Apple iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) review: A fantastic overkill!
Apple has the peculiar habit of putting the fastest chips in devices with the most limited operating system. Exhibit A: the iPad Pro 13-inch (M5).
Question: how much performance is enough performance?
If you ask Apple, the answer's always "Not nearly enough!" as its latest iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) once again moves the goalpost even further for both raw power and efficiency.
That's due to the brand-spanking new Apple M5 chip, which is also making a cameo inside the latest MacBook Pro, so we get proper desktop power inside a device that you can watch TikToks on.
Apple has also introduced some other important upgrades to the hardware that also greatly aid the performance, but the bottom line is as clear as day once again: the latest iPad Pro M5 is now geared towards real professionals even more than before. For just about everybody else, an iPad Air is likely the best value around.
Let's see how Apple has enhanced the iPad formula and if you should consider upgrading to this one.
Table of Contents:
iPad Pro M5 Specs
A powerhouse in more ways than one
The iPad Pro M5 has some really impressive hardware. Here's what clicks and ticks inside this gargantuan tablet.
| iPad Pro 13-inch M5 |
|---|
| Size and Weight 281.6 x 215.5 x 5.1 mm 582 gr |
| Display Ultra Retina XDR 13-inch 11-inch |
| Processor Apple M5, 3nm 12GB/256GB - 9-core CPU/10-core GPU 12GB/512GB - 9-core CPU/10-core GPU 16GB/1TB - 10-core CPU/10-core GPU 16GB/2TB - 10-core CPU/10-core GPU |
| Software iPadOS 26 |
| Cameras 12MP (PDAF) ToF 3D depth sensing |
| Battery Size 10290 mAh (13-inch) 8160 mAh (11-inch) |
| Charging Speeds 18W |
| Prices 13-inch $1,299 11-inch $999 |
iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) Design and Display
As premium as they come
The latest iPad Pro 13-inch M5 is one truly exceptional tablet in terms of design language. Nothing has changed in comparison with the previous tablet, and honestly, no change was ever necessary. The new iPad Pro looks and feels exceptionally premium, as is befitting of its price and status as the undisputed king of tablets.
With a flat all-aluminum design, this iPad is definitely very nice to handle and use, though the size might be of concern. We got the 13-inch version, and often, its sheer size makes it somewhat challenging to handle, especially in portrait orientation. That's par for the course when buying a 13-inch tablet, though, so not necessarily a weakness of the device.
Apple has successfully slimmed down the tablet as much as possible given the size. The bezels aren't the thinnest around, but at least you don't have a cutout for the Center Stage camera and the Face ID sensors. What's still impressive here is the superb thinness of just 5.1 mm (similar to the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra). That's sleeker than the plastic plug of a USB-C cable, mind you.
The 582-gram weight is also quite impressive: the tablet looks like it should weigh more. It's also noticeably lighter than the 14.6-inch Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra.
The iPad Pro M5 can be yours in the same colors as its predecessor: Silver and Space Black. I particularly like the latter color, as it makes the iPad look that much more classy.
Inside the box, you get the tablet itself, some leaflets and manuals, and a USB-C to USB-C cable in the same color as the device, though if you're in the US and some other countries, you also get a 20W wall adapter. Not much, but totally expected, as Apple has been slimming down the included accessories over the years. Maybe next decade we will get our iPads in a paper bag with instructions on how to braid your own cable, who knows.
The display at the front is, of course, the true star of the show here, and the 13-inch Tandem OLED panel with ProMotion looks stunning and has a stunning name - Ultra Retina XDR. As usual, it uses a 4:3 aspect ratio, which is the same aspect ratio as the photos phones take by default. The viewing angles are excellent, and so is the default color calibration, which is pretty much perfect.
This aspect ratio is very functional and handy, as it provides just the right amount of screen real estate both horizontally and vertically. For multitasking, that's perfect, and a bit more sensible than the 16:10 displays of Samsung's tablets. Those, however, are way better for consuming media, as you don't have nearly as much letterboxing as on the iPad, where large black bars will fill a large portion of the screen when watching 16:9 shows or 21:9 movies.
