Testing Apple’s M5 iPad Pro: Future-proofing for Apple’s perennial overkill tablet

It's a gorgeous tablet, but what does an iPad need with more processing power?

See full article...

 

[darwinosx]

I got myself the base iPad with the A16. No complaints so far.
So many people buy the Pro for no good reason.

lol according to you. Not everyone is you. Shocking right?

 

[lasertekk]

I find it amusing that all the tech sites make the comparisons to the previous generation devices. Never mind M4, M2, or even M1, I am upgrading from a second generation Pro with A10X and 4GB of RAM from eight years ago. That ought to be a decent jump.

Ah, same situation, but maybe a year or so older...a freebie bonus for getting my solar panels. It still does everything it did out of the box. The battery doesn't seem to have aged much, still providing a full day of use, including a few hours of movie watching. It's never been dropped, the screen is perfect, as is the frame. There's just no reason to replace at this point. I'll wait until it dies.

 

[ch303]

Still rocking the iPad Pro 11" from 2018. It is a bit sluggish at times, but overall still does fine for the little bit I use it. Honestly the thing that temps me to upgrade (likely to a now cheaper, previous model) is the fact that I foolishly bought the 64GB storage which means I'm constantly maxed out.

 

[kingjj]

Well, hang on here, it's not just the processor.

For a long time, the current-at-the-time MacOS, Windows and Linux were all capable of running on an i7 processor for example but developing for those OSes was a wildly different experience in most situations.

Well, I don't know that hence why I'm asking. It just seems odd that everything BUT mac seems to have cracked being able to run standard desktop environments on tablets while mac needs a hardware specific environment. Yet at the same time mac boasts about having the fastest processors, most memory, best screens, etc. Those sound great, and something that would be wonderful to run Reaper or Ableton on. But I can't. Even though there are Apple Silicon versions of both, and both can be run on Lenovo tablets at a quarter of the cost (they even come with a pen and keyboard if the app doesn't do touchscreen)

So it seems while Apple has the fastest/best everything, they seem to be lagging behind in general usability because of... well, that's what I'm trying to deduce.

 

[alexvoda]

Apple, give us virtual machines on the iPad already!!

 

[Sei_kū]

I know its a niche use-case, but with Blender coming to iPadOS

?! Really?! やった!

I’ve always wanted to try blender. Having it on iPad might be what gets me to make the leap. Along with upgrading from my 2nd gen iPad Pro lol.

Yet again, I am begging Ars Technica and other publications to find people who like tablets to review them. Don’t give them to reporters who love laptops and want the iPad to be a laptop.

Agree. The reviewers (and most commenters) are clearly people who do most of their serious computing on laptops or desktops. I haven’t bought a laptop or desktop in over 15 years and now do all of my work on my iPad. It makes your perspective of the updates and upgrades completely different.

 

[Frodo Douchebaggins]

Apple, give us virtual machines on the iPad already!!

A proper terminal app would be a good start

Anyone done the hard yards to find a good third party one?

Would also love vs code and Xcode some day.

 

[Marlor_AU]

I'm no iPad power-user. Most of the time, I just use my iPad to read digital replicas of newspapers/magazines and for some occasional web browsing. But even then, the Pro line is tempting. When on business trips, it gets a workout as my primary device, and when on holidays, it gets heavy use for reviewing and editing photos.

But mostly, my current iPad Pro has offered really good longevity. I'm still using a first-gen model from 2015, and it's only now starting to feel like it's time to upgrade (it's stuck on iPadOS 16). Meanwhile, my wife's base-model 8th gen iPad from 2020 is starting to struggle - both in terms of available storage space for updates and in terms of general perfomance (our ten year old iPad Pro actually has more RAM than the five year old iPad).

Just looking at the list prices, the Pro is considerably more expensive than the standard iPad. However the Pro comes with twice the storage, and an upgrade to matching storage in the base model increases its price by a third. The Pro also comes with twice the RAM, and a much faster processor, which will aid longevity.

