Artist Review: Apple M5 iPad Pro (2025) with Apple Pencil Pro

Not a sponsored review

Apple released the M5 iPad Pro in October 2025 with several upgrades over the previous M4 iPad Pro from May 2024.

Upgrades are:

• 15% more CPU and 45% GPU perfomance
• Increase of RAM from 8GB to 12GB
• Higher memory bandwidth from 120GB/s to 153GB/s
• WiFi 7 vs 6E
• Fast charging 40W
• 120Hz video output

Price has remained the same, with the 11-inch starting at USD 999 and 13-inch at USD 1299.

My review is from the perspective of a visual content creator, someone who does graphic design, digital art, edits photos and videos.

Since there are many similarities with the previous M4 iPad Pro, I will duplicate parts of that review here.

Video review

Bottom line

The iPad Pro remains one of the best tablets in the market. The huge variety of apps for visual content creators makes this the ultimate creative tool.

We have to talk about the M4 iPad Pro first, which had a big redesign and a substantial upgrade over M2 iPad Pro mostly because of the 1000 nits OLED display, much thinner and lighter body.

Whether the M5 iPad Pro is a substantial upgrade will depend on which iPad you already have. If you already have the M1, M2 or M4 iPad Pros, you can skip this unless you know your workflow can be further improved with those upgrades, or you really need the OLED display.

To save money, consider the M4 iPad Pro instead which should be selling at a lower price now with the new model out, and that is still an outstanding tablet that will last for many years. Main limitation of the M4 is te 8GB RAM which by the way is still a lot for most workflows.

All accessories made for the M4 iPad Pro can be used with the M5 model.

Things included

The included USB-C to USB-C charging cable is not a video cable. Here in Singapore, a 20W USB-C charger is included. The charger may not be included in some countries.

Design

The M4 and M5 iPad Pros are really thin and lightweight. The tablet is thinner than the Apple Pencil Pro that attaches magnetically by the side.

The 11-inch weighs 444g and is 5.3mm thick. The 13-inch weighs 579g and is 5.1mm thin.

Both tablet sizes are portable but the 11-inch is noticeably easier to handle with one hand. The 13-inch is huge and the size makes it more unwieldy to handle with one hand, and makes this more of a tabletop tablet. For drawing purposes, 11-inch is still big, actually larger than an A5-sized sketchbook, and makes this the prefect portable digital sketchpad, more so compared to the iPad mini 7 (2024) because the larger display is easier to work with. And the iPad mini 7 display is just not good enough.

Advantages of a larger display
The larger 13-inch model is better for split-screen multitasking, Stage Manager (desktop like workspace UI), and for use as an external wireless display with SideCar or Duet Display.

If you're deciding which size to buy, just ask yourself how often you will be holding the tablet in hand vs putting it on the table or on your lap when using the tablet. I emphasise "when using the tablet" it's only when you are using the tablet will you feel the usability differences.

Aspect ratio of the displays for the 11- and 13-inch M5 iPad Pro are 3:2 and 4:3 respectively. These are less wide compared to 16:10 and will show thicker black bars at the top and bottom when watching 16:9 videos. These two aspect ratio makes the tablets more useable in both landscape and portrait orientation.

In portrait orientation, there's more space for UI elements, and in landscape orientation there is more vertical space to show more content.

Here's the battery capacity:

Apple claims 10 hours of battery life with normal usual, e.g. web browsing and watching videos. I'm usually able to get around 8hr of battery life.

Apple has provided the option to limit charging to 80% to preserve battery life. For my 13-inch M4 iPad Pro from Oct 2024, battery health is now 93% after 61 charge cycles. I've seen many with higher battery health with more charge cycles. I'm not too bothered by battery health as the battery can be replaced. I actually replaced the battery in my 2018 iPad Pro in 2023/24 if I remember correctly, and I'm still using that iPad Pro today.

The M4 and M5 iPad Pros have different dimensions and magnet placements compared to the iPad Pros from 2018 to 2022 which means all older accessories cannot be used, eg screen protector, magnetic stand, case, keyboard folio, Apple Pencil 2. Upgrading from any of the 2018 to 2022 iPad Pros will require replacing all the old accessories with new ones. Accessories for the M4 and M5 are interchangeable.

The landscape camera supports Face ID which works fast and effectively, and is secure enough to unlock banking apps. Auto-brightness works well. It's unlikely block the camera while drawing with tablet in landscape mode.

Audio is aweoms from the 4-way speakers. Sound is loud with good amount of bass and clarity. The USB-C port supports Thunderbolt 4 for fast data transfer and video output.

There is unfortunately no water resistance.

There's only one 12MP f/1.8 wide camera behind. Some older iPad Pros have the extra ultra-wide camera which is can be useful in some situations.

