Apple iPad Pro 2020 11 inch review

Apple's early entry into the tablet market with the original iPad gave it a head start that it's never relinquished, even as it's split its tablet lines into those for the general market and those looking for a more professional tool.

That's the market that the iPad Pro is pitched towards, and Apple isn't playing politely when it mentions all across its marketing materials that the new model iPad Pro is "more powerful than most laptops".

It may have a point in terms of raw computing power, and in many ways the new iPad Pro is exactly what you'd expect out of a fourth generation product, with a much improved processor, better camera and the imminent arrival of touchpad and mousing gestures.

There's also the inclusion of a LIDAR scanner for AR apps, although at launch there's really not much out there in app terms that makes use of it.

All of this adds up to Apple's best iPad Pro yet, but with the very significant caveat that Apple still charges a solid premium for it. That makes it a tricky recommendation, even against the very laptops that Apple says it can handily beat in a processor foot race.

Design

Design

• 11 inch or 12.9 inch display
• Noticeable bezels on all sides
• Great display quality

• Read our full review of the Apple iPad Pro 2020 11 inch 's design

  While Apple has been busy behind the display in improving the iPad Pro, the same can't really be said for the external design of Apple's premium tablet. It's still available with either an 11 inch or 12.9 inch "Liquid Retina" display, still comes with a single USB C type connector at the base, and it's essentially the same size as the previous third generation models too.

  Depending on whether you want that "tablet" feel to your device or a more "laptop" sized screen is arguably the key reason why you might opt for the 11 inch or 12.9 inch models. Personally I've always felt that the 12.9 inch model was a little big and ungainly for when I wanted it to be a pure tablet, but it is very much a question of individual preference.

  "Liquid Retina" is Apple's marketing term, and for the iPad Pro 2020 models it means that you're getting a 2,388x1,668 pixel (11 inch) or 2,732x2,048 pixel (12.9 inch) screen with full P3 wide colour support and Apple's own TrueTone technology built in.

  It's very much a case of same old, same old, except that the reality here is that Apple already provided a really great screen with the iPad Pro. It's still great, but certainly if you were looking into whether it was reason enough to jump up from the third generation 2018 model, you'd be staring at essentially the same screen.

  The one big design change is at the back where the new models incorporate a new square camera array with just a small camera bump as a consequence. It seems likely that most iPad Pro buyers will be dropping their shiny new tablets into cases of some sort. If you're not, you can at least use it as a quick physical guide to which way is "up" on the iPad Pro.

Camera

Camera

• Dual lenses are pretty good (for a tablet)
• LIDAR is underutilised at launch

• See sample photos and read our full review of the Apple iPad Pro 2020 11 inch's camera

  Tablets are rarely great photo producing machines, and that's especially true of larger tablets, because they're unwieldy when you want to frame a shot or reach for a control point on the inbuilt display. Typically they've always had somewhat lesser actual camera optics than their smartphone counterparts too.

  That's certainly the case for the iPad Pro 2020 11 inch. While it can cost much the same as an iPhone 11 Pro Max, you're not getting the same quality of shooting, or indeed even the same kinds of lenses or sensors.

  The iPad Pro 2020 features a primary 12MP f/1.8 sensor, paired up with an ultrawide 125 degree 10MP f/2.4 sensor. That doesn't give you a smartphone level of features when it comes to taking snaps, but as I found, the iPad Pro is a fairly decent camera if you really genuinely don't have any other options, at least in decent light.

  You're not presented with many options when it comes to shooting with Apple's own camera app on the iPad Pro 2020. You can take portrait shots, but only with the front-facing 7MP FaceID camera. You can take square or panoramic shots, or standard photos or video… and that's all.

  Image quality was generally fair in most conditions, although if you were nuts enough to take it out for low light shooting, risking your valuable tablet, you'd quickly hit its capability wall. The current coronavirus pandemic rather limited my movements to test this anyway, but test shots in the crawlspace under my house at night gave me dim, murky images and nothing more.

