Apple iPad Pro (2024) Review: The Best Tablet Still Has Room to Improve

Aug 07, 2024

Jeremy Gray

A sleek tablet with a keyboard attachment displays a vibrant, colorful aurora on the screen. Light trails surround the device, adding a dynamic effect. The Petapixel logo and the word "Reviews" are visible in the bottom right corner.

Apple’s new, redesigned, M4-powered iPad Pro is an incredible tablet. Across many applications and use cases, it is one of the best products Apple has ever made. However, there are times when the iPad Pro feels like it falls short of its promise and potential. Which side of the scale tips farther — the good or the bad — depends on the user.

In my case, the new iPad Pro routinely pulls me in both directions. At times, I love it, and it’s my favorite piece of technology. At other times, I feel like I’m banging my head against the wall, trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. “But this peg should be round,” I occasionally find myself thinking, knowing the M4 chip inside the iPad Pro has ample power to enable the tablet to do everything I wish it could do.

But wishes don’t change reality, and the reality of the iPad Pro is that it is simultaneously fantastic and frustrating. Fortunately, it’s the former more than the latter, and that starts with its brilliant design.

A tablet with a detachable keyboard and a digital pen on top displays an image of a loon swimming in water. The device is on a wooden surface, and the screen shows a high-resolution picture of the bird in a natural setting. — 13-inch iPad Pro (2024) with nano-texture glass display

Design and Build

While Jaron Schneider covered this topic and more in detail in his iPad Pro (2024) Review in Progress, and I don’t want to retread too much of the same ground, the iPad Pro’s design is vital enough to the overall user experience that it’s worth discussing twice.

Its remarkably thin, lightweight design makes the iPad Pro feel like what Apple has been aspiring to since it released the very first iPad in April 2010. Now, 14 years later, Apple’s ambitious design dreams have come to fruition.

Close-up of two iPad Pros side by side on a wooden surface, focusing on their side profiles showing USB-C ports and a sleek design. — On the left, last year’s iPad Pro. On the right, the new iPad Pro (2024). Beyond being thinner, the new iPad Pro is also lighter, weighing 1.28 pounds versus 1.51 pounds (582 versus 685 grams) | Photo by Jaron Schneider

No iPad has ever embodied the idea of a magic pane of glass like the new iPad Pro. As Schneider said, the new iPad Pro feels almost sci-fi in its execution.

I appreciate that for many people, it doesn’t necessarily matter just how impressive the iPad Pro is from a hardware and design perspective; it only matters that the device works the way they want it to, and the iPad Pro typically accomplishes this, too. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t note that what is on offer here is not just class-leading design; it’s groundbreaking. Apple’s engineers and industrial designers have knocked it out of the park.

A person holding a tablet displaying a photo of a cute puppy with a black, white, and brown coat and a red collar. The puppy looks directly at the camera with a happy expression. The person's hands partially frame the tablet screen. — Holding the new iPad Pro is like holding a piece of glass.

A little part of me wonders, “If the iPad Pro were just a little thicker, could the battery life be improved?” The battery life is rated for 10 hours of surfing the web or watching videos. Using heavy-duty apps like Photoshop or graphics-intensive games will eat into that number.

But that criticism, although reflective of my real-world experience, misses the point of the iPad Pro a bit. It is meant to be exceptionally easy to hold and use, and if squeezing a bit more juice out of a slightly larger battery harms that mission, it is not a worthwhile tradeoff — some of the magic would be lost. I get it, and I’m glad Apple gets it, too. Mostly.

There is some concern that because the new iPad Pro is so thin that it might be fragile or easy to bend. Well, mine hasn’t had any run-ins with danger, but Schneider’s has — he sat on it on an airplane seat. Twice. And it took it like a champ. Obviously, it is possible to bend the iPad Pro, but it seems very durable for normal use and even some scenarios that go beyond the routine tablet-using experience.

Hand holding a tablet displaying a 3D image of a colorful apple with striking ripple effects around it, symbolized in vivid blues, purples, and reds. — The standard glass display option brings out the best in the new tandem OLED | Photo by Jaron Schneider

A significant part of the “wow” factor is the iPad Pro’s new tandem OLED. Apple sent Schneider a review unit with the standard “glossy” display, while I purchased an iPad Pro with the new nano-texture glass option, which is essentially a matte display. While Apple has offered similar displays for its iMac and Studio Display, this marks the first time the company has provided this choice for an iPad.

