If you’ve recently become flush with cash, then I’m afraid that I have some bad news for you. Apple’s Spring Loaded event rolled into town with a few announcements, and quickly left a few people with metaphorically lighter pockets as one of the biggest announcements of the showcase was the latest iPad Pro model.
As usual, it’ll be available in two flavours: A 11-inch and 12.9-inch slab of technology, which in the US will retail for $799 and $1299 respectively. While they look pretty much identical to last year’s iPad Pros, the big takeaway here is that these models will feature Apple’s M1 processorm an all-powerful piece of hardware that Apple refers to as a system-on-a-chip.
With all the important technology on a single square of bleeding edge gear, the end result is an iPad that will be faster in the performance department. Apple launched its MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini models with the M1 chip last year, with the general consensus from tech sites over it being holy crap man.
Apple said that the M1-powered iPad Pros will be capable of delivering “up to 50 percent faster CPU performance” and “up to 40 percent faster GPU performance”, which should make them ideal for mobile gaming. Not that the A12Z bionic chip models were slouches in that department either, but the event showed off a mobile Devil May Cry game being played on the new tablet which was properly impressive stuff considering how graphically demanding Capcom’s demon-slaying titles usually are.
The other interesting tech in the tablets are the screens themselves. While the 11” iPad Pro has a regular Liquid Retina display with 2388 x 1688 resolution and a max brightness of 600 nits, the 12.9” model features a 2732 x 2048 Mini LED screen, the Liquid Retina XDR. Apple says that this display can hit “XDR-level brightness,” which is probably a fancy way to say that at max settings it’ll be the equivalent of a staring competition with the Sun.
As for the rest of the iPad Pro? The new ultra-wide front-facing camera features Apple’s Center Stage technology that provides better autofocus-tracking, Thunderbolt 3 connections will allow for quicker data transfers via USB-C, and the cellular models support 5G for better downloads. As an added bonus, you can wave it in front of your neighbor who wears a tinfoil hat and watch them foam at the mouth.
The rest of the night featured a redesigned iMac equipped with the M1 SoC, Apple’s new AirTags, an Apple TV that can hit a sweet 4K spot, and a new in-app paid subscription service for Podcasts that cuts out all the ads.
Last Updated: April 21, 2021
