We may earn a commission if you make a purchase from the links on this page. It has been three years since Apple shocked the world by launching the iPad Pro with an M1 chip inside. And that's not an exaggeration -- M1 was an industry disruptor when it was introduced with Mac laptops in 2020.

Intel stock fell, everyone was gawking at the benchmark scores and was in disbelief with their battery life. By employing the ARM architecture, Apple had produced chips that were ahead of the competition, probably ahead of their time -- tech pundits would chant this at the time.

But then, putting that highly efficient chip inside the iPads was something we did not expect.

And, to be honest, iPadOS wasn't even ready for it. Some might argue -- it still isn't. Even though Apple's tablets now have literally desktop-class chips inside them that are capable of rendering video, audio, and 3D graphics at incredible speeds, the apps and general iPadOS workflow are barely making use of that power's full potential.

Yet, Apple wasn't done. In early 2024, it launched the iPad Pro with an M4 chip inside. This was, again, a shocker because the M4 hadn't appeared anywhere yet - not on MacBooks, not on Mac minis or iMacs. The latest generation of Apple's powerful chip launched... on a tablet! (Since then, Apple did refresh the Mac mini and MacBook lines to have M4 in October).

To this I say:

You will definitely miss out on the new Tandem OLED screens in the new iPad Pros, I'll give them that. They look awesome, they get very bright, and they have fantastic contrast. But then again, Apple's LCD panels are also expertly tuned, and I can't say they look "bad" per se.

You will miss out on support for the new Apple Pencil Pro, if that's a concern, and you are an artist -- you could also look for an iPad Pro with M2 inside. M2 iPads support the new Pencil Pro and also have the Pencil Hover feature, which displays a cursor on the screen as you bring the tip close to the glass.