GADGET
GIZMO REVIEW 9.7" iPad Pro Review: It's Two Tablets In One
If you want a meaningfully improved 9.7"
iPad or a smaller, lighter version of last year's great big iPad Pro, this
tablet has your number.
For months, the Apple
rumor mill predicted that the company was going to unveil the iPad Air 3, a 9.7" tablet with a variety of hardware improvements and
support for the Pencil stylus and Smart Keyboard.
And then the scuttlebutt
took a new turn. The new theory was that the company's new tablet would be a
smaller version of its iPad Pro. It would be . . . a 9.7" tablet with a variety of hardware
improvements and supports for the Pencil stylus and Smart Keyboard. That,
indeed, was the device that the company unveiled at its media event in March.
The
9.7" iPad Pro is now shipping. It's available in four colors—space gray,
silver, gold, and rose gold—and with storage options ranging from 32 GB ($599)
to 256 GB ($1,029). Versions with LTE wireless broadband as well as Wi-Fi cost
an additional $129.
Like
the 12.9" iPad Pro, the new model is compatible with Apple's $99 Pencil
pressure-sensitive stylus. Apple also offers a Smart Keyboard cover, with
built-in physical keyboard, for $149.
On one level, it may
seem silly to obsess over the distinction between the two iPads that were rumor
fodder in the run-up to the launch. They differed only in model name. Big
whoop!
But when you think about
it, the fact that a device with a single set of specs and capabilities could be
interpreted as either a successor to the iPad Air 2 or a smaller version of the
12.9" iPad Pro is actually a
telling point. To appeal to as many prospective buyers as possible, the new
iPad has to appeal to two constituencies: people who might be induced to
upgrade from previous 9.7" iPads, and power users of the sort that the
12.9" model already addresses.
And so it makes sense
for a reviewer like me to write not one review, but two.
For eight quarters now,
sales of the iPad—which once seemed to be an iPhone-like phenom—have dropped. When analysts have asked Apple CEO Tim Cook about the plunge
during financial calls, he's explained it by saying that consumers like the
iPads they own just fine—so much, in fact, that they don't see a burning need
to buy a new iPad.
If you were going to
build an iPad expressly designed to convince such folks to upgrade, you'd want
to revise the hardware in ways that went beyond the hardly noticeable
improvements that are often the norm when version 2 of something gives way to
version 3. Ideally, you wouldn't just give it a faster processor and a sharper
screen and a few more megapixels of camera resolution; you'd also add some
capabilities that are all-new.
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That's the 9.7"
iPad Pro in a nutshell. Apple was so serious about making it more capable than
its 9.7" ancestors that it skipped its usual effort to shave off weight
and thickness. In nearly every respect, the design philosophy at work involves
packing as much power and versatility as possible into a device that, at first
glance, you might mistake for an iPad Air 2.
Some of the 9.7"
iPad Pro's enhancements are ones of the sort that Apple makes pretty much every
time it updates a device. The new tablet sports an A9X processor that, Apple
says, is up to 1.8 times faster than the A8X inside the iPad Air 2. As usual,
that's less about correcting a deficiency with the previous model—the Air 2 sure
doesn't feel like a laggard—than it is about giving the most demanding apps,
such as games and video editors, as much computational oomph as possible. By
raising the computing-muscle bar with each new generation of iPad, Apple also
encourages all categories of apps to grow more sophisticated over time.
Apple implemented
several improvements to the tablet's display; none of them are individually
transcendent, but they add up to the best screen an iPad has ever had, by a big
enough margin to care about. The 25% increase in brightness over the iPad Air 2
is very noticeable—when I tested it by cranking it up to 100% in a room with
typical lighting, it was like aiming a spotlight into my eyes—and a boon if you
use the tablet outdoors, where sunlight can bleach out dimmer screens. The
color gamut is also wider, making for more saturated photographs.
Then there's True Tone, an all-new technology that uses light sensors embedded in the
tablet's bezel to measure ambient lighting and adjusts the display to maintain
consistent colors in a variety of environments. It's especially apparent in
apps with a lot of white space, such as e-book readers and word processors.
