The M1 iPad Pro
Apple’s new iPad Pro lineup was pretty much everything we expected it to be, with one massive surprise: the move to the exact same M1 chip that Apple debuted in its MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini last fall — and just added to a colourful new iMac lineup.
It’s a bold move and a big departure from the A14X chip that we were all expecting. After all, the M1 chip includes things that seemingly have no place on an iPad Pro, like an SSD storage and PCI Express controllers. Then again, it also includes baked-in support for Thunderbolt — a feature that the new iPad Pro also gained — plus faster NVMe storage architecture.
As surprising as this move was, however, it’s clearly as much about positioning the iPad Pro as anything else. After all, nobody expected the rumoured “A14X” to be a slouch — Apple could have made it just as fast as the M1 chip. However, by putting the actual M1 chip into the iPad Pro, Apple has just made it clear that this is a tablet that can hold its own against the Apple Silicon Mac lineup in every way.