Apple iPad Pro 11 2024 review: the best tablet of all time

The next sequel to the legendary series did not disappoint. The Apple iPad Pro 11 2024 with the new M4 processor broke all performance records, knocking out not only the best Qualcomm solutions but also the most powerful desktop computers of today. But what to do with such insane performance on a tablet? The answer is ambiguous, as well as the scenarios for using this ultra-thin monster, but first things first.

Apple iPad Pro 11 2024 256 ГБ

Pluses:

ultra-powerful Apple M4 processor with strong built-in graphics; phenomenal Tandem OLED Retina XDR screen with over 1000 nits of brightness; high-quality metal body 5.3 mm thick; good camera with lightning-fast Face ID; clear and surround sound; perfect smoothness and beautiful system animations; no direct competitors;

Minuses:

high cost; a small number of programs/games to utilize the full power of the processor;

9.3/10

Rating ITC.ua

Technical characteristics Apple iPad Pro 11 2024

Design, housing, interfaces

The new Apple iPad Pro 2024 is only 5.3 mm thick (the 13-inch is even thinner), making it the thinnest tablet on the market. The previous version with the M2 processor is 5.9 mm, as is the closest competitor, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9. Such a large, thin, metal tablet with rounded edges feels unusual and pleasant in the hands.

The build quality is top-notch — the case is without any nuances or imperfections. The screen has medium-sized bezels, occupying 82% of the area. The front panel, oddly enough, is glossy, easily stained with fingerprints, but just as easily cleaned, and the back is matte. In the center is the company logo, and in the corner is a camera unit with a flash/

Below the rear panel is a magnetic keyboard connector. There are four speakers on the sides, a lock key on the left, a USB Type C connector in the center right, and volume keys on the top. There is also a place for the Apple Pencil Pro, where the stylus is attached and charged.

Display

Apple iPad tablets have always been famous for their high-quality displays, but dynamic 10-120 Hz OLED matrices have become widespread not so long ago. This one differs from its Pro series predecessors by having almost twice the brightness (1000 nits versus 600 nits in the 2022 version) and an updated Ultra Retina XDR matrix.

The manufacturer claims a peak value of up to 1600 nits when working with HDR content. This brightness was achieved thanks to two «paired» OLED displays in one. Another bonus is the resistance to burnout, although only the owner will be able to check this after a few years of use. The most expensive versions of the iPad Pro 2024 have a matte nano-coating, which is only suitable for artists, because it has its drawbacks.

Equally important is that it is one of the few ultra-high-brightness OLED screens that does not require any does not tire the eyes. Due to the popularization of cheap smartphones with this type of matrix, the population has a negative stereotype of organic matrices, so many people still prefer IPS.

After a week of using the Apple iPad Pro 11 2024, the screen can be briefly characterized as follows:

• Saturated and at the same time realistic, accurate, true, natural colors;
• High level of brightness, but the eyes do not hurt from prolonged use;
• Perfect viewing angles with no color change, no darkening in any lighting conditions;
• Perfect smoothness of everything (and everywhere) that happens on the screen – animations «float» at 120 FPS;

Currently, it is the No. 1 display among all tablets of this diagonal – the 13-inch version of the iPad Pro 2024 has a higher resolution and an additional processor core, although everything else is identical. Software and system smoothness have a significant impact on the overall perception of the screen.In parallel with the Apple iPad Pro 11 2024, we tested the top model from Samsung, which also has an excellent, really high-quality matrix, but 120 Hz is not seen everywhere, which is due to Android, which occasionally «pleases» the eye with torn animations.

Camera, sound

Of course, this iPad can’t compare to the top-end Apple iPhone Pro / Pro Max smartphones in terms of photos, but it has a really good camera among tablets. Most likely, the owner of the Apple iPad Pro 11 2024 has something to do with professional photo shoots, and a good built-in camera will come in handy in an unfortunate moment.