The standard display makes a lot of sense for most users, especially because it’s the only choice for the 256GB and 512GB iPad Pro models. That said, the nano texture display is exceptionally good at reducing distracting glare without significantly impacting image quality.

A close-up of a black and white puppy lying on a wooden floor, resting its head on its paws. The puppy looks relaxed with one eye visible, showing a hint of blue. Part of a plaid-patterned cushion is seen in the background. — Nano texture

A small black and white puppy with a white patch on its forehead and pink paws rests its head against a plaid fabric. The puppy's eyes reflect light, creating a glowing effect. A yellow rubber toy is visible in the background. — Standard glass

I temporarily got my hands on a standard new iPad Pro to see the difference between the devices. The nano texture display makes the black levels slightly less inky and extremely fine details a bit blurrier. The black level difference is most noticeable in bright rooms, which is also when the glare reduction can offer the most benefit.

The nano-textured screen also has a very slight texture, which I think improves the “feel” of touching the display and using the new Apple Pencil Pro, but that’s more subjective.

Objectively, the nano-textured display worsens picture quality but delivers superior handling of glare and reflections. I prefer to make these tradeoffs. However, I understand that others will feel differently.

A person is holding a tablet displaying a soccer match. The screen shows a set piece situation with players from two teams on the field, one wearing white and the other in light blue. The score is 1-0, and the timer reads 91:16 with 7 minutes of stoppage time.

Those who want to get the absolute most of the iPad Pro’s new tandem OLED, including its super-deep black levels and vibrant colors, glare be damned, should stick with the standard glass.

What everyone can agree on is that the iPad Pro’s tandem OLED panel is remarkable across numerous key areas, regardless of the glass type. The OLED panel offers a practically infinite contrast ratio, all but eliminates edge bleed around bright objects, and delivers impeccable color accuracy.

The new iPad Pro is brighter than its predecessors, too, reaching 1,000 nits of full-screen brightness and 1,600 nits of peak brightness in localized areas. This makes it a fantastic device for consuming HDR content. Add in the inky blacks of the OLED panel, which can independently turn off pixels to achieve true black, and it’s an excellent media device. High-resolution HDR videos look amazing on the 2024 iPad Pro.

A tablet on a wooden table displaying an image of the International Space Station orbiting above Earth. A stylus is placed on top of the tablet. The background is dimly lit. — The iPad Pro gets bright, able to achieve 1,600 nits of peak brightness in certain HDR-viewing scenarios.

As a photographer, I care a lot about color accuracy. Out of the box, the iPad Pro’s display is fantastic and closely matches the color rendering of my calibrated computer monitors. Although iPadOS has room for improvement concerning color rendering and profiles, the iPad Pro has at least a Reference Mode. From here, users can provide white point and luminance values measured by a separate calibration device to override default settings. It’s not something I need often, but I’m glad it’s there for others who require it.

Between Schneider’s iPad Pro Review in Progress and my review here, a lot of ink has been spilled — er, pixels filled? — about the iPad Pro’s design and overall build. It may seem like overkill, and perhaps it is to some extent, but it also reflects how vitally important a tablet’s design is to the overall user experience and, to a significant extent, a product’s success in the tablet segment.

The iPad Pro is, by its very nature, constantly held and touched. Even if you use it with Apple’s improved Magic Keyboard case, as I often do, I’m constantly touching the device. If any aspect of that experience is imperfect, it’s a big problem.

An area where I routinely had issues on my previous iPad Pro was the Face ID system. When the iPad Pro was in landscape orientation, as mine often is, the “portrait orientation” front-facing camera consistently proved ineffective at recognizing me. I’ve typed my passcode more into that iPad than any of Apple’s other Face ID-equipped devices.

Fortunately, with the new iPad Pro in both sizes, Apple has moved the front camera to be centered at the top of the iPad Pro when used in landscape orientation. So far, this hasn’t hurt the portrait orientation experience, either, as I’ve had no issue there. What I have experienced are much more consistent unlocking results in landscape orientation, and it has been an important aspect of my better overall user experience with the new iPad Pro.

A person wearing a gray long-sleeve shirt is holding a tablet device. The tablet displays text with a black background and white font. The person is using their left thumb to scroll or hold the tablet. The surface below appears to be a wooden table. — Reading on the iPad Pro is a breeze. It’s easy to hold the device for extended periods thanks to its lightweight design.

