It’s been a full year since the release of the M4 iPad Pro, the first major redesign for the product line in six years. That redesign brought a lot of changes in some ways—and not very many in others.

The 13 inch M4 Pro replaced my M1 12.9 inch iPad Pro as a primary machine. Really, I use it for everything but writing code, and I have to my work-issued computer for that anyway.

The M4 Pro handles both iPhone and Mac tasks to the point where I almost don’t need either. Its as close as I’ve come to a single device that does everything since I got my first iPhone in 2007. The M4 Pro starts at $1000 for the 11 inch model and an eye-watering $1299 for the 13 inch model, so its a big investment.

After a year, was it worth it?

Video Version

Hardware

Specs

Chip	M4 with 10 Core CPU (4 performance cores, 6 efficiency cores) 10 core GPU
Storage	1 TB
Ram	16 GB
Color	Silver
Cameras	12 MP Rear Camera 12 MP Front Camera
Cellular?	Yep Yep

Design

In some ways, the design of the M4 Pro hasn’t changed much from the classic 2018 iPad Pro design. We still have that gorgeous flat-edge look with relatively thin bezels. I see people complain that they’re still too thick, but it makes sense—tablets need more bezel than laptops or smartphones because of how you hold them. Palm rejection isn’t perfect.

The radical thinness was a major selling point of the redesign, and even after a year, the novelty hasn’t worn off. A lot of people think making an iPad thinner is pointless at best—and a detriment to battery life at worst. But for the 13-inch Pro, the size and weight reduction makes it much more of an everyday, around-the-house device. If I don’t leave the house on a given day, my phone never leaves the charger. The iPad has always been a better iPhone, and now it’s much less cumbersome to use it that way.

I opted for the classic silver finish. I continue to wish for more color options, but I know Apple doesn’t believe in color for Pro devices. I’m thankful they kept silver around so I didn’t have to settle for Starlight.

I don’t baby my iPads that much. I’ve been using the 13-inch Pro without a case or screen protector. There are scratches on the back, especially on the Apple logo. The screen is mostly fine, though I think I spotted a small scratch the other day. Since I can’t see it during everyday use, it’s been fine. No dents. It hasn’t bent—at least as far as I can tell.

Speaking of the display: looking back, the jump to OLED with the M4 Pro hasn’t had the impact I expected. Don’t get me wrong—it’s a beautiful display, and everything (and I mean everything) looks fantastic. But OLED wasn’t the life-changing upgrade I hoped for on iPad Pro.

I watch a fair amount of YouTube on my iPad (though less than I used to, thanks to the Vision Pro), and I don’t feel much difference between the Mini-LED display of the previous generation and the new tandem OLED Ultra Retina XDR display. Yes, it’s the best display Apple makes—even better than the MacBook Pro—but for casual video watching, there’s been effectively no change. Blooming was never a problem for me, since I rarely watch in complete darkness. For productivity workflows, there’s been no discernible difference as well.

One unexpected benefit of the OLED display is response time. I’ve heard complaints that Apple displays, while nice, have relatively slow response times compared to other vendors. I never noticed it—until now. On the Ultra Retina XDR display, when I go back to my Mini-LED iPad, I can clearly see ghosting when swiping between home screens and launching apps. It’s kind of wild. I feel like one of those people who can see the jelly scrolling on the iPad Mini (I can’t).

Performance

With the M4 iPad Pro only being a year old, there’s not much to say about performance. It’s just as fast and responsive as it was on day one. Outside of more complex Final Cut timelines, I haven’t seen it slow down or lag at all.

iPads generally don’t show performance degradation in the first few years (unless you were cursed with the iPad 3—that thing was always slow). Since the M4 Pro’s release, every other iPad model has been updated, so the performance gap has narrowed, but the M4 Pro remains the most performant and efficient iPad in the lineup.

Thermals

In my experience, the M4 Pro runs cooler than any iPad I’ve used—thanks to both the M4’s efficiency and the graphite sheet behind the Apple logo. I’m not quoting any temperature measurements here, just day-to-day use.

I’ve noticed fewer instances where the iPad stops charging while plugged into a dock—but it still happens. It doesn’t get as warm during note-taking sessions either, though it still warms up. Overall, thermal improvements have been welcome, but not dramatic.