Then there are accessories. With each iPad upgrade we've made, there have been enough changes to form-factors and interfaces that keyboards and cases are not forward-compatible. An upgrade comes with costs over and above just the cost of the tablet itself. Perfectly good accessories are scrapped and new ones need to be purchased.

If (as happened this time around) the Pro gives me twice the longevity of the standard iPad, allows me to keep accessories for longer, and provides a better overall experience, then it seems like it may be a justifiable expense. Maybe.

 

[Isaacc7]

Well, I don't know that hence why I'm asking. It just seems odd that everything BUT mac seems to have cracked being able to run standard desktop environments on tablets while mac needs a hardware specific environment. Yet at the same time mac boasts about having the fastest processors, most memory, best screens, etc. Those sound great, and something that would be wonderful to run Reaper or Ableton on. But I can't. Even though there are Apple Silicon versions of both, and both can be run on Lenovo tablets at a quarter of the cost (they even come with a pen and keyboard if the app doesn't do touchscreen)

So it seems while Apple has the fastest/best everything, they seem to be lagging behind in general usability because of... well, that's what I'm trying to deduce.

Apple makes Macs for computer software. The iPad’s entire point is that it is a different kind of way of using software. It is emphatically not behind on useability! The only way you can claim that is if you try to use it like a regular computer. Why would you want to run Reaper on an iPad? It’s an amazing Mac and Windows program. On the other hand programs like Drambo, AUM, Animoog Z, and many many others are amazing programs to use in musical performances. None of which are available on Windows, Mac, or Android.

People hate to hear this but the closed software system has led to a thriving music ecosystem on the iPad. Most of them concentrate on performance. When there is overlap between the iPad and Mac/Windows software the iPad is usually 2-3 times cheaper. Eventide and Moog are good examples of this.

If you embrace the uniqueness of the platform and the software made for it, the iPad is a compelling computer to use especially for music. Visual artists seem to have their own pen based software systems that are both incredibly performant and inexpensive. If you insist on using the same software on the iPad as you do on your desktop you will never understand it.

And Andrew and others asking why there is so much power in the iPad the answer is simple. The more powerful the hardware is, the more powerful the software can be. If Apple didn’t keep pushing the envelope we wouldn’t get Davinci Resolve, Blender, Affinity Designer, etc. etc. etc. on the iPad. Build good hardware with a good software market and developers will take advantage.

 

[NickN]

Yet again, I am begging Ars Technica and other publications to find people who like tablets to review them. Don’t give them to reporters who love laptops and want the iPad to be a laptop.

It says right there in the headline to stop reading the article. I’ll grant you, it’s an unconventional journalistic approach.

 

[Ashan McNealy]

I feel like the iPad Air should get the iPad Pro chassis in its next update, whereas the iPad Pro should go thicker, include more battery, get FaceID on multiple sides, and much slimmer bezels with software touch input rejection. With the new Liquid Glass UI, Apple can define the offset of the button overlays and the content can go right to the edge of the device. With the thicker chassis, the speakers can also be brought back to their original glory.

 

[Marlor_AU]

Yet again, I am begging Ars Technica and other publications to find people who like tablets to review them. Don’t give them to reporters who love laptops and want the iPad to be a laptop.

I think this is a case where two reviews, or two opinions in a single review, would make sense.

If you're primarily a laptop user thinking: "could I do what I need to do with a tablet instead?", then there's real value in getting an unbiased, professional review on that use case. On the other hand, if you're a tablet native, then a review that caters to that would be much more useful. Ars surely has people in both camps on staff.

Personally, I'd also like to see reviews take into account the people who only upgrade when their previous device stops getting updates. Too often reviews state things like: "just an incremental speed bump on last year's model". Well, if I had last year's model, I certainly wouldn't be looking to buy a new one this year! This ultimately means I need to go and read through the past ten years of reviews to find what has changed since my current model. A recap on key features carried over (and those that aren't) is always useful.

