Most powerful iPad Pro ever revealed, with 5.6x faster performance in a design that's slimmer than iPhone Air

Apple's new M5 is also built to tackle the latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) tasks, thanks to a reimagined 10-core GPU that introduces a new architecture with a Neural Accelerator in each core, resulting in a massive boost in GPU performance for AI workloads. Lost? Don't worry, all you really need to know is that M5 delivers AI performance that’s up to 3.5x faster compared to M4 released just last year, and up to 5.6x faster than iPad Pro with M1.

But it's not only the brains of the iPad Pro that are speedier this time around, with Apple fitting this new generation with 2x faster SSDs. That enables much quicker storage read and write speeds, so you'll be able to scrub through pixel-packed video footage when editing and export high-resolution photographs much faster. The 256GB and 512GB models start with 12GB of RAM, that's 50% more than before for the same price tag too.

If you're using an iPad Pro released more than four years ago, the extra grunt in these new models promises to be a game-changing upgrade. In fact, Apple is using the same M5 system-on-a-chip found inside its new £999 tablet for the latest generation of MacBook Pro, which starts from £1,599.

But the M5 isn't the only new Apple-designed chipset inside the iPad Pro.

Apple has included the N1, a new custom-designed wireless networking chip that enables faster (and more reliable) Wi-Fi 7 on iPad Pro. This silicon also handles Bluetooth 6 and Thread, which means these new tablets have all three wireless protocols required to support the Matter smart home standard. Apple started to build Thread into its bestselling smartphones with the iPhone 15 Pro back in September 2023.

However, it's unclear what it plans to do with this industry standard, backed by major companies like Apple, Google, and Amazon, that enables faster and more secure connections to smart home gadgets, like lightbulbs, thermostats, and video doorbells. Whatever Apple's teams of secretive engineers have up their collective (and metaphorical) sleeves, your new iPad Pro will be compatible.

If you plump for an iPad Pro with support for mobile internet, you'll find the same C1X modem as the all-new iPhone Air inside. It delivers 50% faster transfer speeds than the previous cellular modem found inside the iPad Pro lineup, while promising even greater efficiency. In our iPhone Air review, we were impressed with the battery life of this ultra-thin device, likely the result of the incredible efficiency of these components.

Discussing the new models, Apple Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, John Ternus said: "Powered by the next generation of Apple silicon, the new iPad Pro delivers our most advanced and versatile iPad experience yet.

"iPad Pro with M5 unlocks endless possibilities for creativity and productivity — with a huge leap in AI performance and a big boost in graphics, superfast wireless connectivity, and game-changing iPadOS 26 features, it pushes the boundaries of what iPad can do yet again."

Elsewhere, the newest iPad Pro remains largely unchanged from its predecessor. Available in Space Black and Silver, you won't find the vibrant Cosmic Orange colourway that launched last month with the new iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max.

The Ultra Retina XDR display introduced on the iPad Pro lineup last year remains.

This relies on OLED, which is already found on the iPhone and Apple Watch, and offers more vibrant colours and deeper shades of black. Because of the way OLED panels illuminate each pixel, Dark Mode and other interfaces that predominantly use black elements will use less battery life too.

The main disadvantage of OLED? It's not quite as bright as the Mini LED used on earlier iPad Pro models. So Apple has cleverly used a "tandem OLED" design that layers two panels to ensure up to 1,000-nits of peak full-screen brightness.

And that's not all. This new screen technology can max out at 1,600-nits in brightness when watching HDR content. That's about what you'd expect from a top-of-the-line Samsung TV too and should mean the tablet screen remains easily visible when using it outdoors.

If you really want to eliminate glare, Apple is offering the same nano-texture coating available on its external display that it says will maintain the same image quality and contrast while scattering ambient light for reduced reflections when working in direct light.

If you want to connect your iPad Pro to an external monitor for a larger canvas, this faster new model can drive external displays at up to 120Hz — ideal for video editing. And for users with a 120Hz external display, iPad Pro also brings new support for Adaptive Sync, which provides the lowest possible latency in external display performance, resulting in smoother motion and fewer perceived glitches, useful for low-latency use cases like gaming.

iPad Pro is still breathtakingly thin... and actually still beats the iPhone Air.

When this case design launched last year, it was the thinnest device to ever leave Apple's R&D department. The 13-inch model measures just 5.1 millimetres thick, which is more svelte than the iPod Nano.

The 11-inch model has also lost a little thickness, now measuring 5.3 millimetres, compared with 5.9mm on the previous generation of the top-end tablet. For comparison, iPhone Air — the thinnest smartphone launched by Apple — is 5.6mm.

The new iPad Pro lineup is available to pre-order starting today, and will be available in stores beginning October 22.

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