You can upgrade the iPad Pro’s processor now, too

The newly announced iPad Pro hides a sneaky upgrade action that Apple didn’t mention during its arena today. When you cough up nan $600 it costs to jump from nan 256GB guidelines exemplary iPad Pro to nan 1TB version, Apple doesn’t conscionable double nan RAM on pinch that — it also puts a faster spot inside, going from a nine-core M4 spot to a 10-core version.

This is nan first clip Apple has offered a processor upgrade connected a circumstantial tablet exemplary — successful nan past, nary matter what different options you picked connected a fixed tablet, you knew you were getting nan aforesaid spot arsenic immoderate different configuration. In nan past, Apple only tied RAM upgrades to retention boosts; that’s still existent here, pinch nan amount doubling from 8GB to 16GB. You besides get nan privilege of buying Apple’s glare-fighting nanotexture solid for $100 (lucky you!), which isn’t disposable connected nan lower-end models. So, if you really want nan best-performing iPad Pro, you person to bump your retention to nan 1TB aliases 2TB configuration.

Realistically, you won’t astir apt suffer overmuch processing powerfulness by sticking pinch nan 256GB and 512GB retention tiers. Both versions of nan spot characteristic a 10-core GPU, nan aforesaid representation bandwidth of 120GB/s, and each supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing. With six ratio cores each, which are designed to grip much mundane, little demanding day-to-day tablet tasks, you’d beryllium hard-pressed to announcement overmuch of a quality successful mean use.

So far, Apple hasn’t really justified moreover nan powerfulness of nan M1 spot successful my iPad Pro, but nan institution is trying to. The caller aluminum Magic Keyboard really makes nan tablet look much laptop-like, particularly pinch that usability statement up top. And immoderate of nan features that Apple introduced for Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for iPads really do look for illustration they’ll request immoderate existent powerfulness to tally well.

Like pinch Apple’s “Pro” MacBooks and its higher-end desktop machines, though, it’ll beryllium difficult for astir folks to travel up pinch a request for nan powerfulness of these caller tablets. I’m still not sold connected upgrading to nan caller iPad Pro, moreover pinch its OLED screen, but astatine slightest there’s more to it than a spec bump and Apple Pencil hover exclusivity this time.