  The big inclusion in this year's iPad Pro is a LIDAR scanner, which manages light capture for AR applications. It's an interesting bit of technology to throw onto an iPad with otherwise unremarkable cameras – the smart money suggests that we'll probably see its twin on this year's iPhones – but for now Apple pitches it as being an augmented reality camera, because it's faster at measuring distances and placing virtual objects in the real world accurately as a result.

  There's just one problem at launch with that. Apple never pre-announces anything, so there's really only one app that might be using the LIDAR scanner, and that's Apple's own measure app. In ad-hoc tests, it works, but I wouldn't swear in front of a judge that it was noticeably better or faster than anything I've seen elsewhere.

  Apple has shown off some interesting application and game prototypes that should appear in the App Store down the track, but for now, the LIDAR scanner is a tech curiosity – not a reason to buy an iPad Pro.

  Apple iPad Pro 2020 11 inch sample photos

  

  

  

  

Performance

Performance

• Apple A12Z is very fast
• Mouse and trackpad gestures are easy to understand
• Magic keyboard is stupidly expensive
• No 5G options

• View test results and read our full review of the Apple iPad Pro 2020 11 inch 's performance

  The underlying core of the Apple iPad Pro 11 inch is Apple's new A12Z Bionic chip. I'd love to meet whoever gets the plum job of naming Apple's chips, which seemingly get wackier every year. That aside, Apple's had a strong lead over other mobile chipsets in a raw performance sense for some years now, and it's not dropping that lead any time soon.

  Apple can manage a high level of optimisation of the iPadOS that runs the entire iPad family, but at a premium price, you'd expect premium performance. So how does the iPad Pro compare against its far more affordable siblings in Apple's current iPad lineup?

  Very well, as it turns out. Here's how the iPad Pro compares against the 2019 Apple iPad Air and 2019 Apple iPad using Geekbench 5's CPU test:

  For single core applications there's no real gulf at all between the iPad Pro and the iPad Air, but switch up to multi-core (or multi-task, which is kind of the point of buying an iPad Pro) and there's a huge gap in performance. It's even more pronounced using 3DMark's Ice Storm Unlimited test. That's good news not just for those of us who might want to sneakily play a few games when the boss isn't looking, but also for folks with more serious intent in terms of photo or video editing applications.

  Apple hasn't released any apps that are specific to the new iPad, although down the track we will presumably see a few LIDAR-based AR apps. What the new iPad Pro does usher in is iPadOS 13.4, which brings with it support for Bluetooth mice and trackpads, along with Apple's new "Magic Keyboard". The Magic Keyboard really will change an iPad Pro into something that looks like a laptop, right down to the same pleasant keys found on the MacBook Pro 16 and new MacBook Air, but it won't ship until May, so I haven't been able to put it through its paces.

  

  All we know right now is that it looks like this, and it costs a LOT. Image: Supplied

  However, if you're keen, you'll need to start saving for it separately right now. That's because it will set you back $499 for the iPad Pro 11 inch variant, or $589 for the iPad Pro 12.9 inch model. Yes, you read those numbers correctly. Apple will, within some months, sell a keyboard that costs as much as an entry-level iPad. That's pretty outrageous, even for Apple.

  Apple did provide me with a magic trackpad to test out the new mouse/touchpad gestures, and I'll admit at first I was cautious. The whole point of a tablet is that touch interface, but Apple's actually done some smart work here with incorporating standard mouse gestures in a way that makes sense when you need them.

  You don't have to pair anything if you don't want to and you won't lose functionality, but if you're used to zipping around spreadsheets with a scroll wheel or making fine adjustments with a trackpad on your photos with mouse movements, you now can.

  The big catch here is that you don't have to buy a new iPad Pro to get mouse and trackpad support. It's baked into iPadOS 13.4, so if your current iPad supports iOS 13, you'll get it in that upgrade, expected when the iPad Pro goes on sale this week. Apple's new Magic Keyboard won't work on anything that isn't an iPad Pro, and Apple's messaging on whether older models of the Pro line will all support it is a little mixed, but if you're happy to go third-party, mouse support will soon be here, if it's not already by the time you read this.

