On raw performance might, the M4 really does live up to Apple’s promises, should deliver. Single core is up about 20% compared to all M3 chips and more than 40% compared to M2. The generational computational leap from the previous M2 iPad Pro is at least a 42% jump on single-core and multi-core.
Personally I love my iPad as a larger browsing/watching device, for creative uses like vector image work, photo editing, and drawing, occasionally for CAD work (which is remarkably simple with Shapr3D), and of course streaming from my Xbox or PS5 to play remotely. Also it can run Stable Diffusion, which can be fun to play around with.
But the primary reason I originally bought it was for sheet music. 😅
I don’t really need the pro performance, but it’s nice to have for some of the creative stuff. And learning to redo workflows with the pencil and touch inputs can be frustrating and slow at first but I find once I get the hang of them it can be really intuitive and quick. I recently designed a T-shirt design for my dad in a vector app that I had never used before, took me only an hour or so to feel proficient enough to be satisfied with the work and further practice will only make it better.
Obviously it isn’t for everyone, I’m not trying to be an iPad evangelist. But even though I don’t use mine for my primary job I really enjoy working with it when I get to.
Hah, yeah a decade ago when I had one, sheet music became its primary use case.