Mulling Apple
9.7-inch iPad Pro Review
When Steve Jobs first introduced the iPad in 2010, he described it as a device in the middle. We already had iPhones and Macs, but there was room for a device that did a select list of tasks better than both a phone and a laptop. Those tasks included things like browsing the web, reading books, looking at photos, playing games, and reading and replying to email.
With the iPad Pro, Apple is trying to change that. Up until now, the iPad has been a device made exclusively for consumption, and our main consumption device is our phone. All those tasks from before are tasks that could be accomplished on both the Mac and the iPhone, but are things that without an iPad you would more likely do with an iPhone.
Our main device for creation, however, is the Mac. Currently, if you wanted to make a movie, you would used a Mac. If you wanted to write a paper, you would use a Mac. If you wanted to illustrate or doctor photos, you would use a Mac. The iPad has always been a device in the middle, but the things it did leaned far closer to the iPhone than they did Mac.
The iPad Pro is meant to be a truly in the middle device. A device that you can do some key creation activities on better than any other device out there, in addition to those consumption activities. With the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, Apple began on this new vision for the iPad, however its large price and large size got in the way of wide-spread adoption. Now Apple truly wants to create a device that is the best of both worlds: The speed and power of the larger iPad Pro, along with the portability of its infamous consumption iPads.
The only question is: Is this truly the future of the PC, or is this the ultimate in the middle device?
One of the most notable changes about the new iPad Pro is its new price. For the first time since the launch of iPad, Apple no longer sells a flagship tablet at $500. This is an extremely risky bet, and one that I didn’t believe they would take.
The new iPad Pro starts at $600 for a 32GB model in either Silver, Space Gray, Gold, or Rose Gold. For $129 more you can add on cellular data, for $149 more you can get 128GB of memory, and starting at $800 you can now get a 256GB iPad. These prices do not include the Apple Pencil, or the Smart Keyboard Case; two things which you may want to invest in to make this a true PC replacement.
This means that Apple is betting that current iPad users will look at the advantages of the new iPad Pro and decide they are worth, at least, a full $100 more than any previous model, and that new iPad users will look at the Pro and think it is worth a full $100 more than most other tablets.
I, personally, picked up the 32GB Space Gray model without any extra accessories. My goal was to see if the new iPad Pro could be a PC replacement right out of the box.
If you’ve used the larger 12.9-inch iPad Pro, or really any other tablet that wasn’t the iPad Air 2, you’ll be shocked at how light this device is.
The iPad Pro features a nearly identical frame to the Air 2, along with the same dimensions and weight, minus a few key differences.
The first notable design change to the iPad Pro is the new stereo speaker system inherited from the 12.9-inch model. As described by Apple:
With a high-fidelity speaker in each corner, iPad Pro creates a rich, wide, and detailed soundstage. It automatically adjusts the orientation of the high frequencies to the topmost speakers, no matter how you’re holding it. So whether you’re playing a game or watching a movie, you — and your ears — will be completely immersed.
I can vouch that these speaker are absolutely insane. They always sound great and never muffle regardless of how you hold the device. However, the most impressive thing about these new speakers is that they get significantly louder than you’d ever imagine speakers could get in a device of this size.
The speakers on the new iPad Pro were louder than both my relatively new 24-inch Insignia HDTV, and every set of speakers I found laying around my desk that I tried this out with. This is the best listening experience you’ll find on a tablet.
Not only is the listening experience great on iPad Pro, the viewing experience is excellent too.
The new iPad Pro is the first Apple device to include a new technology called the True-Tone display. As described by Apple:
People love using iPad everywhere. That’s why the new 9.7‑inch iPad Pro has a True Tone display. It uses advanced four-channel ambient light sensors to automatically adapt the color and intensity of the display to match the light in your environment. Which means reading is more natural and comfortable — almost like looking at a sheet of paper.
I thought this might just be a little nifty thing that some people may like, but no, it is crazy good. This is an absolute breakthrough in display technology and, after using it for just a few hours, needs to be adopted everywhere. Seriously, try using this new iPad for 5 or 10 minutes and then look at any other display, it’s shocking.
The True Tone display is so good, and makes the viewing experience so much more enjoyable, that I am pretty much prepared to say this is the best display I’ve ever used in a product. Ever.
The new display combined with the new speaker system creates one of the most enjoyable viewing experiences money can buy, and truly makes the new iPad Pro the best consumption tablet ever made.
But what about creating?
The next big change in the iPad Pro is its new camera setup, which is identical to the iPhone 6S. That means you’ll be getting a 12-megapixel rear camera with flash, along with a 5-megapixel iSight camera. The cameras are still just as good as they were on the iPhone 6S, however along with the camera system came the camera-bump.
This means the camera on the back of the new iPad Pro protrudes a slight amount, however, unlike on the iPhone 6S, does not result in wobbling. (Though, it is still not pretty, and we all know they could have made it without the bump if they really wanted to.)
This is where we see one of Apple’s first goals for a creation tablet come to fruition — A user can buy an iPad Pro, record an entire movie in 4K, and then edit and publish it. All on the same device.
The last major change to talk about with iPad Pro is the A9X. This is the same A9X from the larger iPad Pro, and holy crap is it fast.
In using it for about three days, and a good 30 hours, the iPad Pro didn’t hiccup, lag, or reload anything once. It ran every game I threw at it with ease, and opened up an easy twenty Safari tabs without skipping a beat.
The iPad Pro 9.7 only features 2GB of RAM, unlike the 12.9-inches 4GB, however this doesn’t seem to effect performance anywhere. In fact, it seems the iPad Pros are performing identical next to each other, without any noticeable difference.
In two-rounds of usage, the iPad Pro got ~10 hours of battery, which is a little less than my outgoing iPad Air’s 12 hours, but certainly still enough to get you through a full-day.
So, that’s the iPad Pro 9.7. It’s fantastic. Everything Apple has added in this new model truly creates new possibilities for iPad and its potential to be a productivity device. However, it isn’t a PC replacement, at least not yet, and it has nothing to do with the hardware.
iOS was created for the iPhone. When iPad launched it was scaled up for the device and since then, Apple has added a few iPad-exclusive features to iOS, but it still feels as if the iPad has so much more potential and could do so much more if it ran an OS made specifically for it’s hardware.
In the past few years, we’ve seen Apple re-create iOS for devices like the Apple TV and Apple Watch, with specific designs and features for those devices, while keeping it in the iOS family. It’s time to make an iPad OS, and I think that is clear to everyone.
I think everyone includes Apple, and I will be beyond shocked if iOS 10 doesn’t feature a host of updates specifically for the iPad Pro.
And while the iPad Pro doesn’t fulfill the task of becoming a PC replacement, it does fulfill the task of making iPad better at productivity. Especially with accessories like the Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil, the iPad could become your main device for creating photos and movies if you really wanted it to be. I can truly envision a future where the average person would never want to do these types of things on a Mac.
If you’re looking for a tablet and want the best, buy the iPad Pro 9.7. It’s the only tablet that truly understands what a tablet is supposed to be. If you disagree, wait until June and look again.
