Apple has unveiled two new iPads — the M2-powered iPad Pro starting at $799, and a reimagining of the flagship iPad that packs an A14 Bionic chip and comes in four colors (pink, yellow, silver or blue), starting at $449. Both ship on October 26, equipped with iPadOS 16, which Apple is making available October 24. The new operating system supports many new features including, on the Pro, a multitasking feature called Stage Manager. Later this year, Apple says the Pro OS will be updated to support external display resolutions of up to 6K.

The new iPad Pro comes in 11-inch and 12.9-inch versions, both equipped with Face ID, Thunderbolt, and a four-speaker audio system. “The larger model’s display has 1,000 nits of full-screen brightness and 1,600 nits of peak HDR brightness, as well as a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio,” reports Engadget, which says “the 11-inch iPad Pro has 600 nits of brightness. Both have ProMotion support with an adaptive refresh rate of 120Hz.”

Apple says the new iPad Pro supports Wi-Fi 6E, with downloads up to 2.4Gb/s, 2x faster than the previous generation. Wi-Fi + Cellular models with 5G (sub-6GHz and mmWave4) now support more 5G networks around the world. While both new designs support Apple Pencil, the Pro boasts a next-level “hover experience.”

Reference Mode enables the 12.9-inch iPad Pro with Liquid Retina XDR display to match the color requirements in a variety of workflows, including color grading and compositing. “That means pro users, including photographers and videographers, can edit HDR images and videos with every true-to-life detail right in their hands, and cinematographers on set can preview content in a color profile that represents the final capture,” Apple says.

Blackmagic Design has announced DaVinci Resolve for both the iPad Pro and the iPad (pictured below). “The performance of M2 turbocharges even the most demanding workflows, from photographers editing massive photo libraries and designers manipulating complex 3D objects, to healthcare professionals taking advanced imaging and analysis, to gamers enjoying graphics-intensive games,” Engadget writes.

Engadget says the release of this year’s iPad firmware was delayed, reportedly because “the company needed more time to refine the Stage Manager multitasking feature,” which “brings overlapping windows to iPad for the first time,” allowing simultaneous display of up to four apps on the iPad screen and four apps on the external display, for “more of a desktop-style experience.”

As with the 2021 iPad Pro, this latest model comes with a front-facing, 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera with Center Stage support. The 10MP ultra-wide rear-facing camera has a 12MP wide sensor.

The M2’s power “also extends to the new media engine and the image signal processor, which combined with the advanced cameras, enable users to capture ProRes video for the first time and transcode ProRes footage up to 3x faster,” Engadget says, explaining “that means content creators can capture, edit, and publish cinema-grade video from a single device out in the field.”

The new iPads feature a 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display with 2360×1640-pixel resolution, 500 nits of brightness, and True Tone technology. The A14 Bionic chip boosts CPU performance by 20 percent and graphics by 10 percent over the 2021 iPad.

Advanced machine learning functions are powered by the Bionic’s 16-core Neural Engine (double the cores in the A13, for an 80 percent performance boost), making this a high-powered device for “everyday tasks.”

“For the first time on any iPad, the front-facing camera is now located along the landscape edge,” so “whether users are on a FaceTime call or recording a video for social media, they will always be looking right toward the camera.”

Related:
Apple’s New iPad Lineup Is Confusing, Redundant, and Overwhelming, Macworld, 10/19/22
New Apple TV and 10th-Generation iPad Both Feature Increased 4GB of RAM, MacRumors, 10/19/22
Apple’s New iPad Lineup Causes Potential Confusion with Inconsistent Features, MacRumors, 10/19/22
The New iPad Requires a $9 Dongle if You Want to Use the Apple Pencil, CNBC, 10/18/22
Apple to Launch a Foldable iPad Rather Than iPhone in 2024, Analyst Predicts, CNBC, 10/17/22
Apple Chose a Bad Year to Launch Expensive iPads That Aren’t Compelling, AppleInsider, 10/19/22
DaVinci Resolve Is Finally Coming to the iPad, The Verge, 10/20/22