Apple has announced its next-generation iPad Pro, with the M2 chip, will be available in Australia from next week.
As tipped earlier this week, the new iPad Pro is aesthetically similar to the past few generations (if it ain’t broke, etc.) with the visual facelifts coming from the new iPadOS 16 and its new Stage Manager multi-tab format, which brings the experience closer to that of a desktop computer.
The new iPad Pro is available as an 11-inch or a 12.9-inch model. Physically, it boasts four speakers, the (soon-to-be-redundant) Thunderbolt, support for Wi-Fi 6E, and what Apple is claiming to be a “next-level Apple Pencil hover experience” and “the world’s most advanced mobile display”.
The Apple Pencil is now detected up to 12 mm above the display, allowing users to see a preview of their mark before they make it. The pencil also combines with more third-party programs to make conversion of the written word easy.
Apple’s new M2 chip features an 8-core CPU, which is 15 per cent faster than the previous M1, with a 10-core GPU delivering up to 35 per cent faster graphics performance.
Combined with the CPU and GPU, the 16-core Neural Engine can process 15.8 trillion operations per second (40 per cent more than M1), and features 100GB/s of unified memory bandwidth (50 per cent performance boost on the M1) and supports up to 16GB of fast unified memory.
M2 also enables ProRes video capture for the first time, and the ability to transcode ProRes footage up to 3x faster, doing away with the transfer of files to a separate computer for processing.
The latest iPad Pro is available to order starting today, and available in stores beginning Thursday, 27 October.
“The next-generation iPad Pro pushes the boundaries of what’s possible on iPad, bringing even more versatility, power, and portability to the ultimate iPad experience,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
“Powered by the M2 chip, the new iPad Pro features incredible performance and the most advanced technologies, including a next-level Apple Pencil hover experience, ProRes video capture, superfast wireless connectivity, and powerful iPadOS 16 features. There’s nothing else like it.”
The new 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro will be available in silver and space grey finishes with 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB configurations.
The 11-inch iPad Pro starts at A$1,399 for the Wi-Fi model and A$1,649 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model; the 12.9-inch iPad Pro starts at A$1,899 for the Wi-Fi model, and A$2,149 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model.
