New ipad is all Pro, no cons
Redesigned and crammed with new technology, this has to be Apple’s best version yet
EVERY time Apple reveals a new ipad Pro the same silly debates rage – can you use it for work? Can it replace your laptop? Obviously, it can. But it depends on what you want to do with it.
What I can say is that this year’s models are, it will come as no surprise to learn, the best yet.
And here is why...
IT’S GOT CHIPS WITH EVERYTHING... AND THEY’RE LIGHTNING FAST
THE new ipad Pro is, says Apple, faster than 92% of all portable computers (including laptops) sold in the last year. And it shows. The A12X Bionic chip is designed and built by Apple, and delivers superb performance with high energy efficiency. You can, I suspect, expect to see Apple-made chips like this replace the Intel chips in Macbooks and imacs pretty soon.
The Apple Neural Engine that runs on this chip makes all kinds of magic happen – from the augmented reality to the machine learning that powers the camera’s auto settings. It’s a winner. Next year it’ll show what it can do when Adobe finally releases a “full” version of Photoshop for the ipad Pro... an awful lot of people are waiting for that.
BIG SCREEN AND NO HOME BUTTON
LIKE on the iphone X, Apple has done away with the home button,so the whole front of the new ipad Pro is a screen.
The screen is superb – bright and sharp, and the perfect canvas for images, video, and other artwork. The design does away with curved edges in favour of a flatter feel, reminiscent of the old iphone 4, which I always thought was the nicest. I hope next year’s iphones pick up this design, too.
IT’S CONNECTED IN A WAY THAT OTHER IPADS ARE NOT
YOU now have a USB C –a small connector no bigger than the lightning port, but with several advantages. You can connect to more things – plug your camera straight in to transfer images (there’s an optional SD card reader).
Perhaps best of all you can plug the ipad Pro into an external monitor for extra screen space that apps can take advantage of.
Apple’s own imovie can already display video on the big screen, while you edit on the touch surface of the ipad itself. It’s the best of both worlds.
THE PENCIL IS PERFECT
THE first version of the Apple Pencil was a revelation – the second version is so, so much better. It charges and pairs while magnetically attached to the side of the ipad Pro, which seems a bit like magic.
The attachment is strong enough for you to leave your pencil right there, even when you sling the thing in your bag on the go. Because there’s no plugging in, gone is the daft cap on the top of the old pencil that could very easily get lost. In practice it works much like the old pencil, with one
significant addition. There’s a flat edge to the pencil (which stops it rolling off the table) that features a tappable area that you can use to switch between on-screen tools – and it works like a charm.
By default it switches between the drawing tool and the eraser, but developers are able to offer other options – drawing app Procreate allows you to customise this setting so you can use the double tap to bring up any number of features.
It’s a real time-saver and I’m sure other developers will follow suit. THERE are two new cases for this ipad Pro – a Smart Folio case and a Smart Keyboard Folio case. And both attach to the back of the device with strong magnets providing first class protection. The keyboard folio obviously includes a great keyboard for those that prefer real keys to on-screen tapping, while also offering two viewing angles for the screen. The folio case offers two different viewing angles – one of which is ideal for drawing and on-screen typing while the
THE FOLIO CASES PROTECT FRONT AND BACK... AND THE KEYBOARD IS GREAT.
other is for watching video.
Both are so good I can’t decide which I like the best.
Obviously, there’s much more to this device – it has two cracking cameras, of course – the front one facilitates the face unlocking, and works pretty much flawlessly whichever way you hold the ipad.
It’s easy to cover it with your hand while holding the ipad in landscape orientation… at which point a little arrow appears on screen to remind you where the camera is.
Battery life is great, too (all day for sure, maybe two if all you do is write, surf, and email). It comes in two different sizes, in devices that are otherwise identical. One has an 11in screen and is the same physical size as the old 9.7in version. The 12.9in screen version is physically 25% smaller than the old “big” ipad Pro with the same-sized screen (and is much lighter).
The drop in physical mass in the large one makes it a significantly more attractive proposition.
And there’s not a lot more to say than that. The new ipad Pro is a fabulous, capable, beautiful computer that could well be all the computer you need.
■ The new ipad Pro starts at £769. Apple Pencil costs £119. The Smart Keyboard Folio costs from £179, and the Smart Folio costs from £85. Find out more at apple.com/uk