Although Apple has equipped the iPad Pro with variable refresh rate ProMotion display since 2017, it could only dynamically adjust between 24Hz and 120Hz stops until this point. The 2024 iPad Pro features a much superior display, in every sense of the word.
For one, Apple has finally switched to OLED in this—seventh—generation model up from a mix of micro-LED and LCD in everything that has come before it. With the aid of its M4 silicon, Apple has also managed to put not one, but two OLED panels together in “tandem” to boost brightness both in SDR as well as in HDR.
Also new for this generation of the iPad Pro is the quality of the LTPO— it can now go down to 10Hz for static content. This means, it’s a more efficient panel though Apple quotes rather conservative battery life improvements saying battery life is largely same as the 2022 model.
The 10Hz lower threshold however means there is no always-on in Apple’s new iPad Pro models. This is because Apple seems to have an internal number for what qualifies for always-on. This is 1Hz. So if the iPad Pro would have had an LTPO display that could go as low as 1Hz, possibly it would also have included always-on functionality.
Something similar happened with the iPhone as well. When Apple switched to LTPO OLED on the iPhone 13 Pro models, it did not give always-on because there, too, the refresh rate cap was 10Hz-120Hz. With the iPhone 14 Pro onwards, Apple has been using 1-120Hz panels and so, we have always-on there. The regular iPhones, iPhone 15 for instance, also have OLED now but they’re not LTPO (ProMotion) and so, obviously, they don’t have always-on as well.
It’s highly unlikely that Apple would turn on always-on through a future software update in the iPad Pro. At this point, your best bet would be for Apple to launch the next version, if you need always-on.
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