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Apple's M1 iPad Pro faces the One Charge Challenge

With Apple's newest chip and Liquid Retina XDR Display, let's see what a souped-up iPad can handle in a single charge.

Nic Henry Senior Video Producer

It's no secret that Apple believes its iPad Pro tablets are made for creatives who like making things. While I've never owned an iPad Pro, I do indeed like making things. And if you're going to be making things, the newest iPad announced in April includes Apple's fast M1 chip and, in the version I'm testing out, a fancy 12.9-inch mini-LED screen that Apple calls a "Liquid Retina XDR Display."

While my colleague Scott Stein says in his iPad Pro review that it's not a Mac computer, many of these specs on paper make it sound like the tablet should be able to compete with MacBook laptops and maybe even the new iMac that also includes the M1 chip. So this raises the question: Can the iPad Pro now do enough to be a stuff-maker's primary creative tool?

For our third installment of One Charge Challenge, we put the iPad through the wringer. In a single charge, I make myself an AR face filter, film a "commercial," and, yes, even attempt to record a song.

nic-onecharge-ipadpro-facepaint

In Procreate you can do things like give yourself a sword grass mustache or just go wild with an airbrush. I give both methods two enthusiastic thumbs up!

Nic Henry/CNET

Spoiler alert: Painting your face in AR is very fun and recording a song on an iPad is very hard. Watch the video above (or perhaps it traveled to your bottom right corner of your browser) and, if you're so inclined, watch our episode on the iPhone 12 Pro Max here: