M5 iPad Pro vs M4 iPad Pro: Performance, battery life, and other announced upgrades

On Wednesday, Apple announced the new generation iPad Pro model with the M5 chip, bringing a major performance boost, fast charging support, and other upgrades. But it is worth the upgrade over last year’s M4 iPad Pro. The M4 chip has already proven to be a powerful chip that could run heavy-duty tasks for a longer period of time. While the M5 chip is said to be faster and more reliable, is buying the new M5 iPad Pro a sensible choice? Let’s have a closer look at the upgrades and how the M5 iPad Pro and M4 iPad Pro compare to each other in terms of performance and other features.

M5 iPad Pro vs M4 iPad Pro: What’s new?

Performance: The major difference between the 2024 iPad Pro and the 2025 iPad Pro is the performance boost with the new M5 chip. This new chip offers a 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine. This upgrade is said to offer up to 15% faster performance and 45% faster graphics than the M4 iPad Pro. In addition, it is said to be 3.5x faster in AI performance than the M4 chip.

Upgraded RAM: Instead of M4 iPad Pro’s 8GB RAM storage, the M5 iPad Pro offers 12GB of RAM for 256GB and 512GB models. In addition, the new-gen iPad Pro offers over 150GB/s of unified memory bandwidth, which is 30% higher than the M4 iPad Pro. Therefore, the new model will provide seamless multitasking and smooth performance.

Fast charging support: The M5 iPad Pro offers fast-charging support that claims to power up the device by up to 50% in just 30 minutes. On the other hand, the M4 iPad Pro does not support fast charging. Therefore, you can get Apple’s 40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max separately for fast charging.

C1X 5G modem and N1 wireless chip: These are the new additions of the M5 iPad Pro, which claims to offer connectivity solutions. Apple’s new 5G modem claims to deliver up to 50 percent faster cellular data performance. Whereas the N1 chip is for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 support. For comparison, the M4 iPad Pro supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.

M5 iPad Pro vs M4 iPad Pro: What features are similar or unchanged

Design and display: The M5 iPad Pro and M4 iPad Pro share a similar design and offer a similar 11-inch and 13-inch Ultra Retina XDR display with up to 1600nits of peak HDR brightness.

Camera: Both models feature a 12 wide rear camera and a 12MP TrueDepth front camera.

Accessories: M5 iPad Pro and M4 iPad Pro, both support Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard accessories.