When you think of a tablet, the primary use case that people envision is children watching YouTube videos on it. iPads are a category that falls between a phone and a laptop, with a larger screen than your smartphone but without the utility of a computer. This means that, although the iPad has been successful for children and for watching YouTube, the “third screen” space remains uncompetitive.

This is what makes the iPad Pro such an odd device. It’s an obscenely overpowered tablet, built on Apple’s laptop chipsets, but running what is essentially just a modified version of iOS. You’ll find few people who use it as their primary computer, and its main professional use is for photo editing. If a rumored touchscreen MacBook Pro is released, the iPad Pro will be even harder to recommend.

Apple’s newest version of the iPad Pro features the company’s brand-new M5 processor, which delivers 20 percent faster CPU performance and up to 40 percent faster GPU performance. The company said the new chip delivers up to 3.5 times the AI performance of the iPad Pro with M4 and up to 5.6 times faster than the iPad Pro with M1. All models come with at least 12GB of RAM — and 16GB of RAM on versions with over one terabyte of storage — and all come with Apple’s new N1 chip for full Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 capability.

If you opt for the mobile data versions, they also use Apple’s custom C1X chip. The newest version also features faster storage, with a unified memory bandwidth of 153 gigabytes per second, approximately 30 percent higher than the M4. The iPad Pro also charges faster, reaching 50 percent battery in about 30 minutes with a 40-watt or higher adapter. The iPad Pro also features a slight display update, now capable of reducing brightness to as low as one nit for nighttime use, and it can also drive an external 120Hz display.

The iPad Pro starts at $999 for the 11-inch model and $1,299 for the 13-inch model in America, the same prices as the previous M4 generation.
Are any of these huge changes to the device? Probably not. This is an expensive and difficult-to-recommend device, but now, the world’s most overpowered tablet is even more powerful. I will let readers know, once I’ve spent more time with a review sample, whether my view changes.

For most users, the M4 iPad Pro remains the better value, especially as retailers discount last year’s model. The M5 upgrade is primarily worthwhile for professionals working with AI-intensive applications or those who need the absolute latest specifications for future-proofing their workflow. However,