They look more soothingly paper-like and less like they're made up of glowing
pixels trying to approximate the look of ink on dead trees.
As part of Apple's
"let's give people every possible reason to buy this iPad" strategy,
it's not only bumped up the quality of the tablet's cameras, but brought them
all the way to parity with the iPhone 6s. The new iPad Pro has the same sensors
as the 6s, front and back, and the same bump on the back. It's also the first
iPad with multiple picture-improving technologies that first appeared on
iPhones, such as the True Tone dual-LED flash, 4K video capture, Live Photos
mini-videos, autofocus with focus pixels, and ability to produce a burst of
light from the display to serve as a flash for front-camera selfies. That's a
big shift from earlier iPad cameras, which have never aspired to be anything
other than adequate.
Here's a comparison of
the new iPad Pro camera (left) and the iPhone 6s Plus camera—the latter has
optical stabilization, which the iPad lacks, but for typical photos taken in
daylight, the quality seemed indistinguishable to me.
And here's the 9.7"
iPad Pro (left) handling a difficult nighttime photo way better than the murky,
blurry results from the 12.9" model's camera.
Now, the churls who have long mocked those who take photos with iPads might argue that the new iPad Pro has
better cameras than it actually deserves. I'm already on the record as
believing that it's silly to be annoyed when other people use their
tablets as cameras. But the biggest
argument for giving an iPad an excellent camera isn't so you can use it in
situations where a smartphone would be more practical. It's because there are
also tablet-friendly applications that benefit from the ability to snap a
high-quality photo.
For instance, I like to
sell items on eBay using the auction site's iPad app. With the new iPad Pro, I
could take excellent pictures of my goods without futzing with a second device.
The
Pencil stylus instantly renders every third-party iPad stylus obsolete.
The new iPad Pro's audio
system—another aspect of the tablet that Apple has tended to neglect until
recently—features the same four-speaker design as the larger iPad Pro. Higher
frequencies always get pumped out of the uppermost speakers, whether you're
holding the tablet in landscape or portrait orientation, and you can crank up
the volume for music, movies, and games without the sound devolving altogether
into a tinny, distorted mess. For a tablet, that's impressive.
So much for the iPad Pro
improvements, which are about improving the experience by upping the tablet's
basic specs. With the Pencil and Smart Keyboard—two accessories that are
extra-cost options, but tremendously significant ones—Apple aims to encourage
people to use this iPad as a tool for creativity and productivity.
The highest compliment
you can pay Apple's $99 pressure-sensitive Pencil stylus is that it instantly
renders every third-party iPad stylus obsolete, with the possible exception of
the sort that are so cheap that you can treat them as carelessly as if they
were meant to be disposable. It's a pleasure to hold and wonderfully precise,
and just about all of the apps that should support it—ones for painting,
drawing, and note-taking—already do. If you're an artistic type and own an
earlier iPad, the upgrade to the 9.7" iPad Pro is going to be severely
tempting based on the Pencil alone.
Apple's Pencil is as pleasing a digital art implement
as you'll find.
Not that the Pencil is
perfect: Unlike Microsoft's pen for its Surface tablet, which runs for a year
on an AAAA battery, it needs to be recharged after a dozen hours or so of use,
either with a USB adapter or by plugging it into the iPad's Lightning port. I
also wish that Apple gave some consideration to making it easier to transport
the Pencil along with an iPad, in part because its tip tends to pop off if I
just shove it in my pocket. But when you're sitting and sketching—boy, the
Pencil is a thrill.
Unlike all third-party
keyboards for previous 9.7" iPads, Apple's $149 Smart Keyboard—which owes
a major debt to Microsoft's Surface Type Cover—doesn't require Bluetooth or a battery of its
own. You snap it into the iPad Pro's magnetic Smart Connector, fold the cover
to prop up the tablet, and the iPad Pro becomes a mini-laptop. It's much
thinner and lighter than any of the endless supply of existing iPad keyboard
cases out there, all of which turn your sleek tablet into a much chunkier
package. And when you want to use your tablet like a tablet, you can just fold
the Smart Keyboard back.
