iPad Pro M4 Review
Introduction
The iPad Pro M4 is the tablet to buy if you actually run demanding work on a tablet: video edits, 3D, music, pressure-sensitive drawing. For anything else it is overspecified and overpriced, and an iPad Air will not feel slower at half the money. What follows is what the hardware really is, including the parts Apple markets around.
Design and Build Quality
The iPad Pro M4 boasts a sleek and elegant design that Apple is renowned for. With its unibody aluminum chassis, it feels both premium and durable. The tablet is lighter and thinner than its predecessors, making it a perfect companion for those who are always on the move and want to look stylish while doing it.
Ports and Connectivity
There is exactly one port: a USB-C connector carrying Thunderbolt / USB 4 at up to 40Gb/s, which also handles DisplayPort output and charging. There is no headphone jack. Apple removed it from the iPad Pro in 2018 and has not brought it back, so wired listening means a USB-C adapter or USB-C headphones. One port also means an external drive and a wired display are a choice unless you add a hub.
Display and Audio
The iPad Pro M4 uses an Ultra Retina XDR display, sold in 11-inch and 13-inch sizes at 264 ppi. This is the generation where Apple moved the Pro to tandem OLED: two OLED layers stacked so the panel reaches high brightness without either layer being driven hard. The practical result over the M2 generation is that blacks are genuinely black rather than mini-LED dark, and small bright objects on dark backgrounds stop blooming. ProMotion scales the refresh rate from 10Hz to 120Hz.
The audio quality is nothing short of impressive. With a four-speaker sound system, it feels like having a mini home theater in your tablet. Whether you’re watching the latest Marvel movie or jamming to your favorite tunes, the sound will blow you away.
Performance and Battery Life
Powered by M4 Chip
The M4 comes in two versions and which one you get is decided by the storage tier. The 256GB and 512GB models have a 9-core CPU and 12GB of memory; the 1TB and 2TB models have a 10-core CPU, with a fourth performance core, and 16GB. Both have a 10-core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine. That is a real difference buried in a storage menu, and it matters if you are buying this for sustained work like video exports rather than for headroom.
Battery Life
Apple rates the iPad Pro M4 at about 10 hours of web browsing over Wi-Fi or video playback, dropping to roughly 9 hours when browsing over cellular. That is the same figure Apple has quoted for iPads for years and it describes light use; sustained rendering or long exports will not get near it. A 60W or higher adapter reaches 50 percent in about 30 minutes.
Keyboard and Trackpad
The Magic Keyboard is back and better than ever. With a refined scissor mechanism and perfect travel distance, typing on the iPad Pro M4 feels like a dream. The large Force Touch trackpad is highly responsive and supports a plethora of gestures, making navigation a breeze.
Software and Features
iPadOS
The iPad Pro M4 comes with iPadOS, packed with new features like Universal Control, Focus mode, and redesigned Safari. The seamless integration between hardware and software is what makes the iPad Pro stand out from the competition.
FaceTime and Webcam
The front camera is a 12MP Center Stage camera and, for the first time on an iPad Pro, it sits on the landscape edge rather than the portrait one. That is the single most useful change for anyone who takes calls with the tablet in a keyboard case, because it finally puts you in the middle of the frame instead of off to one side. A four-mic array handles the audio.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Exceptional Performance: The M4 chip delivers unparalleled speed and efficiency.
- Tandem OLED Display: True blacks and no mini-LED blooming, at 264 ppi and up to 120Hz.
- Thin and Light: 5.1 mm and 579 g on the 13-inch, which is less than the M2 it replaces.
- Landscape Camera: Correctly placed at last for video calls in a keyboard case.
Cons
- Pricey: Laptop money, and the keyboard and pencil are extra on top of that.
- One Port, No Jack: A single Thunderbolt / USB 4 connector and no headphone jack, so a hub joins the bag.
- Storage Decides The Chip: The 9-core and 10-core M4 are separated by a storage upgrade, not a chip choice.
- iPadOS Is Still The Limit: The hardware outruns what the software lets you do with it.
Conclusion
Buy it if the tandem OLED panel or the Apple Pencil Pro is the reason you are buying, and if the work you do on a tablet is heavy enough that the chip is the bottleneck: colour work, video exports, 3D, illustration for a living. Buy the 1TB tier if that is you, because it is the only way to get the tenth CPU core and 16GB.
Skip it if you mostly read, browse, watch and take notes. The iPad Air runs the same iPadOS, takes the same Magic Keyboard generation, and costs roughly half. Skip it too if you were hoping the M4 would loosen what iPadOS allows: file handling, background processes and windowing are the same as on the cheapest iPad, and no amount of silicon changes that. The M2 iPad Pro is also worth a look on the used market now that it has been replaced, since the gap between mini-LED and tandem OLED is the main thing you would be giving up.
The M4 chip’s hardware-accelerated ray tracing opens possibilities for professional 3D applications and game development workflows directly on the tablet. Apps like Octane X and Reality Composer Pro leverage this capability for real-time viewport rendering that previously required a desktop workstation. Combined with the Apple Pencil Pro’s haptic feedback and squeeze gesture, the iPad Pro M4 positions itself as a genuine creative production tool rather than merely a content consumption device — the distinction that justifies its laptop-tier pricing.
Apple lists current configurations and pricing on the iPad Pro store page.
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