Apple iPad Pro 11" M4 Silver 2024

The 11-inch iPad Pro M4 is the most powerful tablet we've ever tested, with an OLED screen that will spoil you for anything else. It's ultra-thin and light, yet packs a chip that outperforms many laptops. Expect to pay a premium even refurbished, from about $1,400 for the 1TB model. If you're a creative pro who will use every ounce of that power, it's a no-brainer. Casual users should look at the iPad Air and save the cash.

Apple's iPad Pro M4 is wild. Not just because of the chip, but because the whole thing is impossibly thin and light. Holding the 11-inch model feels like you're balancing a sheet of glass with a rocket engine inside. It weighs just a hair over a pound, and yet it packs a 10-core M4 processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD in our review unit. The display is a 120Hz OLED panel that hits 1000 nits of brightness, and it's one of the best screens we've ever measured. This isn't just a spec bump, it's a leap that makes last year's iPad Pro look chunky and slow.

Who is this for? Creatives, mostly. If you draw, edit video in 4K, or need the absolute best screen for color work, this thing is a dream. Students who want a note-taking machine with Apple Pencil Pro will find no better tablet, and business users who fly a lot will appreciate the 5G option and featherweight chassis. But this isn't a laptop replacement for everyone, iPadOS still trips over itself when you try to do too many file management tasks at once. Think of it as the world's most overqualified tablet.

What makes this particular listing interesting is that it's Geek Squad Certified Refurbished. That means a 90-day warranty and a unit that's supposedly restored to like-new condition. Our data on refurb iPad Pros shows mixed experiences, most buyers report near-perfect devices with high battery health, but a few have received ones with scuffs. Considering a brand-new 1TB model with 16GB RAM costs well over $1,500, going refurb can save you a chunk, and that OLED screen doesn't get any less gorgeous with a previous owner.

The M4 chip in here is an absolute monster for a tablet. We're looking at CPU scores in the 94th percentile among all tablets, and GPU marks in the 92nd. That puts it ahead of some thin-and-light laptops. In practical terms, exporting a 4K ProRes video clip in LumaFusion takes roughly half the time it did on the older M2 iPad Pro. Scrolling through massive Photoshop files with 50 layers is butter smooth, and high-end games like Divinity: Original Sin 2 run at a locked 60fps without the tablet getting more than lukewarm.

The 16GB of RAM is a big part of that, ranked in the 93rd percentile. It means you can have Stage Manager running with multiple windows and a connected external display, and the iPad doesn't flinch. We threw a 4K monitor, Safari with 20 tabs, Procreate, and a music streaming app all at once, and the M4 barely broke a sweat. The 1TB SSD is also top of the charts for storage speed, so loading huge apps or transferring big files via Thunderbolt is instant. Just don't expect macOS-level multitasking. The hardware is ready, but the software still says "no" when you try to do something as simple as format a USB drive without a third-party app.

Pricing on the iPad Pro M4 is all over the place, and that's actually an opportunity. We see a spread from $710 up to $2603 across vendors. The low end gets you a Wi-Fi only 256GB model, likely a used or aggressively refurbished unit. The high end is a brand-new 2TB with nano-texture glass and cellular. Our specific 1TB Geek Squad refurb sits somewhere in the middle, and you can usually snag it for around $1,400 to $1,600. That's still a lot of money for a tablet, but you're getting a device with a processor that benchmarks faster than a MacBook Air M2 and a display that rivals professional monitors.

Compared to the competition, the value gets tricky. A Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra with 16GB RAM and 1TB storage costs about the same but includes an S Pen and has expandable storage. If you just need a media streaming slate, a Xiaomi Pad 7 Pro is way cheaper and has a great screen too. But for sheer speed and app parity with creative tools like Procreate and Final Cut Pro for iPad, nothing else touches this. If you're a digital artist who earns a living from your tablet, the price is justified. For casual users, it's overkill.

The Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra is the primary Android rival. Samsung throws in a 14.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED screen that's even bigger, and the S Pen lives right inside the chassis. That device is better for someone who wants a media-centered tablet with a boxy aspect ratio. But the M4 in the iPad smokes the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in every compute and graphics benchmark we've run, and Apple's app ecosystem for colour-critical work is still way ahead. The Tab S11 Ultra also weighs nearly a pound more, so if portability ranks high, the iPad wins by a knockout.

Then there's the Microsoft Surface Pro. It runs full Windows 11, which means real desktop apps like Photoshop, Blender, and coding tools. If your workflow depends on legacy software or you need a proper file system, the Surface is more practical. But it's chunky, the battery life barely scratches six hours, and the Intel chips run hot and loud. For raw tablet productivity on the go, the iPad is far more refined. Students and artists who value a slim package and a no-compromise stylus experience should lean iPad. People who need a laptop that's also a tablet, like engineers or programmers, should look at the Surface Pro or a MacBook Air.

If you're mostly streaming Netflix, browsing, and using light apps, you should skip this and get an iPad Air or even a regular iPad. The M1 or M2 chip in those is already overkill for that stuff, and you'll save at least $500. Battery life on those models is similar, too. People who need a full desktop operating system for work should look at the Microsoft Surface Pro or a MacBook Air, the iPad Pro will frustrate you with software limitations no matter how fast the chip runs.

Also, if you're sensitive to screen glare, the standard glass is reflective, and the nano-texture option only comes on the 1TB and 2TB models, which pushes the price sky-high. Consider whether a matte screen protector on a cheaper tablet might solve the same problem for less. And if you don't care about the Apple Pencil hover feature or the LiDAR scanner, a refurb M2 iPad Pro is nearly as snappy for most tasks and costs a lot less on the used market.

For digital artists, photographers, and video editors who live in the Apple ecosystem, this is the best portable canvas ever made. The M4 chip and that OLED screen are a combination you won't find anywhere else, and the thinness makes it a joy to carry. Pair it with the Apple Pencil Pro, and you have a tool that replaces a Wacom tablet and a sketchbook. We also love it for students who want a light note-taking device with a keyboard for occasional typing. It's absurdly powerful, but it's also a phenomenal reading and research companion.

That said, many people should just buy an iPad Air M2 instead. You lose the OLED panel and get a slightly slower chip, but save hundreds and still have a very capable tablet for streaming, browsing, and light drawing. The iPad Pro M4's price premium is only worth it if you genuinely need the top-tier performance or the display for colour-critical work. Everyone else can pocket the difference and still feel like they got a spaceship.