iPad Professional M4 vs iPad Professional M2: What is the distinction?

Apple’s iPad Professional lineup has been given a redesign and a few highly effective new Apple silicon to make them much more highly effective. However is that sufficient to imply that you need to go straight to the M4 fashions or do you have to benefit from a reduction on the M2-powered iPad Professional? We see how the iPad Professional M4 technology compares to the iPad Professional M2 fashions (also called the iPad Professional 12.9-inch sixth technology and iPad Professional 11-inch 4th technology).

Design & construct high quality

The M4 iPad Professionals bought one thing of a facelift from Apple in Could 2024, with the brand new tablets being lighter and thinner than the fashions they changed. It’s all a matter of millimeters and grams, however when you think about that the M4 iPad Professional is definitely slimmer than the M2 iPad Air, you get an concept of the influence of this transformation. 

Right here’s how the scale of the gadgets evaluate:

• 11-inch iPad Professional (M2) – 247.6 x 178.5 x 5.9mm; 466g
• 11-inch iPad Professional (M4) – 249.7 x 177.5 x 5.3mm; 444g
• 12.9-inch iPad Professional (M2) – 280.6 x 214.9 x 6.4mm; 682g
• 13-inch iPad Professional (M4) – 281.6 x 215.5 x 5.1mm; 579g

As you may see, the newer variations are barely taller too, however the principle promoting level from Apple was the 5.1mm thickness of the 13-inch Professional, which the corporate claims makes it the slimmest system it has ever made. 

Petter Ahrnstedt

Petter Ahrnstedt

Petter Ahrnstedt

Except for the scale there are a few different small adjustments. All of the aluminum chassis’ include USB-C (Thunderbolt / USB 4) ports and Good connectors, however the M4 variants have allotted with a SIM slot on the mobile fashions, as an alternative choosing eSIMs. There are, surprisingly, no 10MP Extremely Extensive cameras on the brand new fashions, one thing that was a characteristic of the M2 Professionals, and one of many microphones has been retired too. We’re not totally certain why Apple went with these omissions, however we suspect its pathological obsession with thinness may very well be the explanation.  No less than the wonderful four-speaker audio stays in place. 

Yet another apparent and helpful change is that the front-facing Face ID digital camera has been moved from the highest edge to the longer edge. This creates a panorama positioning extra akin to that on a laptop computer and definitely makes FaceTime calls look higher. Once more, there’s a trade-off although, with the digital camera now taking the house the place the charging magnets for the Apple Pencil 2 have been positioned on the M2 iPad Professionals. Which means that in case you have one of many older Pencils, it’s not going to work with the M4 iPad Professional. As a substitute, you’ll want to purchase an Apple Pencil (USB-C) or the brand new Apple Pencil Professional. Equally, the older Apple Magic Keyboard case will not be longer appropriate, with the new and equally costly model becoming the M4 slimline our bodies. 

Learn Greatest stylus for iPad, iPad Air, Professional, and mini, Which Apple Pencil works together with your iPad, and Greatest iPad keyboards.

Storage choices have modified barely, with the M4 gadgets dropping the 128GB baseline capability supplied on the M2 fashions and as an alternative shifting as much as 256GB. 

You is likely to be hoping that this information means you get extra storage to your cash, however sadly, within the U.S. at the very least, the value of the M4 256GB iPad Professional is definitely greater than the M2 256GB mannequin price. The 256GB 11-inch M2 iPad Professional began at $899/£1,019, and now prices from $999/£999 (excellent news in case you are within the U.Okay. the place costs had been inflated for a while).

Right here’s the storage capacities you may select from on both iPad Professional:

• 128GB (M2 fashions solely)
• 256GB
• 512GB
• 1TB
• 2TB

Colour selections stay the identical as earlier than, with Area Black or Silver being the liveries on provide, and none have an IP score for waterproofing.

Show

Relating to the display screen the obvious distinction could also be that the bigger M4 mannequin display screen is bigger than its predecessor: up from 12.9-inches to 13-inches. That’s not an enormous leap although. An even bigger distinction is the display screen high quality on the newer machines. Throughout the 4 fashions, there are some variances with the show applied sciences Apple employs.

For the M2 technology, the variations in display screen expertise have been one factor that set the 2 fashions aside. The 11-inch iPad Professional (M2) had a Liquid Retina show powered by LEDs, whereas the bigger 12.9-inch iPad Professional (M2) featured a Liquid Retina XDR show. The latter makes use of mini-LEDs and eclipses the 600 nits max SDR brightness of its smaller sibling with a blinding 1000 nits most XDR brightness or 1600 nits for HDR content material. You’ll get the equal resolutions on each, delivering 264ppi. 

