For the longest time, I had believed that purchasing a new iPad at full price never made any sort of sense. Ultimately, you’re paying more than an equivalently spec’d MacBook, for less capability. It always felt like iPadOS was the key limiting factor for the iPad, not the hardware.
However, I’ve now owned an M4 iPad Pro for nearly 9 months, and I can confidently say it’s changed how I feel towards iPads.
What makes M4 iPad Pro special
Ultimately, the screen is a big difference maker. You simply cannot get an OLED screen on a MacBook. Sure, the M4 MacBook Pro gets closer with its 1000 nit miniLED display, but it still isn’t as good as the Tandem OLED display on the M4 iPad Pro.
Despite iPadOS still remaining mostly unchanged over the past few years, something about the display makes the iPad far more fun to actually use day to day. The fact that it’s thinner and lighter also makes the M4 iPad Pro a lot easier to just pick up and use.
Those upgrades sound insubstantial when you’re just reading a spec sheet. After all, the M4 11-inch iPad Pro is just 0.6mm thinner and 20 grams (0.05 pounds) lighter than its predecessor. Day to day though, the difference adds up. It’s even more substantial with the M4 13-inch iPad Pro, which is 1.3mm thinner and over 100 grams (0.22 pounds) lighter than its predecessor.
When you’re holding a large tablet in your hands for potentially hours on end, the way it feels matters a lot.
Personal thoughts
I’ve done my fair bit of experimenting with Stage Manager, and ultimately, I’m not convinced that I love it. I think a lot of the beauty of the iPad is the simplicity, and at least to me, split screen makes a lot more sense for a screen of that size. It feels easier to focus when theres less things on your screen.
Also, for whatever reason, the M4 iPad Pro has had some of the best battery life I’ve ever experienced on an iPad. Apple has always quoted iPads as having 10 hours of web browsing battery life, but the M4 iPad Pro, at least for me, has better standby time. I can easily leave my iPad sitting for days and it’ll still have battery life left over.
In short, the iPad is really nice when you don’t try to overcomplicate it. It’s nifty for light web browsing, social media, messaging, photo editing, and a lot more. It’s no MacBook Pro, but I do quite enjoy it in my ecosystem.
Wrap up
Apple is rumored to be making iPadOS “more like macOS” in the upcoming iPadOS 19 update. While I’m sure many people will appreciate that, I don’t personally think I’ll care. I’ve come to enjoy the simplicity of the iPad.
Yes, I did ultimately buy a $999 iPad (without any upgrades) just for a nice display to accomplish basic tasks – but I don’t regret it. Cheaper iPads do exist. You could buy a 256GB iPad Air for $699, saving $300. That gets you a 60Hz LCD display with half the brightness, though – and the display really elevates the iPad experience.
Ultimately, I don’t think the iPad and MacBook comparison is necessarily a productive one. I’m perfectly content using my M4 MacBook Pro to do things that macOS is good for, like multi-tasking and more intensive workloads.
They’re both good devices for different use cases, and you’ll probably have the best time utilizing both of them, rather than trying to go all in on one or the other.
If you’d like to plunge into the lovely world of the M4 iPad Pro, you can do so here:
Are you an M4 iPad Pro user? What do you think about the product? Let us know in the comments.
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