250 to move from 128 GB to 2 TB.
Just Apple things.

 

[cvaldes]

No surprises here. This is very much in line with their previous pricing structure.

It should be pointed out that the $799 to $1199 price increase traverses five storage capacities, two screen sizes, and the addition of cellular data capabilities (which has been a ~$130 premium since the earliest iPad days). And most importantly, this is their premium tablet line, so there's an upcharge to have their best.

And they released new (regular) iPads too which covers the lower price points. You can't get the entry iPad with 2TB of data, but no one sane expected them to offer that.

The new iPad Pro looks like a very capable device, even a credible notebook replacement for some individuals. I'm happy to stick with my smaller iPad mini though for my usage cases.

As an indirect AAPL shareholder, I hope they sell lots of them.

 

[Chaitanya]

£1250 to move from 128 GB to 2 TB.
Just Apple things.

Is it soldered using gold?

 

[cvaldes]

Is it soldered using gold?

Usually the internals are pretty much the same apart from NAND chips and the optional cellular module so any precious metals would be used on all of the SKUs within the same base model.

Wait for an iFixIt teardown to see inside since Apple does not post such imagery.

 

[Chaitanya]

Usually the internals are pretty much the same apart from NAND chips and the optional cellular module so any precious metals would be used on all of the SKUs within the same base model.

Wait for an iFixIt teardown to see inside since Apple does not post such imagery.

that 1250 GBP price increase for 2TB SSD is not worth unless its actually soldered or has heatsink made from gold. These days you can get flagship class 2TB M.2 SSDs for under US$250.

 

[Iain Saturn]

The larger storage sizes also jump up ram to 16 gigs

 

[cvaldes]

that 1250 GBP price increase for 2TB SSD is not worth unless its actually soldered or has heatsink made from gold. These days you can get flagship class 2TB M.2 SSDs for under US$250.

Not worth it to you.

It's worth it to someone. They always sell some of their high end models. My guess is that a lot of these high-capacity iPad Pros are bought up by content creators doing stuff like 4K video production for a living.

If you don't do that for a living, I can see how the 2TB model isn't "worth it" to you. But not everyone has your exact usage case.

Remember that you can't just buy a Samsung 4GB 2.5" SSD, pop it into a cheap USB enclosure, attach it to your iPad and write to that directly. And even if you could, some people might not want to have a peripheral dangling off the end of their tablet all the time.

I wish more people online would understand that their usage case isn't the only one in the universe.

 

[Hxx]

I don’t see any major changes from the M1 iPad Pro outside of the processor which is not anything substantial. I’m surprised to see no difference in screen or other hardware changes . Mind as well grab the M1 variant and save some money

 

[Count Shagula]

$1899 Australian Dollarydoos for the base 12.9" or $3129 for the 1TB with the extra 8gig ram. Rather get a 4090 if im going to spend that much and i think even that is more than double the price of what its really worth

 

[cvaldes]

I don’t see any major changes from the M1 iPad Pro outside of the processor which is not anything substantial. I’m surprised to see no difference in screen or other hardware changes . Mind as well grab the M1 variant and save some money

The biggest hardware difference is the much higher machine learning performance of the M2 SoC. That enables it to accomplish certain tasks better. Apple demonstrated some of these ML dependent features in one of their recent keynotes. Apple frequently withholds new functionality from previous hardware though to incentivize people to purchase the new hardware.

Some of these capabilities won't show up in a traditional quantitative measurement like Geekbench. I think Apple is calling a new multi-tasking feature something like Stage Manager which really can't be measured by a benchmark tool.

A lot of the machine learning capabilities are difficult to quantitatively assess. Even DLSS can be measured in terms of framerate increase, but the image quality differences end up being a subjective judgment.

The M2 does have significantly higher memory bandwidth. While that performance superiority won't show up if you're typing an e-mail or surfing the Internet, it probably would be noticeable during intensive tasks like video editing.

Regardless, owners of M1 iPads will be able to install the upcoming version of iPadOS when it is released.

The fact that there were no other major hardware changes is probably why they chose to launch the product via a press release instead of holding a hosted event.

Apple has done this before (e.g., release new product outside of an event).

 

[Readlight]

Apple make something in devices (connection ports) who no one uses. Over valued corporation.

Do you want to buy me one apple for 5 euro?

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Not worth it to you.

