M1 iPad Pro Review By Brad Colbow

They're calling the screen a liquid retina Dr display and where it shines literally, is in displaying HDR content. The blacks are blacker, the whites are brighter and all the colors in between look fantastic, but there are some little details with this new display that might feel like a step backwards. Hello, I'm brad. I review tech for creative professionals, and this is the new 2021 iPad Pro. There are two additions to this year's iPad Pro that make it a substantial upgrade. The first is the liquid retina Dr display, and the second is the upgrade to a m1 processor.

iPads and iPhones have always used the series processor. The new iPhone has the a14. The last iPad Pro had an a12z bionic, the higher the number, the newer the chip apple's been rolling out, new macs that use the m1 processor. Now the m1 has a lot more in common with the series processors than it does with those old intel processors that they've been using in macs for years. So what is the difference between a m1 and an a14? Not a lot? I feel a good food metaphor.

Coming up. An intel processor is like a burrito, and an a14 is like a pizza. These are completely different types of food dm1. It's like a larger pizza with more toppings. For example, the a14 bionic that you're going to find in the latest iPad Air has six processing cores and four GPU cores.

The m1 processor has eight processing cores and eight GPU cores bigger pizza, more toppings, but still a pizza numbers are great. But what does this really mean? Well, if you're, drawing in procreate or clip studio affinity designer not much all these programs run amazingly well, even on the older iPads, even that entry-level 8th, gen iPad, that apple currently sells. But all this extra processing power gives software makers a lot more overhead to do. Processor intensive tasks, for example, procreate, is in the process of adding some pretty sweet.3D features to their next update that allows you to import 3d models and paint directly on them right there in the app and from what they've shown so far. It's shaping up to be a pretty impressive feature, and yes, I will be updating my procreate course when that update drops and that will be a free update for the 49 000 students.

That's a lot of people also, if you're doing something that needs more oomph like processing, video and say Cuba fusion. All of that extra horsepower is going to help and that's why people are really excited about having the same m1 chip in the iPad pros that we see in the max, because that old story of an iPad just being a stripped down computer. It's no longer the case, question time. If iPad apps can seamlessly run on macs, since they now share the same architecture, does that mean we will soon see Mac apps running on the iPad cued, the throngs of video professionals waiting for Final Cut Pro to make it to the iPad seriously, though, does this mean apple is going to allow Mac apps to run on iPads the way it lets iPad apps run on the mac now, and I don't see it, this is really a whole video in and of itself there is an iOS emulator on the mac right now, that's how iOS and iPad apps are made they're made on the mac. To my knowledge, there is no macOS emulator currently running on the iPad.

There are also software and UI issues that would have to be worked out there. I think a more likely scenario is that as more mac, apps transition to running natively on m1 max developers will have one less obstacle that they have to jump over if they choose to rework their apps for the iPad. The other big addition here is that liquid retina Dr display this new display is only on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro it's not rolling out on the 11-inch pro this year. Now, while I was setting up this iPad and playing around, I didn't really notice a huge difference. I grabbed last year's iPad Pro.

I set it next to this year's and yeah. Furthermore, I can definitely see a difference when I do that. This is what the brightness on these screens looks like when it's turned up to the backs. I could definitely tell that the whites are whiter. It was interesting, seeing them next to each other, because I already thought last year's screens were great, where the difference really comes in is when you're looking at HDR content.

That's when these new screens really shine and if you're doing photo, editing or working with HDR video. This is going to be a welcome upgrade now the display was what I was most looking forward to when I was unboxing this new iPad and if I'm being 100 honest, I was a little disappointed at first glass. I look at a lot of screens and there are a handful of things that I look at right away. Number one is: how does it look around the edges on cheaper displays where the screen ends, the pixels won't get as bright, and this gives the screen an inner shadow kind of feel. I've seen this a lot on cheaper android tablets and android phones, especially any phone that has like a hole, punch camera on it.

You always get this kind of dark circle around the edges of the screen and that's been something that Apple's iPads and their iPhones have always done extraordinarily well. Now, this sort of thing isn't super noticeable unless you're looking at really bright, colors or a webpage that is pure white or, if you're, in the settings app. For example. The other thing that I saw right away was the amount of space between the glass and the screen below it, and this one is thicker than it has been on recent iPads. This doesn't create any crazy, parallax effect or anything when you're drawing it's its very minor.

But what you have when you have that slight gap in the glass, and you mix that with that little of an inner shadow effect, is it doesn't look as good as their older screens? This is not in any way a dealbreaker, but for me to see the improvements in this new display, I have to compare it with an older iPad, which most people just aren't going to do, but to see what needs to be improved in this display. You're, probably gonna, see it right away. So yes, this display nails that super contrast, the HDR they were going for, but it does come with a trade-off. Those of you who have been around this channel for a while know that I like to put a screen protector on my iPad I like to draw on something that has a little more texture and resistance to it. That's where today's sponsored paper light comes in.