 

[altsuperego]

Apple, give us virtual machines on the iPad already!!

Yeah this seems like such an easy add for Apple to make everyone happy. Just put together a virtualization manager that's has a MacOS image ready to go for power users.

 

[Vnend]

I guess I haven't looked at the iPad (Pro) in several years. Unfortunately, when I considered doing so late last year, I was told that the Mini was not available, and, if I'm going to get one that I don't intend to use primarily as a drawing device, then I want one I can drop in a pocket and take with me, even if it's just around the house. (Yes, I like big pockets...)

I may take a look at them when I get a working car again.

 

[dimathiel]

Regardless of the name, why does it need a special version of Blender that's yet to be released? There's a version of Blender for the M chips (and intel) already. Why doesn't the iPadOS run that (or the iPad run OSX or whatever it's named now)?

In case I'm not clear, I'm trying to see if there's a compelling reason that iPads run something other than Apple's desktop OS, even though they should be able to spec-wise

Because if it ran MacOS it would be a Mac? Which you can already get just without a touchscreen.

 

[dimathiel]

I got myself the base iPad with the A16. No complaints so far.
So many people buy the Pro for no good reason.

Because I can, is good enough reason for me to get one.

 

[LexaGrey]

I am not an artist myself, but reading a review by an artist on another site if you slap a paper texture on the screen it is superior in almost every way to an old fashioned book and pencil system. The Apple Pencil is superior to the Wacom of old and you don’t have to lug a full portfolio and box of paints with you to locations.

Apple itself has mentioned in past news that the paint programs often support ridiculous sizes and numbers of layers and likewise the music apps support nearly unlimited simultaneous tracks.

I would like to see a review of the new M5 ray tracing features in action. This may well be a tablet that far surpasses the new mobile X-Box if developers get in a mood. For a somewhat gaming site this review does a terrible job.

I for one encourage these incremental updates to keep the bar moving for everyone else.

 

[Moodyz]

I bought my M4 iPad Pro earlier this year and I'd have upgraded to this if I could get the matte screen option on the 256 or 512gb version.

I f'ing hate glossy screens but Apple either misunderstands my finances or the relationship between my hatred of glossy screens, and my self control.

Fortunately, the matte film I applied to my iPad (and iPhone) is pretty good.

I think your solution is better (the usual PITA application process notwithstanding). The matte screen option seems to show wear marks after a couple of weeks of Apple Pencil use according to posts I’ve seen online.

 

[Cthel]

I am not an artist myself, but reading a review by an artist on another site if you slap a paper texture on the screen it is superior in almost every way to an old fashioned book and pencil system. The Apple Pencil is superior to the Wacom of old and you don’t have to lug a full portfolio and box of paints with you to locations.

Apple itself has mentioned in past news that the paint programs often support ridiculous sizes and numbers of layers and likewise the music apps support nearly unlimited simultaneous tracks.

I would like to see a review of the new M5 ray tracing features in action. This may well be a tablet that far surpasses the new mobile X-Box if developers get in a mood. For a somewhat gaming site this review does a terrible job.

I for one encourage these incremental updates to keep the bar moving for everyone else.

I'm not sure this is true in isolation - the Wacom stylus is passive (no battery life) and has an "eraser" on the other end (which is more intuitive than the Apple pencil's capcitive switching, especially the early models without haptic feedback), plus right- and double-click buttons and a more ergonomic design (hence the preponderance of third-party grips available for the Apple Pencil)

On the other hand, the iPad+Apple Pencil combo is way better than Wacom's first attempts at a portable drawing tablet (the Cintiq Companion), which is why mine hasn't been used since I got an iPad during lockdown.

Wacom's latest iPad competitors look a lot closer to the iPad, so I guess score one for competition improving the consumer experience?

Plus, Procreate includes reasonable animation tools if you want to dip your toes into that, at which point it's replacing a lightbox, peg bar and huge stack of paper, all in something you can easily fit in a reasonable-sized bag.

