[rwp-review id=”0″]
I’ll be honest, reviewing the iPad Pro was an immense challenge but one I look forward to. That’s all things considering since here at AbsoluteGeeks that I’m more focused on the PC and Android ecosystem but AbsoluteGeeks is all about change and that said, I have been pretty excited to experience what the iPad Pro has to offer. Apple really changed the game when they caught on that their device now could be from a media device to something much more and so here we are. The big daddy of Apple’s tablet roster, the iPad Pro. With 12.9 inches, it’s twice as big as the iPad Air 2 and you get 80% more viewing and with that comes higher resolution as well. There’s a A9X processor and 4GB of RAM. It screams power and that’s all well and good but I’ve some conflicting thoughts on the matter. I ditched my laptop for a week and moved to working with Apple’s generously big iPad, while I liked several things about it, it did raise some important questions and they weren’t concerned whether the device was great, more on that later. While spent a fair bit of a time, pushing this device, we decided to make this review extra special so here’s some beautiful imagery to go with it, courtesy of our friend, Lakshik Perera.
However, the primary question is who does Apple want to buy the iPad Pro? While shown as a great add on for creatives, Apple isn’t defining it as that. It depends on what you want to get out of your tablet. It could be a great media center, a tool that merges connectivity, creative design and whatever you fancy that the app store can provide, want to type on the go ? The smart keyboard case will sort you out and that makes the iPad Pro a great word processor. It really looks to be an ideal laptop replacement but among many things the Pro is, a laptop killer it is not.
It falls in the gray area, primarily designed around the casual user who want basic computing without the excess weight of a laptop nor is it powerful enough to do extremely intense applications and by that definition it’s definitely not a slimmed down macbook as you would expect since El Capitan is on a different league compared to iOS. Apple has also made the bold claim that the iPad Pro is faster than 80% of portable PCs shipped last year and that sort of statement is something you’d expect to be taken lightly.
It’s not far from a PC but if you take into account that iPad Pro along with its accessories, the smart keyboard case and Apple Pencil all put together it does go head to head with more traditional lightweight laptops. It’s quite the investment though, The iPad Pro costs US$799 for the 32GB Wi-Fi version and $949 for the 32GB Wi-Fi and cell version, with the 128GB Wi-Fi and 4G version coming at $1079. The Apple Pencil is at $99 and keyboard is at $169. The accessories are also what make the iPad Pro a perfect companion without it, you just have a really big tablet that’s great for media content and just that.
It’s expensive albeit not as high as we expected in what you would consider Apple to price in their products. The iPad Pro is a lot of things to different people. For me it was tasked that I use this device to do everything from multimedia, quick photo editing, video watching and sketching. A device that will nail perfect situations but ultimately take the backseat for more intensive activities. Is the iPad Pro a better class of tablet that ultimately leaves you without ever needing a clunky laptop for your basic activities ? Only one way to find out…
[divider]Design[/divider]
If you’re coming from an iPad mini, you’ll realize that the sheer size of the Pro’s 12.9 inch display and 713 grams of the Pro isn’t something you’re going to be holding one hand with. With two hands as well, I found it more comfortable to liken it to a clip binder. So if you’re hoping to do a spot of reading you’re better off getting a smart silicone case to prop it while seated, it’s a minor sacrifice people make to make up for a better displaying tablet. It’s super thin though, at 6.9mm and comes with the makings of Apple’s design language in the iPad family. The ceramic polished metal, curved edges and the seamless TouchID home button that’s right about the lightning port and power button and volume controls. For a device that names itself Pro in the iPad series, Apple has kept things rather simple. The bezels around the screen are narrow, another great design feature is that there are four speakers in the corner edges of the device. They look great and sound great too!
