The Telegraph
Apple iPad Pro 2021 review: stuck in the Mac’s shadow
Since its launch five years ago, the iPad Pro has been Apple’s canvas for showing off its cutting-edge hardware. Its latest iPad Pro, announced last month, probably has more computing power than most people are ever likely to need, unless you are a specialist video editor or photographer. Packing Apple’s M1 chip, the same one found in its new MacBook range, the iPad Pro is up to 50pc faster than its old models. But this year, things have changed. For the first time in a while, it is Apple’s MacBook that is in the ascendancy, not the iPad. Today’s MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models are the best Apple laptops in years, while the iPad Pro feels iterative. At the same time, if you just want a cheap device for bingeing Netflix in bed, you will want to look at its cheaper iPad Mini range. This leaves the iPad Pro in something of a niche and perhaps less relevant to ordinary consumers, most of whom probably only need an iPad Pro for the most power-hungry of tasks. Who is the iPad Pro for? If you want to edit video files, transcribe music straight from your keyboard using artificial intelligence, or are a semi-professional tennis player, there might be something in the iPad Pro for you. Apple’s latest model, which comes in 11-inch and 12.9-inch sizes, excels where tasks require both the crunch of computing power mixed with camera technology or the portability the iPad brings. It is also the first iPad to come with 5G connectivity, meaning you can enjoy data speeds to match that performance. The new iPad Pro has completely revamped its screen technology – its “Liquid Retina XDR display” – replacing the 72 LEDs under its screen with 10,000 micro LEDs, creating a screen with 5.6m pixels. The screen is now its brightest ever and genuinely noticeable next to last year’s model.