Supercharged by the Apple-designed M1 chip, Apple’s iPad Pro is the fastest device of its kind. In a new review, Tom’s Guide calls the 12.9-inch model, “The best kind of overkill.”
The 12.9-inch iPad Pro features a new Liquid Retina XDR display that brings extreme dynamic range to iPad Pro, offering a stunning visual experience with more true-to-life details to the most demanding HDR workflows. Cellular models with 5G deliver even faster wireless connectivity when on the go, Thunderbolt support opens up a massive ecosystem of high-performance accessories, and an all-new Ultra Wide front camera enables Center Stage, a new experience for video calls that automatically keeps users perfectly framed in the shot.
Henry T. Casey for Tom’s Guide:
The iPad Pro 2021 (12.9-inch) redefines “peak tablet.” It’s faster than any slate ever, armed with the super-fast M1 processor from the latest Macs, making it ready to crunch video for pros around the world.
This iPad Pro’s Liquid Retina XDR screen has features none of its rivals can match, getting up to 200% brighter than the competition. Plus, its Center Stage video conferencing trick is the kind of thing that should impress most.
But this iPad Pro 2021 (12.9-inch) review will show that while Apple’s made another of the best tablets available today, it may have just found iPad overkill. The previous iPad Pro was already pretty fast, did we need it to go much faster? Same goes for its screen: did you need a peak brightness of over 1,500 nits?
On the Geekbench 5 benchmark test, the 12.9 inch iPad Pro 2021 pulled in a score of 7,298 (near the 7,293 from the M1-based 11-inch iPad Pro 2021). That’s a huge leap past the 4,262 from the iPad Air 2020 (A14 Bionic) and the 4,720 from the iPad Pro 2020. The Galaxy Tab S7 Plus (Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+) landed a much lower 2,910.
MacDailyNews Take: Today’s overkill is tomorrow’s slow old tech. The more headroom, the better for those interested in maximizing their hardware longevity. Apple’s 12.9-inch M1 iPad Pro really is “the best kind of overkill.”