iPad Pro (M4) review: the hardware ran away from the software
The best tablet hardware ever made, still waiting for iPadOS to give it a reason to exist. Our score: 8 / 10 At a glance Spec Detail Display Tandem-OLED ("Ultra Retina XDR") Chip M4 Thickness Thinner than an iPod nano Accessories Apple Pencil Pro, new Magic Keyboard A genuine marvel of engineering The M4 iPad Pro has a tandem-OLED panel that is spectacular for HDR, an M-series chip that outruns most laptops, and a chassis thinner and lighter than seems reasonable. And it runs iPadOS The operating system is still fundamentally a tablet OS. If you have a specific pro workflow (illustration, music production, video review, note-taking) it is transformative. If you want it to replace a laptop, iPadOS will remind you daily that it will not. The good and the bad What works The best display on any portable Apple device Absurd performance-to-thinness ratio Apple Pencil Pro is excellent What doesn’t iPadOS still is not a laptop OS Accessories push the real price past a MacBook Pro You are partly paying for unrealised potential Who it’s for Buy it if you have a pro creative workflow that genuinely benefits from the display and pen. Skip it if you want a laptop replacement, in which case buy a MacBook Air. Alternatives worth a look iPad Air (M2/M3), most of what you will use, much cheaper. MacBook Air 13, if the goal is real computing. The verdict: Incredible hardware in search of software that deserves it. Buy it for what iPadOS does today, not what it might. Sources Apple Newsroom