  The iPad Pro 2020 supports Apple's existing keyboard case and Apple Pencil if you're the stylus type, but there's little in the way of change here. As a simple data entry or writing tool there's something quite nice about the iPad Pro's distraction-free UI, and of course in the 11 inch size it's very portable too. That lack of change does mean that if you have an existing Apple Pencil of the USB C generation then it should work just fine. As a reminder, though, the first generation, Lightning port style Apple Pencil does not work with newer iPad Pro models in any way.

  As it has done with every iPad generation, you get the choice of a range of entirely fixed storage iPad Pro models, and then the option of inbuilt 4G LTE. It's a Pro-grade tablet, but Apple isn't quite ready to get its feet muddy in the freshly tilled soil of 5G land it seems. Inbuilt LTE is nice if somebody else is paying for it, but at an additional cost of $250 on top of the iPad Pro itself, it's also a true luxury buy.

Battery life

Battery life

• 10 hours is achievable, but that's weak for a 'laptop replacement'

• View test results and read our full review of the Apple iPad Pro 2020 11 inch's battery life

  Apple never formally says how big the batteries it puts into its tablets are, and we'll have to wait until the likes of iFixit get hold of a new iPad Pro to see if Apple has bumped up the battery from the 2018 model. Apple certainly hasn't changed its position on how long an iPad should run for, with the claim of "up to" 10 hours of battery life.

  I've been hammering the iPad Pro pretty heavily – not literally, I'm not that well off – since my review model showed up, and while usage is always variable, it's a fair enough estimate of what you might get out of the iPad Pro if it was your primary computer.

  That's acceptable for a tablet, but it can't help but feel limited next to the very laptops that Apple is positioning the iPad Pro as a competitor to. We've seen in recent devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Book S that ARM-based laptops can punch up towards 16 hours of battery life. Next to that, despite its price point, the iPad Pro 11 inch can't help but feel a little underpowered.

  The iPad Pro sticks with Apple's pro designation with the use of USB C for charging, and like its 2018 counterpart, it's quite fussy about which chargers it'll actually draw power from. That means that just because your phone might use USB C, there's no guarantee that you'll be able to top up your iPad Pro from the same power brick. Apple's supplied charger does do a good job of topping up the iPad Pro, but of course with the supplied cable you wouldn't also be able to charge up your iPhone.

Verdict

Verdict

How we score our reviews

• Powerful pro tablet, high cost

Should you buy it?

The iPad Pro 2020 really is like a laptop. New releases each year in that category tend to revolve around upward bumps in specifications, and that's essentially what Apple's done here. It's faster, and the new software that enables mouse and trackpad support do add layers of productivity that weren't there before.

However, it's also seriously pricey at a time when it's going to be hard to justify that kind of purchase for most users. Against traditional laptops, whether you'd favour a MacBook Pro or a Microsoft Surface, it's still a locked-down environment with lesser multi-tasking functionality and battery life that's not quite as solid as some competing options. Certainly if you're using an iPad Pro third generation model there's little here that you won't get in iPadOS 13.4 anyway, and that's also an issue for Apple trying to convince folks to lay down their cash.

Which is a bit of a pity. This is easily Apple's best iPad Pro model to date, but it's launching in a period of significant instability. It's a lovely luxury item if somebody else is paying, though.

Pricing and availability

Price

$1,329 (128GB, Wi-Fi)
$1,579 (128GB, Wi-Fi+LTE)
$1,499 (256GB, Wi-Fi)
$1,749 (256GB, Wi-Fi+LTE)
$1,839 (512GB, Wi-Fi)
$2,089 (512GB, Wi-Fi+LTE)
$2,179 (1TB, Wi-Fi)
$2,429 (1TB, Wi-Fi+LTE)

Where to buy

Amazon

eBay

Alternatives

Within the iPad family, you could opt for the much cheaper Apple iPad Air 2019, or the iPad Mini 2019 which packs in much the same performance. If you only want the basics of iPad usage, the entry level model, simply called the Apple iPad, is easily your most affordable option.

Specifications

Where to buy