This relatively minor change rectifies a small complaint I had with my last iPad Pro. But these nitpicks, which aren’t always a big deal in a short-term review situation, become very frustrating over long-term use. Months in, the new iPad Pro has yet to present any design nuisances.

After several months of using my iPad Pro daily for various purposes, it continues to impress me. On the somewhat rare occasions when I use it without its case, I’m still blown away by how thin and light it is.

The luster will eventually wear off, but it hasn’t yet, which is a testament to the new iPad Pro.

Performance: A Tale of Two Tablets

The iPad Pro’s M4 chip offers all the computing power I could reasonably ask for in a tablet. Interacting with the tablet is silky smooth. There’s just no waiting for things to happen when using the iPad, and every aspect of using the device is responsive, regardless of the app.

Sure, you can benchmark the iPad Pro, and it performs well and better than its predecessors. On Geekbench, the M4-powered iPad Pro scores about 30% better in single-core tests and 27% better for multi-core performance. The difference is much smaller for Geekbench’s Metal test, with the M4 iPad Pro delivering a 15% better score than its M2-powered predecessor.

Screenshot of Geekbench 6 CPU benchmark results on an iPad. The single-core score is 3759, and the multi-core score is 14605. System and CPU information includes OS (iOS 17.0.1), model (iPad), and ARM architecture. Detailed cache sizes for different levels are shown. — The iPad Pro (2024) destroys benchmarks.

The iPad Pro’s single-core performance is even superior to the latest MacBook Pro notebooks, although not by that much. Apple’s best MacBooks still win out by a similar margin as the new iPad Pro outpaces the outgoing tablet — roughly 25%.

However, iPad performance is better evaluated in real-world settings because, despite Apple’s efforts, the iPad Pro is only a professional power device in relatively narrow situations. For typical tablet tasks, the iPad Pro never breaks a sweat. Heck, I’m not convinced it even notices that it is exerting some computational effort at all because the device rarely gets warm.

The only time my new iPad Pro has felt noticeably warm — not hot, just warm — was during an extended charging session or when playing a heavy-duty game for a while. A controlled situation for this is running 3DMark’s extended benchmarks, during which the iPad Pro did, more than any actual usage scenario, get a bit warm.

This is by far my biggest complaint with the iPad Pro. The device offers performance that far outpaces most of its uses. When Apple unveiled the M4-powered iPad Pro in all its powerful glory, it brought the shortcomings of iPadOS back into conversation.

A tablet with an attached keyboard displaying a high-resolution image of a star-filled sky on its screen. The device sits on a wooden surface next to a blue mug. Various editing tools and options are visible on the tablet's screen. — The iPad Pro can easily handle Adobe Photoshop — and other content creation apps — but some iPad apps aren’t as capable as their desktop counterparts. Photoshop is one such app. I simply cannot use it for my work on the iPad, and that’s a shame.

The discussion basically boils down to this: The iPad Pro is powerful enough to be a full-blown laptop replacement, even for heavy-duty users, but it cannot be a complete “computer” for some because iPadOS isn’t up to the task.

I’m one of those users for whom the iPad Pro cannot replace my MacBook Pro. I had hoped WWDC in June would change that, but the upcoming iPadOS 18, while undoubtedly an improvement I’m looking forward to, has yet to come substantially closer to bridging that gap between tablet and laptop.

Listen, I get it. The iPad isn’t a laptop — it’s a tablet. Its user experience must take full advantage of being a tablet and respect its benefits and limitations relative to a typical notebook.

A photo editing software interface displaying a black and white image of a snowy mountain range with trees and a reflective body of water in the foreground. Adjustment sliders for exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, whites, and blacks are visible on the right. — Adobe Lightroom on iPad is okay, but it’s somewhat undermined by the file management system on iPadOS.

On the other hand, Apple markets the iPad Pro like it can do all work. When you use it with the Magic Keyboard case, complete with its improved trackpad and keyboard, it’s pretty much a laptop in form — not so much when it comes to function.

While most of the time, I love the iPad Pro for precisely what it is, the gap between what the iPad Pro is and what I wish it was feels like the Grand Canyon when I try to do specific, relatively simple things — like process a photo for use in an article on PetaPixel.

My workflow on macOS is simple. It requires downloading and saving assets, resizing photos, renaming and organizing them, and uploading them to a media library. These are all routine tasks that are so simple on a computer. But on iPad? Not so much.

