You’ve seen the spec sheets. You’ve probably watched the glossy trailers with the crushing industrial machines. Apple wants you to believe the iPad M4 is a revolution, a paradigm shift in what a tablet can actually do. And honestly? They aren't lying about the hardware. The Tandem OLED display is arguably the best screen on any consumer electronic device, period. But then there's the software.
When iOS 18 (or more specifically, iPadOS 18) landed, the tech world sort of collectively shrugged. We finally got a Calculator app—revolutionary, I know—and some fancy handwriting smoothing. But did it actually turn this slab of glass and M4 silicon into the laptop killer we were promised?
It’s complicated.
The Overpowering Problem
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. The M4 chip is a monster. It’s built on second-generation 3-nanometer technology. It has a 10-core GPU with hardware-accelerated ray tracing. It’s basically a high-end MacBook Pro engine inside a chassis that's thinner than an iPod Nano.
But here is the thing.
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Running iOS 18 on this hardware feels like putting a speed limiter on a Ferrari. You can feel the power under the hood, but the road is too narrow to ever hit top speed. Most people think they need the M4 for "future-proofing," and while there's some truth to that, you’re currently paying for potential rather than performance you can actually touch.
If you're just browsing Safari and scrolling through Instagram, you aren't even waking the M4 up. It’s bored. It’s yawning.
What Apple Intelligence Actually Changes
We have to talk about AI. Apple Intelligence is the big "why" for the M4. Since this chip has a massive 16-core Neural Engine capable of 38 trillion operations per second, it handles on-device AI better than anything else in the lineup.
In the real world, this translates to:
- Writing Tools: Summarizing long-winded emails in Mail. It’s handy, but does it justify a $1,000+ tablet? Probably not on its own.
- Siri’s New Glow: The edge-to-edge light effect looks cool on that OLED screen, and the contextual awareness is better. Siri finally understands when you stumble over your words.
- Image Playground: Generating sketches and "Genmojis" is fun for about twenty minutes, but for pros, it’s mostly a toy.
The real benefit isn't the flashy stuff. It's the efficiency. Because the M4 is so beefy, it can run these local LLMs (Large Language Models) without the tablet turning into a space heater. Your battery life doesn't just fall off a cliff the moment you ask Siri to find a photo of your cat from 2022.
The "Real" iPadOS 18 Features We Actually Use
Forget the AI for a second. There are three things in this update that actually changed how people use the iPad M4 daily.
First, Smart Script. If you use the Apple Pencil Pro, Notes now cleans up your handwriting in real-time. It’s subtle. It keeps your personal style but just makes it... readable. If you have "doctor handwriting" like I do, this is a godsend. You can even paste typed text into a note and the iPad will convert it into your own handwriting style. It’s eerie but incredibly useful for digital journaling.
Second, the Customization. We finally got the iPhone’s "place icons anywhere" feature. You can tint your icons to match your wallpaper. Is it a bit messy? Yeah, sometimes. But being able to actually see your wallpaper because your icons aren't blocking the center of the screen is a win.
Third, Math Notes. This is the one feature that actually feels like it belongs on a Pro device. You write an equation with the Pencil, hit the equals sign, and it solves it in your own handwriting. You can even change a variable and watch the result update live. For students or engineers, this is the first time the iPad has felt like a "smart" tool rather than just a digital canvas.
The Misconception About Multitasking
Most people think iOS 18 fixed Stage Manager. It didn't.
Stage Manager is still Stage Manager. It’s better than it was at launch, sure. You can resize windows a bit more freely, and external display support is stable. But it’s still not macOS. There is a persistent friction when trying to manage more than three apps. The "windows" still want to snap to certain spots. It still feels like the OS is trying to tell you how to work, rather than just getting out of the way.
Why the Display is the Real Story
If you're buying the iPad M4, you aren't really buying the chip. You're buying that Tandem OLED.
Traditional OLEDs have a brightness problem. Apple solved this by stacking two OLED panels on top of each other. The result is 1,000 nits of full-screen brightness and 1,600 nits for HDR. It makes iOS 18's new dark mode look incredible. The blacks are perfectly deep, and the colors pop in a way that makes the old Liquid Retina screens look gray and washed out.
I’ve talked to professional colorists who are actually using this as a reference monitor on set. That’s where the "Pro" in the name finally makes sense. When you combine that screen with the M4's ability to scrub through 4K ProRes video without a single frame drop, you start to see the vision.
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The 2026 Perspective: Should You Buy Now?
We’re currently in a weird spot. Rumors are already swirling about the M5, and some users are reporting that iOS 18 is actually more stable than the newer, buggier releases.
Honestly, if you have an M1 or M2 iPad Pro, the M4 is a luxury, not a necessity. The performance gap in daily tasks is invisible. The only reason to upgrade is the screen and the weight. This thing is light. Like, "I forgot it was in my backpack" light.
But if you’re coming from an older iPad with a home button or an A-series chip? The jump to the iPad M4 on iOS 18 will feel like moving from a flip phone to a spaceship.
Actionable Advice for New M4 Owners
- Turn on the 80% Charge Limit: If you plan on keeping this for 5+ years, use the new battery health settings in iOS 18 to cap your charge. The M4 is efficient, but heat and high voltage are still battery killers.
- Master the Apple Pencil Pro Gestures: The "Squeeze" gesture is context-aware now. In Notes, it brings up a tool palette; in other apps, it can trigger shortcuts. It’s the fastest way to navigate without touching the screen.
- Don't Overpay for Storage: Unless you’re a professional video editor, 256GB is plenty. Use the money you save to buy the Magic Keyboard. The M4 is half a device without that trackpad.
- Give Math Notes a Shot: Even if you aren't a math person, try using it for a basic budget or a grocery list with prices. It’s the most "magical" part of the update.
The iPad M4 is a masterpiece of hardware trapped in a software identity crisis. iOS 18 gives it some personality and some much-needed utility, but the chip is still waiting for a challenge. For now, enjoy the best screen in the world and the smoothest handwriting experience ever made. Just don't expect it to turn into a MacBook overnight.