Design-wise, this Smart
Keyboard is a scaled-down version of the one for the larger iPad Pro, with
low-profile fabric-covered keys that don't try to precisely replicate the feel
of a laptop keyboard. As a longtime user of iPad keyboards, I long ago trained my fingers to deal with
iPad-sized keyboards; after a few months with the 12.9" iPad Pro, I've
also forgotten that there's anything unusual about Apple's fabric keys.
Persnickety touch typists may have more trouble acclimating themselves. Then
again, they won't be thrilled with any other keyboard tailored for a 9.7"
tablet.
Unlike a bunch of
cheaper third-party iPad keyboards, the Smart Keyboard doesn't have backlit
keys, a row of keys for functions such as adjusting volume control, or the
ability to position the screen at more than one angle. But my biggest concern
involves build quality. On both of the two units I've used with the 12.9"
iPad Pro, the A, S, and D keycap legends wore away almost completely within
weeks. (In a week and a half of lighter use of the 9.7" version, I haven't
noticed a similar problem.)
Also on the productivity
front, this is only the second 9.7" iPad, after the iPad Air 2, to fully
support iOS 9 multitasking by letting you plunk two apps on-screen at once in Split View mode. If you're the type who cares about stuff like using an external
keyboard, this makes the whole notion of using a tablet as a laptop substitute
a whole lot more plausible.
People
who really want a new Windows PC should buy one.
The more professional,
less casual positioning of the 9.7" iPad Pro is also reflected in its
pricing, which commands the sort of premium you'll be more likely to pay if you
see the device as a useful tool, and maybe even a primary computing device.
Apple had been selling the iPad Air 2 at a starting price of $499; for the new
iPad Pro, it bumped that up to $599. Add a Pencil and a Smart Keyboard, and
you'll pay $847. A top-of-the-line rig—256 GB of storage, cellular
connectivity, Pencil, Smart Keyboard—will run you $1,277, which is MacBook Pro
territory.
Meanwhile, the company
knocked the base version of the iPad Air 2 down to $399. That newly thrifty
model might be all the iPad you need if you still see the device solely as a
handy tool for watching videos, browsing the web, and performing other tasks
that are not terribly taxing.
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Overall, though, the
9.7" iPad Pro is exactly the sort of new iPad that Apple needed to offer.
Much more than the iPad Air 2, it's a big enough advance on the models of a few
years ago to justify an upgrade for many people—and potent enough that it
should keep them happy for years to come.
The new iPad Pro is
nearly the same device as its 12.9" predecessor—with the Smart Keyboard,
Pencil, and general emphasis on ambitious productivity and creativity—but in a
more portable size and with a lower starting price. Simple, right?
That's most of what you
need to know if you're intrigued by the iPad Pro proposition and are
considering both versions of the tablet. But not quite.
Just as you'd expect,
the new iPad Pro's size strikes a nice compromise. It's much roomier than an
iPad Mini, but still sized nicely for reading in bed, toting on the subway, and
other scenarios where the 12.9" iPad Pro's additional bulk make it a bit
of a handful. After having used the 12.9" model for a few months, I'd
mostly forgotten that it weighs more than 50% more than a 9.7" iPad;
trying its smaller sibling instantly made me notice the larger model's extra
poundage all over again.
In a way, Apple's Smart
Keyboard makes more sense when sized for the 9.7" iPad Pro than it did
with the larger model. If you opt for the smaller iPad, you presumably care
about portability, and the Smart Keyboard is the thinnest, lightest keyboard
accessory that anyone's ever made for an iPad—in part because it doesn't
require its own battery, and in part because it has low-profile, fabric-covered
keys rather than more conventional, laptop-esque ones. The price remains stiff,
but at $149, it's 20 bucks less than the 12.9" variant.
