iPad Pro (2021) Review: The Verdict
The iPad Pro is a stunning piece of hardware let down by software that can't quite keep up. It may have a laptop processor, but it's still not a laptop replacement. The iPad Pro is nonetheless an excellent tablet, even if the price-tag makes it a luxury for most.
What we love
- Gorgeous display, especially on the 12.9-inch model
- Lovely hardware
- Stupid powerful
What could be improved
- Expensive
- Equally expensive accessories
- Bad for multi-tasking
80/100
The new iPad Pro is a curious device. It sits atop Apple's tablet food chain, firmly positioned as a laptop alternative now that it's powered by the same M1 processor as any mainline Mac. Even the pricing is comparable. You're looking at a minimum of $1,649 for a 12.9-inch iPad Pro, which is $150 more than the entry-level MacBook Air. And that's before you factor in the price of a keyboard or Apple Pencil.
At the same time, the iPad Pro is still an iPad. It may be "the best" iPad, but it can't escape the baggage and caveats associated with being an iPad. Even though Apple has taken strides in making the iPad feel more like a laptop, it's still fundamentally a tablet running a mobile operating system. The iPad Pro is trapped in limbo.
Between worlds
Apple clearly wants to make the iPad Pro a viable laptop alternative. It has the pure power to handle anything you can throw at it. The 12.9-inch model is similar in size to most notebooks. There's an official keyboard accessory with a trackpad. There's mouse support. iPadOS is more mature than ever. You can actually connect accessories like thumb drives and cameras with relative ease.
And a lot of these quality of life improvements genuinely help. The Magic Keyboard - Apple's detachable keyboard that also features a trackpad - is a joy to use. It addresses a lot of the problems I've had when using an iPad for work tasks. There are times I'm happy to just use the touchscreen, but the precision of a trackpad really helps when working with spreadsheets or trying to make your way around a Content Management System. And at the same time, it's great to detach the keyboard and just hold the iPad Pro if you're drawing, browsing, watching or reading. It's a versatile machine.
But when it comes to genuinely trying to replace a laptop, the iPad Pro's software lags behind its hardware. iPadOS is still built around using a single app at a time. For some, that won't be a problem. Me? I'm a rabid multi-tasker. Split-screen works okay if you need to run two apps side-by-side - such as a word processor and Safari - and it's easy enough to use gestures to flick back and forth between two full-screen apps. However, it becomes a special kind of hell when you get to three or more.
If you're running two apps in split-screen, you can bring up a third that floats on top, but it hides what you're doing in the apps underneath. You can replace one of your two active apps, but there's no easy way to just jump back and forth. Juggling a Zoom call, Slack, and OneNote is something I do regularly on my laptop, but a frustrating affair on the iPad Pro. Trying to open Safari to quickly check something at the same time makes it worse. Multi-tasking just isn't effortless in the same way it is on a Mac or PC.
This feels like something Apple easily could address by making iPadOS just a little more Mac-like. Instead of forcing you to run apps in full screen, I'd love to see iPad support running apps in windows that you can drag around the display and easily cycle through. iPadOS has already been splintered off from its iPhone origins, and it’s time Apple makes the iPad truly its own thing.
Trying to use the iPad Pro in the same way I'd use my computer also revealed other little niggles. Resizing images was surprisingly painful. The iPad version of Photoshop ended up being the best app for my needs, but it didn't let me paste a photo from an email directly into the image I was working on. I had to save it to my camera roll, open it in Photoshop, and then copy it across. A process that takes me seconds on my PC blew out to 15 minutes as I tried to solve it.
Right-clicking an image in Safari won't reveal its URL, which is a problem specific to my job, but a problem nonetheless. You can connect an external monitor, but you can only mirror your display for most apps. The more I tried to commit to using the iPad Pro instead of my laptop, the more small shortcomings I ran into.
"iPad things"
Of course, there are still plenty of areas where the iPad Pro excels. As with past iPads, I've really enjoyed writing on the iPad Pro. It's a light device that's easy to take with you, and the focus on full-screen apps helps avoid distractions. I've found attempting to draw in Procreate to be a rewarding experience, which isn't something I thought I'd ever say (I’m pretty awful when it comes to drawing). And I honestly prefer the iPad Lightroom app for editing photos over using the desktop version.
It just becomes a question of whether any of these use cases justify splurging on iPad Pro instead of a less expensive iPad Air or standard iPad. After all, the iPad Air starts at $899 and the 8th generation iPad at $499, while the cheapest iPad Pro is $1,199.
The first is display. Most iPads have a 60Hz refresh rate, while the iPad Pro has a 120Hz refresh rate. This makes all motion look that little bit smoother. It's a nice experience when scrolling through the web, but it's genuinely a meaningful improvement if you're someone who uses an Apple Pencil. It makes writing and drawing feel a lot more like putting pen to paper.
The iPad Pro family are also the biggest iPads available. The 11-inch model may only be 0.1-inch larger than the iPad Air, but if you want a big Apple tablet, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is your only choice. This year's 12.9-inch model is also host to the nicest display Apple has ever put in an iPad. The screen uses Mini LED technology, which gets you greater peak brightness, deeper blacks, and greater contrast. This is most noticeable when you're looking at photos or watching video. The 11-inch iPad only has a standard LCD display, but is still rather lovely.
One unique new feature exclusive to the iPad Pro is Centre Stage. The front-facing camera uses a wider lens, and when using an app like FaceTime or Zoom, uses software to track your face. This creates a tighter frame around you, and can follow you if you move. The field of view can also expand if another person enters the shot to ensure you're both visible. The tech works seamlessly, and considering many of us are still relying on video calls day-to-day, it's a welcome quality of life feature.
If you're the type to spring for an iPad with mobile connectivity, the new iPad Pro is the first to feature 5G. While 5G is far from essential right now - the networks are still very much in progress - it's a nice bit of future-proofing to have. Most of us keep our tablets for longer than we keep our phones, so if you're buying an iPad with the aim to keep it for five or so years, 5G connectivity could be a very welcome feature.
On the other hand, the M1 processor in itself isn't a reason to pick the iPad Pro over the iPad Air. It's certainly a powerful chip, but the A14 inside the iPad Air is robust enough for the vast majority of iPad owners.
As with all iPads, Apple says you can expect about ten hours of charge from the iPad Pro. From my testing, that feels pretty accurate, but some activities are naturally more draining than others. A one-hour zoom call destroyed about 20% of my battery, for example.
If you're considering an iPad Pro, it's also worth remembering the cost of accessories. While the Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil are very good, they will blow out the price of your investment. A Magic Keyboard will set you back $449 for an 11-inch model and $549 for a 12.9-inch model, while the Apple Pencil goes for $199.
iPad Pro - Final Thoughts
The iPad Pro feels more Pro than ever, but it's still not an easy sell as a laptop alternative. There are ways to fit the iPad Pro into your workflow, but you'll have to adapt to it. It isn't going to adapt to you.
That being said, the iPad Pro is nonetheless a gorgeous piece of hardware that excels at very specific things. When the iPad Pro plays to its strengths, it represents a powerful creative tool that professionals can genuinely benefit from. For the rest of us, it's much more of a luxury.
It's clearly the best iPad with the most powerful processor, the nicest screen, and the fastest connectivity, but it's let down by its software. Until Apple makes iPadOS more Mac-like, the iPad Pro isn't truly going to replace a laptop. And sure, not everyone wants an iPad to be a laptop alternative, but at the Pro’s asking price, it's hard not to see it as one.
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