In our in-house display tests, the tablet achieves maximum and minimum brightness levels similar to the older iPad with the M4 chip. A peak brightness of nearly 1600 nits is very decent and would provide more than enough firepower in any use case aside from usage under the blazing noon sun. The 1-nit minimum brightness also makes it perfect to use during pitch-black conditions; your retinas will love you.
During the purchase process, you can choose whether the iPad you're getting has standard glass up front or nano-texture glass. The latter is only available for the models with 1TB and 2TB of storage, and it massively reduces any glare that could hinder the legibility. We do love the reduced reflectivity, so if you're already going all-out on an iPad Pro, do consider getting the nano-textured version.
The Face ID module up front takes care of the biometrics, and it's fast and reliable, as usual.
iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) Keyboard and Stylus
Apple didn't release any new accessories for the iPad Pro M5. The new tablet fully supports the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro and both the Apple Pencil Pro and the more affordable Apple Pencil with USB-C.
We love all of these accessories as they greatly expand the functionality of the iPad Pro. With the keyboard, the iPad becomes a very adequate laptop alternative, especially considering the latest improvements to the desktop mode in iPadOS 26. The Apple Pencil, on the other hand, is an indispensable sidekick to anyone remotely interested in sketching and drawing.
iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) Performance & Benchmarks
Now we're talking
The whole reason for the existence of the iPad Pro M5 is the 3nm Apple M5 chip itself, now manufactured on TSMC's N3P process. The latest development in Apple Silicon is once again the fastest one around as Apple continues to improve the performance substantially with every generation. The improvement is particularly striking in terms of graphics performance, where the new iPad Pro with M5 delivers more than a substantial bump to raw processing power.
The M5 chip is based on the A19 Pro chip that ticks inside the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max. It scores integrated Neural Accelerators in every GPU core that can be programmed through Metal 4 APIs, gets Metal 4 support, third-gen ray-tracing, and second-gen dynamic caching, as well as enhanced shader cores. One serious chipset, that one is.
Just like the previous iPad Pro M4, this one offers two versions of the M5 chip. The entry-level 256GB and 512GB versions come with a nonacore M5 chip, combining three efficiency and six performance cores, while the 1TB and 2TB versions come along with the proper deca-core M5 chip with four efficiency and six performance cores.
I've been using the device for a couple of days, and sadly I've never felt like I'm using more than 20% of its overall capabilities, as it's pretty much overkill in more ways than one. It's an exceptionally powerful device that now gets even more niche. If you've ever felt like the previous iPad Pro M4 generation has been lacking in terms of performance, this one's sealed with a kiss for you.
CPU Performance Benchmarks:
In our in-house benchmarks, the iPad Pro M5 leads the flock with a respectable 4130 points in the Geekbench 6 single-core test, while the multi-core test is aced with 15402 points. The difference between the iPad Pro M5 and the M4 models is huge, but if you squint hard enough, you'll notice a Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra lingering between the two.
GPU Performance
The situation with the graphics performance is similar. The iPad Pro M5 truly aces the 3DMark Extreme stress test that we ran, hitting 8,881 points in peak performance and 6,860 points in sustained load. Interestingly, the older iPad Pro M4 achieved a slightly higher sustained result of 7,009 points.
In terms of storage and memory, the new iPad is available with 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB of storage. The SSD read and write speeds have doubled, which is massive. The 256GB and 512GB versions now get 12GB of RAM (instead of just 8GB on the M4 model), while the top-tier ones score 16GB of memory. The unified memory bandwidth has increased from 120 GB/s to 153 GB/s, yet another major increase in overall speed and responsiveness.
Apple has also introduced important improvements to the connectivity. The new iPad Pro M5 now comes with the new Apple N1 chip, just like the latest iPhones, and it delivers the gift of Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread support to the iPad range. The models with cellular data also get the Apple C1X chip for even faster 5G data throughput.
iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) Software
The iPad Pro M5 comes with iPadOS 26, which debuts Liquid Glass across the Apple ecosystem.
