iPad Pro gets new design
Bezels slashed, internals boosted – and Face ID arrives
Apple isn’t giving up on the idea that an iPad Pro can replace your computer – and it tried to hammer that home at its
October event when it introduced new models. The point was most germane when John Ternus, Apple’s vice president of hardware engineering, discussed the new processor inside the redesigned tablet.
The A12X Bionic processor is faster than 92% of portable PCs, Ternus said. It’s an eight-core chip with a 35% performance increase in single-core tasks compared to the A11X. Most of the things you’ll do with an iPad Pro make use of the single-core rather than multi-core ability of the processor, so improving this performance by over a third should make a big difference to the things you do most often.
As was widely rumoured before the event, the iPad Pro has been redesigned to feature much slimmer bezels than before, while the Home button has been removed. Instead, Apple has squeezed its TrueDepth camera system into the bezel, so you can unlock the tablet with your face.
The iPad Pro now comes in two new sizes. The 11in model expands the display of the old 10.5in iPad Pro while keeping the same physical chassis. The 12.9in model, on the other hand, has the same display size as before but a much smaller chassis. That should help to make it more portable.
The other big change to the iPad Pro is the switch from Lightning to a 10Gbps USB-C port for connecting devices like cameras or external displays directly. You can even charge your iPhone from it.
Graphic language
Ternus also talked up the new iPad Pro’s graphics performance, which he said is now on the level of Microsoft’s Xbox One S console. That’s impressive for a tablet that’s so thin and light.
But the improved graphics won’t just help with games. Full desktop apps like Adobe Photoshop and AutoCAD can now run seamlessly on the iPad Pro, making it more useful for creative professionals.
The 11in iPad Pro starts at £769, while the 12.9in model starts at £969. Storage capacities of 64GB, 256GB, 512GB and, for the first time, 1TB are available. The 10.5in iPad Pro remains on sale, starting at £619, with storage from 64GB to 512GB.