When it comes to enjoying a movie or TV show without the hassles of a crowded theater, few devices deliver like Apple‘s new 13-inch iPad Pro with its stunning OLED display. This portable entertainment powerhouse might just be the ultimate binge-watching companion, elevating the at-home viewing experience to unprecedented heights.

What elements constitute a truly immersive movie-watching experience? A breathtaking picture? Check. Enveloping sound? Double-check. The new iPad Pro excels on both fronts, leaving the distractions of a packed theater – glowing phone screens, rustling snack bags, and questionable nacho “cheese” – in the rearview mirror.

Truth be told, the iPad has been a formidable portable TV since Apple introduced the first 12.9-inch iPad Pro in 2015. But with each iteration, as the screen and speakers have been refined, so too has the movie experience. Now, with the incorporation of OLED technology, that experience is as close to perfection as a device of this size can muster.

For die-hard cinephiles accustomed to gargantuan living room displays or the expansive screens of modern multiplexes, a 13-inch tablet might seem underwhelming at first blush. However, when brought closer to the viewer, this portable screen becomes, relatively speaking, nearly as immersive as its larger counterparts. The key difference is one of perspective – our brains recognize the iPad Pro as a small object in close proximity, rather than a vast canvas from afar. Yet, in practice, this shift in perception quickly fades, allowing viewers to lose themselves in the fine details, sweeping vistas, and crisp subtitles (for those who prefer them).

While the larger 13-inch display is ideal for shared viewing experiences, the advantages of a more compact screen soon become apparent when we examine the underlying screen technology.

The 2024 iPad Pro‘s suitability as a premier TV and movie platform can be attributed to its OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) display. This cutting-edge technology allows for unparalleled black levels, striking contrast, and vibrant imagery that simply can’t be matched by traditional LCD panels.

OLED screens function by illuminating individual colored pixels, resulting in unrivaled control over the image. In scenes with vast swaths of darkness – the quintessential example being a star-filled night sky – OLED displays deliver an inky blackness punctuated by pinpricks of light, without the haloing or “blooming” effect that plagues LCD screens.

With LCD technology, a glowing backlight panel shines through a grid of colored pixels, creating the on-screen image. However, to achieve true black, these pixels must block that persistent backlight, resulting in an image that never quite reaches the depths of true darkness, even with local dimming techniques employed.

Micro-LED displays offer similar pixel-level precision, but the technology remains prohibitively expensive for most consumer devices. OLED, on the other hand, is a mature and widely adopted solution, one that Apple has been implementing in its iPhone lineup for years.

Complementing the iPad Pro’s visual prowess is an audio system befitting a premium entertainment experience. Recent iPad Pro models have impressed with their speaker arrays, which seem to project sound outward in a manner that defies the device’s compact form factor.

Admittedly, the substantial price tag of the larger iPad Pro models – exceeding even that of Apple’s entry-level MacBook Air, which includes a keyboard and trackpad (a $350 add-on for the iPad) – might give some prospective buyers pause. In such cases, the new 13-inch iPad Air could be a worthwhile alternative, sacrificing OLED brilliance for a more affordable LCD display that still delivers a respectable viewing experience. The Air’s dual-speaker setup might be its only notable compromise, though headphones (particularly Apple’s Spatial Audio-enabled AirPods Pro) can easily compensate.