Apple iPad Pro 11" M4 Space Black 2024

The Apple iPad Pro M4 11-inch has a stunning OLED display and the blazing M4 chip, making it the best creative tool on the market. Battery life is class-leading, and the refurbished deal at $530 is a steal. But base 8GB RAM and high accessory costs hold it back from being the perfect value. If you're a professional artist or video editor, this is the one; if you just want to binge shows, look elsewhere.

Apple pulled off something wild with this iPad Pro. It's impossibly thin, lighter than a paperback, and packs the same M4 chip you'll find in their latest Macs. We're looking at the 11-inch model with the new Ultra Retina XDR OLED display, and it's a night-and-day difference from the old LCD panels. This thing is absolutely top shelf for reading, students, and entertainment, according to our scoring system, where it landed in the 95th and 92nd percentiles. And yes, this particular unit is a Geek Squad Certified Refurbished model, which means you can snag it for way less than retail if you don't mind a few potential cosmetic scuffs. Who's it for? Creative pros, heavy note-takers with the Apple Pencil Pro, and anyone who wants the most beautiful portable media experience. If you're a digital artist, video editor on the go, or a student who annotates textbooks constantly, the M4 iPad Pro is basically dream hardware. But it's not a cheap date, and the base 8GB of RAM and 256GB storage might make you wince if you're a multitasking monster. The interesting bit is how this stacks up against the competition. With a price spread from $530 for a refurb to $1699 for a maxed-out new unit, there's a version for different budgets. But even at its most affordable, it's competing with some killer Android tablets and Windows 2-in-1s. In our database, it's the absolute best right now for battery and screen, and the M4 puts it among the fastest tablets we've ever tracked. You just have to decide if iPadOS, with its walled garden, works for you.

The M4 chip is an absolute monster in a tablet. Our benchmarks put the CPU in the 94th percentile, meaning it's among the best on the market, not just in tablets but compared to a ton of laptops. The 10-core GPU hits the 92nd percentile, so games like Genshin Impact run maxed out without breaking a sweat, and rendering 4K video in LumaFusion is buttery smooth. The 8GB RAM sounds low on paper, and it's true that our data shows it's only in the 66th percentile for RAM across all tablets, but iPadOS is so efficient that you rarely feel squeezed unless you're juggling a dozen pro apps with massive files. The real-world implication is that this tablet doesn't just replace your old iPad; it can legitimately replace your laptop for a lot of tasks. The OLED display at 120Hz makes every animation fluid, and with 1000 nits brightness, you can work outside. But under sustained heavy load, like exporting a large 3D model, the thin chassis gets warm and the fanless design might throttle a bit sooner than a MacBook Air with the same chip. Still, for 90% of what you'd throw at it, it absolutely screams.

Pricing on the M4 iPad Pro is all over the map. A new 256GB Wi-Fi model sits at $999 officially, but you can grab a Geek Squad Certified Refurbished one for as low as $530, which is a screaming deal for this level of hardware. On the high end, a 1TB nano-texture glass model with cellular will run you $1699. That's a massive spread, and it makes the refurb route incredibly compelling if you don't mind a 90-day warranty and potential minor scratches. For context, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra with a similar sized OLED and S Pen included starts around $1,200 new, but doesn't have the same app ecosystem for creatives. The Microsoft Surface Pro with a Core Ultra processor and more RAM might be a better laptop alternative, but its tablet mode and display can't touch the iPad Pro's OLED. When you factor in accessories, the Apple tax bites. The Magic Keyboard adds $300 and the Pencil Pro is $130. That takes a base refurb unit from $530 to nearly $1000 if you want the full experience. For a student or artist who will use those daily, it's still a solid investment because the workflow is so polished. But for a couch surfer just streaming Netflix, a $300 iPad 10th gen does the job.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra gives the iPad Pro a serious run for its money with a gorgeous 14.6-inch OLED and included S Pen. It's a better value for media consumption and offers a more open file system, but it lags in raw CPU power and creative app polish. The Xiaomi Pad 7 Pro is a budget powerhouse with a great LCD and Snapdragon chip, but it can't match the OLED or the ecosystem. Then there's the Microsoft Surface Pro, which runs full Windows 11 and can have 16GB or 32GB RAM, making it the better pick for business users who need desktop apps like full Photoshop or coding IDEs. But as a pure tablet, its thick chassis, mediocre battery, and standard IPS display feel clunky next to the iPad. If you're knee-deep in Apple's ecosystem with a Mac and iPhone, the iPad Pro is the obvious choice, especially with Sidecar and Universal Control. If you want a standalone device that can replace a laptop and you're not tied to Apple, the Surface Pro offers more flexibility. For artists on a budget, the previous-gen iPad Air with M1 might be a smarter buy, still supporting Pencil Pro but costing half as much.

If your tablet use consists of social media scrolling, Netflix, and casual games, the iPad Pro is serious overkill. You'd be just as happy with a $329 iPad 10th gen or even a Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+, and you'd pocket the difference. Business users who rely on specific Windows-only software or need extensive multitasking with a desktop browser should skip this and look at the Surface Pro, which gives you a full OS, more RAM options, and better peripheral support. Also, if you're on a tight budget and can't stretch to the refurb price of $530, the Xiaomi Pad 7 Pro or Lenovo Idea Tab Pro deliver solid performance for less than $400.

For digital artists, photographers, and video editors who need color accuracy and raw speed, the M4 iPad Pro is hands-down the best tablet money can buy. The OLED screen alone is a gamechanger, and the M4 handles everything from 3D sculpting to 4K editing with headroom to spare. Pair it with the Pencil Pro, and it becomes a portable studio that's hard to beat. In our database, it's elite in nearly every category that matters to creatives, and that 99th percentile battery rating means you'll rarely be tethered to an outlet. If you're a student who takes notes, reads textbooks, and occasionally edits a video, this is still amazing, but you could easily get by with an iPad Air and save a pile of cash. The same goes for casual users who just browse and stream. The base 8GB RAM is the one spec that gives us pause for future-proofing; if you plan to keep this for five years, consider the 16GB version. But for the right user, the M4 iPad Pro is a no-compromise dream machine.