GADGET GIZMO REVIEW - Apple iPad Pro

GADGET GIZMO REVIEW - Apple iPad Pro





A tablet can be many things to many people. It can be used by different people in the household. It can be used in the kitchen, in the living room, for multimedia, gaming, internet and even a bit of work. But can it ever replace your laptop? That's a question that Apple is trying to answer with the Pro. Most of the hybrid devices and `work' tablets run a computer class operating system (like full Windows).The iPad Pro is -for all practical purposes -a really large iPad that runs iOS. This means that there are now three different iPad lines to choose from. The iPad Mini, which has a 7.9inch display (starts at about 300 grams), the iPad Air 2 with a 9.7-inch display (437 grams) and now the iPad Pro with a 12.9-inch display (713 grams).

THE SIZE

The first thing you have to get to grips with is the size. The iPad Pro is really large and has to be used with two hands (or propped up on a table or your lap). The 12.9-inch screen is almost the same size used in many laptops today.Despite this, the device itself is incredibly thin (6.9mm throughout) and well balanced. The weight is not much on its own but if you add a silicon back cover and the keyboard case, the weight will go over the 1 kg mark.

THE SCREEN

The Pro screen is fantastic. It's a pinsharp 2732 x 2048 pixels (264 pixels per inch) and offers high brightness, excellent colours, contrast and viewing angles. Just about everything comes to life on the screen. Movies are easier to watch, even with the device on a table. Games that seem like nothing special on an iPhone take on a completely new dimension. You can suddenly see so much more of a webpage or more of a magazine. And the apps that take advantage of the extra space will wow you. Some of our favourites include Solar Walk, Planetary, Enlight, Hyper, Leo 's Fortune, Shadow matic, Breakneck, Lara Croft Go, Real Racing 3, Monument Valley and Infuse.

THE PERFORMANCE

The Pro has Apple's latest A9X 64-bit chip with 4GB of RAM. There's no doubt that this is a powerful iPad but it can also put many a laptop to shame when it comes to benchmarks. If the iPhone 6 and 6S set the benchmark for performance in phones, the iPad Pro does it for the tablets. The extra performance on tap just makes the more intensive apps come alive. For instance, you can edit 4k videos quite easily (even with multiple 4k video streams). Special mention must go to the four speakers on the Pro, each with their own sound guide. They're really loud (louder than any laptop) and autoadjust according to orientation. You can also have two apps side-by-side and adjust their sizes on the fly.

THE ACCESSORIES

To go along with the Pro, Apple has a couple of first-party accessories: the Apple Pencil & Smart Keyboard. The Pencil ( ` 8600) is essentially a Bluetooth stylus that works only with the iPad Pro. It has a battery and pairs charges when you plug it into the Lightning port. The Pencil is pressure sensitive and also detects tilt (great for shading). It works with a bunch of difference drawing apps and more are getting added. We found it to be a great experience: it feels a lot like the real thing and latency (lag) is negligible. Apple also provides a tiny adapter for the Pencil so that you can charge it with any Lightning cable. This is probably what you should use because having the large Pencil stick out the iPad Pro is just silly. Anyhow, the battery life is quite long.

A couple of issues we had with the Pencil: it's a bit too smooth and slippery (which might be a problem if you intend to use it for a long stretch) and there's nowhere to store it. Some other devices which use a stylus (like Galaxy Note) have a stylus slot. Yet others like Microsoft's surface have a stylus that magnetically attaches for storage.

Next up, the Smart Keyboard case (`14,900) -it looks like the usual folding case, but it hides a full size keyboard inside. It attaches magnetically and three tiny metal contacts of the side of the Pro provide the power and connection for the keyboard. There's no pairing required and it works instantly. They've worked incredibly hard to keep the entire keyboard at just 3.2mm thick. However, this also means the keys don't have too much of travel -it's not a very satisfying click like on a conventional laptop keyboard. That being said, it will get you typing a lot faster as compared to the on-screen keyboard. Each key is moulded from a special water and stain resistant fabric that provides both the tactile response and spring back -there are no gaps in between the keys. Needless to say, other Bluetooth keyboards still work with the iPad Pro -the case just offers the convenience of having it built in. We wish it had a trackpad too!

IN CONCLUSION

The Pro is a lot more expensive than other iPads. What you get in return is a larger screen, more performance, similar battery life (roughly 8 to 10 hours) and the ability to use some exclusive but separately sold (and expensive) accessories. Once you get past this, you'll see that for some scenarios, the iPad Pro is an ideal device: for instance, it's a natural fit for designers & illustrators on the move. It's cheaper than something like the Wacom Cintiq 13HD Touch and can do a lot more. It can replace a laptop if all you want is document editing, web and multimedia. And it's great as a family tablet because multiple people can use it simultaneously . The question is, can you buy this one device instead of a tablet and a laptop? We think not. It's too unwieldy as a tablet and too expensive compared to mainstream laptops. But it's still an amazing iPad -one that has relegated all our other iPads to the bottom drawer of our cupboard.

Hitesh Bhagat

ET30DEC15