The new iPad Pro with the M2 chip will start arriving at customers and will launch in stores on Wednesday, October 26. Ahead, early reviews of the new iPad Pro have now been shared by some media publications and YouTube channels.
Key new features in the 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro include the M2 chip, Wi-Fi 6E support, new hover functionality for Apple Pencil, and recording support ProRes video. The device also has Smart HDR 4 and supports Bluetooth 5.3.
We’ve collected written and video reviews of the new iPad Pro below.
Written notices
The new iPad Pro is able to detect the second-generation Apple Pencil as it hovers up to 12mm above the screen, allowing users to preview their drawing before drawing. Federico Viticci at MacStories called the feature “a really nice surprise” because he found it useful for interacting with iPadOS as a whole:
I’m here to tell you, though, that Apple Pencil Hover goes beyond improving the typical iPad drawing experience: it’s also a convenient way to control the iPadOS UI, adding a new dimension to tactile interactions. I didn’t expect to use Apple Pencil Hover at all because I’m not an artist; its native integration with interface elements across the system has proven to be one of my favorite additions to iPadOS this year – certainly more so than Stage Manager.
For example, Viticci said the Apple Pencil hover can be used to preview and browse videos on the YouTube website in Safari.
Jason Snell from six colors expressed disappointment that the iPad Pro still had a 2018 design and said the device would get some features that the new 10th generation iPad received, such as a landscape FaceTime camera and a Magic Keyboard with function keys :
This makes the fourth revision of this design without any substantial exterior changes. It’s a good design, yes, but it’s a little frustrating that it’s been in stasis for four full years. The repositioned FaceTime camera from the 10th generation iPad would be welcome on a new iPad Pro. A revised version of the Magic Keyboard introduced in April 2020 with that extra row of function keys like the Magic Keyboard Folio would also be nice.
But while the low-end iPad points to the future, the iPad Pro M2 remains in stasis. The screen is unchanged from the M1 generation, which means that only the 12.9-inch model benefits from the excellent Liquid Retina XDR display, and the 11-inch model remains excluded. There are several iPads available in 11-inch form factors, so it would be nice if the iPad Pro were a little better differentiated from (say) the iPad Air. It’s not.
Apple claims the new iPad Pro has up to 15% faster CPU performance and up to 35% faster GPU performance compared to the previous model with the M1 chip. EngadgetNathan Ingraham said the 12.9-inch iPad Pro with the M2 chip was “much more responsive” in early testing than his 11-inch iPad Pro with the 2020 A12Z chip:
In the short time that I tested the latest 12.9-inch iPad Pro, I can say that it is much more responsive than my personal 11-inch iPad Pro from 2020 as well as the new iPad that I also tested. Those other devices aren’t slow by any stretch of the imagination, but the M2-powered iPad Pro responds to everything almost instantly. Of course, the same can be said for the iPad Pro M1, especially given my modest workflow.
Mac Otakara shared Geekbench 5 results for the new iPad Pro which confirms about a 15-16% increase in multi-core performance over the previous model (score of 8,516 for the 12.9-inch model with M2 chip versus 7,326 for the 12.9 inch model with M1 chip):
Mashableby Stan Schroeder said that the new Stage Manager feature in iPadOS 16 remains “buggy” on the new iPad Pro and is “far from perfect”:
Stage Manager was also buggy. For example, summoning it with the keyboard trackpad, which you do by moving the cursor to the left of the screen, would sometimes not work. Some apps, including Facebook and Apple’s own weather (which is new to the iPad), sometimes look messy when resized in Stage Manager. It’s annoying that application windows stubbornly stick to a certain size when you need them to be a little bigger or smaller. I think it’s better than Slide Over and Split View as a multitasker, but it’s still far from perfect.
Video reviews and unboxings
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