Some of the biggest news from the Apple event was the announcement of a new iPad model called the iPad Pro. It’s not exactly a surprise (following closely in the footsteps of MacBook lines) but it is a new product, so it deserves a closer look. Fortunately, that won’t be too hard because this screen is huge.
We’re talking about a 12.9-inch retina display, which is the biggest thing iOS has ever been on (9.7-inches was the previous iPad limit). This bigger screen is designed for Pro-fessional work, especially the kind more suited to a laptop. You can pop up a full-size keyboard if you want to, and at 1.54 pounds, it’s still light enough to easily carry around. The Pro uses iOS 9, which will include a number of software upgrades. In particular, it will be able to shift into split screen mode for getting more work down at once.
Bigger tends to mean more powerful, too: The iPad Pro runs an A9x processor which Apple claims is 80% faster than “portable PCs.” There’s also an HD FaceTime camera, an 8-megapixel rear camera, and – notably – a four-speaker design for much better speaker quality than previous versions.
But all the power in the world isn’t much without enough electrical oomph to treat the Pro as a laptop replacement. Apple reports that the battery can last about 10 hours on a fully charge. Finally, Apple is releasing a few new accessories that will make it easier to use the iPad Pro on the job.
First is a welcome smart keyboard that provides a fabric keyboard that also serves as a cover, a data port, a power link, and more (allowing it to avoid Bluetooth connections). Second is the Apple Pencil, which is not just a pencil with the Apple logo on it, but is a stylus and not much else. Possibly not worth the money if you already have a stylus.
So, how much for this iPad monster? Well, it definitely gets close to MacBook territory. For a base 32GB, Wi-Fi version you will need to shell out $800. For a 128GB version with cell and Wi-Fi, you will have to pay $1079. So only think about investing in the iPad Pro if you really prefer a tablet over a laptop.
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