It's worth it to someone. They always sell some of their high end models. My guess is that a lot of these high-capacity iPad Pros are bought up by content creators doing stuff like 4K video production for a living.

If you don't do that for a living, I can see how the 2TB model isn't "worth it" to you. But not everyone has your exact usage case.

Remember that you can't just buy a Samsung 4GB 2.5" SSD, pop it into a cheap USB enclosure, attach it to your iPad and write to that directly. And even if you could, some people might not want to have a peripheral dangling off the end of their tablet all the time.

I wish more people online would understand that their usage case isn't the only one in the universe.

The problem with that line of thinking is that a single use case (in this case hardware that cannot be repaired or upgraded sold for stupid levels of money) is being forced upon everybody. When you do that you're going to piss people off.

 

[cvaldes]

Do you want to buy me one apple for 5 euro?

I dunno. Five euros for a piece of fruit? Someone might. After all, in Japan there are $150 melons.

As for begging for handouts, I'm not sure if that matches this site's focus.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

that 1250 GBP price increase for 2TB SSD is not worth unless its actually soldered or has heatsink made from gold. These days you can get flagship class 2TB M.2 SSDs for under US$250.

Those 2TB M.2 drives are also 2280 form factor. The storage on an ipad is the size of a m.2 2230, of which no 2TB versions exist. You CAN get them for $250 in 2242 form factor, with no DRAM cache, of course. Even so, these drives use 4 NAND chips, the ipad uses 2 that are far denser, and that costs cash. Those drives also wont compare to the speed of an ipads.

The price is a bit obscene, yeah, but the apple tax has always been there. AFAIK there is no windows device outside of the similarly expensive surface pros that come close.

 

[cvaldes]

The problem with that line of thinking is that a single use case (in this case hardware that cannot be repaired or upgraded sold for stupid levels of money) is being forced upon everybody. When you do that you're going to piss people off.

People get pissed off for all sorts of reasons, sometimes none.

If you don't like Apple's offerings, you are free to purchase a touchscreen tablet from someone else, like Samsung. Note that you can't repair their devices any substantially easier and Apple's iPads have much better resale value than Android tablets.

It's also worth pointing out that Apple has been selling iPads since 2010 and have turned it into a substantial business unit (about 10-15% of total company revenue). Sure there are people who don't/won't buy an iPad. But there are enough who do for Apple to continue sticking with it as a marketable product.

Someday people's interests may change and they'll stop buying iPads. Apple killed off their iPod product line and even their full-sized HomePod.

As for the lack of upgradeability, people have been complaining about this for years about Macs, iPhones, iPods, iPads, and now other devices and yet their customer base seems to be able to take it in stride. Despite a few small and vocal minority, it doesn't look like Apple will be putting in m.2 2280 SSD slots into their MacBooks anytime soon and they aren't going to put a microSD card slot into an iPad either.

Some of these devices can accept common external storage options and to Apple, that's sufficient for their regular customer base.

If you don't like the iPad vote with your dollars. Don't buy it.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

People get pissed off for all sorts of reasons, sometimes none.

If you don't like Apple's offerings, you are free to purchase a touchscreen tablet from someone else, like Samsung. Note that you can't repair their devices any substantially easier and Apple's iPads have much better resale value than Android tablets.

It's also worth pointing out that Apple has been selling iPads since 2010 and have turned it into a substantial business unit (about 10-15% of total company revenue). Sure there are people who don't/won't buy an iPad. But there are enough who do for Apple to continue sticking with it as a marketable product.

Someday people's interests may change and they'll stop buying iPads. Apple killed off their iPod product line and even their full-sized HomePod.

If you don't like the iPad vote with your dollars. Don't buy it.

Thank you for demonstrating my point: this attitude of "well everything works like apple, just dont buy it! Hoho I'm so smart!" gets under people's skins.

 

[R0H1T]

The biggest hardware difference is the much higher machine learning performance of the M2 SoC. That enables it to accomplish certain tasks better. Apple demonstrated some of these ML dependent features in one of their recent keynotes. Apple frequently withholds new functionality from previous hardware though to incentivize people to purchase the new hardware.

Some of these capabilities won't show up in a traditional quantitative measurement like Geekbench. I think Apple is calling a new multi-tasking feature something like Stage Manager which really can't be measured by a benchmark tool.

