iPad Pro screen protectors: 11-inch, 13-inch, and the nano-texture exception

The iPad Pro (M5) is 249.7 × 177.5 × 5.3 mm at 11 inches and 281.6 × 215.5 × 5.1 mm at 13 inches. Many listings cover the 11-inch Pro and the 11-inch iPad Air together, because that size is shared — check the listing names the Pro and your generation.

Apple lists an antireflective coating and a fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating on both sizes, so the screen already resists smudges better than bare glass would.

Apple offers nano-texture glass on the 1TB and 2TB iPad Pro models. It is etched at the nanometre scale to scatter reflected light, and it is the main reason to buy those configurations.

A glossy tempered glass protector sits on top and replaces that surface with a reflective one. If you want protection on a nano-texture iPad Pro, a matte film is the only consistent choice — and leaving it uncovered is a perfectly reasonable answer, since the glass itself is not fragile in normal use.

Paper-feel film adds the friction that makes the Apple Pencil feel like a pencil. It also diffuses the image slightly and wears Pencil nibs faster — a real running cost if you draw daily. Our paper-feel by iPad model page covers which film suits which iPad.

• Apple: iPad Pro (M5) tech specs