It took Apple over a decade to admit they were wrong. If you’ve ever used an older iPad Pro for a FaceTime call or a Zoom meeting while it was docked in a keyboard case, you know the "shifty eye" struggle. Because the camera was stuck on the short edge—the portrait top—you spent every meeting looking like you were staring off into space instead of at your boss or your grandma. It was awkward. Honestly, it was a bit of a design failure for a device marketed as a laptop replacement.
The newest M4 iPad Pro finally fixes this. By moving the iPad Pro front camera system to the long edge, Apple has fundamentally changed how this slab of glass and aluminum functions in the real world. It’s a landscape-first world now.
The Landscape Shift: Better Late Than Never
For years, the TrueDepth camera system lived at the "top" of the device. This made sense back in 2010 when the iPad was basically a giant iPhone. But people don't use the Pro models like phones anymore. We use them with Magic Keyboards. We use them with Stage Manager. We use them for work.
When you flip the new M4 iPad Pro into landscape mode, the camera is exactly where it should be: centered right above the screen. This seemingly small tweak involved a massive engineering headache. Apple had to completely redesign the internal charging magnets for the Apple Pencil Pro because that’s exactly where the camera needed to go. They literally moved the pencil’s "home" just to give us a centered video feed.
Why Center Stage Feels Different Now
Center Stage is that software trick where the camera pans and zooms to keep you in the frame. On the old vertical-oriented iPad Pro front camera, Center Stage always felt a bit forced. Because the lens was off to the left or right, the software had to do a lot of heavy lifting to warp the image so you looked centered. It often resulted in a slightly distorted perspective.
Now? It’s natural. The 12MP Ultra Wide sensor captures a 122-degree field of view from a dead-center vantage point. Whether you’re pacing around your kitchen while talking to a friend or sitting still for a presentation, the perspective looks "correct" to the human eye. No more weird side-angles that make your nose look twice as big as it actually is.
Beyond the Lens: The TrueDepth Secret Sauce
It isn't just a webcam. We call it the iPad Pro front camera, but it’s actually a sophisticated array of sensors that Apple brands as the TrueDepth camera system. This is what enables Face ID, and it’s still the gold standard for biometric security on a tablet.
Think about the sheer amount of tech packed into that tiny sliver of the bezel:
- An Infrared Camera that reads the dot pattern.
- A Flood Illuminator to help in the dark.
- A Dot Projector that throws out over 30,000 invisible dots to map your face.
- The actual 12MP image sensor.
The M4 chip's Neural Engine plays a huge role here too. It processes that depth map in milliseconds. It’s why you can unlock your iPad while wearing a mask or a pair of sunglasses, and why the "Portrait Mode" on the front camera manages to get those hair-thin edges mostly right without blurring your ears into the background.
The Quality Gap: Why 12MP Isn't Just 12MP
Numbers in tech are often lies. A 12MP camera on a cheap budget tablet is going to look like grainy garbage compared to the 12MP sensor on the iPad Pro. Why? Sensor size and the Image Signal Processor (ISP).
The ISP inside the M4 chip performs billions of operations per second. It handles noise reduction, local tone mapping, and white balance before you even see your own face on the screen. If you've ever noticed that you look "better" on a FaceTime call than you do in a standard photo app, that’s the ISP working its magic. It’s prioritizing skin tones and eyes.
However, let's be real for a second. Even though the iPad Pro front camera is great, it still struggles in low light. If you’re sitting in a dark room with only the glow of the screen hitting your face, you’re going to see "noise"—that fuzzy, static-like grain in the shadows. Physics is physics. A tiny sensor can only grab so many photons. If you want to look professional, you still need a light source in front of you. Don't blame the hardware; blame the lighting.
💡 You might also like: The AWS outage October 29 2025: What really happened to the cloud that morning
Privacy and the Little Green Dot
Apple is obsessed with the perception of privacy. Whenever the iPad Pro front camera is active, you’ll see a small green LED-style dot in the status bar. This isn't just a software trick; it’s baked into the hardware logic.
Some users worry about "camera hacking." While no system is 100% unhackable, the way Apple handles the Secure Enclave means that the raw depth data from Face ID never actually leaves the device. It’s not uploaded to the cloud. When you use Memoji or those goofy AR filters, the iPad is sending the "map" of your movements, not a high-definition video of your bedroom, to the app processor.
Studio Quality Mics: The Silent Partner
You can't talk about the camera without talking about the microphones. The iPad Pro features what Apple calls "studio-quality" four-mic arrays. When you're on a video call, the iPad uses beamforming to focus on your voice and ignore the hum of your air conditioner. This synergy between the centered camera and the directional mics is what makes the iPad Pro a better conferencing tool than most $2,000 laptops. Most MacBooks, even the new ones, still have 1080p webcams that look significantly worse than what’s on the iPad.
Common Myths and Annoyances
People often ask: "Can I use the front camera for 4K video?"
The answer is yes, but only up to 60 fps. And while the hardware supports ProRes on the back cameras, using the front camera for heavy-duty cinematography is... well, it's a bit awkward. It's meant for communication and "selfie" style content, not for filming your indie movie.
Another thing: the bezel. To get that iPad Pro front camera into such a thin frame, the bezels have to stay a certain width. We all want an "edge-to-edge" screen with no borders, but until "under-display" camera technology improves (without looking like a blurry mess), we are stuck with that small black border. Honestly, it’s a fair trade-off for a camera that actually works well.
Putting It to Work: Actionable Steps for Better Video
If you just bought a new iPad Pro or you're trying to make the most of your current one, don't just open the app and start talking. There are a few ways to actually make that hardware shine.
First, check your settings. Go to Settings > FaceTime and ensure Center Stage is toggled on. If you hate how it crops in, you can turn it off, but for most people, it's a lifesaver.
Second, use the "Studio Light" effect. When you’re in a video call, swipe down from the top right to open Control Center. Tap "Video Effects" in the top left corner. You can toggle on "Studio Light," which artificially brightens your face and dims the background, making it look like you have a professional softbox in front of you. It’s surprisingly effective.
Third, eye contact. Even with the camera moved to the landscape edge, we still have a habit of looking at the person’s face on the screen rather than the lens. Try to glance at that little black dot on the bezel occasionally. It makes the person on the other end feel like you’re actually looking at them.
The iPad Pro front camera has evolved from a secondary "nice to have" feature into a primary work tool. By moving it to the landscape orientation, Apple finally acknowledged that the iPad is a computer first and a tablet second. It’s a change that was years overdue, but now that it's here, it's hard to imagine going back to the old way.
If you're upgrading from an older model, the relocation of the lens is probably the single most impactful "quality of life" improvement you'll notice in your daily routine. Clean the lens with a microfiber cloth occasionally—fingerprints on the glass are the leading cause of "blurry" video calls—and enjoy finally being the person in the meeting who isn't looking off to the side.