After a long wait, Apple has revealed the next version of its latest flagship M5 iPad Pro, introducing the newest M-series chip across two tablet sizes, along with a few enhancements to charging and wireless network connectivity. After the company revealed its newest iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods Pros back in September, many were wondering if Apple would announce more products before the year wound up. This week's iPad Pros, M5 MacBook Pro, and M5 Apple Vision Pro were the answer, but delving deeper, there could be more benefits for gamers than meets the eye.
In the company's press release section on its site, there's a big effort to showcase how fast the M5 iPad Pro is for AI, followed by how well the tablet can run games. "iPad Pro has up to 1.5x faster 3D rendering with ray tracing than the previous-generation iPad Pro and up to 6.7x faster rendering performance than iPad Pro with M1."
The original M1 iPad Pro was no slouch when it debuted in 2021, and as newer Apple-designed CPU chips came in, you'd be hard-pressed to find any slowdown when playing the best iPad games. But with faster ray-tracing features and more powerful GPU cores in the M5 chip, we could see games like Resident Evil 4 and Death Stranding achieve far higher frame rates than before.
The M5 iPad Pro also offers fast charging, a first for Apple's tablet. The company says that the devices can reach 50% in around 30 minutes with a compatible charger that's 40W and above. There are also Apple-designed wireless chips, the N1 and C1X modems, which the company says can also save on battery compared to the Qualcomm-made chips that were in previous models.
But Apple Vision Pro is worth a mention here, too. Released in 2023 as Apple's first proper foray into the mixed-reality market, it's not seen much love since, except for some improvements to its visionOS software. However, this improved M5 version brings a slightly crisper resolution and a new headband for extra comfort. There's also future support for PSVR 2 controllers, so playing games like Control on the headset could be even more immersive.
The M5 iPad Pro, M5 Vision Pro, and M5 MacBook Pro lines are all available to preorder now, before launching on October 22. There are other features to take advantage of, too, such as the improved front cameras and better memory speeds. Ultimately, if you own an iPad or Mac that has an M1 chip, it could be time to upgrade to play some games at a higher frame rate and with ray tracing for those that support it.
However, if you're curious about what the Android phones and tablets could offer you instead, check out our guides to the best Android phones and the best gaming tablets while you're here. Or, if you're looking for something just to game on, take a look at our list of the best handheld consoles.