Display

Both 11- and 13-inch M5 iPad Pros are still using the same OLED displays as the M4 models. Apple is using tandem OLED which has two OLED layers making it possible for the display to produce up to SDR 1000 nits brightness and XDR peak brightness of 1600 nits with HDR content.

The visual quality of the OLED display looks stunning. Contrast is noticeably better than LCD which is not surprising considering OLED's extreme contrast ratio. The P3 colour space supported by the tandem OLED displays support is larger than sRGB colour space. Apple's factory colour calibration looks good to me and with the True Tone feature the visuals look more natural.

Shown above is the iPad Pro with anti-reflective display vs nano-texture glass (right).

The effective anti-reflective coating together with the extra brightness and extreme contrast ratio improves the readability and clarity noticeably, especially under extremely bright conditions.

You will definitely appreciate the extra brightness if you're someone who uses your tablet outdoors often. However, the displays can dim due to overheating after a few minutes under the sun.

Note that OLED displays usually have Pulse Wave Modulation (PWM) that may affect people with sensitive eyes. If you are not sure whether your eyes are affected by PWM, it's best to see the displays yourself in an Apple Store. I am not affected by PWM, thankfully.

The OLED displays have the extra brightness and extra contrast ratio to make HDR effects more obvious. E.g. When looking at light emitting objects such as lights, fire, you will really feel like the object is glowing.

I cannot comment on editing HDR content on OLED displays because I do not work with HDR content. If you create HDR content, you will still have to check your visuals to see how they look on LCD since many still use LCD on their tablets and computers.

These displays have adaptive 120Hz refresh rate that can go as low as 10Hz for static content to conserve energy.

The laminated display has almost no gap between the line and pen tip. The plastic pen tip is quite smooth on the glass surface, but not slippery.

There are many third party Apple Pencil pen tip options available. If you want more pen tip resistance but don't want to use a matte screen protector, you can buy this USD 2 silicone Apple Pencil tip. If you want to buy matte screen protector, get SuperShieldz brand from Amazon USA which is less than USD 10 for three pieces. If you don't like how the matte screen protector looks, you won't have wasted too much money.

Using matte screen protector is a personal choice. Just note that matte screen protector will affect the contrast, colours, clarity and viewing angles of the beautiful OLED display.

Nano-texture glass

The nano-texture matte surface cost an additional USD 100 and is only available to iPad Pro models with 1TB and 2TB storage.

An increase from 256GB to 512GB storage cost USD 200. And from 512GB to 1TB it's another USD 400. So that's a total of USD 600 extra to upgrade from 256GB to 1TB.

The nano-texture glass is a matte surface does a great job at diffusing reflections to remove glare. If you're looking for a surface that feels like paper when drawing, you'll be disappointed because the surface is actually as smooth as most pen tablets and matte glass pen displays, certainly smoother than most matte screen protectors. Drawing on the matte surface is still better than drawing on a glossy display.

One area where Apple's nano-texture glass is better than matte screen protectors is there's less grain, colour noise or anti-glare sparkle. Whether to get the matte glass or a matte screen protector is just personal preference.

As for the nano-texture surface requiring their special Apple polishing cloth for cleaning... It's bullshit. Most people will not read the instruction manual that says to use the included polishing cloth. Most people will just clean the tablet with their other micro-fiber cloth or their t-shirt. That's human behaviour. Not being able to clean your tablet with a typical micro-fiber cleaning cloth is a design fail.

One downside to the nano-texture glass is the matte surface does affect image quality, the contrast, due to the diffused reflections, which is mostly noticeable when looking at the tablet from an angle. It's not an issue since you'll be looking at the tablet up front most of the time.

iPadOS

There are many things to talk about iPadOS but I'm only talk about the things I feel are important or affect workflow.

Many will say that iPadOS is holding the hardware back. The main thing I don't like about iPadOS is the Files app has limited features compared to MacOS Finder. Photos are saved separately into the Photos app and are not available from the Files app even though photos are also files. So when uploading photos, you can't choose them from the Files app.

The most important feature about iPadOS that sets itself apart from Android OS is Apple iCloud can backup EVERYTHING, provided you have enough iCloud storage. I have reviewed many Android tablets over the years and I know that Android backup options do not backup everything, which means if you lose your tablet, you may have lost some files. Same applies to upgrading from one Android tablet to another.

Apple Pencil Pro

The Apple Pencil Pro is compatible with the M4 iPad Pro and M2 iPad Air. This is a separate purchase of USD 129.

All of Apple Pencil 2 features are still around, namely cursor hover (only for M2 or newer iPads), double tap shortcuts, magnetic pairing and charging.

Shown above are double tap shortcut options available for customisation.

New features are haptic feedback, squeeze to show shortcuts, barrel roll with the new gyroscope and lost location finder with Find My app.

