Apple recently revealed the new 2021 iPad pro at their spring-loaded event, and I've got to say what they did with it is absolutely mind-blowing, surprising me on multiple fronts. Throughout the entire presentation, I could only think of one thing that apple seriously just killed the rest of the tablet market. R.I.P to all the other tablets out there.
Now I want you to go through a brief history of the iPad Pro because it wasn't always this good. I honestly have no idea how Samsung, Microsoft, or any of the other tablet makers will recover from this. Let me explain.
The 2018 iPad pro blew a lot of people's minds when it was released. Still, it had some major issues that many of the reviewers addressed, mainly the limited software support for file management and the new USB-C port, making the experience a bit disappointing. On top of that, the mouse support was terrible Even after they released the first version of iPad OS and the display support was really bad as well. At the time, Samsung's galaxy tab S5 E had mouse and cursor support that made it very convenient to use, especially with the Samsung Dex feature, which made file management work great. Then the tab S6 came out, giving the iPad Pro even more competition since Samsung added a trackpad onto the keyboard case making it super convenient to use.
Until finally, in 2020, Apple released the brand-new magic keyboard case with a trackpad alongside the new iPad Pro, making it the best iPad experience we've ever seen, especially since they improved multitasking, file management, and more. In fact, it was so impressive that I started recommending the iPad pro magic keyboard case combo over Apple’s intel-based MacBooks, which at the time were experiencing huge butterfly keyboard issues. While the iPad pro had a touch screen, even better performance, and a completely fan-less design, when Samsung released the tab S7, the iPad pro continued to destroy it in many different ways being the obvious choice for a premium tablet.
However, the iPad pro still had issues like being limited to 6GB of ram on the base model, the display was still using the same Lead tech from 2017, and external display support still sucked. But even with those issues, the iPad Pro was still by far the best tablet to buy.
But now Apple has just put the final nail in the coffin. The new 2021 iPad pro is so good that you'd be crazy to buy any other premium tablet in that price range. What absolutely blew my mind is when Tim Cook put the M1 chip into the iPad pro. That was hilarious. I honestly thought it would be a 14X chip, but they literally put a mac chip with all of its extra mac related components into a super thin and light tablet. Now, if you're expecting the performance to match the other macs, don't because they're going to be lowering the wattage of the M1 chip. So, the iPad Pro can stay cool and get the same 10 hours of battery life as before.
Thankfully, we can actually calculate the performance using Apple's own performance improvement numbers, which are usually a bit conservative by applying a 50% jump to the previous iPad pros 812 Z chip CPU score. We can expect around 7042 multicore points in geek bench 5, which isn't that far from the actual M1X, but we forget about comparing it to a mac. Look what happens when we compare the iPad Pro to the performance of other tablets.
The future galaxy tab S8, which might be coming within the next few months, is rumored to be coming with the latest snapdragon 888 chip, which only scored around 3400 points in Samsung's S21 ultra. So based on that, the new iPad pro will quite literally have more than double the performance of the future tab S8, which is mind-blowing.
The iPad Pro gets the full 8 core GPU and the M1 chip, moving over to the graphic side. And Apple says that we should see a 40% improvement in graphics. If we take the 12,000 metal score points that we got with the A12Z and add 40%, we should expect close to 17,000 points in the geek bench 5 metal tests.
Based on that, the base-level MacBook air is only around 10% faster than the iPad Pro, which isn't that big of a performance hit considering how thin the iPad Pro really is. And since the MacBook air scored around 69.85 fps in the GFX bench 1440 p Aztec ruins off-screen test, we can expect the iPad protest score around 63.5 fps in that specific benchmark.
And then, if we take that number and compare it to what the snapdragon 888 scored within the S21 ultra, we can expect the iPad Pro to be around 2.3 times faster than the future tab S8. So just like that, the iPad pro just buried Samsung tab S8, which isn't even expected to get released until this August, when the previous two tabs came out. And don't even ask me about Microsoft's new surface pro X with the SQ2 chip, which is even weaker than the snapdragon 888.
The one complaint that many iPad Pro users had in the past is finally fixed. We now get 8GB of ram on the base iPad Pro and up to 16GB if you get a higher storage model. So, the iPad Pro is now a literal powerhouse. But wait, there's more; we're only just getting started with the tablet slaughter fast. The iPad Pro is now the only tablet that comes with an actual thunderbolt port, which is extremely impressive and opens it up to a world of possibilities.
First, you can now connect full-speed thunderbolt drives like the Sabrient one. You can now connect high bandwidth thunderbolt hubs and docks like the crazy OWC hub, which gives you USB 3.2 ports and an extra 2 full speed thunderbolt ports, as we've already tested and shown off with their M1 mac mini. And of course, the iPad Pro now finally gets full external display support even with the 6k pro display XDR, which is mind-blowing. Let's see if any other tablet can make that claim. No, they can't!
Of course, we have the other new great features like the optional 5G support, which is actually twice as fast as what you get with the iPhone 12; better camera features like smart HDR 3 and night mode as well as the new ultrawide facetime camera with these center stage feature, which I think is great because previously the webcam was way too zoomed in on the iPad pro.
But by far, the most important feature is the brand-new mini led display that comes on the 12.9-inch iPad pro. When Apple announced this, it blew my mind even though I was already expecting the mini-led display. I did not expect a massive 1600 nits of peak brightness for supporting HDR content like HDR 10, HLG, and even Dolby Vision with an amazing a million to one contrast ratio. This blows my mind because those specs match up perfectly to apple’s pro display XDR, which, by the way, costs $5000 without the stand.
So, for just $100 more than last year's 12.9-inch iPad Pro, you're getting an M1 chip and a display that matches the performance of a $5000 to $6000 pro display XDR. This means that actual professionals are going to be buying the 12.9-inch iPad Pro for color grading, photo editing, or whatever else they want to do, even if it's just to use the display.
Based on the leak from John Prosser, I'm almost 100% sure that at this year's WWDC, Apple is going to be adding final cut, logic, and XCode, or maybe even more apps to the iPad Pro, which is going to be able to use all of that power.
And now, comparing the iPad pros' new mini-led display to the rest of the tablet market, nothing else can compete. Yes, the larger 12.4-inch tab S7 plus has a really nice super OLED display, with a high contrast ratio and nice colors, but there are many downsides to OLED. First off, it doesn't get nearly as bright, only up to 430 nits, so it doesn't even give you true HDR support, unlike 1600 for the iPad pro.
And 2nd, you're going to be dealing with issues like screen flickering and potential display burning issues as well. But with the iPad pro’s new mini-led display, none of those issues exist at all because it's actually still using an LCD panel. Still, the backlighting is redesigned with over 10,000 mini-LEDs in over 2500 local dimming zones to help achieve that contrast ratio. So, in terms of the display, the 12.9-inch iPad pro absolutely kills any other tablet out there, and I think it's going to take them years to catch up. And even if you choose to buy the 11-inch iPad pro without the mini-led display, you're still getting a killer value for $800 compared to any other tablet because of the performance of the M1 Chip, the new thunderbolt ports, and everything else. The only downside is that it's not going to be coming out until sometime in May.
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