Each M4 fashions bought a critical improve on this space. Apple’s new Extremely Retina XDR shows use progressive Tandem OLED layering to spice up SDR brightness to 1,000 whereas providing the identical XDR ranges because the 12.9-inch iPad Professional (M2). 

In the event you purchase both the 1TB or 2TB M4 gadgets, you can too pay one other $100/£100 and add Nanotexture glass, which makes the floor much less reflective and due to this fact simpler to learn in well-lit areas. This may very well be choice if you’ll be utilizing your iPad Professional exterior in shiny sunshine.

All 4 iPad Professional fashions mentioned right here include ProMotion, Extensive shade (P3), and True Tone. 

Right here’s the related resolutions on every mannequin:

• 11-inch iPad Professional (M2) – 2,388 x 1,668; 264ppi
• 11-inch iPad Professional (M4) – 2,420 x 1,668, 264ppi
• 12.9-inch iPad Professional (M2) – 2,732 x 2,048, 264ppi
• 13-inch iPad Professional (M4) – 2,752 x 2,064, 264ppi

Processor

The M2 processors within the older iPad Professionals have been already the spectacular and highly effective beating hearts for these gadgets. Apple isn’t hanging round although, and the bounce to M4 is critical, because it signifies that a brand new flagship model of its silicon debuts on an iPad moderately than a Mac. The brand new MacBook Professional M4 and MacBook Air M4 are anticipated to hitch the M4 ranks quickly, however at launch, the iPad Professional M4 fashions have been the one ones to sport the brand new chipset, which looks like a wierd choice on Apple’s half. 

The M2 processor comes with an 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU, whereas the M4 goes as much as 10 cores on the CPU. All characteristic a 16-core neural engine. Whereas the M2 has confirmed itself to be a quick chipset, Apple claims that the M4 as much as 1.5x quicker for common CPU efficiency and a whopping 4x quicker in professional rendering efficiency. Neither will really feel sluggish in any method, however if you happen to intend to do rather a lot with video or graphics, then the additional energy of the M4 may very well be well worth the cash. 

You possibly can see how the CPU’s evaluate within the chart beneath:

You possibly can see how the M4 fares towards the opposite M-series processors in our iPad Professional M4 assessment.

Cameras

As talked about above, Apple has taken the weird choice to take away one of many cameras on the M4 fashions and never substitute it with an alternate. 

On all fashions you get a 12MP vast digital camera. This has a f/1.8 aperture, 5x digital zoom, and Good HDR 4 for pictures. The M2 variations had True Tone flash, whereas the M4 get the extra versatile Adaptive True Tone flash. 

Video efficiency is standardised too, with 4K/60fps, prolonged dynamic vary (as much as 30fps), ProRes 4K, 3x digital zoom, audio zoom, slo-mo 1080p/240fps, and time-lapse recording. 

The 12MP f/2 FaceTime digital camera is identical on all fashions, simply positioned in numerous areas of the iPads. You get the traditional facial unlocking capabilities, Centre Stage (which retains you in the midst of the body on FaceTime calls even if you happen to transfer round), 2x zoom out, Retina Flash with True Tone, Portrait modes, 1080/60 fps recording, plus all the traditional FaceTime digital camera options. 

It’s odd then that the M2 fashions take a lead right here with the inclusion of two cameras on the again of the iPad – the usual 12MP Extensive digital camera and a 10MP Extremely Extensive. This second f/2.4 lens permits for a 2x optical zoom on pictures and video, plus the choice to make use of that wider aperture to shoot content material that reveals extra of your environment. There’s solely the one 12MP digital camera on the again of the M4 iPad Professional. Apple will need to have eliminated this second digital camera in an effort to scale back the bulge on the again, but when cameras on iPads are vital to you, properly, the M2 is the one good selection on this space. 

Connectivity

As said earlier, all these iPad Professional fashions include USB-C (Thunderbolt / USB 4) ports and Good connectors. In addition they assist Bluetooth 5.3, GPS, WiFi 6E, MIMO, and 5G LTE on the mobile fashions.