[divider]Screen[/divider]
If there’s any reason you needed to get the iPad Pro, this would be it. The 12.9 inch LCD Retina Display has a lot of screen real estate and you’ll enjoy watching anything from movies to playing games or reading on the web. A 2,732 x 2,048 resolution, it makes this the biggest and most high-resolution iPad screen that Apple has made. You’re looking at a more slimmed down version of what comes from Apple’s 5K iMac. It’s bright and colorful, High resolution video looks gorgeous. Apple also has made the display with a variable refresh rate allowing for better power efficiency on the iPad Pro. A good thing because a screen of this size would certainly take up most of the battery. Bump up the brightness to the maximum and it’s certainly almost too bright. I found myself using the screen at 80% most of the time and only at full brightness during the day outdoors. While there’s plenty of other tablets that offer better contrast, the screen on the Pro does give better vibrance to scenes as you’d expect from most retina displays and the Apple design fingerprint. Speaking of fingerprint, your screen will be littered with them. I got into the habit of using the Apple Pencil and using my fingers to rub the screen out of habit and realized that I spent a bit of time making smudges across the screen.
With a 2732×2048 resolution you’re getting a 4:3 screen ratio, retained from the earlier iPads and designed around viewing web content or reading. Apple has deliberated done this so that you can run simultaneous apps in split screen with no loss in resolution, in fact the individual app has the same screen resolution of an iPad Air so you have two apps to do more. The whites are certainly on the warmer side but colors are natural and not overly saturated.
[divider]Performance and Battery[/divider]
Apple’s gone all out and slotted in an A9X chip and 4 GB Ram. Make no mistake, this is the most powerful tablet that Apple has produced till date. How does that translate to real life scenarios? I could run multiple Adobe apps like Photoshop Express, Photoshop Fix and Autodesk Sketchbook with no trouble at all. You’re going to be able to do a lot if you know what you want and with no hint of lag or slowdown, it really was a pleasing and strange experience to enjoy working on a tablet doing things I would normally do on a laptop. With Split screen it makes it even better, I can do some sketches when looking up resources on Safari and the the screen size helps. Apple says that it would give approximately ten hours of battery life and it’s quite hit that mark. On full brightness playing HD movies and moving around apps, I got nearly full day’s worth of iPad Pro goodness on a single charge, and this included when the Pencil was perpetually being used to tap away. You can get more battery too if you keep it on minimal wifi usage and turn the brightness of the screen all the way down.
Geekbench scores for those wanting to see the numbers speak for themselves. It beats the Galaxy Note 5 well ahead with scores of 5140 on the 128 GB model that was tested, it also means that the iPad Pro will keep you happy for a very long time, apps will get better and we’ll finally see apps that will fully optimize the iPad Pro’s interface and give you better performance. It may not be much if you compare it to the Surface Pro 3’s Intel Iris cards on paper. I held a strong opinion on this that all things considered some of the best games on iOS just work well because they’re optimized for the hardware to run them smoothly. My only complaint ? The interface is what you would expect. iOS was designed to be simple and if hardcore creatives are looking at the iPad Pro offering something more, they’re in for a disappointment, like I mentioned earlier that it runs just like the Air 2 if it’s without its add ons.
[divider]Sound[/divider]
There’s speakers on the iPad Pro are among the best I’ve heard. I happened to catch the trailer of Civil War and it was pretty solid. All four speakers give bass and at full volume it can be seriously loud. I normally find most tablets don’t produce great audio and it can get taxing if you’re playing movies or gaming generally. This was a welcome change to see. The case that comes with it, however pads around the speakers so except the sound to muffle a bit but it’s not distracting.
[divider]Cameras[/divider]
I personally don’t believe in taking images with a tablet camera but I can tell you the 8MP iSight sensor on the back and the 1.2MP in the front are decent cameras though beyond Facetime I wouldn’t find myself using the back camera in any instance. I don’t quite see how with the added weight of holding the tablet with both hands plus adjusting focus and then clicking the shutter would make for a pleasing experience, which is why you have your phone do it instead. Interestingly, the iPad Pro’s internals has the capability to add 4K video recording but has opted not to. The slow mo is at 120 fps at 720p which should give you some idea as to why. The obvious reason would remain that since this isn’t a 4K screen, Apple didn’t have a reason to offer it. It would work in indoor situations if you want to shoot a quick photo if you have nothing else to shoot with, like I did with BB-8 here.