 

[comadose]

I did a double take when I saw that photo. The OS looks like something one of the budget brands would have thrown out 10 years ago. It's the side bars and overly rounded corners that really do. Probably the fake glass effect too, very Windows Vista.

 

[macosandlinux]

for those of us who do art and photography work on ipad, there's never too much processing power.

and storage

 

[bri2000]

Still, it remains unclear why most people would spend one, two, or even three thousand dollars on a tablet that, despite its amazing hardware, does less than a comparably priced laptop—or at least does it a little more awkwardly, even if it’s impressively quick and has a gorgeous screen

This sort of “Hurr, durr the iPad Pro has a laptop chipset therefore should be a laptop” attitude from nerds who clearly just want a laptop (in which case the MacBook Air is right there; buy that) and don’t care about the capabilities that are unique to the iPad Pro really irritates me. Especially as Apple seems to have started listening to them rather than real iPad Pro users and are leaning into making it more laptop like; despite that group being very unlikely to actually buy an iPad Pro, preferring instead to jeer from the sidelines at the people who do because they don’t share our needs and preferences so therefore we must be wrong about what we want and how we choose to spend our money.

I need a device on which I can make manuscript mark-ups of documents using the Pencil while on Teams calls quickly switching between between OneNote, browser windows, pdf viewers and Word as necessary on the second half of the screen as necessary, and do the occasional bit of document editing when the changes are minor and I can’t be arsed to go to my home office to use the laptop.

This ‘make it a laptop’ way of thinking by Apple has manifested in two main ways that annoy the hell out of me.

The first is the discontinuation of the Smart keyboard forcing the bulky and inflexible ‘Magic’ (I’ve always felt that smart is better than magic in the hierarchy of things see e.g. smart v magical thinking) keyboard onto everyone. For me this means that when I do need to type on it I can no longer just flip the case front round and convert in seconds it but have to go looking for where I left the ‘Magic’ keyboard as it’s not practical keep that attached at all times. I may as well use a laptop if I’m going to be forced into landscape mode and have a bulky keyboard in my lap even when I don’t need it. I literally never use the trackpad as navigating text using keyboard shortcuts is so much faster.

The second, and far worse, change is iPadOS 26 removing Split View (kind of ironic that iPadOS auto corrects that to an upper case proper noun when they’ve removed that function from the OS) and forcing everyone to use Stage Manager. This has completely broken multitasking for me as attempting to drag and resize windows with fingers is incredibly inaccurate and finicky compared to tapping the three dots at the top then whichever app I want to switch half the screen to. I’m told the windowing features work better with a trackpad (or, presumably, mouse) and with keyboard shortcuts for window tiling but, as noted, the vast majority of the time I am not using either of those and need to rely on my fat fingers. I absolutely hate the clunkiness of the new system and am constantly embarrassed that I need to ask clients to pause for a minute or so while I desperately attempt to get the windows I need up and properly sized. I don’t understand why the old system of having Stage Manager as an option for people who want to waste screen real estate on window edges with Split View for the rest of us as with the last few versions of iPadOS couldn’t be retained.

I’ve seen it rumoured that Split View is coming back with iPadOS 26.1 and can only pray that’s true as I’ve got a new 1TB M5 Pro to replace my M4 (the screen is slightly scratched and the battery is starting to show signs of age) that should be arriving later today and would really like to keep using it for work without the re-engineering my workflow that the removal of Split View has required.

With that out of my system, I’d like to add that I think the ugly in this review should be that the higher end M5 models didn’t get a RAM upgrade despite the lower end models getting an extra 50%. The 1TB and higher storage models have been stuck on 16GB since the M1 and in my experience that’s starting to feel a bit restrictive with apps being shut down far more frequently than they used to be, causing delays when switching as the app reloads. I’m guessing that Apple Intelligence (whatever that actually does) is the culprit here. I was really hoping for an upgrade to 24 or even 32GB.

