A few weeks ago, Apple held a special event titled “Spring Loaded”, which contained many announcements of their latest products. Of the many that are displayed, one of the most eye-catching is the iPad Pro.
Apple introduced the new iPad Pro one year after launching the 2020 edition of the iPad Pro. While the two have almost the same appearance, there are some new things that the 2021 edition brings that make it much ‘superior’ to the previous year’s edition. For more details, see the review below.
Screen
There is only one variant of the iPad Pro 2021 with a better or different screen from the iPad Pro 2020. The 12.9-inch variant of the iPad Pro 2021 has a Liquid Retina XDR screen with mini-LED technology.
New technology allows the 2021 iPad Pro 12.9-inch to have a maximum brightness level of 1,000 nits (the 2020 variant maxes out at 559 nits) and a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1. This increase can be achieved because the mini-LED technology on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro 2021 has a better density with 10,000 mini-LEDs 120x smaller than the regular LEDs on the iPad Pro 2020.
Performance
There is one significant performance improvement brought by the iPad Pro 2021 compared to the iPad Pro 2020. That is the M1 chipset that Apple uses in its 2021 iMac, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac Mini.
Apple claims that the M1 has 50 per cent and 40 per cent better CPU and GPU performance, respectively, than the A12Z Bionic chipset on the iPad Pro 2020. Not only that, but an increase is also present on the Neural Engine side, which now has 16 cores, storage access is called twice as fast, and the USB-C port is replaced with a Thunderbolt port.
Battery
The battery is an unexpected part of getting an upgrade from the 2021 iPad Pro battery, which is basically the same as the 2020 iPad Pro – especially for the variant with the 11-inch screen. The 2021 iPad Pro 11-inch is equipped with a 7,538mAh battery that Apple claims can last up to more than 10 hours (in browsing conditions via Wi-Fi), the same as the iPad Pro 2020.
For features, the iPad Pro 2021 batteries, both 11-inch and 12.9-inch variants, are both equipped with 18W fast-charging features. Beyond that, there’s not much different from the 2021 iPad Pro battery.
Design
The iPad Pro 2021 is basically similar to the iPad Pro 2020, except for one thing. All variants have a rear body made of aluminium with thin bezels, and the 11-inch variant for the 2020 and 2021 models have dimensions of 9.74 x 7.02 x 0.23 inches.
Well, the difference lies in the 12.9-inch variant, which is slightly thicker with dimensions of 11.04 x 8.46 x 0.25 inches. Due to the difference in dimensions, the Magic Keyboard made for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro 2020 cannot be used in the 2021 model year, so Apple was forced to make a new Magic Keyboard that fits better.
Camera
The biggest change for the 2021 iPad Pro in the camera sector is the new 12MP selfie camera (only 7MP on the 2020 iPad Pro). To make it even better, Apple also gave the selfie camera a 122-degree field-of-view to maximize the Center Stage feature, where the selfie camera will automatically follow the user when making a video call.
The feature is said to not be exclusive to FaceTime and will be used in other applications. In addition, Apple has also improved LiDAR performance by focusing on low light conditions and minimizing shooting time.
5G
5G is one of the mandatory features on current flagship-class devices, and the 2021 iPad Pro is one of the devices that also support it. Apple confirmed that the 2021 iPad Pro supports 5G connectivity, an upgrade from the “4G LTE only” option on last year’s iPad Pro.
Apple says that the new connectivity can give users connection speeds of up to 3.5GBps “under ideal download conditions “. This feature can be realized thanks to Apple’s own M1 chipset, designed to have the latest advanced features such as 5G connectivity.
Accessories
The iPad Pro 2021 and iPad Pro 2020 have the same first-party accessory support, including the iPad Pro-Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil Gen 1 and Gen 2. However, as mentioned in point 4, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro 2021 variant has dimensions thicker, so it’s a bit less fitting when using the Magic Keyboard made for last year’s model. To overcome this, Apple has again presented a new Magic Keyboard designed to fit and be precise with the dimensions of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro 2021 variant.
That was a review of what’s new with the iPad Pro 2021 compared to the iPad Pro 2020. The iPad Pro 2021 is scheduled to be available this month at prices starting at US$799 for the 11-inch variant and US$1,099 for the 12.9-inch variant. Interested?