Face ID works so well that it becomes obvious why the company abandoned the fingerprint scanner. The camera recognizes faces instantly, accurately, and in all conditions. In complete darkness without any light sources in a room with a minimum level of screen illumination a meter away, the tablet unlocks immediately.

The camera has a built-in document scanner that converts images into a PDF file. This allows you to create a PDF document from a printed book in a few minutes. The sound from the four speakers is surround and clear, and the main thing is not to listen to music through the terrible YouTube with its 128 Kbps track. Apple Music, for example, has much better track quality.

Work productivity

In fact, the title of the most powerful tablet computer belongs to the Apple iPad Pro 2024 with a 13-inch screen and 2 TB storage because it has 10 CPU cores, not nine. Despite this, the single-core performance does not change, so the Apple iPad Pro 11 2024 with M4 easily outperforms all Android competitors and also puts many powerful x86 laptops under the belt.

The hero of the review has become the new king of the Speedometer 3.0 test because 34 points is more than in top PCs, not to mention laptops, phones, and tablets. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 turned out to be perfect, but even it is almost three times slower when working with web applications.

The single-core performance in Geekbench exceeds 3700 points, which is exorbitant compared to other ARM players on the market. In the multicore test, the M4 has a twofold lead over Qualcomm’s competitors, and the result is 35% better than its predecessor M2.

The Apple iPad Pro 11 2024 turned out to be so strong that it needs to be compared to more expensive devices, elite laptops, and flagships of the x86 architecture because the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 now looks like a joke against it. The only hope is the Snapdragon X Elite, but it’s not yet freely available, so let’s compare the M4 with the best Intel solutions.

Windows laptops with Intel Core Ultra seem to perform well, but as soon as you unplug the cable, the performance drops significantly. It’s strange to see how a thin $1000 tablet «destroys» the most powerful $2000-3000 laptops.

Desktop processors are a little closer to the M4 — the Intel Core i9-14900K still falls short in the Single Core test, but it scores incomparably higher in the Multi Core. But let’s not forget that this comes at the cost of high power consumption.

Even the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (the most efficient AM5 processor) has a terrible power to power ratio. It is obvious that ARM processors will become dominant in the future, as they provide many times more computing power per 1 W.

The built-in graphics are not as impressive and demonstrate results at the level of AMD Radeon RX 580. Laptops with Apple M1 Pro are 20% more productive in the Metal API, although we can’t be too harsh. After all, this is a tablet with a thickness of just over 5 mm, passive cooling, and a 31 Wh battery, and the closest competitor (Adreno 750) is three times weaker.

There are plenty of applications for working with graphics. Paid Final Cut is considered the best software among all platforms, but for the tests we ran a benchmark in Da Vinci Resolve and Adobe Premiere Rush. The test file was a movie of almost 10 GB, *mp4 format, Full-HD resolution.

The iPad completed the export in 7 minutes and 22 seconds in Da Vinci Resolve. In Adobe Rush, encoding is slightly slower, although the final quality is excellent.

A computer based on a 12-core AMD Ryzen 9 7900 processor with an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics card and 32 GB of DDR5 memory processes a file slower than a 5 mm thick tablet.

Game performance

We’re not going to look at the thousands of games that work perfectly on the iPhone 7, but instead we’ll take a look at the most demanding hits that take up tens of gigabytes of disk space

Call of Duty Warzone runs on maximum graphics settings with support for 120 FPS. Some Android phones/tablets also support such a high frequency, but with weaker graphics. This is not surprising, as there is no direct competitor to Apple’s M1, M2, or M4 in iPad tablets.

At the same time as the Apple iPad Pro 11, 2024 tested the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. It turns out that the power of a half-price tablet is enough for 100+ FPS (with light trotting) in Warzone, but the difference in picture quality is too great.

Despite the fact that we set the graphics parameters on both devices to the highest possible level, the game looks better on the iPad, has a higher resolution and better textures. Obviously, the iOS/Android versions of the game are quite different graphically.

