Gaming on the iPad Pro: What does the M4 Chip offer?

While the power of Apple’s custom M series chips (on their laptops and iPads) is formidable and so is the case with the A17 Pro, it is important to understand that the devices these chips power aren’t dedicated for gaming.

Hyderabad: Much has been spoken and written about Apple’s commitment to gaming and even more about their desire to offer AAA experiences on their phones and tablets. While the power of Apple’s custom M series chips (on their laptops and iPads) is formidable and so is the case with the A17 Pro, it is important to understand that the devices these chips power aren’t dedicated for gaming.

Thus, I wasn’t expecting much when I powered up the 13” iPad Pro to give flagship games like AC Mirage and Resident Evil: Village a try. To balance the review and test out the iPad’s ability to play lighter games I also tried out 2016’s puzzle based Inside and Monument Valley 2.

The review of the four games was to test how the new hardware on the 2024 iPad Pro was holding up to the demands of various kinds of games, its ability to handle demanding characteristics of flagship games like raytracing, the much talked about Ultra Retina CDR OLED display and the ability of the iPad to support accessories like the Xbox controller via Bluetooth.

In my time across the four games, I found that the OLED display was fantastic as it reproduced colors accurately – I really enjoyed the lights in Inside and the gorgeous dark pinks and purples in Monument Valley 2.

The iPad is perfect for the dark colors and there is a lot here to like regarding contrast and the quality of the image. I also rarely found the device heating up, the screen was never warm to touch, and this is despite playing intense games like Resident Evil: Village where a lot was happening on screen.

The iPad was both silent and cool, it was easy to swap across screens and lock/unlock the device and resume playing. The sound from the speakers was clear and rich and for most parts playing with an Xbox controller in hand, the smooth experience often made you forget that you were gaming on an iPad but rather made you think that you were just gaming on a gorgeous OLED screen.

Despite its many strengths, the iPad did struggle quite a few times and the places it did, were harsh reminders of the limits of the hardware and iPadOS. When resuming play (from a locked screen), games like Mirage wouldn’t detect the Xbox controller and reconnecting wouldn’t solve the problem. Touch controls, while passable, lacked the precision that a controller offered, and despite the gorgeous OLED screen, when compared (with consoles) the games not just stuttered and struggled in terms of dropped frames but also lacked sharpness and clarity.

Mirage lacked the pop in terms of color that the PS5 version offered – the imposing cerulean blue domes from the PS5 version weren’t the right blue or distinctive enough and the scattered pink petals lacked clarity and focus.

Similarly, in Village, the dark shades, while wonderfully shown, were let down by the lack of clarity from other objects and the overall experience wasn’t of the same quality that you expect from AAA game.

Where the iPad did shine though was with Monument Valley 2 and Inside, both spectacular experiences, where the device elevated what the games could offer. I really enjoyed my time with the two, and I would be hard pressed to find a better device for them, however, Apple doesn’t seem content with that. It expects flagship games and uncompromised experiences from these devices. I, however, don’t think the top-of-the-line iPad Pro with its 16GB of ram, the extra cores for performance can muster that. This is neither the device nor the platform for flagship games, though it might just be for portable games.

Lastly, considering the limited experience of Mirageand Village it is important to observe that they are priced at around the same rates as the console and PC versions, something difficult to justify when despite the Apple premium, the performance is lacking.