Here are the new 2024 iPad Pros. They’ve had a major redesign and are now incredibly, almost worryingly, thin. They come with a new chip, a new display, and new accessories. In short, these are the most high-end and probably the most expensive tablets in the world. I just customized mine, and it costs £2,877, which is about $3,600. That’s an outrageous amount for a tablet. But here I am, hovering over the buy button, and I felt compelled to make a video about it because I didn’t expect to be in this situation today.
I’m not usually an iPad person. I use a smartphone, a smartwatch, a smart fridge, a smart air purifier—heck, I even use a smart toothbrush. But tablets have never really clicked for me. When I first started this channel, tablets were fantastic. Phones were tiny back then, so having a bigger device made sense. Tablets had better quad-core processors and more advanced software compared to the basic phones. But then phones got better. Their screens got bigger, they became much faster, and they could handle multiple tasks at once. When that happened, the appeal of an iPad or Android tablet disappeared for me. Why carry something that does what a phone does but takes up as much space as a laptop, without offering the functionality of a laptop? That’s why, around 2015-2016, there was a huge drop in general interest in tablets.
But here I am, feeling like the world’s biggest hypocrite, about to spend the equivalent of a small car on a tablet. Let me explain why. First off, I knew this thing would be thin. Apple made a big deal in their keynote about the 11-inch iPad Pro being just 5.3 mm thick and the 13-inch being 5.1 mm, their thinnest devices ever. But even knowing that, picking it up and turning it around in my hands for the first time felt surreal. It’s a full-on computer with an M4 laptop-quality chip inside, and it only weighs 579 grams.
To put that in perspective, I carry a Writing Tablet almost everywhere I go. Even though I love my laptop and phone, sometimes I need a big screen to write on. Whether it’s planning a YouTube thumbnail, sketching out our future studio, or brainstorming in a coffee shop, I need something I can write on with a pen. My 10-inch e-ink tablet, which does just one thing, weighs a bit over 400 grams. So yeah, I was impressed.
Normally, I don’t care much about the weight of gadgets. I always go for the Plus, the Max, the biggest versions. But this iPad Pro is so slim it’s almost worrying, kind of like the iPhone 6 in 2014—remember how that turned out?
Still, I get it. For a device like this, being lightweight is crucial. The 13-inch iPad Pro is just light enough, right on the edge. After about 20 minutes, I started to feel its weight, but I could still comfortably hold it with one hand and write with the other. It seems like it could perfectly fit into my life, replacing my current device but with the added benefit of being able to do so much more, maybe even replace my laptop.
I can’t believe I’m saying this because, trust me, I love my MacBook. I take it everywhere, even if I’m just stepping out for 30 minutes. My family jokes that I’ll still be using it with one hand while walking down the aisle at my wedding. I can’t confirm or deny that! But using the new iPad with the Pro Pencil and Magic Keyboard has changed my perspective. For the first time since 2013, it feels like tablets aren’t just big phones anymore. Their capabilities have reached a point where I’m actually wondering if I still need my MacBook.
The new Magic Keyboard is pretty impressive. At first glance, it might look like a cheap Amazon folio case, but using it feels a lot like using a MacBook. Inside, there’s a sleek metal finish, a larger trackpad, and a charging port. You can use the other USB port on the iPad itself for additional devices. What really blew me away was how easily the iPad integrates with the case. It operates just like a MacBook, with all the familiar gestures and shortcuts. You can hold the Command key to see available shortcuts in any app, and functions like brightness and volume control are easy to access without touching the screen.
The hinge is another cool feature. You can’t expect a laptop-quality hinge in a thin iPad case, but since the new iPad is so lightweight, you don’t really need one. Despite initial doubts about its usability on my lap or in a car, I found it more solid than it looks. However, it’s not perfect. The trackpad is still smaller than a MacBook Pro’s, and the hinge doesn’t go all the way back. The biggest downside is the price—at £350 in the UK, it’s pretty steep. Plus, it seems like the iPad Pro isn’t compatible with any other Magic Keyboards, so you have to buy the new one.
Then there’s the new Apple Pencil Pro, which has some cool features compared to the regular Apple Pencil. I always find it funny how Apple talks about their products. They introduced this one by saying, “It takes the pencil experience to a whole new level.” During my brief time with it, I found it a bit fiddly. Some new features, like the barrel roll, allow you to rotate the pencil just like a real one and use different parts of the nib for varying thicknesses. It’s interesting, but not something I’m too excited about.
On the bright side, the fact that you can now just squeeze it to bring up your menu is awesome. It’s a real time-saver. The old pencil didn’t have any buttons, so your thumb was just kind of there with nothing to do. Now, there’s a vibration motor inside that gives a satisfying snap when you use it. Plus, you can add it to Find My in case you lose it, which is great for someone like me since I’m always losing things.
So, it looks like a laptop. But does it run like a laptop? Apple didn’t just put the same M3 chip in this new iPad Pro that you find in the latest MacBook Airs. They actually introduced a whole new M4 chip for it. How much faster is it than the M3? Honestly, it’s hard to tell. Apple’s performance claims can be really frustrating. Sometimes they compare to the M3, sometimes to the M2, or even the M1. They also tend to use really niche benchmarks rather than general ones that matter more to everyday users, like how fast apps open.
The bottom line is that the jump from M3 to M4 might not be huge. But, since the iPad hasn’t been updated since the M2 chip, and this new model has better thermal design to keep it cooler, the upgrade is actually pretty significant. It’s going to be a lot faster than Samsung’s current tablets, which still use phone chips. That’s one of the main reasons I’ve been hesitant to switch to a Samsung tablet.
