The New iPad Pro: Relevating, Revolutionary, Mesmerizing

Jul 14th 2017

So, as you know, Apple has recently announced upgrades for both its 9.5 inch iPad Pro released last year and the 12.9 inch iPad Pro released back in 2015. Both the tablets have received substantial upgrades, and when we mean substantial, we mean A LOT! The upgrades have come in different sectors ranging starting from the cameras to the performance to the battery life of the tablets. In terms of performance, the upgrades were so much so that the tablets have literally evolved themselves to offer services that go toe-to-toe with full-fledged laptops. At the first look, both the iPads look incredible, but in depth, many might feel that the smaller version is better, why? Let’s find out!

Design:

The new iPad Pro has been designed after the 2017 smartphone trend- compact. Both the iPad Pros, albeit with larger screen size, are more compact than their predecessors. The real mind-boggler here is offered by the 10.5 inch iPad Pro, it offers 20% more screen size than its predecessor but has virtually the same footprint and almost the same weight. Another nice bonus for the 10.5 inch iPad Pro is in the fact that due to its size increase, it can now capacitate a full sized keyboard like the 12.9 inch iPad Pro.

Dimensions:

iPad Pro 10.5 (2017) - 250.6 x 174.1 x 6.1mm (9.87 x 6.85 x 0.24 inches) and 469 / 477g (1.034 / 1.05lbs) for cellular/non-cellular

iPad Pro 12.9 (2017) - 305.7 x 220.6 x 6.9 mm (12.04 x 8.69 x 0.27 inches) and 677 / 692g (1.49 / 1.53 lbs) for cellular/non-cellular


Remember the quad array speakers that came with the larger iPad Pro but was not featured in the smaller version? Well, both the 10.5 inch & 12.9 inch iPad Pros offer quad array speakers offering loud and clear music. Apple has not experimented with chassis and have stuck to the familiar aluminum chassis for the new iPads. The next line will come as a surprise to many of you- so both the new iPads feature your standard 3.5mm headphone jacks!!! Yeap! Those headphones you were about to throw away- keep em, they will come in handy if you are planning to buy the new iPad Pro. With the iPad Pro, Apple has stuck old school and thus, unsurprisingly, the connector of choice is still lightning instead of the new USB-C. The iPad Pro comes in three colors of Space Gray, Gold and Silver. 

In terms of size, both the iPad Pros are larger, obviously. But keeping most things in mind, we feel that a lot of you might prefer the smaller version over the larger one- although, the larger one is great to watch movies and any kind of videos- the smaller one; however, is more compact and consequentially, a tad bit more fun to use.

Display:

Another aspect of the new iPad Pro that has received substantial improvement is its display feature- most of you may already know that the new iPhone 8 may switch from an LCD display to an OLED display. While that was expected from the new iPads as well, they haven’t done that but it has certainly raised our expectations from LCD screens. The key feature that has allowed this transformation to occur is the higher refresh rate of 120Hz which is double that of standard LCDs. The refresh rate is dynamic as well, so it tunes up when you are watching movies, playing games or surfing the web and tones down when you are watching static images, writing messages or emails or just going through an app.

The brightness level is also top notch with a peak of 600 nits which is extremely good! The display is also equipped with ‘true tone’ technology which allows it to Produce better output of colors, making the overall viewing experience much more vivid and pleasing. Additionally, Apple claims that their anti-reflective and oleophobic coating, which is equipped on the display of both the iPads is the best in the market offering only 1.8% of reflectivity meaning that it will be great to use outdoors or under bright lights

As far as the displays are concerned, both the iPads have the same features except for the obvious fact that the 12.9inch has a larger display size which makes any kind of video viewing experience better, but again, if videos alone are not your priorities, you may be happy with the 10.5inch iPad Pro.

Performance- Faster than a SuperCar!

The new iPad Pros are the fastest IOS device released till date. The company claims that the new A10X Fusion chip offers 30% faster CPU performance and 40% faster GPU performance when compared to the previous generation. In fact, the 64-bit powerful A10X Fusion chip is so good that it can outperform most PC laptops in the market today, you can effortlessly edit 4K videos and render 3D images. Out of the box, the device will run on iOS 10, but the device itself was built with the iOS 11 in mind- the iOS 11- as you may already know have several iPad specific upgrades which it can be upgraded to during the fall. Both the iPads feature 4GB worth of RAMs and internal memory options range in 64/256/512 GB editions instead of the previous 32/128/256GB setting, which is great but with an effect on price and like always, there’s no card slot.

The 10X Fusion Chip combined with the RAM matched with iOS 11 is when the tablet is supposed to reach its full potential and when it does in this fall, it’s supposed to outperform all other tablets in the market by a long shot.

Point to be noted- This is another aspect where the 10.5-inch model and the 12.9-inch model share no differences.

The Cameras

The cameras of the iPad Pro have received significant upgrades in the new version, taking a huge leap ahead of the iPhone 5S sensor used in the original iPad Pros- the new iPad Pro cameras are inspired from the iPhone 7. Thus, the average 8MP f/2.4 aperture camera has stepped up to become a flamboyant 12MP f/1.8 aperture camera with added Optical image stabilization technology combined with true tone flash- making photos look pristine, mobile and night time shooting much easier and of higher quality. Additionally, you can also record 4K videos with the new iPad Pro and shoot slow motion videos for 1080p at 120fps and 720p at 240fps.

 The front-facing camera is a 7MP f/2.2 aperture camera which is perfectly good for taking selfies and use the good ol’ Facetime. The previous versions of the iPads were not known for their photo taking capabilities but this one can surely make a name for itself in that sector.

Battery Life

One significant aspect that almost all iPads are known for is their mesmerizing battery life. The new iPad Pros feature a Lithium-Ion battery (41Wh) and the battery life sits prettily at 10hours like every other iPad. On cellular; however, the battery life may drop to 9 hours.

Pricing:

As previously stated, the iPad Pros feature larger internal storage capacities which has an effect on its pricing too, for example, the 64 and 256GB iPad Pro 10.5 is $50 more costly than the 64GB and 128GB iPad Pro 9.7 while the difference rises to $150 for the 256GB versions.

Here’s a full break down of the price ranges:

Final Word:

If you are a tablet-philic person- you might find the new iPad Pros to be the best thing that you can get your hands on. Undoubtedly, there’s no other tab in the market that can even come close to beating the iPad Pro. But if you compare both the tablets, you have to admit that apart from the larger 2732x2048 pixel resolution of the iPad Pro, there is really nothing to differentiate between the two tablets. If you are the sort of person who prefers a large screen and tend to use your tablet only to watch and edit videos, you may opt for the 12.9inch iPad Pro and really, there’s nothing wrong with it. But if you are seeking for performance and doing work that does not really involve videos, you can be truly satisfied with the 10.5 inch version.