Haptic feedback: This provides a phyiscal confirmation for an action you made, and this is better than looking for visual cues on the display for confirmation. E.g. When you double tap to switch from brush to eraser, you don't have to look at the brush and/or eraser icon.

Squeeze: At the time of review, squeeze can be used with Apple Notes to call up a mini palette with brush options. Shown above are squeeze shortcut options available for customisation. Hopefully squeeze feature can be customised by third party apps in the future.

Barrel roll: The pen has a new gyroscope to detect pen rotation and adjust the brush shape accordingly. E.g. You can adjust the angle/direction of the brush shape with both direction and rotation of the pen. Apple Pencil 2 only allows you to adjust angle of shape with direction of the pen. This new feature makes it easier to create certain brush effects or strokes.

Find My: This lets you find your misplaced Apple Pencil Pro.

Creative and visual apps

iPads have a huge selection of feature-rich drawing, graphic design and video editing apps.

Below are non-exhaustive lists for some of the popular creative apps:

Drawing

• Procreate
• Medibang Paint
• Medibang Pro
• Clip Studio Paint
• Sketchbook Pro
• Tayasui Sketches Pro
• Concepts
• PaintStorm
• Infinite Painter
• Affinity Photo
• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Fresco
• ArtStudio Pro

Graphic design

• Affinity Photo
• Affinity Designer
• Vectornator
• Amadine
• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Illustrator
• Affinity Publisher

Photo and video editing apps

• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Lightroom
• LumaFusion
• DaVinci Resolve

The main advantage iPads have over Samsung tablets for creatives comes down to the availability of the graphic design apps, more specially apps that are great at creating vector art and handling type.

And the main advantage iPads have over Microsoft Surface devices is Apple Pencil is more accurate. There's no lack of great drawing, graphic design, photo and video editing apps on Windows. Touch interface implementation and palm rejection on Windows devices aren't as good compared to iPads and Samsung tablets.

My general recommendation is always to choose the device based on the software you want to use.

If you don't need to draw, there's no compelling reason to get an iPad over a laptop.

Below are the number of layers you can get for an A4 sized 300 DPI canvas in Procreate.

Line tests

These line tests below were created in Procreate.

The line quality is similar with Apple Pencil 1 and 2. And because of that, I will be using the same picture below for my reviews of other iPads.

1. Initial activation force is minimal. Drawing thin lines is easy even with a thick brush selected. No noticeable jitter or wobble when drawing slow diagonal lines.

2. Lines taper smoothly and sharply.

3. Line transition from thin to thick and back to thin smoothly.

4. Consistent line width can be created by maintaining consistent pressure.

5. Dots can be drawn easily.

6. There is no cursor misalignment. Joining lines do not have gaps or overshoot.

The Apple Pencil Pro is accurate, and has consistent and predictable performance for drawing.

At the time of review, barrel roll works only with the Apple Notes app, and the feature works fine.

Drawing experience

My main drawing app is Concepts.

Apple Pencil Pro's performance is consistent and predictable. Pressure and tilt performance is good. Palm rejection works well. Overall drawing experience is fantastic.

I know there are people who actually prefer the Samsung S Pen for whatever reasons, and I also prefer the Samsung S Pen because of the lighter weight and I like the soft pen tip. There are of course many who prefer Apple Pencil so which pen is the best is subjective and down to personal preference.

One nice feature that Android tablets do not have is when the pen tip is near the display, it is still possible to use your other hand to select tools. With Android tablets, having the pen tip near the display would have activated palm rejection making it impossible to select tools so you have to lift the pen away first.

I like to use my tablets outdoors for urban sketching and having the 1000 nits standard brightness is absolutely crucial because the display is bright enough under bright conditions to let me still see what's on the screen. The iPad Pros that use LCDs are not bright enough for use under bright conditions, e.g. outdoors. One downside is there is a tendency for the OLED display to become dim when the iPad Pro gets too hot which can happen often when drawing and display is running at maximum brightness.

Video editing

Youtubers like to talk about video editing because that's the only type of work that's gonna be demanding on the processor. I've been editing 4K videos without lag on my M1 Mac Mini for years. The M5 chip is obviously more powerful than M1 and certainly good enough for editing 4K videos.

The main consideration here is on video editing workflow. How are you going to manage and backup source footage and exported videos, transfer them in and out of the iPad.

Most video editing apps have user interface that work best on larger displays. And desktop versions of video editing apps are just more efficient and have proper and familiar file management system.

Stage Manager

I haven't used Stage Manager much to provide useful insight.

It's a feature that's there if you need some sort of desktop-like interface, or when you want to use the iPad together with an external display.

