The iPad Pro 2022 inches closer to replacing your MacBook
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Apple has announced an update to its iPad Pro that will bring the powerful Apple M2 chip from the MacBook Air (M2, 2022) to the tablet. The new Pro tablet doesn’t get the fancy colors of the new iPad 10th generation models, but it does get some nice new capabilities for the Apple Pencil 2, as well as improvements to media recording and playback, thanks to the M2. The iPad Pro is now available for pre-order and will hit stores on October 26.
The iPad Pro is powered by the Apple M2 chip, which will include new image processing and media engines that will enable enhanced video recording and editing. The iPad Pro can capture ProRes video, but the cameras themselves have not been upgraded from the latest model’s Pro Camera array. You still get the same 12MP main camera and 10MP ultra-wide angle lens, with a 12MP selfie camera on the front.
The Apple Pencil 2 gets some new tricks with the updated iPad Pro. When the pencil is 12mm above the screen and closer, the iPad Pro can detect its presence and enable new Hover features. These seem primarily aimed at art and drawing types, but Apple says the iPad Pro will grow a text box when it detects the pencil, giving you more room to write.
The new iPad Pro converts writing to text faster, thanks to the performance of the new Apple M2 chip. The processing cores will be only 15% faster, which is an imperceptible upgrade, but there will also be more dramatically improved Neural Engine performance. The Neural Engine is the part of the chipset that handles machine learning tasks, including tasks such as speech recognition and handwriting detection.
Apple has made significant upgrades to the iPad’s networking capabilities. The new tablets support Wi-Fi 6E, a ‘fastlane’ flavor of Wi-Fi 6 that uses its own radio band. Even the iPhone 14 Pro lacks this Wi-Fi capability, although other new phones like the Google Pixel 7 Pro do support it. The iPad Pro also gets more radio bands for 5G compatibility.
The iPad Pro is a pricey beast and is at the top of Apple’s great tablet pyramid. The 11-inch model starts at $799 / £899 / AU$1,399, or you can get it with 5G networks for $999 / £1,079 / AU$1,649. For the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, you’ll pay $1,099 / £1,249 / AU$1,899 to start, or $1,299 / £1,429 / AU$2,149 with 5G.
The 12.9-inch iPad Pro gives you a more advanced screen than the 11-inch iPad Pro. You get Apple’s XDR brand, which includes mini LED backlighting with local dimming. Both screens have the same 264ppi pixel density.
Analysis: An iPad Pro update to support an advanced operating system
The iPad Pro update isn’t the most exciting. The processor is only marginally faster. The pen hover features are similar to what we saw on the Samsung Galaxy Note II phone in 2012, and we didn’t find them very useful back then either. So, what’s new?
The Apple M2 chip isn’t a boastful chipset, but it will support key new features in iPad OS 16.1. The new Stage Manager feature makes multitasking useful on iPad, a historic battle. With new support for external displays, you can connect a monitor to an iPad, instead of just using the iPad as an external display.
Apple has long said that the iPad is a full-fledged computer, now we see them getting closer and closer with the updated operating system. Of course, all new iPads will get the same iPadOS, but the new iPad Pro will simply outperform in the things that help the iPad tablet approach iPad desktop status.