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2022 iPad Pro Reviews: Minor Spec Bump With 'One Very Nice Surprise'

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The new iPad Pro with the M2 chip will start arriving to customers and launch in stores on Wednesday, October 26. Ahead of time, the first reviews of the new iPad Pro have now been shared by select media publications and YouTube channels.

ipad-pro-2022.jpg

Key new features for the 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro include the M2 chip, Wi-Fi 6E support, new hover functionality for the Apple Pencil, and support for ProRes video recording. The device also has Smart HDR 4 and supports Bluetooth 5.3.

We have rounded up both written and video reviews of the new iPad Pro below.

Written Reviews

The new iPad Pro is able to detect the second-generation Apple Pencil while it hovers up to 12mm above the display, allowing users to see a preview of their drawing before they make it. Federico Viticci at MacStories called the feature a "very nice surprise," as he found it useful for interacting with iPadOS as a whole:
I'm here to tell you, however, that Apple Pencil Hover goes beyond enhancing the typical iPad drawing experience: it's also a neat way to control the iPadOS UI, adding a new dimension to touch interactions. I was not expecting to use Apple Pencil Hover at all because I'm no artist; its native integration with interface elements across the system turned out to be one of my favorite additions to iPadOS this year – definitely more so than Stage Manager.
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For example, Viticci said Apple Pencil hover can be used to preview and scrub through videos on the YouTube website in Safari.

Jason Snell of Six Colors expressed disappointment that the iPad Pro still has a 2018 design and said the device would benefit from some features that the new 10th-generation iPad received, such as a landscape FaceTime camera and a Magic Keyboard with function keys:
That makes the fourth revision for this design without any substantial exterior changes. It's a good design, yes, but it's a little frustrating that it's been in stasis for four full years. The 10th-generation iPad's repositioned FaceTime camera would be welcome on a new iPad Pro. A revised version of the Magic Keyboard introduced in April 2020 with that extra row of function keys like the Magic Keyboard Folio would also be nice.

But while the low-end iPad points the direction to the future, the M2 iPad Pro remains in stasis. The display is unchanged from the M1 generation, meaning only the 12.9-inch model gets the excellent Liquid Retina XDR display, and the 11-inch model remains left out. There are several iPads available at the 11-inch size, so it would be nice if the iPad Pro were a bit better differentiated from (for example) the iPad Air. It's not.
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Apple says the new iPad Pro has up to 15% faster CPU performance and up to 35% faster GPU performance compared to the previous model with the M1 chip. Engadget's Nathan Ingraham said the 12.9-inch iPad Pro with the M2 chip was "far more responsive" in his initial testing than his 11-inch iPad Pro with the A12Z chip from 2020:
In the short time that I've been testing the latest 12.9-inch iPad Pro, I can say that it's far more responsive than my personal 11-inch iPad Pro from 2020 as well as the new iPad I've also been testing. Those other devices aren't slow by any stretch of the imagination, but the M2-powered iPad Pro responds to everything almost instantaneously. Of course, the same can be said about the M1 iPad Pro, especially given my modest workflow.
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Mac Otakara shared Geekbench 5 results for the new iPad Pro that confirm about a 15-16% increase in multi-core performance over the previous model (8,516 score for 12.9-inch model with M2 chip vs. 7,326 for the 12.9-inch model with M1 chip):

Geekbench-5-iPad-Pro.png

Mashable's Stan Schroeder said iPadOS 16's new Stage Manager feature remains "buggy" on the new iPad Pro and is "far from perfect":
Stage Manager was also buggy. For example, invoking it with the Keyboard's trackpad, which you do by moving the cursor to the left of the display, occasionally wouldn't work. Some apps, including Facebook and Apple's own Weather (which is new to the iPad) would sometimes look messy when resized inside Stage Manager. Having the app windows stubbornly cling to a certain size when you need them to be just a little bit bigger or smaller is annoying. I do think it's better than both Slide Over and Split View as a multitasking tool, but it's still far from perfect.
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Video Reviews and Unboxings







Article Link: 2022 iPad Pro Reviews: Minor Spec Bump With 'One Very Nice Surprise'
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/review/ipad-pro-m2-chip/
Last edited:
L

Lounge vibes 05

macrumors 68040
May 30, 2016
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You don’t say.
I do have to say though that I don’t understand the calls for a redesign, I think the thing about the current iPad Pro design is that it works, and it works well.
Even the landscape camera on the new budget iPad means you can’t put the Apple Pencil there, there’s just not enough room for both the camera and the magnetic port. Or there is and Apple just wanted to cheap out, but you get my point.
It’s really all down to the software, just as it’s been the last several years.
 
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jclardy

jclardy

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Oct 6, 2008
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I7guy said:
It's gonna sell, imo.
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Of course it will, it is still the best tablet on the market. The M1 sales over black friday (And that have already happened - the M1 128GB was down to $599 recently) will certainly eat into this, but this will be what people wanting an iPad Pro will default to for the next year.

It’s a lackluster upgrade for sure, but there is zero competition, other than other cheaper/older iPads.
 
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dandy1117

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Sep 18, 2012
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Imagine if you walked into a restaurant for the first time and the description for the chicken entree on the menu said, "Chicken.... a little more saffron and the same price as last week."

I know that most of these specific video drops are unboxing, but I don't understand Youtube "reviews." They do a disservice to someone new in the market for a device or who hasn't upgraded their device in several years. The video reviewers presume that the viewer knows everything about the previous generation and has full context. I wish reviewers reviewed the existing device rather than making a hot take on how similar it is to the one released a year ago!
 
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NIKKG

NIKKG

macrumors 6502
Feb 23, 2012
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I recently ordered the Ipad Pro 3rd gen, it was on clearance from Costco starting at $629. The new one is a joke of a upgrade, might as well save some $$$ since they are basically the same as the newer version. Apple needs to step their game, their products are stale, I didn’t even get the new iphone this year since its almost the same as the previous 2 versions.
 
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Orange Bat

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Mar 21, 2021
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We have quickly run into a maturity problem with the iPad. Where can Apple go with the technology that the iPad Pro doesn’t cover? The only possible real improvement I can see is in software. iPadOS is no longer enough of an OS for a powerful tablet like the iPad Pro. Sure, Apple could move the camera, but what else? This thing is essentially going to get minor improvements year over year from here on out. Until the OS is improved, the iPad Pro will continue to be a niche product.
 
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compwiz1202

compwiz1202

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May 20, 2010
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dandy1117 said:
Imagine if you walked into a restaurant for the first time and the description for the chicken entree on the menu said, "Chicken.... a little more saffron and the same price as last week."

I know that most of these specific video drops are unboxing, but I don't understand Youtube "reviews." They do a disservice to someone new in the market for a device or who hasn't upgraded their device in several years. The video reviewers presume that the viewer knows everything about the previous generation and has full context. I wish reviewers reviewed the existing device rather than making a hot take on how similar it is to the one released a year ago!
Click to expand...
Are there any prices listed? If I wanted more, and it was the same price, I'd be happy. If it was more for more, but I still had a choice of the old one for the same, that would still be ok. Now, if it was more for more, but they totally eliminated the old one, and I didn't care about the small upgrade, I'd be upset
 
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