As for the Pencil, it
provides the same delightful drawing and note-taking experience on the
9.7" iPad Pro as it does on the larger one. With a tablet of either size,
it's a key argument in favor of the iPad Pro line.
On the specs front, the
9.7" iPad Pro is not a carbon copy of the 12.9" model. Nor has it
simply been stripped down to hit a lower price point. Most of the news is good:
The screen's new True Tone technology, improved brightness, and wider color
gamut make it meaningfully easier on the eyes than the larger model's display,
and its cameras are much better. Starting now, these display and camera
upgrades become obvious items on any wish list for a 12.9" iPad Pro 2.
Like the 12.9" iPad
Pro, the new one sports Apple's A9X chip, the most potent processor in any iOS
device. It's a slightly slower version, but it may be a wash given that the
9.7" iPad Pro's screen has fewer pixels, and therefore doesn't require
quite as much raw processing power.
Apple gave the new iPad
Pro 2GB of RAM, which is half the generous 4 GB allotment of the 12.9"
version. I didn't detect any performance hit when I performed garden-variety
tasks. But if you push a tablet to its limits, 4 GB definitely beats 2 GB. For
instance, the 9.7" iPad Pro ran out of memory and started to reload Safari
browser tabs once I'd loaded the FastComany.com home page 15 times. The
12.9" Pro only did so once I'd loaded the site 36 times, which is the
maximum quantity of tabs Safari permits.
The 9.7" iPad Pro
has more than enough muscle to handle Split View multitasking, one of the most
important productivity features Apple has ever added to iOS. And because the
screen resolution hasn't changed from the iPad Air 2, some apps that are still
a bit unsightly on the 12.9" iPad Pro—because they haven't been rejiggered
for the bigger screen—look just fine at 9.7".
During its launch event,
Apple pitched the 9.7" iPad Pro as a smart replacement for
an aging Windows PC. People who really want
a new Windows PC should buy one, I say; the iPad is just plain different,
and requires significant adjustment of habits and the learning of new software.
But its truly touch-optimized interface and profusion of modern apps make for
an experience that points the way to the future of computing more clearly than
Windows devices, such as Microsoft's Surface. (I've used various iPads as
primary computing devices for almost five years myself, and consider it among
the happiest moves I've ever made as a user of technology products.)
Despite Apple's
positioning of the this model, the 12.9" incarnation of the iPad Pro is
the more logical choice for hardcore productivity of the sort you might
otherwise tackle on a Windows PC (or, for that matter, a Mac). Once you've
planted yourself in one place, its large screen and roomy keyboard both make it
easier to accomplish ambitious tasks without squinting or scrolling. For
instance, when I stick the Spark email client on the right-hand side of the
screen, I can see 12 messages in my inbox on the 12.9" iPad Pro and only 9
on the 9.7" version. In full-screen mode, Apple's own Numbers spreadsheet
defaults to 32 rows of 10 columns on the 12.9" model and 22 rows of 8
columns on the 9.7" one. Tasks ranging from composing documents in Word to
painting in ProCreate benefit from the original iPad Pro's additional real
estate.
Price tag aside, I think
many people in a PC-replacing mindset would be happier with the 12.9" iPad
Pro than the 9.7" version. And the difference in cost isn't that dramatic:
an 9.7" iPad Pro is only $200 less than the equivalent 12.9" model,
or $220 less if you also spring for a Smart Keyboard. So my advice to anyone
who really craves the larger screen but is on a budget is pretty simple: Hold
off making a purchase until you're comfortable buying the big-boy iPad Pro.
That still leaves plenty
of folks who would prefer to sacrifice screen space in favor of a size and
weight that encourage them to take their tablet anywhere and everywhere. The
9.7" iPad Pro is that sort of tablet—and the fact that it lives up to its
"Pro" moniker in so many ways makes the decision to go small rather
than big that much easier.
HARRY MCCRACKEN
http://www.fastcompany.com/3058302/most-innovative-companies-2015/97-ipad-pro-review?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fast-company-daily-newsletter&position=2&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=04062016
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