Apple iPad Pro (M5, 2025) Review: Tremendously Powerful

I opened DaVinci Resolve and began enhancing some 4K footage and the whole lot felt buttery easy, however extra vital is the truth that because of iPadOS 26, you’re capable of full rendering duties within the background while not having to remain on the app. I hit the export and render button, swapped to a different app, and … nicely, seems DaVinci Resolve doesn’t help this new characteristic simply but, so I needed to hold the app open for the render to finish. You shouldn’t have a difficulty on Final Cut Pro, although.

The {most professional} job I usually use with my iPad is enhancing RAW photos in Adobe Lightroom, and, unsurprisingly, the M5 carried out its duties with ease, even with my liberal use of Adobe’s AI-erase instrument. However, I additionally didn’t actually have a lot challenge with this on the “weaker” iPad Air. What I discover annoying is the truth that this highly effective machine nonetheless solely comes with one USB-C port. I can’t plug it into my digicam and edit pictures and cost the pill on the similar time; you want a USB hub.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

The iPad Pro is for a really particular kind of particular person, and also you most likely know who you’re. If you’re principally enhancing pictures and typing up paperwork like me, the iPad Air is greater than enough. But for those who’re often in apps like Final Cut Pro or producing all kinds of bizarre AI photos, it’s possible you’ll like the additional energy the M5 iPad Pro supplies—although you possibly can actually get by with the older M4 mannequin and perhaps avoid wasting money.

But in contrast to the iPad Air, which is simply inexpensive sufficient to exist as a pleasant complement to a MacGuide for days you don’t need the majority of a laptop computer, the Pro feels extra like a alternative you must make between clamshell and slate due to its excessive value. At current, I’d most likely choose up the brand new M5 MacGuide Pro as an alternative, however with extra desktop apps coming to iPad, I don’t assume you’ll have to attend too lengthy till the iPad Pro lastly turns into the touchscreen Mac of your goals.