Right here’s a breakdown of the technical specs for all of the iPad fashions:

iPad Professional M4

iPad Professional M2

Value and availability

With the discharge of the M4 iPad Professionals, Apple has discontinued the M2 fashions. Nonetheless, you need to nonetheless be capable of decide them up from third social gathering retailers for some time – and fairly presumably from Apple’s Refurbished Retailer U.S. and Apple’s Refurbished retailer U.Okay – look out for the iPad Professional 12.9-inch sixth technology and iPad Professional 11-inch 4th technology there.

Right here’s what the present M4 iPad Professionals will price you on the Apple Retailer:

11-inch iPad Professional (M4) 

• 256GB, Wi-Fi: $999 / £999 / A$1,699
• 512GB, Wi-Fi: $1,199 / £1,199 / A$2,049
• 1TB, Wi-Fi: $1,599 / £1,599 / A$2,749
• 2TB, Wi-Fi: $1,999 / £1,999 / A$3,449
• 256GB, Mobile: $1,199 / £1,199 / A$2,049 
• 512GB, Mobile: $1,399 / £1,399 / A$2,399
• 1TB, Mobile: $1,799 / £1,799 / A$3,099
• 2TB, Mobile: $2,199 / £2,199 / A$3,799

You possibly can see one of the best costs for the entry-level 11-inch, M4 iPad Professional beneath, normally $999 / £999:

$899

$899

$949

$999

$999

$1199

13-inch iPad Professional (M4)

• 256GB, Wi-Fi: $1,299 / £1,299 / A$2,199
• 512GB, Wi-Fi: $1,499 / £1,499 / A$2,549
• 1TB, Wi-Fi: $1,899 / £1,899 / A$3,249
• 2TB, Wi-Fi: $2,299 / £2,299 / A$3,949
• 256GB, Mobile: $1,499 / £1,499 / A$2,549 
• 512GB, Mobile: $1,699 / £1,699 / A$2,899
• 1TB, Mobile: $2,099 / £2,099 / A$3,599
• 2TB, Mobile: $2,499 / £2,499 / A$4,299

You possibly can see one of the best costs for the entry-level 13-inch, M4 iPad Professional beneath, normally $1,299 / £1,299:

$1,114

$1149

$1199

$1199

$1199

$1299

Whilst you can’t purchase the M2 variations from Apple now, right here’s what they might have set you again once they initially launched in 2022:

• iPad Professional 11-inch Wi-Fi (M2): from $799/£899
• iPad Professional 11-inch Mobile (M2): from $999/£1,079
• iPad Professional 12.9-inch Wi-Fi (M2): from $1,099/£1,249
• iPad Professional 12.9-inch Mobile (M2): from $1,299/£1,429

If the entry-level 11-inch, M2 iPad Professional is on the market you’ll see greatest costs beneath, was $799/£899:

New
Refurbished

$799

$799

$799.99

$809.95

$1024

iPad Professional 11 (2020) 128GB – Silver – (WiFi)

$538.11

iPad Professional 11 (2021) 128GB – Area Grey – (WiFi)

$553

iPad Professional 11 (2021) 128GB – Silver – (WiFi)

$585.89

iPad Professional 11 (2022) 128GB – Area Grey – (WiFi)

$644.99

iPad Professional 11 (2022) 128GB – Silver – (WiFi)

$689

$Not Out there

iPad Professional 11 (2020) 1000GB – Area Grey – (Wi-Fi + LTE)

$799

If the entry-level 12.9-inch, M2 iPad Professional is on the market you’ll see greatest costs beneath, was $1,099/£1,249:

Ought to I purchase the iPad Professional M4 or the iPad Professional M2?

There are professionals and cons for the brand new gadgets. Sure, the M4 chip is extra highly effective than the M2, the show is brighter, plus the repositioning of the Face ID digital camera is a welcome and long-overdue enchancment, as is the doubling of the baseline storage. So, it’s a straightforward choice then? No. Not fairly. In the event you’ve already bought an Apple Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil 2, then you definately would possibly really feel a bit put out at having to exchange each if you wish to go for the M4 iPads. Additionally, there’s the unusual omission of the Extremely-Extensive digital camera. Absolutely the newer fashions ought to have extra tech not much less? 

In the event you’re a graphic artist and want one of the best iPad for the job, to not point out the brand new Apple Pencil Professional compatibility, then the M4s are fairly the bundle. In the event you simply desire a highly effective iPad, then the M2 fashions would most likely be a more sensible choice, particularly if you have already got among the iPad Professional peripherals and may decide up the gadgets on deal.