Apple iPad Pro M2, the proof: a pre-cursor tablet

The most powerful tablets ever are even more powerful. In a nutshell, this is the meaning of the new iPad Pro, presented last week by Apple and available from today also in Italy, Wednesday 26 October.

As widely expected, the Cupertino company has brought the new M2 chip, the same as the MacBook Air, to its top-of-the-range tablets. It improves the CPU performance by around 15% and the GPU by around 35%. The benchmarks we performed confirm the leap, but it is difficult for now to have the right understanding: the iPads with M1 chips were already very fast and super powerful in video editing and photo editing, while advanced software such as Da Vinci Resolve, which they may highlight the performance gain, they will only be available later.

The other important change is the new interaction mode for the Apple Pencil called “hover”, which shows a preview of the position and function of the stylus when the tip approaches the screen. In purchasing choices it is a negligible function, but as we will say shortly, in our opinion it is a harbinger of important news for the iPad experience as a whole.

Finally, here are the other differences between iPad Pro M1 and iPad Pro M2:

• Wifi 6E instead of Wi-Fi 6
• Bluetooth 5.3 instead of Bluetooth 5.2 (but requires compatible accessories)
• Support for new bands for 5G in cellular versions
• Capable of taking Smart HDR4 photos (instead of Smart HDR 3) and ProRes 4K videos up to 30 fps.
• New fabric cable in the box
• Written iPad Pro instead of iPad on the back (it is the only aesthetic detail that allows you to distinguish the iPad Pro M1 and M2 “on sight”)

As with the M1 models, the only substantial difference between the 11 ”and 12.9” iPad Pro M2s is the screen. Not only for the size, but also for the type: on the larger model is the Liquid Retina XDR with mini-LED technology. It is the same as the previous model and preserves its pros and cons. The new “Reference Mode” function of iPadOS 16 enhances the chromatic fidelity useful for image professionals, but the slight blooming effect that was already noticed on the iPad Pro M1 remains, that is the slight luminous halo surrounding the clear silhouettes. It is a side effect of mini-LED displays due to the localized distribution of the 2596 backlight points on the panel.

The wording “iPad Pro” instead of “iPad” is the only detail that allows you to distinguish the M1 and M2 models from the outside

Stage Manager

On the other hand, there is no lack of software innovations, introduced iPadOS 16.1, but they are not a prerogative of the new iPad Pro M2: they arrive (almost) all also on the previous models with the update available from Monday 24 October.

Stage Manager is the most interesting feature: it is a new multitasking mode that allows you to manage up to four groups of apps with floating windows. Also available on macOS Ventura, it is an interesting attempt at rapprochement between iPadOS and macOS, perhaps one of the most daring seen so far. At the same time, Apple maintains clear boundaries between the two platforms.

In fact, if on iPad you can manage a maximum of 4 groups of windows, iPad M1 and M2, on Mac the limit rises to 6 and depends solely on the size of the screen. Furthermore, on the iPad the windows in the workspaces can only be resized according to predefined grids, although there is no real reason not to enable the free pattern resizing available on Macs. All this despite the iPad Pro M1 and M2 sharing benchmarks and performance of Macs with the same chips.

iPad and Mac: Approach tests

Stage Manager, although still to be perfected, is however the first real opening to a software package that can bring the most powerful iPads closer to the user experiences that professionals expect from a laptop. Here we believe that iPad Pros have their own raison d’etre in the way they are different from a Mac. However, it is undeniable that – given their price range – they still cannot 100% replace a desktop computer for those who do not have. the luxury of being able to focus on a single creative activity. All around the common office activities that touch even the best professionals are even easier and faster to perform on a Mac or PC.

The solution proposed by those who insist on not considering the profound differences in interaction between PC and tablet is very simple: Apple should bring macOS to iPad. It is a hypothesis relaunched by new rumors that speak of a possible macOS Lite scheduled for 2023. We remain skeptical, but the clues that point in this direction begin to accumulate.
If Stage Manager is the most obvious attempt to find a square to the Great Theory of Unification between Mac and iPad, the novelty of the iPad Pro M2 that in our opinion points even more in this direction is another: the “hover” mode for Apple Pencil.

Write with flourishes

On the 11 and 12.9 ”iPad Pro M2s, Apple has introduced a new technology that enables hover mode for the second generation Apple Pencil. Now by bringing the stylus closer to the screen (up to 12mm away), the display shows the position of the tip and a preview of its function. You will see a dot when writing with the pencil or pen function. If you choose a brush instead, a preview of the corresponding stroke will appear in the color selected from the Pencil menu.

Using the new watercolor brush of the system interface, for example in the Notes, it is also possible to preview the mix of colors that will be created by tracing the mark with the Pencil. Nothing completely new, but as always Apple has taken a concept already known and has elevated and integrated it perfectly into the interaction modes of its tablets.

iPad Pro M2: pre-cursor

The most interesting aspect of the “hover” experience, however, are not the functions for illustrators, but those that it enables on apps like Safari. By moving the Pencil to links on a Web page, for example, you can now view the URL before clicking a link; passing the stylus on a YouTube video you can scroll through the frames and then “touch” the right one; fluttering on an open tab, you can recall its preview, and so on.

By “hovering” with the tip of the Pencil on a link, Safari shows the preview

They are exactly the same functions that can be activated by passing the mouse pointer over the same elements of the page. In other words, the “hover” function transforms the Apple Pencil into a pointer that you can hold directly in your hand. It is an absolute novelty on the iPads, and in our opinion it is the real smoking gun that points to a possible expansion of the “desktop-like” functions of iPadOS in the near future, if not even the definitive opening to an iPad version of macOS.

The “hover” function seems to us the first serious solution to the age-old dilemma of “touch” ergonomics of desktop systems. Apple has always explained that its Mac OS interactions are not meant for touch. But what if instead of the phalanxes we used a style capable of hovering on the display just like the mouse pointer?

iPad Pro M2, finally

Apple uses its iPad Pro as launch pads for all the latest technologies that will later make their debut on lower-end models – it’s the only instance of trickle down economics that has historically ever worked. The iPad Pro M2 are no exception: they are the first tablets to inaugurate the M2 chips, they are the first to mount the latest radio components for Wifi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, 5G multi-band. Above all, they exclusively mount the hardware that enables the “hover” function for the Apple Pencil, which for us is an important indication of the software changes that will arrive next year.

Despite all this, the iPad Pro M2 remains a minor update, which iPad Pro M1 owners can overlook without hesitation. Anyone coming from a previous model or interested in buying an iPad Pro for the first time will buy an extraordinary and very expensive tablet with all the latest Apple technological innovations. However, it will also have the (not negligible) disadvantage of a significant increase in the prices of all models. The advice is to first take a look at the official Apple refurbished site or the e-commerce specialized in “refurbished” products: the iPad Pro M1 are already at very affordable prices.