[divider]Apple Pencil[/divider]
For all intents and purposes, the Apple Pencil is a plastic white stylus with a rubber tip shaped like pencil lead but fitted with pressure sensors allowing you to write or sketch depending on how you angle it and put pressure on. At $99, it’s also the most expensive pencil you’ll probably come to own. It’s bluetooth powered and can be charged with an adapter through the socket or more intuitively through the iPad Pro itself, the battery on the Pencil will last you a few days through intermittent use. One would easily make comparisons to Wacom’s line of graphics tablets that offer better pressure sensitivity. A 13″ wacom tablet is around $999 roughly. I wouldn’t liken the Pencil to change things around in that regard but it does have its perks.
So how do you compare the Pencil ? Tim Cook put another bold claim that sketching with the Apple Pencil on the iPad Pro would make you want to not use a pad anymore. Here’s my opinion on that, I’m not basing this on the technological capabilities of the ‘Pencil’ but rather it’s not quite the same experience. It’s the same you’d expect from book reader veterans who feel the same way about the Amazon Kindle. “It’s just not quite the same thing.” When you start comparing the Pencil to the actual sketching experience I’m not sure that technology today would be able to apply the same experience of tactile feedback that you get while sketching on canvas. It’s an interesting time we’re living in and I’m sure Apple will be listening to the conversation that comes with it. In any case creatives will be curious to try and see if this is what they need to help them.
Moving on and out of the way of any philosophical questions here’s my thoughts on the Apple Pencil.
The first question one would ask is you need to get the Pencil. Well, that depends on what you’re doing with it. While the smart keyboard which we didn’t review is something I consider a full part of the iPad Pro experience, the Pencil also falls in that gray area. It’s a great start for Apple to implement tools, but most artists would prefer something with more precision and I wish Apple would have introduced something as an add on, it would help an artist navigate better with shortcuts.
The latency of the pencil is great for sketching but for note taking, I’ve noticed, is based purely on the app you’re using. Adobe apps like Photoshop express that are light on iOS tend to offer better control for the Pencil and I’ve seen it truly shine when working on AutoDesk Sketchbook which is perfect for on the fly illustrations but for intensive apps like Forge, there was a microsecond of delay. It did let me trace well but it functioned more like a trackpad. I was hoping to see a feature where the iPad would recognize the Pencil and finger tap gestures separately. It can get annoying to sketch a picture and then realize your finger was in the corner adding to random scribbles in corners where you touched the glass.
It’s fairly simple, the Pencil is specifically for users who would want to tweak make design changes or take quick notes. The more seasoned illustrator will probably give this a pass.
My major qualm about the Apple Pencil ? I felt that Apple really missed an opportunity here by providing a Pencil case or holder. I found it cumbersome to stash the iPad Pro in my travel bag and make sure the Pencil was secure in a pouch. For now I just had a novel way of allowing the Pencil to snap on the smart case. It’s not the best method but it’s a temporary solution. I’m hoping that Apple releases a pencil holder to go with the case, it’s very likely that a third party case builder will jump to the opportunity first.
[divider]Verdict[/divider]
Between great portability and large screen, I can say that the iPad Pro is a tablet that blew me away with its true to attention detail on screen, fanatastic speakers and a battery life to boot. I never once needed to attach my headphones on. For some it’s just a really big iPad and to others it’s a powerhouse that you can carry around. Here’s where I’m divided, the iPad Pro does not come cheap, with all that power to accomodate it, the basic 32 GB model comes in at $799, pencil and smart keyboard sold seperately. I would expect Apple to bundle these soon and provide a price reduction next year when the next generation of peripherals come out.
I would recommend most users who want to get the maximum out of this tablet to purchase the 128GB model to ease any worries about space but that’s quite the investment coupled with accessories that’s sure to leave a sizeable hole in the wallet. The holding weight may not be suited for lightweight tablet users either, it’s obvious from the get go that you’re not going to be able to hold it with one hand for long.
With all this said, this isn’t the laptop replacer that powers users would want. Windows laptop users too, who would want to find familiarity might opt for Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4 and it comes close to something they would replace an old clunky laptop with. The iPad Pro is a great tablet but ultimately iOS is not El Capitan.
You’re going to crave the raw power you’d find in a macbook pro and that’s something I’m sure Apple will deliver in the coming years to get a full fledged mac level hybrid as it gets better. For now it makes as much sense purchase wise for majority of the users to get the iPad Air 2 but if you’re a user that wants to really push their iPad and loves to read along with the flexibility of doing multiple things at once, then the iPad Pro is what you really desire.