Does the iPad Pro overheat? No, not in my experience. What about thermal throttling? Yes, of course it does. That’s the tradeoff with putting powerful chips in thin devices—whether it’s a phone, tablet, or laptop. The real question is whether that throttling affects your work. For productivity-focused tasks, I haven’t noticed any throttling. In Final Cut, I’d assume there’s some throttling during long exports. I don’t feel it—it’s just something I know is happening in the background.

Battery Life

No surprise here: battery life is probably the weakest part of the M4 iPad Pro package. While idle time fits Apple’s 10-hour claim, once you start doing real work, you’re realistically looking at 3 to 5 hours.

That’s not great—no matter how you slice it—but for me, it’s not a dealbreaker. I’m one of those insane people who wants their computers to be as thin and light as possible while still being powerful. The tradeoff is battery life.

At home, I’m mostly docked, so battery life isn’t an issue. When I’m out, I don’t mind plugging in when needed. But for some, this is a major downside—especially in the era of ARM-based laptops getting full days of battery life. I’m not sure what Apple can do here that wouldn’t make the iPad worse as a tablet.

Accessories

Alongside the iPad Pro, I picked up the Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil Pro.

The Magic Keyboard gets used a few times a month. I mostly use the Bluetooth keyboard connected to my dock. That said, my white Magic Keyboard has held up really well. I’m not using it daily, but the exterior hasn’t ripped or worn down, and it still looks clean.

I’ve gotten used to how slightly unbalanced it feels in the lap, and it doesn’t tip over as much anymore.

The Apple Pencil Pro brought haptics to the writing experience. More than anything, that’s the feature I miss when I use older or third-party Pencils. It quickly became one of those features that feels like it was always there. I do occasionally struggle to remember when I should double-tap (to erase) versus squeeze (to bring up a tool), but overall I’m happy with it.

The only real downside was getting Pencil to appear in Find My took several tries. Then, when I briefly lost it months later—it wasn’t in Find My. Super annoying, but thankfully I found it. I do share my Pencil among multiple iPads with different accounts, so maybe pairing it to another iPad with a different iCloud account caused that?

iPadOS

You can’t have an iPad review without talking about iPadOS. But there’s honestly not much to say. If you like iPadOS, nothing about the M4 will change that. If you hate it, nothing here will convince you otherwise.

There aren’t any major M4-specific iPadOS features. The OS mostly stays out of your way when you’re working. I will say that iPadOS 18 has been more stable than 17 was, but there are still buggy areas—Stage Manager chief among them—that need love in iPadOS 19.

Usage Details

I use the iPad Pro as a primary computer, but it’s not my only computer. I’m not a one-computer person, but I reach for the iPad Pro for all of my non-coding work—and we’re only a couple updates to the Swift Playground app or a version of Xcode for iPad away from that changing.

Here are some of the tasks I use it for:

• Productivity work, mostly in the iWork suite
• Managing video and writing projects with Reminders
• Budgeting in Numbers and using Monarch
• Writing and planning videos with Ulysses and the Files app
• Video editing in Final Cut Pro
• Audio recording, sometimes in Logic, though lately I just record directly into Final Cut
• Image editing in Photos, Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and Pixelmator
  

All that to say: the M4 iPad Pro handles my non-coding workflows with ease. Does it help that I use a lot of Apple services? Definitely—but they work for me, and they’re “free” (read: included in the cost of the device).

Conclusion

I spent over $2000 for my iPad Pro configuration, so the question is, was it worth it a year later? For me, mostly yes. $2000 + is a lot of money for any computer, regardless of what operating system it uses. But since my iPad is used essentially in place of a laptop, and I use it to earn some extra income, it has been worth it.

There’s room for improvement—but I don’t find iPadOS fundamentally flawed. I can get work done on it. I can relax and watch content. I can do all the things I want from a personal computer (except writing code). It just does those things differently than what you may be used to.

iPads have existed for 15 years. At this point, you probably already know whether or not it’s the computer for you. As for me, my M4 iPad Pro is my favorite computer that I own. I enjoy using it and working on it in a way I simply don’t enjoy with a boring traditional PC.

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