Should you upgrade from an earlier iPad Pro (2018 -2022)

Here are some questions to think about to help you decide:

• Do you have the "I wish this tablet could be faster" thoughts often?
• Is your display much dimmer now after years of usage
• Is your tablet's battery life much shorter now after years of usage
• Is your tablet faulty in anyway?
• Do you need Apple Pencil Pro's new features
• Do you watch HDR content often?
• Do you need a bright display because you work outdoors often?
• Do you need the nano-texture surface?

When watching HDR content, the visual difference between OLED vs LCD is noticeable even without a side by side comparison. I don't feel like this is a main reason to upgrade, at least for me. I do value the extra SDR brightness up to 1000 nits because I use the tablets outdoors often, and even with the M2 iPad Pro's mini-LED's SDR brightness of 600 nits is not sufficient for enough contrast when used outdoors in bright environment.

The other thing might be worth upgrading for is probably for Apple Pencil Pro's new features. Squeeze for shortcuts to appear is easier than finger tapping. Barrel rotation is a feature that makes creating certain brush strokes easier.

I personally am upgrading for two reasons: the extra brightness and because I run a Youtube channel so I want to have this tablet around to compare with when the next tablet comes out. If I don't work outdoors and/or run a Youtube channel, I won't be upgrading. Being able to watch HDR content is just a bonus for me.

Should you buy the previous models

The 2021 M1 and 2022 M2 iPad Pros are still terrific tablets. The main difference between the two for artists is M2 supports cursor hover feature. Both M1 and M2 models have Stage Manager external display support, so avoid iPad Pros from 2020 or older.

If you don't need the extra brightness for outdoor use, or don't need the new Apple Pencil Pro features, the previous models are definitely still worth buying if you can find them at good prices.

Should you get the M3 iPad Air instead?

Let's look at the differences:

• 500 nits LCD vs 1000 nits OLED
• 60Hz vs 120Hz refresh rate
• 11-inch 462g vs 444g
• 13-inch 617g vs 579g
• USB 3.1 gen 2 vs Thunderbolt 4
• Touch ID vs Face ID unlock
• 2-way vs 4-way speakers

Both tablets support Apple Pencil Pro so you don't really have to get the M5 iPad Pro to use Apple Pencil Pro.

Main difference here is brightness of the display. 500 nits vs 1000 nits will determine whether you can or cannot see contents on your display under bright outdoor lighting. If you use the tablets indoors most of the time, then this difference in brightness will not matter.

120Hz is certainly nice to have but 60Hz is not a deal breaker.

Weight difference is noticeable with the 13-inch iPad Air vs iPad Pro. The price difference for these two models is even more noticeable.

Conclusion

The M5 iPad Pro is an excellent tablet for visual content creators if you have the budget for it. It is very difficult to go wrong with this choice.

The design looks good, display is amazing, battery life is decent, performance is terrific. And you will get many years of iPadOS updates. The hardware is so good that you can just swap out the deteriorating battery in the future rather than get a new iPad Pro.

If you're thinking of upgrading from an iPad Pro from 2018 to 2022, just ask yourself whether you need that 1000 nits for outdoor use, and whether you need the new Apple Pencil Pro features. Barrel roll is nice and makes it possible to create brush strokes that are difficult to create with Apple Pencil 2. So that's a fundamental difference with usage. Squeeze, haptic and lost item finder are just bonus features.

Pros and cons at a glance

+ Beautiful design
+ Tablets are thinner, lighter and hence more portable
+ 13-inch iPad Pro is noticeably lighter than previous model
+ Tandom OLED display with amazing brightness for outdoor use
+ Effective anti-reflective coating on display
+ Good colour accuracy
+ OLED display can show true HDR
+ Apple Pencil Pro have great drawing and writing experience
+ Apple Pencil Pro has new features
+ Thunderbolt 4
+ 10 hours battery life
+ Many drawing, graphic design, creative apps
- Stage Manager multi-tasking's usefulness is mainly for switching between apps
- Stage Manager external display usefulness depends a lot on third party app implementation
- Accessories made for previous iPad Pros (2018 - 2022) are all not compatible
- Apple Pencil 2 is not compatible
- No ultra-wide lens
- Nano-texture glass display only available to 1TB and 2TB models
- OLED displays have PWM that may affect people with sensitive eyes
- Display can still dim with overheating under extreme bright conditions
- No water resistance

Availability

If you're interested to get the M5 iPad Pro or accessories, consider supporting my blog by buying through the affiliate links listed below at no extra cost.

Here in Singapore they are available from Lazada SG and Shopee SG.

They can be found on Amazon too via these links
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp

For matte screen protectors, I recommend SuperShieldz for 11-inch and 13-inch because you can get three pieces for less than USD 10. These are cheap and good. Just make sure you're buying for the 2024 model.