Apple has announced hardware refreshes for its high-end tablet, the iPad Pro, which now features the all-new M4 system on a chip and a new OLED display.
As part of its Let Loose hardware eventApple revealed that the 11 and 13-inch iPad Pro models include the M3 processor and an OLED display. The OLED display is the most noteworthy upgrade in terms of what you can see on the outside of the product, as the switch to OLED will improve contrast, HDR, and colors.
As the rumors suggest, the 2024 iPad Pro models were also redesigned. Both devices are thinner; Apple touted that the latest iPads are now the thinnest Apple product, dethroning the previous title holder, the iPod Nano.
Like the iPad Air announced todaythe latest iPad Pros have relocated the front webcam from portrait to landscape mode.
The Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro has also been adjusted. It now has new features such as a function row that allows users to adjust the screen brightness and a larger trackpad, the latter of which was highly criticized in the previous iteration of the accessory. The Apple Pencil has also been updated today with a new “Pro” variant that costs $129 and offers haptic feedback and a new squeeze gesture.
More interestingly, the latest iPad Pro will not receive an M3 chip. Instead, it marks the first product to support Apple’s latest silicon, the M4 chip. This breaks Apple’s previous precedent since the introduction of the M-series, as Apple previously unveiled a new M-series chip first on a Mac computer before integrating the system on a chip into its tablets.
Thanks to the M4 chip, which supports ray tracing, this marks the first time an iPad now supports the rendering technique, offering better gaming performance than previously obtainable on Apple’s tablet lineup. With the seventh-generation iPad Pro skipping the M3 chip, the new generation is now four times faster than its previous iteration, according to Apple.
The seventh-generation iPad Pro comes in two color options: Space Gray and Silver, as well as four storage configurations: 256Gb, 512Gb, 1TB, and 2TB. Like the Apple Pencil Pro and iPad Air Gen 6, the iPad Pro Gen 7 will be available to order starting today. Pricing for the new iPad Pro starts at $999 for the 11-inch model, while the 13-inch starts at $1,299.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.