iPad Pro with M2 chip announced – record ProRes video and use Davinci Resolve

by James · October 18, 2022

Apple has announced the new iPad Pro with the M2 chip, which it claims provides the ultimate combination of portability, versatility and performance. What is probably most interesting to our readers is the ability to use DaVinci Resolve.

Table of Contents

Record ProRes video and use Davinci Resolve

Editing a video with DaVinci Resolve on iPad Pro.

With the new media engine and image signal processor, combined with the cameras, users can capture ProRes video for the first time and transcode ProRes footage up to 3 times faster. This means content creators can record, edit and publish video from a single device out in the field.

You can also run several pro apps available for iPad, including DaVinci Resolve, Adobe Photoshop, Affinity Publisher 2 iPad, Octane X, uMake, etc.

DaVinci Resolve is not actually available for iPad Pro yet. Apple gave no indication of when it would be released or how much it would cost. It will be interesting to see if the iPad version will be able to run the full DaVinci Resolve Suite or if it will be a toned down version.

It is also interesting to see that Apple allows a third-party program that can be used as a very competent NLE on their mobile platform when FCP is not available.

M2 chip

iPad Pro in 11-inch and 12.9-inch sizes.

The M2 features an 8-core CPU that is claimed to be up to 15 percent faster than the M1, with advances in both performance and efficiency cores, and a 10-core GPU, which delivers up to 35 percent faster graphics performance. Combined with the CPU and GPU, the 16-core Neural Engine can process 15.8 trillion operations per second, which is 40 percent more than the M1.

The M2 chip also has 100 GB/s of unified memory bandwidth, which is 50 percent more than the M1, and it supports up to 16 GB of unified memory.

Apple Pencil Hover Experience

Apple Pencil is now detected up to 12mm above the screen, allowing users to preview their mark before making it. This also allows users to sketch and illustrate with greater precision. For example, with Scribble, text fields automatically expand when the pencil gets close to the screen, and handwriting is converted to text even faster. Third-party apps can also take advantage of this new feature to enable completely new marking and drawing experiences.

Faster wireless connection

A woman using the iPad Pro with Smart Keyboard Folio.

The new iPad Pro supports the fastest Wi-Fi connections with support for Wi-Fi 6E. Downloads are claimed to be up to 2.4Gb/s, 2x faster than the previous generation. Wi-Fi + mobile models with 5G (sub-6GHz and mmWave) now support more 5G networks worldwide.

iPadOS 16

In addition to major updates to Messages, new tools in Mail and Safari, the new Weather app, and more ways to interact with photos and video with Live Text and Visual Look Up, iPadOS 16 also introduces powerful productivity features that elevate the iPad Pro experience:

Stage manager is a brand new multitasking experience that automatically organizes apps and windows, making switching between tasks quick and easy. Later this year, Stage Manager will unlock full external display support with resolutions up to 6K, allowing users to arrange the ideal workspace, working with up to four apps on the iPad and up to four apps on the external display.

Desktop apps enable new features optimized for the iPad Pro screen – make apps more capable with new elements and interactions, including a consistent undo and redo, a redesigned native find-and-replace experience, a new document menu, customizable toolbars, and the ability to change file extensions, see folder size in Files and more.

Reference mode enables the 12.9-inch iPad Pro with Liquid Retina XDR display to match color requirements in workflows such as review and approval, color grading and compositing, where accurate colors and consistent image quality are critical. That means professional users, including photographers and videographers, can edit HDR photos and videos with all the real details right at their fingertips, and on-set cinematographers can preview content in a color profile that represents the final image.

iPad Pro uses reference mode in Frame.io on iPadOS 16.

Price and availability

iPad Pro in silver with a white Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil, and space gray with a black Magic Keyboard.

The new iPad Pro is available for order starting today, October 18, at apple.com/store and in the Apple Store app in 28 countries and regions, including USwith availability in stores from Wednesday 26 October.

The new 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro will be available in silver and space gray finishes with 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB configurations.

11-inch iPad Pro starts at $799 USD for the Wi-Fi model and 999 USD for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model; 12.9-inch iPad Pro starts at $1099 USD for the Wi-Fi model, and $1299 USD for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model.

Apple Pencil (2nd generation), available for purchase separately, is compatible with the new iPad Pro for $129 USD.

The Magic Keyboard is available in black and white too 299 USD for the new 11-inch iPad Pro and $349 USD for the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro, with settings for over 30 languages.

The Smart Keyboard Folio for the new iPad Pro is available for $179 USD for the new 11-inch iPad Pro and $199 USD for the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

The Smart Folio is available in black, white and navy blue $79 USD for the new 11-inch iPad Pro and $99 USD for the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

iPadOS 16, the powerful operating system designed specifically for iPad, will be available from Monday 24 October, and ships free with the new iPad Pro. iPadOS 16 will be available as a free software update for iPad (5th generation and later), iPad mini (5th generation and later), iPad Air (3rd generation and later), and all iPad Pro models.

Customers can trade in their current iPad and receive credit towards a new one. Once your device is received and verified, Apple will credit the value to your payment method.