Genshin Impact also supports 120 FPS with ultra graphics. The game warns you about high-power consumption and heat if you set such settings. The resolution is high, the picture is clear and perfectly smooth. The situation with graphics is similar to Warzone — the iPad allows you to get a slightly better picture than on Android, but the difference is not so great.

Call of Duty Mobile feels terrible after Warzone. No wonder because the game uses a primitive mobile engine like PUBG Mobile and other low-quality shooters for the Asian, African, and Latin American markets.

The maximum graphics settings and 120 FPS are provided in any conditions without any drawdowns. Although, only true fans of mobile video games who want to kill as many bots as possible in a battle royale will want to play this on such a tablet.

FC2024 works perfectly on ultra settings, but who wants to play football, where 80% of the time the player opens cards with bonuses, and on the field chases the ball 20% of the time?

So, gaming is easy: almost all games run perfectly smoothly at 60–120 FPS, depending on the frame rate the developer allows. The hit Asphalt 9, PUBG Mobile, Candy Crush Saga (oh yeah!) and all the other most popular titles from the App Store run smoothly, but the tablet also supports real console hits like Resident Evil Village and Death Stranding.

In addition, recently announced an extensive list of AAA games that will appear on iOS:

• Assassin’s Creed Shadows
• Dead Island 2
• Sniper Elite 4
• Control
• Wuthering Waves
• Prince of Persia: Lost Crown
• Pal World
• Resident Evil 7
• Riven
• Frostpunk 2
• Resident Evil 2
• RoboCop
• Valheim
• World of Warcraft: The War Within

Apple has realized that they have released too powerful SoCs for what is available in the App Store. Such an announcement is a real celebration for the iOS community, and tears of disappointment for fans of the Android OS, which AAA developers would rather not look at with rare exceptions. If the list of high-quality projects reaches 25-50 games, Apple iPad Pro 2024 can be confidently called a universal substitute for a full-fledged game console, but for now, it is a compromise option for video games, especially mobile ones.

Autonomy, heating

Under load, the Apple iPad Pro 11 2024 is not cold. In typical usage scenarios, the back cover heats up more from human hands than from the processor, but in super-heavy games and during video rendering, the case warms your hands. With a pyrometer, you can easily find places with 40-45 °C. Despite the heat, the processor does not throttle, showing identical results in repeated tests.

The heaviest games at 120 FPS drain the battery quickly — less than four hours and the battery is depleted. At 30-60 FPS and not at maximum screen brightness, you can get much better results, but you’re unlikely to exceed eight hours.

Intensive «mixed» use (downloading apps, testing games, passing benchmarks, transferring files) drains the battery in seven hours. Watching 4K YouTube videos is possible for 9 hours «more than» hours at 100% brightness.

Economical (minimal screen backlight) use in office programs and as an e-reader almost does not discharge the tablet. In this mode, the Apple iPad Pro 11 2024 lasts 22 hours with Wi-Fi connected. The display with a dynamic refresh rate, which drops to 10 Hz when the image is static, played a significant role in this.

So, the manufacturer left the battery with the same capacity as in the iPad Pro 2022, but reduced the thickness of the case. It’s hard to say how correct this decision is because the battery doesn’t last long under heavy load, especially in games with 120 FPS and 100% brightness.

Software

The Apple iPad Pro 11 2024 runs on iPad OS 17. It is almost the same as iOS with differences in the graphical interface and optimized versions of popular programs. The system is exemplary, fast, smooth, stable, with a beautiful visual design — it’s a pleasure to use.

It supports working with several programs simultaneously on the screen, and using the «director» option, you can move windows around as if you were on Mac OS. The user experience is slightly different from classic desktops.

After Android/Windows, it’s easy to get used to this iPad OS — two hours of familiarization with the device is enough, and the user already feels «at home». Everything is intuitively simple, cleverly arranged, and the keyboard is so well-thought-out that it immediately reminds you of the Gboard on Android OS.

We should also note the excellent RAM management. There is 8 GB of RAM, which allows you to run dozens of programs without rebooting. For example, you can play demanding games, switching between them every few minutes. The game does not load the tablet in the background, so the battery does not drain.

