Rumours were flying around for a while now regarding a new iPad to be launched alongside the iPhone 6S. Well, it seems as though the rumours were in fact, very true indeed. Apple, at the super mega launch event today, has announced one of the biggest tablets you will ever see. In all its huge 12.9-inches screen glory, the iPad Pro is finally here.
As Tim Cook stated:
iPad is the ultimate expression of our vision of the future of computing.
He starts off by talking about the enterprise push for the iPad. This according to Cook, is the biggest news for the iPad since the iPad. Cooks say that the iPad Pro is the most capable and powerful iPad Apple has ever created. It is chock full of amazing technologies and innovations.
Why make a bigger display? It’s a magical piece of glass that lets you touch the software. It can do things that a smartphone can’t do, because it doesn’t have to fit in your pocket, and it can do things a laptop can’t do because you can hold it all day.
Cook says.
The iPad Pro has a huge 12.9 inches screen with 5.6m pixels which is a more than a Retina MacBook Pro. The width of the iPad Pro is the same as the height of the iPad Air, so you won’t have any problems porting apps.
The device has an aluminium casing, thin bezels and curved edges, but that does nothing to take your eyes off the huge form factor of the tablet. The resolution of the massive 19.9-inches screen is 2,732 x 2,048 which is great as you get a lot more space with a better pixel density. To provide desktop class performance, the new iPad features an A9X chip, with 2x memory bandwidth and 2x storage performance. Apparently the A9X is 1.8x faster than the A8X seen in the iPad Air 2. For the gamers out there, you get 2x graphics performance, for “console-class” performance on the iPad Pro.
To takes things up the notch a little more, the new tablet is said to boast 10 hours of battery life. That’s quite impressive considering the power the device will draw seeing its huge screen and chipset. Another great thing about the iPad Pro is that it features four speaker. That’s right, a four-speaker audio system that balances stereo and frequencies depending on how you hold it. The device, at 6.9mm, is slightly thicker than the iPad Air 2 and weighs 1.57 pounds which is slightly heavier.
You also get an 8MP iSight rear camera, Touch ID, WiFi 802.11ac with MIMO and LTE support up to 150 Mbps.
Surprise again from the Cupertino ginat. We now get a physical keyboard dock which was already rumoured to be coming through in today’s launch. The keyboard can be connected to the iPad using a new connector on the side of the iPad Pro called the Smart Connecter which carries power and data to the keyboard. Also, the keys are made using “woven fabric” to get you all comfy.
Well, it’s not over yet. We also get a new stylus to couple with the iPad Pro, The stylus, dubbed the Apple Pencil, has been designed by reengineering the display. You get highly responsive sensors built into the tip of Apple Pencil to sense slight changes in pressure, tilt and stroke. To make things even better, you can use the Pencil and your fingers simultaneously.
The iPad Pro also comes with a new Notes app where you can draw and diagram directly with Apple Pencil. Microsoft Office (wait! what?) will also utilize the new tool to its full extent. The same holds true with Adobe products too, who like Microsoft, also made an appearance at the launch event.
Apple is also launching a new app called 3D4Medical, a human anatomy based service.
The iPad Pro will be available in 3 variants: a 32GB WiFi version for $799, a 128GB WiFi model for $949 and a 128GB WiFi + Cellular Data variant for $1079. It also will be available in three colours: Space Gray, gold and silver. The Apple Pencil and the Docking keyboard are separate components you could choose to buy which stand at $99 and $169 respectively. All this will start rolling out in November.
