Apple just released the 2025 iPad Pro with an M5 chip, but The Verge's David Pierce calls it essentially unchanged from last year's model. Starting at $999 for 11-inch and $1,299 for 13-inch versions, the new Pro delivers 11% faster CPU and 34% faster GPU performance - but Pierce questions whether these incremental gains justify the premium price for what he describes as "a chip bump through and through."
Apple just delivered what might be the most predictable product update of 2024. The new iPad Pro with M5 chip hits shelves today, and according to The Verge's comprehensive review, it's virtually identical to last year's model in every way that matters to consumers.
"The new iPad Pro is, in every way that matters, the exact same thing as last year's Pro," writes reviewer David Pierce, who spent a week testing the 13-inch model. The device maintains the same 11-inch ($999) and 13-inch ($1,299) pricing structure, comes in the same two colors, and features an almost identical design - minus the "iPad Pro" text on the back.
The M5 chip represents the sole meaningful upgrade, delivering benchmark scores 11% higher than the M4 on CPU tasks and a more substantial 34% improvement on GPU performance. Pierce notes that while games like Fortnite run noticeably sharper, "for all but the most aggressive, creative-professional workflows, the M4 was and is more than enough processor."
Apple also switched to custom networking chips - the C1X for cellular and N1 for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth - moving away from suppliers like Broadcom. Pierce reports consistently faster internet speeds on the M5 model, though he cautions that network performance fluctuates for various reasons.
The standout hardware addition might be the new 40-watt charger that can boost to 60 watts temporarily. In testing, Pierce found it charged the M5 Pro to 50% in 30 minutes compared to 33% for the M4 Pro - a meaningful improvement for power users constantly on the move.
But the real story isn't the hardware - it's iPadOS 26. The software update brings Mac-like multitasking, a proper menu bar, and a dramatically improved Files app that Pierce says finally makes file management intuitive. "Apple has clearly decided that iPads should just be more like Macs," he observes.
This software evolution addresses Pierce's main criticism from last year's review: that the iPad Pro was "almost too good a piece of hardware" given iPadOS limitations. While desktop-class apps remain scarce, iPadOS 26 transforms the experience enough that Pierce describes the M5 Pro as feeling "like a super-fast laptop that never seems to slow down."
