iPad Pro iPad Pro 12.9” M1 (2TB) vs M2 (1TB) — which fits my setup better in late 2025?

[Drvenom]

iPad Pro 12.9” M1 (2TB) vs M2 (1TB) — which fits my setup better in late 2025?

Hey everyone, I’m stuck between two local options for the 12.9" iPad Pro. One’s the M1 with 2TB, and the other’s the M2 with 1TB. In terms of price, they’re basically the same — just trying to figure out which one makes more sense for how I actually use it.

Here’s what I plan to do:

🎹 Music stuff:

I’ll be using it for GarageBand (maybe Logic later) to record piano, guitar, and vocals. I’ll mess around with virtual instruments and sampling — just small idea sessions, not huge professional projects.

🎬 Family videos:

I have tons of videos in Google Photos, and I want to start downloading batches of them (like 10–20 clips from a trip) and make little highlight videos using AI or smart editing tools — something like CapCut or iMovie’s Magic Movie. I’d back everything up to my Linux server afterward so I can keep local copies for smooth playback instead of streaming from the cloud.

🎧 DJ library cleanup (maybe):

I’ve got around 1TB of old trance electronic music flacs and mp3 from my DJing days. I’m thinking of using the iPad to slowly organize them, delete duplicates and deleting tons of songs that I no longer like. I'll stream to my Yamaha receiver and classic Elan speakers.

💾 Goal:

Use the iPad as kind of a central hub — photo/video organizer, light music workstation, and DJ crate cleanup tool.

So yeah — it’s basically a choice between more storage (M1) vs newer chip, faster Neural Engine, and longer support (M2).

If you’ve used either one for creative work like this — audio, AI video, big media libraries — which would you go for?

 

[voxelium]

The only real upgrade the M2 has over the M1 is Apple Pencil hover support.You might find that useful especially if you are into digital art. It should also get updates one year longer than the M1. As for storage, seriously consider the amount you’d be working with here. 1TB is already an insane amount for an iPad. I have 1TB and I personally think it was a bit wasteful. I use a NAS as well as a plethora of external drives, my internal storage is almost never utilized. YMMV though ofc. Fun fact: both the M1 and M2 Pros have a thunderbolt port so you can connect higher-speed SSD enclosures. In my opinion, I would save the cash and try to find a 1TB M1. The M1 is still perfectly adequate especially on iPads. Apple locks down iPadOS so much that even the top-spec M4 is kinda pointless. All that power for what? lol.

 

[Johnny365]

M1, if the price differences are enough (though you said same) and you are set on only the two configurations in the original post.

Otherwise, M2 with 1TB is also fine. All the M series CPUs are overkill and in terms of video editing, may shave off a few minutes from M1 to M5. Shrugs.