Apple Reaffirms iPad's Place in Its Lineup
The iPad was a smash hit when it launched back in 2010, and it's been a mainstay of the Apple product lineup ever since. But as the iPhone has remained a perennial best-seller and Macs have been revitalized by the emergence of Apple Silicon, the iPad has been something of a neglected middle child.
While tech journalists have long wishcasted for Apple to merge iOS and macOS in some way, the iPad has felt less like the natural blending point between the two ecosystems and more like an awkward chimera. It has been granted some of the Mac's hardware and capabilities (especially with the iPad Pro's excellent keyboard), but it was relegated to a beefed-up, big-screen version of iOS, which eventually was renamed iPadOS.
(Credit: Apple)This move to introduce Apple's latest processor in an iPad Pro, however, may be the shot in the arm the iPad needs—not in terms of sales, which have always been strong, but in prestige, solidifying the iPad's place alongside the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro as flagship computing products.
Apple M4 vs. M3: Specs Compared
Regarding hardware specifications, the difference between M3 and M4 is essentially a matter of degrees. Both chips use Apple's 3-nanometer (nm) manufacturing process and a similar overall architecture. In simple terms, both chips use a mix of performance and efficiency cores; both chips have powerful integrated graphics, with support for hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading; and both chips employ Apple's dynamic cache technology.
So, what's different? From the number of processor cores to the graphics, display, and AI capabilities, the Apple M4 enhances several elements of the chip. Let's look at each in detail.
Apple M4 vs. M3: Processing Cores
Where the previous Apple M3 chip was issued with four processor cores, the Apple M4 comes in three- and- four-core versions in the iPad Pro. The Apple M3 MacBook Pro and MacBook Air pair those four full-fat cores with four efficiency cores, bringing the total CPU core count to eight. The M4 chip, however, bumps the number of efficiency cores to six, for a total of nine or 10 CPU cores, depending on the configuration.
(Credit: Apple)This raises the total core count of the M4 in either flavor above the previous M3, but it's notably a couple of cores short of the M3 Pro, Apple's step-up variant for MacBook Pro laptops. That "pro-grade" processor has 12 total CPU cores, with six performance and six efficiency cores.
Apple M4 vs. M3: Graphics Cores
Apple's M4 integrated graphics hardware has the same 10 GPU cores you can get on the M3 chip, and the same amount of GPU cores as their M2 predecessor. The other features of the GPU may not be new to the current M-series chips—namely, dynamic caching and hardware acceleration for ray tracing as well as mesh shading—but they're a big step up for the iPad Pro, which didn't have these capabilities last time around using M2.
(Credit: Apple)Apple M4 vs. M3: Neural Engine
Apple's neural engine—the equivalent to Intel's NPU—is a dedicated chunk of silicon made for AI and machine-learning features. While the core counts haven't changed, the M4's 16-core neural engine is rated capable of up to 38 TOPS, or trillions of operations per second, 20 TOPS more than the M3 can ostensibly pull off.
(Credit: Apple)It's safe to say, that with the surge of interest around local-processing AI tools and features in key creative apps, like Adobe's Creative Suite, Apple is working hard to optimize this capability as much as possible. We'll just have to wait for further information or testing to see how it's improved, or what the real-world effects are.
Apple M4 vs. M3: Display Engine
Apple's display engine handles automatic features like brightness and color adjustment, but it also supports ProMotion, Apple's dynamic 120Hz refresh-rate technology, which has been featured in everything from the iPhone to the MacBook Pro.
(Credit: Apple)What may set the M4 apart here is support for the new Tandem OLED display technology in the iPad Pro. The OLED panel in the 2024 iPad Pro is the biggest OLED display Apple has made to date. (Until now, it had used OLED technology only for tiny iPhone and Apple Watch displays.) Apple has boosted the standard OLED brightness by bonding two OLED panels together in the manufacturing process. The result? It has pushed the rated SDR and HDR levels to 1,000 nits, with a maximum of 1,500 nits of brightness when needed.
Could this be a teaser of Tandem OLED support in future MacBooks? The current Mini LED displays have been well-reviewed, but super-bright OLEDs would be a no-brainer feature for higher-end MacBooks.
The iPad Is Still Different: Too Soon for a Verdict on the M4
It's easy to reason that the same M4 chip just announced for the iPad Pro will pop up in the newest MacBooks at WWDC 2024. But that doesn't mean the new iPad processor tells us everything we need to know about how the new MacBooks will perform. Not by a long shot.
Apple made several impressive claims about power consumption and performance per watt in its iPad Pro announcement. However, the iPad—especially Apple's new thinner-than-ever iPad Pro—has much different power requirements and a different approach to thermal management than the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro. A glance at the profile of the new tablets tells you plenty: Apple has a lot less thermal headroom to work with in tablets like these than in a clamshell laptop.
A full-power MacBook Pro, pumping more wattage to the processor and cooling the chip as needed with physical fans, will surely outperform an iPad Pro with a similar chip, with its passive cooling and claustrophobic slimness. Even a passively cooled MacBook Air will have more thermal wiggle room. The better question is how wide a performance gap will exist between the two Apple systems using similar or identical processors.
But one thing is sure: This early glimpse at Apple's new hardware has us more excited about upcoming Macs than we already were. A boost to already impressive M3 performance? A potential new display? Maybe even a new super-thin design that follows the ultra-slim iPad Pro? We have lots to anticipate from the new MacBooks likely to come later this year.