Today Apple unveiled a new 24″ iMac M1 and 5G enabled 11″ iPad Pro plus a few others. Still, the iPad Pro really struck as impressive with a big leap forward in every way compared to the last generation and other tablets on the market. Below is the full Apple event that was held at 10am PST.
One surprise that I was waiting for in the “wait, one more thing” that Apple likes to do is they didn’t expand FCPX to the new high-powered iPad Pro.
M1 chip and Specs are Impressive.
The future of Apple products will be based around the M1, and Apple is flexing with the announcement of the updated iPad Pro. Apple states it is the fastest device of its kind with an advanced image signal processor and unified memory architecture of M1 plus incredible power efficiency all due to the M1.
The 8‑core CPU of M1 delivers up to 50 percent faster performance providing up to 40 percent faster graphics performance to iPad Pro.
Liquid Retina XDR display
The Liquid Retina XDR display delivers incredible detail with a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio and features 1000 nits of brightness and 1600 nits of peak brightness.
10,000 Mini‑LEDs.
The iPad Pro has an array of 10,000 Mini LEDs across the entire back of the display. These mini‑LEDs are 120 times smaller than the previous generation. With added custom, optical films and diffusers mix the light more efficiently so it can fit in a design that’s just 6.4mm thin.
600 nits Peak brightness, True Tone for comfortable viewing, ProMotion adaptive 120Hz refresh rate, and P3 wide color gamut all add to the improved viewing experience.
Now With Thunderbolt
Thunderbolt is fast. Really fast at 40 Gbps. Working with external storage and hubs will open up many IO possibilities. You can even attach a Pro Display XDR display and view content at full 6K resolution, plus it works with existing USB‑C connectors, external storage, displays, and docks.
The Liquid Retina XDR display is impressive alongside having Thunderbolt IO and for video production, the M1 iPad Pro could add color correct playback for onset use. 2TB of storage opens up a lot of options for mobile capture and editing. Add a Thunderbolt and you can have more external devices than ever before connected to an iPad. These are all very interesting and cost-effective in the scheme of things. It’s playing in the laptop space with even more mobility.
No FCPX Compatibility
The new iPad Pro is impressive. As I mentioned earlier, it does surprise me that Apple hasn’t ported FCPX for it. They did give LumaFusion a nod in the presentation, and it just makes me wonder if Apple wants to keep FCPX on the main computers for now. Either way, the new iPad Pro is really impressive, and it’s not as expensive as I thought it would be.
The 11″ iPad Pro starts at $799, and the 12.9″ starts at $1099. The price goes up when adding storage options. For example, the 12.9″ with a whopping 2TB of storage runs $2199 for WiFi-only and $2399 with Cellular option. Either way, these are impressive tablets that will open up a whole new world of apps that will exploit the power of the M1 chip.
The new models will be available to order on April 30th and will ship in mid-May 2021. To get all the specifications check out Apple’s iPad Pro page.
Side note: The new Apple TV Siri remote will work with the current model and is available separately for $59. I’ll get one for sure as the original is just plain s@#t. 😀
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