Let’s be clear: this device is only about half as powerful as my MacBook Pro. And if you add in the pencil and keyboard, you end up paying more per unit of performance compared to a Mac. Plus, it can’t do everything a Mac can because iPadOS, based on iOS, is designed to be simpler.
But here’s the thing: once a device like this can handle tasks that usually require a Mac, it makes perfect sense to use it for those tasks. For me, it feels like we’ve reached that point today. If I can replace my heavy laptop and my tablet with just one iPad, it would be life-changing. I’d cut down the weight and size of my tech by about five times. And in many ways, the iPad can even do things better than the Mac. For example, mobile apps are often better designed than computer apps, especially for gaming. Gaming on a Mac isn’t great, but iOS and iPadOS are built for games, so this less powerful device might actually offer more gaming utility than my fully-loaded MacBook.
Beyond gaming, many mobile apps are simply better designed than their laptop versions. Mobile photo editing is now so good that I often send files from my laptop to my phone for edits. And it’s not just simple phone apps on the iPad; I was using the same Pixelmator app on the iPad that I use on my Mac, and I didn’t notice any missing features. Every command that is instant on my Mac is also instant on the iPad. The only difference I noticed was that loading bars for really intense tasks took about 50% longer on the iPad.
Right now, we’re planning our smart home, where everything’s controlled by apps on iPads. Times have really changed. Ten years ago, living in a PC-first world, switching from a laptop to an iPad was something only casual users would do. But now, it doesn’t feel that way anymore. Services are designed primarily with apps in mind. Apps optimized for phone touch screens and hardware are way more intuitive. I always feel better when a product asks me to use their app instead of a website. So, the iPad, being the biggest and most powerful way to use these apps, is really appealing to me.
So, I thought about what I do on my laptop that might be tough on an iPad. For example, Google Docs is actually better on the iPad because you can browse all your stuff offline, which you can’t do on a Mac. I also use Frame.io to check draft videos before posting them. They have a specific iPad app. Sometimes, I still edit videos—less than before, thanks to our great editors—but I do put together music for our videos or edit personal stuff, like the video invite for our wedding. The iPad now has Final Cut Pro, and they’ve just announced Final Cut Pro 2 for it. It’s a full video editing experience. Using Final Cut with a touchscreen felt fiddly, but with a keyboard attached, I forgot I was using an iPad.
It feels like the iPad offers all the perks of a laptop and the benefits of a mobile device. Everything is a sleek app instead of a clunky website, perfect for banking, social media, Uber, Deliveroo, and even Netflix. Video streaming platforms are better on phones because they let you download stuff offline. Due to the openness of computer OSes, downloading offline on them makes piracy easier. But the iPad, running a mobile OS with the media experience of a high-end laptop, avoids this problem.
Let’s talk about this OLED screen. Actually, it’s two OLED screens stacked on top of each other. This setup combines the deep contrast benefits of OLED with the ultra-high brightness Apple wants for HDR. Apple says this is the best screen they’ve ever made for a consumer device. They call it the Ultra Retina XDR display, and it looks fantastic. The contrast is the most striking feature. When you watch something with blacks, those blacks are incredibly deep, like staring into a void. It’s a bit surreal because you don’t expect a screen this good on such a thin device. If you got a monitor this thin for your computer, you’d be amazed. But this is more than just a monitor—it’s a complete computer, a camera, and a touchscreen. It’s pretty crazy.
They’ve also added an option for a nano-texture screen, which supposedly scatters ambient light to reduce glare without reducing brightness. It seems to work well and might solve the MacBook’s visibility issues.
However, this is where the cost starts to add up. To get a nano-coating on your 13-inch iPad, you’ll need to spend at least £2,000.
One thing Apple didn’t mention during the presentation was battery life. Their website says the new model has about the same battery life as the old one, but with two panels working simultaneously, this is something I’ll be watching closely during testing.
Lastly, the cameras, while not the main focus, are better on the iPad than even the top-end MacBook Pros. First, you get a rear camera, which MacBook Pros don’t have. It’s a bit odd that Apple removed the secondary ultra-wide camera from the back of the latest iPad Pros. And second, the front camera is an ultra-wide lens now placed on the horizontal bezel. It keeps you centered and uses a feature called Center Stage to keep you in the middle during calls, even as you move around.
I’ve been thinking about a significant tech change: using an iPad with cellular as my main computer. The idea of not having to rely on Wi-Fi all the time is really appealing. Though I’m not thrilled about paying for an extra monthly contract, it’s a tempting idea. iPads can connect to SD card readers, SSD storage drives, and even larger monitors when I’m at my desk at home. With Stage Manager designed for big-screen multitasking, this setup seems quite promising.
Honestly, I’m pretty excited about this possibility. It feels like it could be one of the most freeing tech decisions I’ve ever made. And with WWDC coming up, I’m eager to see what AI advancements Apple will reveal that could enhance this experience.
However, I do have some concerns. Will the iPad be fast enough for all my usual tasks without feeling sluggish? Will I need to switch from my Samsung phone to an iPhone because of the iPad’s limited ports, making me rely more on wireless options like AirDrop? It’s clear that Apple wants users to buy both an iPad and a Mac, so I wonder how the iPad might be limited to avoid overlapping too much with the Mac.
Another big factor is the file system. One major advantage of PCs is their ability to organize files in a very granular way. I need to find out if I can achieve the same level of control on an iPad or if there are workarounds. And then there’s the storage issue. The iPad Pro goes up to 2 terabytes, which is great, but I’m used to having 8 terabytes on my MacBook. Will I need to start using iCloud more, become better at managing my files, or keep an external storage drive handy?
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