A lot of the machine learning capabilities are difficult to quantitatively assess. Even DLSS can be measured in terms of framerate increase, but the image quality differences end up being a subjective judgment.

The M2 does have significantly higher memory bandwidth. While that performance superiority won't show up if you're typing an e-mail or surfing the Internet, it probably would be noticeable during intensive tasks like video editing.

Regardless, owners of M1 iPads will be able to install the upcoming version of iPadOS when it is released.

The fact that there were no other major hardware changes is probably why they chose to launch the product via a press release instead of holding a hosted event.

Apple has done this before (e.g., release new product outside of an event).

And if you've tried Stage manager you should know it is a horror show right now, especially on the (Mx) iPads

Regardless of future (OS) updates the fact that they charge easily 2-4x the memory or NAND upgrades, as it would probably cost them, is just worth of derision!

 

[cvaldes]

And if you've tried Stage manager you should know it is a horror show right now, especially on the (Mx) iPads

Nah, I don't run beta Apple software.

Hell, I don't even install the release software when made available. I usually wait six months before upgrading to the newest version of iOS/iPadOS/macOS. So I'm still running 15.7 on my iPhone and iPad mini; my Mac mini 2018 will stay on Monterey until April 2023. Next April is when I'll upgrade to iOS/iPadOS 16.

And besides, Stage Manager won't be supported on my iPad mini anyhow. At some point they will get it working correctly for Mx devices. Apple clearly admitted to delaying the iPad release for extra software development time. Your description of Stage Manager's current status is echoed elsewhere (Apple rumor sites). My guess is that Stage Manager will be rather rocky for the next few months.

 

[ERazer]

Some of you just don't get it, ur not only paying for device ur also paying for ecosystem (it simply works with other apple devices), how long does other tablet support their device and keep the OS up to date? and Ipads has better resale value than any other tablets.

 

[R0H1T]

The last Samsung flagship tablets will be updated for 5 years, with 4 major OS updates ~ so about the same with arguably much better specs in display/storage/memory et al, apart from (just) the SoC which is inferior to Ax or Mx chips.

And at this point I'd argue Android is a better platform, at least more versatile one.

 

[GreiverBlade]

they did not learn a lot from the MacBook Air M2 13.6" ... cooling fiasco

oh well ... an iPad is mostly for light task (so is the MB Air M2 ... since anything too heavy and it overheat like mad ) so, it should be fine ... (it will not be ... buyer do not buy a M2 device for light tasks nonetheless ... or at least they are convinced they will be able to do more than that ... )

The last Samsung flagship tablets will be updated for 5 years, with 4 major OS updates ~ so about the same with arguably much better specs in display/storage/memory et al, apart from (just) the SoC which is inferior to Ax or Mx chips.

And at this point I'd argue Android is a better platform, at least more versatile one.

and given that the real life usage on average is the same ...

 

[AnotherReader]

Those 2TB M.2 drives are also 2280 form factor. The storage on an ipad is the size of a m.2 2230, of which no 2TB versions exist. You CAN get them for $250 in 2242 form factor, with no DRAM cache, of course. Even so, these drives use 4 NAND chips, the ipad uses 2 that are far denser, and that costs cash. Those drives also wont compare to the speed of an ipads.

The price is a bit obscene, yeah, but the apple tax has always been there. AFAIK there is no windows device outside of the similarly expensive surface pros that come close.

If it's only using 2 chips, then it's likely to be slower than a fast 2TB drive like the Western Digital SN850. The price difference is obscene, but most companies charge a premium for higher storage capacities.

 

[dyonoctis]

The last Samsung flagship tablets will be updated for 5 years, with 4 major OS updates ~ so about the same with arguably much better specs in display/storage/memory et al, apart from (just) the SoC which is inferior to Ax or Mx chips.

And at this point I'd argue Android is a better platform, at least more versatile one.

But Android doesn't have the same version of adobe illustrator/photoshop who are getting close to the desktop version, or octane X and resolve...the iPad pro is odd, it's becoming a like a surface, but Apple doesn't want to make it a like a surface and just put OSX on it.

 

[Chaitanya]

The price is a bit obscene, yeah, but the apple tax has always been there. AFAIK there is no windows device outside of the similarly expensive surface pros that come close.

Atleast with recent Surface Pro(7 and up) SSDs are user upgradable.