Apple iPad Pro 11 (2024) review

iPad OS 17.5

The newest iPad runs on the latest iPadOS 17.5 out of the box. Apple renamed iOS for iPad back in 2019 as it has become much more powerful, a symbolic gesture but a necessary one for sure.

The iPads now offer more sophisticated multi-tasking, richer USB-C accessories compatibility, desktop-oriented system apps with sidebars, expanded mouse, keyboard, trackpad and Apple Pencil support. The iPad Pro models support Face ID.

The iPadOS interface is still based on homescreens populated with apps and widgets, App Library for your less important apps, and Notification and Control Centers.

Tap and hold works as quick actions on various apps throughout the homescreens and the Dock.

The navigation gestures stay the same as on the iPhone, though on the iPadOS you also have a dock gesture. Swipe quickly upwards from the bottom line to close an app or swipe slowly to pull up the Dock for multi-tasking.

iPadOS

The Dock is an all-powerful tool for multi-tasking - when you are working with an app in full-screen, you can summon the dock and drag and drop an icon to open in floating window, which you can snap left or right. This is called 'Slide over' as it is a sliding app. 'Slide over' opened apps appear in the Task Switcher next to the full-screen ones.

You can also use Split Screen - just tap on the three dots on any full-screen app - be it in slide over mode or not, larger Snap Left/Right icon. It's a bit confusing at first, but give it some time, and you'll get it. Split View can also be made from within the Task Switcher by dragging one app over another.

Multi-tasking

Apple has a ton of multimedia apps you can use by default - Photos, Music, TV, Podcasts, Books, plus Safari browser, Home, Files. The Shortcuts app is a gold mine for automatization.

Apps

The LiDAR scanner is onboard on the latest iPad Pro models. It measures distances by firing laser beams and measuring their reflections with a dedicated sensor. This way, the tablet can make a super accurate 3D representation of an object and later place it virtually anywhere. Thinking of new furniture? This will be perfect. Want to compare the size of objects you can't put next to each other - LiDAR will help.

The LiDAR scanner is also very accurate at measuring distances, and you can use it just for that - like a fancy digital tapeline. Or you can set a distance and see virtual walls in real-time at the predefined distance. Professionals such as interior designers may find the LiDAR scanner a handy tool. Thanks to the powerful AR capabilities that also come as a bonus with LiDAR, you can also have an amazing AR experience with compatible apps and games - there are plenty available on the App Store.

Overall, with the expanded accessory support on the iPad, together with mouse and keyboard support, and the latest (forced by EU) unlocking for third-party app stores and third-party app installs, we can say the iPad OS is quite close to be a macOS alternative.

Performance and benchmarks

The Apple iPad Pro 11 (2024) is powered by the Apple M4 chip. Built on a second-gen 3nm node, the CPU is 1.5x faster than the M2, while graphics tasks can see a boost of up to 4x. Efficiency is doubled as the M4 can deliver the same performance as the M2 found inside the 2022 iPad Pros at half the power. Apple unveiled several new AI-powered features for Final Cut Pro and other apps and that is supported by the M4, which promises up to 38 TOPS. For comparison, the Snapdragon X Elite promises 45 TOPS.

Note that the 256GB and 512GB models come with 9-core CPUs (3 performance, 6 efficiency) with up to 4.4GHz clock speed and 8GB RAM, while the 1TB and 2TB models get 10-core CPUs (4 performance, 6 efficiency) @ 4.4GHz and 16GB RAM. Both versions have the same 10-core GPU with hardware-accelerated ray tracing and 16-core Neural Engine.

There is no better tell for improvements than benchmarks, so here they come!

The new M4 chip is notably faster than the M2 even in its 9-core CPU version. Furthermore, it offers outstanding sustained performance - the tablet scores 92% of CPU and 100% of GPU stability. And it never got uncomfortably hot even after an hour of benchmarking torture.

Throttle tests

Overall, the iPad offers superb, laptop-grade even performance for both gamers and pro-oriented users.