Starting at the small price of $799, you can have yourself one of Apple’s latest and most impressive innovations, the iPad Pro. Of course, the $799 price is for the 32GB Wi-Fi-only model. You’ll have to pay $949 for the 128GB Wi-Fi-only model and $1,079 for the 128GB model with Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity. So what’s all the fuss about? Is the iPad Pro really worth spending as much as you would on a quality laptop? We investigate below.
Tablet Features, Notebook Performance
A big draw to the iPad Pro and something Apple certainly bragged about, is the tablet’s A9X processor, a chip built by Apple that they claimed had almost double the CPU performance of the iPad Air 2. Not only is it better than previous generations of iPads, but one study rates the performance even better than the 12-inch Retina MacBook.
For such a powerful device, the iPad Pro is still relatively lightweight. With a 12.9-inch Retina display, the device is only 6.9 mm thin and weighs only 1.57 lbs. On the downside, some have complained that the tablet is too big. A bigger screen is nice for multi-media, especially considering the iPad Pro’s 5.6 million pixels (the highest resolution of any iOS device), but the increased screen size has caused an awkward display in some iOS apps and let’s face it, people want to be mobile with their tablet and some prefer a smaller device.
Keyboard and Pencil
Apple wanted to make sure that the iPad Pro was not only as powerful as some notebooks, but also had similar, if not better, capabilities. Enter the Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil.
The keyboard is waterproof, provides a good typing experience and actually sits flat on your lap. The Apple Pencil is weighted and feels very natural in your hand. Its accuracy is impressive too, as Lauren Goode mentioned in her review on The Verge:
“The Pencil’s greatest feature, then, is its precision. In my experience there was almost no latency between the Pencil and the screen it really felt like I was using a pencil or pen. Unlike styluses that rely on Bluetooth connectivity, the iPad Pro senses when a stylus is near the display and scans for a “tip signal” 240 times per second, Apple says. There are also sensors in the tip of the stylus that detect pressure and tilt, for stuff like shading.”
The bad news about these features? Apple charges extra, rather than including them with an already-expensive iPad Pro.
Other Pros and Cons
The front and rear-facing cameras have been improved, there are 4 built-speakers and iOS 9’s multi-tasking capabilities allow you to use multiple apps at once. However, the multi-tasking feature is still limited and users have claimed frustration with it.
Here’s the bottom line: the iPad Pro is not taking over laptops anytime soon. But it is indeed a step in that direction. It has closed the gap, and as third-party developers implement more technology and features, expect the gap to close even more.
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