Katarzyna Petru
It seemed that Apple would quietly make it to the October launch of the iPad Pro with the M5 chip this year. Meanwhile, history has come full circle – the same Russian YouTuber who "ruined" the debut of the MacBook Pro with the M4 processor a year ago has sparked another storm online. He published a video where he unboxes the latest iPad Pro, revealing the first benchmarks along the way.
iPad Pro with M5 in the first video
In the recording, we see a device that is structurally almost identical to its predecessor – ultra-thin casing, a single camera, and no significant visual changes. However, this doesn’t entirely align with the announcements made by Mark Gurman from Bloomberg, who suggested that this year's iPad Pro would receive as many as two front cameras. There’s not a word about this in the video – which leaves a certain question mark.
Performance Results – a slight but noticeable boost
The M5 chip performs in synthetic tests exactly as expected – delivering a noticeable, though not revolutionary, power increase over the M4. Benchmarks show:
+10% in single-threaded mode
+15% in multi-threaded mode
L2 memory increased from 4 MB to 6 MB
However, the biggest leap is seen in graphics – Metal GPU improved by as much as 38%, and in AnTuTu GPU saw an increase of about 8%. The video showcased a model with 256 GB of storage and 12 GB of RAM – this is an interesting change, as previously Apple offered 12–16 GB only in more expensive variants. Now even the “lower” configurations are getting more RAM.
Details That May Be Overlooked
It’s worth paying attention to a few details: the iPad was running on iPadOS 26.0, not 26.0.1, there is no “iPad Pro” writing on the casing, and the box appears to be thinner than before. A small thing, but significant for Apple.
Another Apple surprise ruined
We weren't expecting major design changes – those came last year. But the fact that someone has once again got their hands on the hardware before its premiere and showed it to the world must really irritate Apple. We expect the official presentation of the iPad Pro in October, however, there’s really no surprise left. It's hard to believe that the giant from Cupertino will turn a blind eye to this recurring leak – especially since they don’t officially sell in that region.
