Packed with features, this is the best iPad yet
Apple iPad Pro 9.7-inch - Launching a proper iPad air 2 successor has taken apple over a year and a half – perhaps because that tablet was so hard to improve on. The result is that it fit almost everything from the giant iPad Pro into a smaller frame, producing something far beyond just an “iPad air 3.” you can listen to amped up music through its four loud stereo speakers, work and play harder with its powerful a9X processor, doodle away with the apple Pencil, and seamlessly attach a keyboard without fumbling with Bluetooth. It’s not all hand-me-down features, though – the smaller iPad Pro strikes out with a few advancements of its own, including one of our favorite new additions in years, in the form of its True Tone display technology, which adapts to the ambient light by subtly adjusting the white balance of the display. you also get a much wider color gamut behind its anti-reflection coated glass. Its camera is 12mP and shoots 4K video, matching the iPhone range. you also get a rose gold color option, and a 256GB storage option (which has also been added to the larger iPad Pro line-up).What we’ve ended up with is a tablet juggernaut – but without looking like a juggernaut. But the asking price has increased to match its power, so do the new features and the price balance out?
At first glance, you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the Pro and the iPad air 2. The chassis is almost identical, save for the added camera bump on the back of the Pro, to accommodate the more advanced optics. If you get the Wi-Fi+Cellular model, the antenna strip has been redesigned too – it’s less intrusive, and so considerably more attractive – and the new model features apple’s convenient new integrated SIm, making it easy to sign up for data acess. Otherwise, you’re looking at something very familiar, even down to some aspects of the display.
It’s the same size and resolution as the iPad air 2’s, but in fact it’s much improved over even that excellent screen – and in fact puts the technology in the 12.9-inch iPad Pro to shame. The biggest addition is the True Tone display technology, which dynamically adjusts the white balance of the screen to adapt its color and intensity to your environment. Just like the brightness, the required setting is handled automatically using four-channel ambient light sensors. True Tone is easier on the eyes, making the screen look more natural for your environment and, more often than not, less blue – a little like iOS 9.3’s Night Shift, but all the time.
Apple’s goal isn’t sleep improvment here, but to ever-so-slightly nudge the iPad Pro’s glow so that it looks like a piece of paper. That’s something that should (we hope) become a standard feature across all of the company’s devices in the future. We really
TRUE TONE MAKES USING THE IPAD JUST SO MUCH MORE PLEASANTcan’t turn it off now that it’s on – it makes using the iPad just so much more pleasant at home in the evening (or anywhere else, really). It goes a long way to making it feel less like a computer, and closer to being that magical piece of paper that does whatever you want. It’s much nicer for reading, for working, and anything else.
It’s not the only improvement, though: apple has also cranked up the color gamut to give its new iPad Pro 25% greater color saturation than the iPad air 2. It touts the fact that this tablet uses the same color space as the digital cinema industry, and it does help things look more vivid. That said, the average user we’ve shown this to sees this as a minor addition to an already excellent-looking display. This is really meant for digital artists and photo editors who are putting the pro-level display to work – though we could really do with seeing improved support for things like raw files if people are really going to take advantage of this display.
On top of that, the screen is now much brighter, and features a new kind of anti-reflective coating. These add up to making it far, far superior for use outside – you can see what you’re doing in bright sunshine much more easily with the smaller Pro than any other iPad model.
Let’s make no mistake: this is the best iPad display yet, and when combined with the brilliance of the True Tone display, it’s a big step forward. and that’s before we even get to the support for Pencil.
PRECISION INSTRUMENT
Months after the launch of the iPad Pro, apple Pencil support is now widespread, even if some use its advanced pressure and angle sensitivity features better than others. Tools such as Procreate show it off as a flexible art instrument beautifully, and support in photo-editing apps such as Pixelmator add some welcome precision for certain edits. Even if you’re not a freehand prodigy, it’s still a really nice accessory to have – it makes annotation and note-taking easy, and more compelling. and it still works excellently on the smaller size of the 9.7-inch iPad Pro compared to the 12.9-inch model. If it’s precision work you want to do, the larger model has the edge, but for us, adding Pencil’s accuracy for adding notes to PDFs and handwriting is allowing us to use the iPad Pro for tasks that we wouldn’t have done on the air 2. and the Pencil can still do useful things like charge enough for 30 minutes’ use in just seconds from the Lightning port.
Oh, and if you’re worried about the camera bump causing wobble when drawing: don’t be. It doesn’t.
There are big updates beyond the screen, of course. One of the most notable is actually the speakers, with two on the end by the Home button and two by the Sleep/Wake button. They’re loud enough to drown out the bottom-firing, twinspeakers of the iPad air 2 at full volume, and give you some stereo separation. Turning the tablet into landscape mode to watch a movie, we found everything sounded natural. Part of that balance is due to the fact that the upper two speakers always handle mid and high frequencies, and they’ll change depending on how you hold the iPad Pro, rotating the sound just like the screen orientation.
WHAT A PRO
The new iPad also earns its “Pro” label inside, thanks to the a9X chip, which includes a dual-core processor and 12-core graphics chip, along with 2GB of Ram. This is slightly less powerful than the 12.9-inch iPad Pro (the processor runs at a reduced speed, and the bigger model has 4GB of Ram), but it’s still enough to let this tablet handle opening as many apps as you want, scrolling through menus without hiccups, summoning Siri at a moment’s notice and watching video while multitasking in mail and Twitter. We experienced no slowdown at all.
Is it a big performance improvement over the air 2? Honestly, it’s not transformative. animations are often that little bit slicker than the air 2 (and often even over the bigger iPad Pro, because it has fewer pixels to manage), and difficult tasks are a little faster, but there’s less impact for little tasks. We do wish it came with 4GB of Ram for future proofing, but clearly apple thinks 2GB will suffice for a while.
The base level 32GB of storage is okay, though if you’re doing large image work, you’ll hit it fairly quickly. The 128GB option is the sweet spot – very few people will need the 256GB model, but it’s great to have around for those filling it with 4K video.
Speaking of which, the camera is excellent, as you’d expect given its heritage. Photos are beautiful and clear, while video is detailed and vibrant.
The battery life is strong too – as good as the iPad air 2, which could always hang on for great lengths of time. The new features don’t seem to impact that too greatly. We’re disappointed that it lacks the fast charging USB option that the larger iPad Pro has but, since this takes much, much less time to charge, it’s not a deal breaker.
THE BOTTOM LINE
This is apple’s best tablet ever. The differences between it previous iPads are subtle in some cases, but there’s no way we’d want to go back. But are they worth getting into for $200 more than the entry-level iPad air 2 model? We’d say yes – but it’s not an automatic decision. The air 2 is still a fantastically capable machine, and is a total steal at $399. If you think you’re really not bothered about Pencil (or Smart Connector accessories), consider saving the money. But if you want the iPad with the best balance of productivity, power and portability: this is it. Matt Swider