They sent me one that works on this new iPad Pro and I love how it feels it gives your iPad screen a paper like texture. Hence, the name even has a cool paper like sound when you draw on it. The reason I like using it is that the iPad screen is smooth glass, the Apple Pencil. It is a hard plastic pencil. So having a drippy surface gives me so much more drawing control.

You can get a paper like to fit any iPad from the big old pro all the way down to the iPad Mini, and if you check out my link below in the description, you can also grab some cool procreate brushes. They have on their site completely free. Thank you paperlike for sponsoring this video another addition is thunderbolt. We've had USB-C ports on the last several iterations of the iPad Pro, but the addition of thunderbolt is a welcome upgrade another welcome addition here is ram or more of it. We know how much ram is available on the iPad now, and this is something apple has never disclosed publicly before, like the m1 max, you can get either 8 gigabytes or 16 gigabytes of ram in order to get those higher configurations, though you're going to have to go with the one terabyte or two terabytes of storage on the iPad Pro.

Why does ram matter? Well? iPads have always had this problem of when they run out of ram the apps, often crash. You see this in apps, like photoshop, if you're working with a really large document, some apps like procreate, negate this with canvas size limits or layer limits. How many layers you can create one of the reasons to go with an iPad Pro over say an entry-level iPad is the size of the files that you're working with and how many layers you can get based on that file size with the iPad Pro last year you had six gigabytes of ram in 2018. You had four gigabytes of ram in the pro so going to 8 or even 16 is a big upgrade here and the limit issue for all. But the craziest illustrations is soon going to be a thing of the past.

How many layers' brad tell us, give us a number. We want a number man, I don't know you know procreate hard codes this into their app after they do some testing. Usually these updates roll out a few days or a few weeks after a new iPad rolls out, so we'll know in the future, and I'm sure I'll tweet it out and share it on this channel. The Apple Pencil hasn't changed and that's totally fine with me. It works exactly the way it needs to, and this is the second gen Apple Pencil that sells for 130 dollars.

It's not packed in with the iPad Pro. Furthermore, it is an additional cost. Furthermore, it's got a nice matte finish. Furthermore, it's got a tappable button along the sides, it recharges magnetically by attaching to your iPad and, if you're, using an older iPad, and you're thinking about upgrading to me personally, this is the best feature. The way it charges seems like a little thing, but since it stores there, I find that whenever I go to use my Apple Pencil, it's always charged up, and I just never have to think about the battery.

When I was using the original Apple Pencil back in the day, it was kind of the other way around where I'd pick it up, and it had like nine percent charge left in it. So I'd have to plug it in, and then I'd go, get some snacks and come back, and I could work for an hour run out of battery plug it. In again, I ate a lot of snacks, the drawing experience it is sublime. I believe that means very good. The iPad because of its portability, has become my go-to drawing tool, and it's not just the portability.

It's the feel of the Apple Pencil, how it works that app ecosystem, the paper-like screen protector. I should have put the promotion here instead of there and of course there are just so many great drawing apps. A lot of folks are gonna need to use those full-blown desktop, apps they're, going to want to draw in something like photoshop, but if you're just getting into digital art, the iPad tends to be what I recommend most, maybe not the iPad Pro, but an iPad. The other accessory is last year's magic keyboard. This is also extra sells for either 300 or 350.

Depending on the size you get. It is a great feeling keyboard. It does add weight to your iPad. In fact, I would say it. It doubles.

The width- and it is also maybe about doubles the weight of it. I mean it's turning the thing into a laptop. Of course. It's going to weigh more and the new white. I think it looks good.

No, I spend most of my iPad time drawing so for me. Personally, I like the old school portfolio covers it feels good to hold. I can set the iPad up at a comfortable drawing angle, it's not flashy, but it does exactly what I need it to do. The one I have here is from last year's iPad Pro, and it's its got some fingerprints on it, but for the most part it's its aged pretty well. My verdict is that this is a really solid annual upgrade to the iPad Pro.

If you have the 2020 or the 2018 iPad Pro, and you aren't doing processor intensive tasks or don't need that HDR screen, your iPad is probably going to be just fine for another couple years. I have all three and my daily driver is actually the 2018 iPad Pro. It still works great. If you're coming from an older iPad, maybe using the original Apple Pencil, then this is a terrific upgrade, not just the jump and screen quality, but also that Apple Pencil 2. I talked about earlier over the last week as I've used.

This thing I have been debating you know: do I stick with that 2018 iPad Pro, or do I jump up to this new one? So far, I'm not really doing anything that requires those processor intensive tasks. I am a little curious as to what procreate and some other app makers are going to do with this new processor. That might change my mind. I did talk about the screen. That was my one disappointment with this new device.

Again, the screen is good. Those were nitpicks. I don't know if that's going to be what holds me back from changing over I'm sure I'm going to be talking more and more about this in the months to come, make sure you subscribe to see those videos in the future and if you have any questions, leave them down below in the comment section. Thank you all for watching, and I'll talk to you in a couple of days you.

Source : Brad Colbow