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Marques Brownlee - M4 iPad Pro Impressions: Well This is Awkward

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Author: Marques Brownlee
Categories: Technology
Tags: technology
Views: 2 · Last viewed: 2026-10-16 08:10 UTC

Short Summary

Main recommendation: The M4 iPad Pro is the most powerful and thinnest iPad Apple has made, but Marques Brownlee argues it is still "just another spec-bumped iPad" whose software does little to take advantage of the hardware, so most owners of a recent iPad Pro have little reason to upgrade. He says the new iPad Air is largely predictable, and the new Pro's OLED display and Apple Pencil Pro are the most notable changes.

Key Points

  • The new iPad Air moves up to the M2 chip, starts at 128 GB, moves the webcam to the landscape bezel, adds faster Wi-Fi, and comes in a larger 13-inch size, priced at $599 (11-inch) and $799 (13-inch).
  • The new iPad Pros, at 5.3 mm (11-inch) and 5.1 mm (13-inch), are the thinnest Apple devices ever made, and the 13-inch Pro is lighter than the Air.
  • The M4 chip, a 3-nanometer design, is reported to have a CPU roughly 50% faster than M2, a GPU up to four times faster, and the ability to match M2 performance at half the power.
  • Both Pro sizes use a tandem OLED display rated at 1,000 nits peak full-screen brightness and 1,600 nits peak HDR brightness; Marques says the new M4 display driver is what actually enables this tandem OLED technology.
  • The new Apple Pencil Pro adds a haptic motor (for Find My), a squeeze sensor, and a gyroscope for rotation sensitivity, but it works only with the newest iPad Pro and iPad Air.
  • The timing is awkward, since the major new iPadOS software is expected at WWDC this summer, after these iPads ship.

Details Worth Noting

  • Concrete instructions: No step-by-step setup or usage instructions were given. The actionable advice is to hold off on the nano-texture matte Pro unless you have considered its trade-offs, to use only the microfiber cloth included in the box, and to avoid the Pro Pencil Pro if you have an older iPad, since it is incompatible.
  • The nano-texture matte option costs an extra $100 and is available only on the 1 TB and 2 TB models. The speaker says it reduces reflections but slightly reduces sharpness and contrast, with blacks looking less black even at 0 degrees off-axis.
  • The speaker warns about durability, saying the matte finish may be damaged by the wrong cloth, so the included microfiber cloth should be used.
  • The 13-inch iPad Pro and 11-inch iPad Pro share the same features, so the $300 price difference is harder to justify.
  • The new Magic Keyboard is lighter, has a bigger trackpad and a function row, and supports 60-watt pass-through charging through the pins in the back, though Marques notes it's still very expensive.

Bottom Line

The M4 iPad Pro is impressive hardware, but for owners of a recent iPad Pro the upgrade case rests mainly on the display and the Pencil, while the software that would make the power meaningful has not yet arrived.