Apple iPad Pro (2024) review: gorgeous screen, thin, the M4 is fast, and the front camera is in the right spot on the side, but iPadOS lags behind the hardware

Apple's latest high-end tablet is a marvel of hardware design still in need of the software and accessories to really make it sing.

The Verge 2024-05-14 David Pierce

Context & Ripple Effects

The 2024 model continues a long-running iPad Pro pattern: strong hardware has repeatedly arrived ahead of software that can fully exploit it. The original Pro was already praised for performance while constrained by iOS limitations, and the 2020 model added trackpad support without resolving the broader iPadOS friction.

This review makes that gap more visible because Apple has paired a thinner design, a higher-end display, and M4 performance with a tablet workflow still described as incomplete. Later coverage suggests the issue remained central even as iPadOS became more Mac-like on a subsequent iPad Pro.

First-order effects

Prospective iPad Pro buyers get a notably stronger hardware package—display, portability, performance, and landscape video calls—but must judge it against iPadOS rather than hardware capability alone.
Apple’s immediate product challenge is software and accessory integration: the review frames them as the constraints on realizing the new Pro’s value.

Second-order effects

The hardware/software mismatch raises the importance of iPadOS updates in sustaining demand for premium iPad configurations, since raw chip performance is no longer the review’s main limiting factor.
Accessories become harder to position as productivity upgrades when the operating system, rather than the tablet’s physical design or speed, remains the bottleneck.

Third-order effects

If successive Pro generations keep advancing hardware faster than tablet workflows, Apple risks defining the iPad Pro as a premium secondary computer rather than a broadly credible laptop substitute.
The recurring criticism points to a longer product-cycle shift: differentiation in high-end tablets increasingly depends on multitasking and app capabilities, not just thinner enclosures and faster silicon.

The trend: Premium tablets are moving into a software-defined phase, where productivity operating systems and accessory workflows determine whether increasingly capable hardware earns its upgrade premium.

Discussion

@parkerortolani Parker Ortolani on threads
The thing that iPadOS apologists miss is that none of us are asking Apple to get rid of what they already have. We do like to use an iPad like an iPad sometimes. We just want a new mode that works way more like a Mac for when we need more.
@dsilverman Dwight Silverman on threads
The iPad Pro reviews all say the same thing: Incredible hardware hampered by inadequate software. When will Apple get a clue? (Maybe in June!)
@imdavidpierce David Pierce on threads
Both of these things are true: The new iPad Pro is total overkill for what an iPad can do I love it SO MUCH https://www.theverge.com/...
@viticci@mastodon.macstories.net @viticci@mastodon.macstories.net on mastodon
My idea for this story was pretty simple: — We always hear of the “limitations” of iPadOS, but I've never done an article covering them all — I had plenty of time to write anyway 🙃 — I wanted to convey how you can love the iPad form factor while also criticizing its software …
@johnvoorhees@mastodon.macstories.net @johnvoorhees@mastodon.macstories.net on mastodon
We don't have an iPad Pro review for for you today. — Instead, @viticci takes an in-depth look at how iPadOS is holding the iPad back, something he's talked about in bits and pieces before, but never in one comprehensive story, and all from the perspective of someone who's been…
@mgsiegler M.G. Siegler on x
Apple was smart to hold those new iPad review embargoes, lest they get crushed under the weight of the GPT-4o press...
@nikiasmolina Nikias Molina on x
The new iPad Pro comes with a polishing cloth. Woah. [image]
@joannastern Joanna Stern on x
I replaced my MacBook Pro with an iPad Pro. It's insane that so much power fits into a tablet that's thinner than two Kraft singles. Yet it's like driving a Ferrari on a golf course. So much power and capability hampered by iPadOS. My @WSJ review: https://www.wsj.com/... [image]
@quinnypig Corey Quinn on x
Hasn't this basically been the case since 2018 or so?
@greengart Avi Greengart on x
@JoannaStern @WSJ That's almost word-for-word the answer I got from Craig Federighi at least five years ago. Apple is philosophically opposed to merging direct (finger/touchscreen) and indirect (mouse/trackpad-to-monitor) interfaces.
@markgurman Mark Gurman on x
My point: the iPad Pro hardware has always been state of the art with intentionally throttled software to not displace the Mac. Until that changes, the product doesn't change.
@joannastern Joanna Stern on x
@WSJ In non-cheese iPad Pro content, I asked Apple's Tom Boger about why the iPad has a touch screen but not MacOS—and why the Mac doesn't have a touch screen: https://www.wsj.com/... [image]
@joannastern Joanna Stern on x
@WSJ More cheesy comparisons. This review is NOT sponsored by Kraft. [image]
@markgurman Mark Gurman on x
Apple is out of good reasons to not bring touch to the Mac. Saying the Mac is for “indirect manipulation” isn't exactly a home run rationale. As Apple told @JoannaStern “Oh, I can't say we never change our mind.” And they have, as I wrote last Jan. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
@markgurman Mark Gurman on x
Fun fact: Every iPad Pro reviewer just copy pastes their 2015 model review and changes the date. It's true. Nothing has changed.
@neilcybart Neil Cybart on x
A quick Apple Pencil Pro unboxing. - Made in Vietnam - Works with iPad Pro M4 and iPad Air M2. - An intriguing computer from Apple with the broader category likely having a future role to play in spatial computing. [video]
r/ipad r on reddit
Brilliant article on iPad OS issues
r/iPadPro r on reddit
Wow, Federico is starting to question the iPadOS experience.

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