New with iPadOS 26 is the greatly improved Stage Manager, which now supports proper windowing of just about any app on your iPad. Thanks to this, the iPad now feels even more like a MacBook: you can freely resize and move windows around your desktop, quickly enter split-screen mode, and open more windows at the same time. Even the Mac's essential traffic light buttons for window organization are here!
The best thing here is that you get quality-of-life goodies usually associated with desktop computers. When you open and resize an app, the next time you open it up, it will remember its last position and size. App Exposé lets you quickly see all of your open apps at once, just like on the Mac. In fact, pair the iPad Pro M5 with the Magic Keyboard, and using it would now feel even more similar to a MacBook. You can now also drive external displays up to 120 Hz (versus 60 Hz on the iPad Pro M4), so the desktop experience is even better.
Apple Intelligence, now in a mostly finished state barring the next-gen Siri, is on board here as well, but between you and me, I didn't really feel the need to use it for anything during my time spent with this iPad.
iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) Audio Quality
Just like its predecessor, the iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) boasts quad speakers. Audio quality is great, delivering ear-hurtingly room-filling audio with a wide soundstage and decent bass. However, just like the iPad Pro M4, the new bass on the new tablet is slightly lacking in comparison with older iPad Pro devices, mostly due to the thinner bodies that have necessitated smaller speakers.
As is traditional for the iPad range, there's no haptic feedback on board. However, when you play music on the tablet at a reasonably high volume, the display itself reverberates from the sound, so there's enough vibration to feel it.
iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) Battery and Charging
Battery life has been an aspect in which iPads have always performed strongly over the years. The iPad Pro M5 is no different and delivers more than enough battery backup to last you a full day of use, ranging from simple browsing to more challenging workflows and gaming. This latest Apple tablet comes with either an 8160 mAh battery in the 11-inch version, or a 10,290 mAh one in the 13-inch version.
There's palpably better battery life in terms of standard usage, web browsing, and video streaming, where the older M4 model performed worse. Even the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra performs slightly worse here. The only one of our battery life tests where the iPad Pro M5 isn't exemplary is the gaming one, where it lags behind the iPad Pro M4 and the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra.
PhoneArena Battery Test Results:
The iPad Pro M5 is fast-charging capable, allowing you to juice it up to 50% in roughly 30 minutes with the 40W Dynamic Power Adapter or another USB-C wall adapter capable of outputting 60W or more. This checks out in our tests, where a 30-minute charge gets you 49% battery charge. A full juice-up takes shy of two hours.
iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) Camera
Reliable
Cameras on tablets are like a can of gas in the boot. You don't usually use that one daily, but in times of need it might be extremely valuable.
There's a single 12MP wide camera at the back of the iPad Pro M5, accompanied by a ToF sensor for 3D imaging, and it's a fairly decent one, taking good photos when push comes to shove. You can take 4K60FPS videos with the rear camera.
The 12MP front camera is a Center Stage one, intelligently keeping you centered at all times during video calls. This feature works great and is definitely still the highlight of a tablet camera. Yet, the maximum video quality here is 1080p at 60fps, certainly not the best possible resolution.
Video Quality
Photo Quality
Photos taken with the rear camera look good, with the typical-for-Apple good dynamics and more than decent detail and colors. Decent photos that don't necessarily shine brightly in any area. Selfies are a bit lacking in detail, though.
Should you buy it?
The iPad Pro 13-inch (M5) is a great tablet. It has awe-inspiring performance, great battery life, a lovely screen, and iPadOS 26 has brought new life into the iPad range.
However, it's also an excess for most people, easily.
The super-performing M5 chip is great, but most of its computing power is wasted on a device that still arrives with a mostly limited operating system. A more affordable option like the iPad Air is also a good performer. The Tandem OLED display of the iPad Pro is excellent, but the screen of the iPad Air is good enough for most people. The internal hardware improvements are great, too, but how often would you use most of the functionalities that the iPad Pro offers?
However, if you're a professional user who has outgrown their M1 iPad Pro from a few years ago, get this here M5 version. I personally guarantee that you will be satisfied. However, if you're using a newer iPad Pro, then this device probably isn't intended for you.
It's a fantastic overkill, but an overkill nonetheless.
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