 

[limeos]

IPad Pros are the perfect boomer computers. Simpler more iPhone-like face-id for easy unlock, a great keyboard with stable stand, a touchscreen that makes a mouse superfluous, built-in cloud storage for all the important stuff, supports all the big apps be it streaming or banking.

 

[seraphimcaduto]

Apple makes Macs for computer software. The iPad’s entire point is that it is a different kind of way of using software. It is emphatically not behind on useability! The only way you can claim that is if you try to use it like a regular computer. Why would you want to run Reaper on an iPad? It’s an amazing Mac and Windows program. On the other hand programs like Drambo, AUM, Animoog Z, and many many others are amazing programs to use in musical performances. None of which are available on Windows, Mac, or Android.

People hate to hear this but the closed software system has led to a thriving music ecosystem on the iPad. Most of them concentrate on performance. When there is overlap between the iPad and Mac/Windows software the iPad is usually 2-3 times cheaper. Eventide and Moog are good examples of this.

If you embrace the uniqueness of the platform and the software made for it, the iPad is a compelling computer to use especially for music. Visual artists seem to have their own pen based software systems that are both incredibly performant and inexpensive. If you insist on using the same software on the iPad as you do on your desktop you will never understand it.

And Andrew and others asking why there is so much power in the iPad the answer is simple. The more powerful the hardware is, the more powerful the software can be. If Apple didn’t keep pushing the envelope we wouldn’t get Davinci Resolve, Blender, Affinity Designer, etc. etc. etc. on the iPad. Build good hardware with a good software market and developers will take advantage.

Thank you for saying what I could not put into words! I know I wish it could do everything from a standpoint of wanting to own less devices but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it does ALOT of things very well that I would have never tried before. I only upgraded to an m4 pro myself due to the kids inheriting my M1 Pro. The choice was two new low end iPads and I keep my M1 Pro or they share the M1 Pro and I upgrade. They mostly draw and use it in the car for long trips to watch movies, rather than something that’s used daily so it’s overkill but it was cost effective.

Heck my oldest kid loves to draw and does things with sketch programs I certainly couldn’t replicate and he’s 7.

 

[Numfuddle]

If the "why is the iPad like it is? Apple should turn it into a laptop" crowd ever succeeds then I don't know what I'll do. Maybe I'll buy a Macbook Air instead because if that happens the iPad has lost any and all of the usefulness it currently has for me - because it's not a laptop.

 

[Kittycatgomeowmeow]

I re-quote your self-quote as an affirmation of my perspective.

I do it because I want to mark up documents using the Apple Pencil and I have never found any product that comes close to the feel and usability of the iPad. That plus daily usage on internet surfing, tv watching while working out, photo management, etc makes it a great choice. A couple thousand dollars for a machine that I can use every day in numerous contexts for 5 years is a not a particularly tough call.

 

[Errum]

You really have been out of the loop if you didn't notice that it runs iPadOS rather than iOS. The phone and tablet branches of the OS have been distinct for a while.

And iPadOS 26 has a phone app!

 

[Errum]

Because I can, is good enough reason for me to get one.

And that’s another part of the iPad Pro market. I don’t use my 11" M4 Pro for audio, video or art, activities that might more objectively justify the Pro’s capabilities. But I do use mine a lot during an average day — right now, in fact! — and appreciate its display quality and other high end features. My wife has a current model iPad Air, which while pretty nice, feels clunky in the hand by comparison.

I do find it odd that Apple doesn’t provide the ability to develop Xcode projects for iPadOS/iOS on iPadOS though (the nearest you can get would be Swift Playgrounds), or have a Terminal app.

 

[barich]

Well, I don't know that hence why I'm asking. It just seems odd that everything BUT mac seems to have cracked being able to run standard desktop environments on tablets while mac needs a hardware specific environment. Yet at the same time mac boasts about having the fastest processors, most memory, best screens, etc. Those sound great, and something that would be wonderful to run Reaper or Ableton on. But I can't. Even though there are Apple Silicon versions of both, and both can be run on Lenovo tablets at a quarter of the cost (they even come with a pen and keyboard if the app doesn't do touchscreen)

So it seems while Apple has the fastest/best everything, they seem to be lagging behind in general usability because of... well, that's what I'm trying to deduce.

