New iPad Pro Reviews: Mini-LED Display Looks Great, M1 Performance Held Back by iPadOS

[MacRumors]

Author: Joe Rossignol

The embargo has lifted on reviews of Apple's new iPad Pro, providing a hands-on look at the device before orders beginning arriving to customers this Friday. Key new features include Apple's custom M1 chip for impressive performance improvements, a brighter mini-LED display on the 12.9-inch model, Thunderbolt 3 support, and 5G on cellular models.

While the new iPad Pro is around 50% faster than the previous generation model with the A12Z chip, some reviewers believe this impressive performance improvement is held back by the iPadOS operating system.

Caitlin McGarry at Gizmodo:

The iPad's hardware is a non-issue at this point. Apple's tablet gets better with every iteration, and the M1 iPad with miniLED display is truly impressive. There are no other tablets that can compare.

But the iPad Pro isn't competing against other tablets. It's competing against the Mac. And though the iPad is very, very capable, its software often feels hamstrung compared to the Mac's. I give this example all the time, but my most-used app is Airtable, a project management tool I use for my job all day every day. The iPad app looks and works perfectly, just like the Mac app, until I have to do a random task and it boots me to Airtable on the web, which would never happen on the Mac.

The Verge's Dieter Bohn said the mini-LED display on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is functionally equivalent to a high-end OLED TV to his eyes:

The joke I've been telling people is that the display is so good that Tenet actually makes sense when you watch it on this iPad Pro. HDR content is incredible on this screen. I am not a display quality enthusiast, but this screen is functionally equivalent to a high-end OLED TV to my eyes, especially in a dark room.

We've rounded up a list of more iPad Pro reviews below:

• Federico Viticci at MacStories
  
• Jake Krol at CNN Underscored
  
• Todd Haselton at CNBC

The new iPad Pro became available to order starting April 30, and orders will begin arriving to customers on May 21.
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Tag: reviews
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