During the battery tests, the game Genshin Impact was running in the background, but this did not affect the final result. After 14 hours of launching the game, we resume it and a second later continue from the same place where we left off the last time.

It is possible that running multiple console-level AAA video games will force them to reboot when cycling between them, but this is a narrow scenario that true gamers with the Apple iPad Pro 11 2024 will be able to test

Despite all the advantages of the iPad OS, this system is primitive for such a powerful device. There are few really demanding games/applications, so in most cases, the Apple iPad Pro 11 2024 is still just a tablet for surfing the Internet or watching videos.

It’s a pity that Apple refuses to port popular software from Mac OS or somehow «combine» these systems because the devices already run on processors of the same architecture. However, this does not prevent you from enjoying using the Apple iPad Pro 11 2024 because as of now, it is the No. 1 tablet in everything but cost and durability (Dell Rugged, as an option).

Experience of use

The Apple iPad Pro 11 2024 brought a lot of positive impressions, surprised me with its performance, and it is comprehensively balanced (body, sound, screen, processor, system). Despite all this, there was a fly in the ointment, a small but unpleasant one.

While testing and learning about the device, I encountered a strange bug with a pop-up window for allowing notifications. After launching the app, the «Home» app asked if it could display notifications. You need to agree to this or prohibit it, but clicking on any item did nothing.

The window didn’t disappear, and it also doesn’t allow you to do anything in the system. I had to forcefully reboot the device using a keyboard shortcut. Still, even «perfect» iPad OS does not give 100% guarantees that this will not happen. Apart from this bug, no other nuances were found during the week of use.

The interface works perfectly smoothly, as if a yacht is sailing through clear waters among coral reefs in full calm, which is not the case with Android/Windows devices with 120, 144, or 240 Hz screens. Everything is done to perfection: a well-drawn interface, beautiful animations, and most importantly, lightning-fast performance. The tablet «flies» in everything you can run on it.

Price and competitors

For the version Apple iPad Pro 11 2024 256 GB without LTE module will have to pay 47,400 hryvnias, and a larger Apple iPad Pro 13 2024 256 GB costs 60,900 hryvnias. There are also 2 TB versions, but the prices there are well over 100 thousand hryvnias.

Illegally imported predecessor Apple iPad Pro 11 2022 128 GB with the M2 processor can be found for 32,000 hryvnias. It’s still a relevant model that has dropped in price considerably.

The Apple iPad Pro 11 2024 has no competitors from other manufacturers that have even tried to come close to the M4 in terms of performance. It is a clear leader that competes only internally with other Apple products.

The only compromise option may be the Samsung Tab series, but Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra has half the hardware. Obviously, the Korean flagship cannot «compete with the new iPad Pro M4.

But the basic versions are good for their price, memory card slot, Dex mode, and easy integration with Google/Microsoft ecosystems. Especially nice «gray» tablets at nice unofficial prices are Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 8/128 GB costs only 23,000 UAH.

9.3/10

Rating ITC.ua

Autonomy

9

Despite its 5.3 mm thickness, the tablet holds a charge for a long time.

Screen

10

Bright, energy-efficient and high-quality display with realistic colors, perfect viewing angles and dynamic refresh rate.

Design, ergonomics

9.5

A comfortable and elegant device with a great look, but with a protrusion for the camera that makes the tablet «wobble» on the table.

Assembly quality, materials

10

The ultra-thin metal case is exemplary.

Software

9

The system is beautiful, it works smoothly and stably, but there are still too few professional programs/video games to utilize the M4.

Performance, Throttle

10

The most powerful tablet computer of our time. The case heats up quite a bit, but there is no performance degradation.

Camera

8

By tablet standards, the camera is of high quality, although it's far from the level of smartphones.

Price

8.5

It is expensive, although there are almost no competitors from other manufacturers.

Sound

9.5

Surrounding, loud and clear sound thanks to a four-speaker system.