New Apple tech!
Hands–on with Mac mini, MacBook Air & iPad Pro.
The new iPad Pros are not only the most powerful portable devices in the world, but thanks to some eye–catching design changes they’re the best– looking as well. Apple’s play is to take the fight to the notebook world, and its new iPad is a powerful weapon in that battle.
There’s a new 11–inch iPad Pro (the old 10.5–inch model is sticking around) and an updated version of the 12.9–inch model. The 11–inch versions starts at $799 for a Wi–Fi– only version with 64GB of storage. You can upgrade to 256GB for $949, 512GB for $1,149, or a cool 1TB for a mighty $1,549. The 12.9–inch model has the same size options, but it starts at $999 for the 64GB, $1,149 for 256GB, $1,349 for 512GB, and $1,749 for 1TB.
Note that all those prices are for the Wi–Fi–only version — if you want to add cellular, you’ll need to shell out an additional $150.
But if there’s one reason to pick up this new iPad, it’s the sheer improvement in terms of the way it looks in your hands. Gone are the large, cumbersome bezels on the
“…sheer improvement in terms of the way it looks in your hands.”
sides, instead replaced with thinner ones that more closely resemble those on the new iPhones.
There’s still room on the left– hand side (if you’re holding the tablet in landscape mode) for all the sensors though — Face ID, front camera, and so on — that help open the tablet without the home button.
The smaller bezel doesn’t leave you with too little bezel to hold though — yes, you do clutch it a little more lightly, but it’s still a comfortable experience, despite the corners being less rounded.
We found that using Face ID to unlock the device works much more slickly than Touch ID in practice, and can be used in both landscape and portrait orientations with ease.
We’ll wait for our final review unit to test this out properly, because checking it in a crowded demo area at a launch event is never going to result in the best experience.
There are a couple of other changes you need to know about. The first is that the Lightning port has gone. Instead, we’ve now got a USB–C port, as seen on the MacBook range — according to Apple this enables you to connect an iPhone, camera, and charge other devices.
It’s an interesting move, and it does mean that you can no longer plug your iPhone cable directly into your iPad to charge it, which is going to be annoying for some people.
However, given the possibilities the change of ports brings, including being able to connect to 4K and 5K external displays, or USB hubs, it’ll be interesting to see what develops.
The other change to note is to the Smart Connector on the back — it’s moved from the long edge to the bottom of the tablet, and there are many magnets on the back to allow you to connect the new folio smart keyboard — and you can still only use the keyboard when your iPad is in landscape orientation.
Trying the folio keyboard, it’s a very similar experience to that found on the keyboards for the last generation — the keystroke quality hasn’t changed much at all. There are two ‘ridges’ on it now, which allow you to prop the tablet up in different ways depending on what you’re using it for.
We didn’t try the new iPad Pro on our lap, but at a desktop angle it worked pretty well.
The screen quality on the new iPad Pros is as excellent as you’d expect, with some new improvements
“These are brilliant machines, packed with cutting–edge design…”
brought over from the use of the cutting—edge LCD panel in the recently released iPhone XR.
The reduced bezel and size of the 12.9–inch model really stands out the second you pick it up — it doesn’t pack the heft of the previous two giant iPad iterations. The screen still feels really generous, but it doesn’t feel that big to use. It’s a truly next–generation version of what’s come before, and is more usable because of the changes. This is the one we’d choose if we were aiming for a laptop replacement.
The 11–inch model is the same height (in landscape) as last year’s 10.5–inch model, but is wider — the body is the same size, but you get more screen. In our brief time, this showed intriguing promise for split–screen apps, giving you a useful amount of extra space. For a mix of portability and power, it’s going to be a juicy option.
The new iPad Pro is, as you might expect, one of the most powerful tablets you’ll have ever held in your hands, thanks to using the new, upgraded A12X Bionic chip. In early benchmarks, it’s showing the same amount of raw power as the 15–inch MacBook Pros…
In practice, it’s hard to notice much of a change when just messing around with the new iPad Pro, because there’s been more than enough power for that for years.
But it’s for the heavy lifting with more power–hungry apps that Apple is touting the upgrade — there were a lot of demos where content creation was shown, with full Photoshop from Adobe up and running without a hitch.
Apple says it’s as powerful as a console for gaming, too. To test this, we played both Pro Evolution Soccer and Assassin’s Creed for an extended length of time, and the level of graphical fidelity and the fluidity on the screen was very impressive.
It’s hard not to be impressed with what the new iPad Pro can do, but it’s debatable whether the average user will really get that much benefit from the added grunt provided.
The sound quality on the speakers is improved too, with a woofer and a tweeter array in all four corners — and it’s even more impressive given the thinness of just 5.9mm.
These are brilliant machines, packed with cutting–edge design, and we’re excited for what they can do. But there is a feeling we can’t escape that the software isn’t as advanced for productivity as the hardware. They’re better than last year’s models, and also more expensive, but you can’t do more with them. Roll on iOS 13.