This isn’t all on Apple, though. Third-party developers must take some of the blame. For example, Adobe Photoshop on iPad is a shell of the desktop version. I tried some competing apps to see if I could figure out a way to do my job on iPad, but no. There were always some limitations that weren’t present on Mac, and at some point, I had to accept that the iPad Pro must complement a “proper” computer.

A person is holding a tablet displaying an image of a star-filled space scene. The screen shows various editing tools, indicating the person is working on enhancing or analyzing the cosmic image. The background is neutral, keeping the focus on the tablet and its content.

“iPadOS and apps. Workflow workhorses,” Apple says on the iPad Pro’s product page. For some users, that’s undoubtedly true. For me, it isn’t, and part of me thinks that for the price Apple wants for the iPad Pro and the power it has at its disposal, it should be easier to use the tablet the way I want to.

The iPadOS overhaul some have wanted for years, basically since the very first iPad Pro was introduced, is seemingly never coming. Apple has a clear vision of what it wants the iPad to be, and given the tablet’s popularity, it obviously overlaps with the market at large. iPadOS has continually gotten better, and I can use my iPad Pro for a broader range of tasks than I used to be able to, but I think it’s time I accept that the iPad Pro might never be the complete computer I wish it were, and believe it could be.

A tablet with a digital pen rests on a wooden surface. The tablet's screen displays a handwritten note on digital paper. The note reads, "The new Apple pencil 2nd is pretty nice, but my handwriting isn't." Various pen and color options are displayed at the top.

For the things that I can do on the iPad Pro, its performance is superb. For the things I wish I could do, well, I can’t do them. But the power is there.

The Best Tablet I’ve Ever Used Still Has Room to Improve

Judging the 2024 iPad Pro for what it is, it’s one of Apple’s best products ever. It’s certainly the company’s best iPad, and it’s not even close. The new iPad Pro is Apple at its finest, perfectly blending form and function.

Based on what the iPad Pro could be, the device, like all its predecessors, has left something on the table. However, at some point, my wanting the iPad to be something it isn’t is on me, not Apple.

Close-up of a hand holding a pen over a detailed Dungeons & Dragons character sheet, filing in attributes and stats. — Photo by Jaron Schneider

But ultimately, I bought the new iPad Pro with my money, and it wasn’t cheap. The 13-inch model I purchased is $1,899, although the base 13-inch model is $1,199, and the 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $899.

A tablet with a keyboard attachment is displayed on a wooden surface. The screen shows a vibrant image of the Northern Lights in hues of blue, green, and purple. The device is set against a plain, light-colored background.

Once I added the keyboard case, which I use all the time, and the Apple Pencil Pro, which I don’t, the total came to $2,347. That’s a serious chunk of change for a tablet, especially one limited in ways that frustrate me. However, when I stay in the lane Apple has so meticulously crafted — whether I should have to is a much broader question that concerns Apple’s entire ecosystem — the new iPad Pro is sublime. It’s worth the price to me.

I love the iPad Pro. Could I love it more if only Apple would let me? Yes, but I still love it.

A laptop displaying stunning space images from the James Webb Space Telescope is placed on a wooden table. Next to the laptop is a light blue and beige coffee mug. The screen shows various celestial photographs and data visualizations.

Are There Alternatives?

There are numerous alternatives, and depending on precisely what someone wants out of a tablet, there are some very good ones. Within Apple’s ecosystem, users can opt for an older iPad Pro without the M4 and OLED. While Apple itself doesn’t sell them, they’re out there, and they come at a reasonable discount.

The new iPad Air, announced alongside the redesigned iPad Pro, lacks some of the Pro’s bells and whistles, including the display, but it sports an M2 chip and offers plenty of performance and features for many tablet users. It also starts at $549, a more budget-friendly price tag than the latest iPad Pro.

Beyond Apple, there are some compelling choices. The latest Microsoft Surface Pro is about the same price as the 13-inch iPad Pro and can run full-blown Windows. It is arguably a worse tablet than the iPad Pro but a better laptop replacement for those who enjoy using Windows.

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra ($1,049 for the 256GB model) has a bigger 14-inch display and is functionally similar to the iPad Pro, albeit powered by Android. It’s fair to describe it as an iPad for Samsung Galaxy owners and a fine alternative.