New iPad Pro with M4 chip and Apple Pencil Pro

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

M4 chip, performance, and hardware trajectory

  • Many see M4 as an incremental M3 tweak, with Apple marketing comparisons mostly vs M2/M1 to make gains look larger.
  • Several posters note Apple Silicon is already “fast enough,” making new CPU gains feel marginal for most iPad workloads.
  • Two M4 variants (fewer performance cores on 256/512GB models) are seen as deliberate segmentation.

Tandem OLED display & camera changes

  • Tandem (stacked) OLED is viewed as a notable first in a mainstream consumer device, promising higher brightness and potentially less burn‑in.
  • Some are eager to see it in person and hope it migrates to TVs/monitors; others dislike OLED due to PWM flicker and subpixel layouts, preferring LCD.
  • The new landscape camera placement is widely praised, especially for Face ID and video calls.

Apple Pencil Pro & accessories

  • Gyroscope, haptics, and squeeze/rotation features excite artists and note‑takers, but price and Pencil Pro’s restricted compatibility (new iPads only) frustrate current owners.
  • Some lament lack of a physical “eraser end,” while others prefer the existing double‑tap gesture; patents are speculated as a possible blocker.
  • The growing ecosystem (keyboard, Pencil, cases, pro apps, subscriptions) is seen as both powerful and expensive.

iPadOS limits vs hardware potential

  • Many feel the hardware massively outpaces iPadOS: no real virtualization, limited local dev tools, locked‑down environment.
  • Common workarounds: SSH into remote machines, VS Code tunnels, CI/CD workflows, or remote desktop; some view this as overkill for such powerful silicon.
  • Several say they’d instantly adopt iPad as a primary computer if it could run macOS/Linux or support full local app development and debugging.

iPad vs MacBook & actual use cases

  • For “one device,” many recommend a MacBook Air as more capable and flexible.
  • Defenses of iPad Pro: superior for drawing, note‑taking, CAD (e.g., Shapr3D), photo/music production, reading PDFs and sheet music, SSH terminals, travel, media consumption, and shared review/annotation.
  • Larger 13" iPad Air is welcomed as a cheaper large‑screen option, especially for musicians and readers.

Home button, UX, and accessibility

  • Removal of the last home‑button iPad upsets users who rely on its simplicity, especially elderly and autistic users.
  • Some praise gesture navigation; others call it confusing, orientation‑dependent, and less accessible than Touch ID/home button.

Environment, repairability, and marketing backlash

  • Apple’s environmental messaging is widely criticized as “greenwashing,” especially given poor repairability, glued batteries, non‑upgradeable storage/RAM, and iPad exclusion from self‑service repair.
  • The launch ad showing a hydraulic press crushing instruments and objects into an iPad is heavily condemned as symbolically anti‑reuse and tone‑deaf.
  • A minority argue Apple still does more on materials, recycling, and longevity than most competitors, and that imperfect progress is better than none.

Price, segmentation, and thinness obsession

  • High-end configurations (esp. with nanotexture, 2TB, keyboard, Pencil, AppleCare) are seen as extremely expensive, viable mainly for well‑funded creatives or businesses.
  • Some question who truly needs iPad Pro over the Air; others say niche pro users (artists, musicians, physicists, power note‑takers) do.
  • Many criticize the focus on extreme thinness: perceived durability issues, wobble on tables, and lost opportunity for much larger batteries and flush cameras.