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The latest iPad Pro with the super fast M5 chip is designed for the most intensive applications on the planet – whether complex AI, 6k video editing, instant summaries of pages of university lectures notes, or live translation of your scribbles using Apple Pencil into another language. Or you could just use it for the most immersive gaming or movie watching experience, given it superb display and sound. With a next generation graphics processing unit with a neural accelerator in each core, the M5 chip promises up to 3.5 times faster AI performance than the iPad Pro with the M4 chip and up to 5.6 times faster than the one with the M1 chip. For most applications, the difference from last year’s model to this year’s may be harder to spot, but if you’re upgrading from one that is a few years old, you should appreciate the new firepower. While Apple has been criticised for lagging in the AI space, one of the iPad Pro’s big selling points is that AI work and other projects can be done on device keeping your work personal, private and secure. We put the image generation app Draw Things, for example, to the test, generating a beautiful lion watching over Jerusalem in under two minutes. In other demonstrations, changes to video or super complex images took just seconds. While many Australians see the benefits of AI in doing things faster, a recent survey found there are still plenty of people worried about how far it is going. And recent major outages, along with cyber attacks have no doubt added to general anxiety. With Apple known for its privacy and security settings, doing more of your own work on the device itself will no doubt appeal to many. Image generation apps like Draw Things and AI video in DaVinci Resolve do work faster. Despite its super thin and lightweight design, the iPad Pro offers more than 150GB/s of unified memory bandwidth — an almost 30 per cent increase. That enables users to multitask across more apps, play more demanding games with new third generation tracing, or create stunning AI videos for work, university or just fun. We’ve been putting the 13 inch version through its paces with its Ultra Retina XDR display just gorgeous for everything from watching movies, checking out photos from our recent holidays, reading newspapers and digital books. The new windowing system in iPad0S26 allows for easy multi-tasking – something that is particularly good on the bigger iPad display or by adding a second, larger monitor to your setup. So do you really need an iPad these days? With bigger phones and work laptops, many are quite content to do without a tablet. But coupled with a keyboard, the iPad Pro is definitely a strong, albeit more expensive, alternative to an ordinary laptop. The display is much better, and the benefit of being able to layback with it on a comfortable chair to catch up on emails, the news, watch sport or your favourite streaming service is definitely a bonus. We upgraded our normal Apple subscription to add Apple TV and Apple Arcade to make the most of it. Apple TV looks stunning, while some of our favourite car racing, golf, basketball and baseball games are rendered beautifully. There are some great apps for creativity which work well on the iPad including the hugely popular Aussie made app Procreate used by artists and illustrators around the world. It was actually used by artist Kyle Lambert to draw the promotional poster for Stranger Things. With the iPad, despite working with massive files involving thousands of brushstrokes, you can make adjustments in just seconds. The new iPad Pro offers up to 2x faster storage read and write speeds, while the 256GB and 512GB models start with 12GB of unified memory — 50 per cent more than before. On the camera side, there is a landscape 12MP camera which is great for those long FaceTime and video calls with people you love overseas or interstate, especially if you have it set up with a Magic Keyboard or Smart Folio. With centre stage, machine learning enables the camera to automatically adjust to keep you centred in the shot. There is also a 12MP wide camera, LiDAR Scanner, and adaptive true tone flash that enhances image capture and document scanning. For those on the go, the cellular iPad Pro features the new C1X modem which promises up to 50 per cent faster data performance. Adding an e-sim to the tablet was very easy and will certainly appeal to businesspeople not wanting to rely on someone else’s connection, as well as travellers. Additionally, iPad Pro supports fast charge — enabling up to 50 per cent charge in around 30 minutes with an optional high-wattage USB-C power adaptor. So who is the iPad Pro really for? With a faster CPU, the iPad Pro with M5 chip is ideal for graphic designers working with complex vector graphics in apps like Adobe Illustrator, architects who routinely multitask across apps like SketchUp and Morpholio Trace, and business users who need to quickly launch and access large files across multiple apps. It is also a great working canvas for creatives including photographers and video bloggers. The iPad Pro supports 1000 nits of full-screen brightness for SDR and HDR content, and 1600 nits peak brightness for HDR. For those working in brighter environments, it also offers a nano-texture display glass option for reduced glare. The Liquid Glass display, available on the latest iPhones, looks even better on iPad. iPadOS 26 introduces new ways to manage, access, and organise files with a better Files app featuring an updated List view and new folder customisation options. The Preview app gives users a dedicated app to view and edit PDFs, with features like Apple Pencil Markup and AutoFill built in. New features across iPadOS 26 include Live Translation in Phone, FaceTime, and Messages; new intelligent actions in Shortcuts which look really useful and the ability to identify and automatically categorise relevant actions in Reminders. The iPad Pro is definitely a premium product for top end users but it offers one of the best overall experiences around, whether you are a creative, a student or a business person. The iPad Pro with M5 can be ordered via the Apple store and will be in Apple Store locations and Apple resellers, starting Wednesday, October 22. Australian pricing for the iPad Pro with M5 The 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro with M5 is available in silver and space black finishes in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB configurations. The 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $1,699 for the Wi-Fi model, and $2,049 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. The 13-inch iPad Pro starts at $2,199 for the Wi-Fi model, andA$2,549 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. With education savings, the 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $1,529 while the 13-inch iPad Pro starts at $2,029. Apple Pencil Pro sells for $219, while the 11-inch Magic Keyboard is available for $499 and the new 13-inch Magic Keyboard is available for $579, with education discounts also available for students.
