Apple has just unveiled the new sixth-generation iPad Pro. The company’s latest flagship tablet is unsurprisingly equipped with the M2 chip, which made its debut in the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro earlier this year. It will be available in the same two screen sizes as before: a choice of 12.9-inch and 11-inch sizes.
As with the 2021 update, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro features Mini LED display technology for improved black levels, better contrast and HDR performance, while the smaller model sticks with a lower screen in a practical configuration, but both support Apple’s ProMotion feature with refresh rates of up to 120Hz.
The new iPad Pro keeps the same overall design that Apple has been using since 2018 when the company removed the Home button for the first time to maximize the display area. But it’s hard to call it a ‘full screen, as there are still visible bezels on all four sides, a look that has lasted four years and continues to this day.
The new iPad Pro has a new ‘hover’ Apple Pencil feature that detects when the stylus is slightly above the screen. Apple says this lets users “see a preview of what they’ll see before they make a mark”.
It also allows users to sketch and illustrate with greater precision and makes everything they do with the Apple Pencil easier. For example, when using Scribble, text fields automatically expand when the pencil is near the screen and handwritten content is converted to text more quickly. Third-party apps can also take advantage of this new feature, enabling a whole new experience of marking and drawing.
Apple says iPadOS 16 is the latest major software update to the platform and will be released sometime this month. iPadOS is behind the release of iOS 16 in part because Apple has struggled with a new feature called ‘Stage Manager’, described as “a new way to multitask easily”, which has been poorly received by some iPad power users during beta testing and criticized as It was poorly received and criticized as having performance issues.
Apple has responded to some of the feedback on Stage Manager by delaying support for external displays and expanding the feature to support more iPad models.
The M2 iPad Pro supports the fastest Wi-Fi 6E available, with download speeds of up to 2.4Gb/s, two times faster than its predecessor. And the Wi-Fi+ cellular model also supports 5G (sub-6GHz and mmWave).
The new 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro will be available in silver and space grey finish in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB configurations. The 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $799 and is available to order now. The M2 iPad Pro will be available on Wednesday 26 October.