They want to sell you an iPad and a MacBook. That's the reason.

 

[Kittycatgomeowmeow]

Explain why anyone needs this more than they need $1,300?

I did above. People who can’t afford things really don’t need to chime in questioning why people who can afford things buy them. This sort of silly question can be asked about nearly any non necessity. The bottom line is I use my iPad constantly for lots of uses. I want the best device in the category. I am not at all clear why anyone thinks $1300 is expensive. It’s a device that will last 5-7 years is insanely well built and is the best device in the category by a mile.

 

[aphoid]

A proper terminal app would be a good start

Anyone done the hard yards to find a good third party one?

Would also love vs code and Xcode some day.

Termius works decently IME.

I doubt we'll ever get VSCode due to the extensibility, but Textastic, Buffer, and iVim are solid, also IME.

 

[barich]

If the "why is the iPad like it is? Apple should turn it into a laptop" crowd ever succeeds then I don't know what I'll do. Maybe I'll buy a Macbook Air instead because if that happens the iPad has lost any and all of the usefulness it currently has for me - because it's not a laptop.

There's no reason why an iPad couldn't virtualize or dual boot iPadOS and macOS and let you switch between them. If you didn't want to use macOS on your iPad, nothing would force you to. It would just save people from having to buy two pieces of hardware that are virtually identical just to run two different operating systems. If someone has a mouse/trackpad and keyboard for their iPad and wants to run macOS apps, why shouldn't they be able to do that?

 

[McTurkey]

I find it amusing that all the tech sites make the comparisons to the previous generation devices. Never mind M4, M2, or even M1, I am upgrading from a second generation Pro with A10X and 4GB of RAM from eight years ago. That ought to be a decent jump.

This is something that has long bugged me as well. I miss the days when AnandTech was still a going concern and they put all their performance testing results into a searchable database so that readers could make their own comparison charts.

Especially with hardware lasting a long time, and a larger percentage of the user base for a given category of device holding onto their devices longer than they ever, it is really helpful to be able to see comparisons against older devices. Most people are not going to notice a performance difference year to year, and technology only rarely demonstrates really substantial year-over-year performance improvements.

 

[hel1kx]

Does the nano-texture screen create more friction when using the Apple Pencil? I personally find it difficult to draw with the Pencil on my original iPad Pro glossy screen because the Pencil slips around.

A screen cover would be a lot cheaper though

 

[zogus]

Yet again, I am begging Ars Technica and other publications to find people who like tablets to review them. Don’t give them to reporters who love laptops and want the iPad to be a laptop.

I am apparently not the only person who felt like I was reading a cat review consisting entirely of the writer complaining: "WHY THE F*CK ISN'T THIS A DOG!?"

 

[hel1kx]

Blender are specifically aiming for touch-only use though

I don't see anything in there that says touch-only, or that it won't still support keyboard/mouse if those are available.

The idea is to bring the full power of Blender to these devices. This requires adapting to platform-specific paradigms, but also to offer more task-oriented user interfaces with reduced information density. This will be achieved by extending existing input methods, and improving workspaces and application templates, running on top of a regular Blender build.

 

[Cthel]

I don't see anything in there that says touch-only, or that it won't still support keyboard/mouse if those are available.

Try 7 paragraphs further down:

Working on a standalone tablet comes with its own set of software and hardware limitations, such as:

• Single, full-screen window workflow.
• Relatively small screen real estate.
• No keyboard/mouse (out of the box, use should be optional).
• Multi-input interface (touch + pen).
• Limited processing power and battery.
• Siloed file system.

 

[MDCCCLV]

It says right there in the headline to stop reading the article. I’ll grant you, it’s an unconventional journalistic approach.

It's a star trek V reference if I'm not mistaken. A bold choice to be sure.