Review By Expert: Apple iPad Pro 12.9-inch Review

Review By Expert: Apple iPad Pro 12.9-Inch Review Apple iPad Pro 12.9-Inch: 

Review By Expert: Apple iPad Pro 12.9-inch Review

The fastest iPad in history. The 12.9-inch iPad Pro is at the center of a battle at Apple headquarters. It's not a literal battle. I'm not talking about Jony Ive in a chain dimension tabard that pricks a sharp pike in Tim Cook (though that's an image I'm going to have a hard time getting out of my head). No, I'm talking about the fight for the future of mobile computing. More specifically, the battle between iPad and MacBook.

Now in its third generation, the 2018 12.9in iPad Pro is a device that is powerful enough and able to accept traditional laptops like MacBook Air and MacBook 12Book in its own game. Soon you'll be able to run full Photoshop, it's fast enough to keep up, and it's very proficient in every conceivable area.

However, there are still some major obstacles to using an iPad Pro in a professional environment and, increasingly, those obstacles feel artificially imposed. It's as if Apple wanted the iPad to become a professional tool, but couldn't completely untie it.

Review By Expert: Apple iPad Pro: What You Need to Know:
I will refer to what those impediments are later in this review. For now, however, we are going to take the big details out of the way.

This is the latest version of the Apple Pro 12.9in iPad Pro. It's the tablet that Apple says it wants you to replace your laptop. It's best to use it along with the additional keyboard and the Apple Pencil, which are "optional" extras that must be purchased separately.

And this model marks the biggest iPad Pro redesign yet. Not only has Apple improved performance in 2018, as it does annually, it has also radically redesigned the design. These changes include removing the Touch ID sensor (replacing it with Face ID as in the last iPhones), thinning the beveled frame, trimming the edges of the tablet, and redesigning the keyboard box and Apple Pencil.

Review By Expert: IPad Pro: Price and Competition:
It is also much more expensive, following the rather unfortunate trend of rising prices for almost all technology-related products. The basic 12.9 inch iPad Pro with 64 GB of storage will cost you €969, the new Smart Keyboard Folio costs €199 and the second generation Apple Pencil costs €119.

Totea all that and you will have to pay 1,287€ for your new 12.9 inch iPad Pro. Alternatively, if you want premium Wi-Fi and iPad Pro cell phone with 1TB of storage and all the accessories, you'll pay €2,187. Wow, that's a lot of money.

Suffice it to say that this brings iPad Pro 12.9in into direct competition with 2 in 1 detachable laptops like Microsoft Surface Pro 6 and Google Pixel Slate. In fact, the new iPad Pro beats both rivals in price, although it comes with half the storage.

Review By Expert: Apple iPad Pro: Design And Features:
Apple has certainly improved its game when it comes to design. Not only is this new iPad Pro more attractive and modern to the eye, with its square edges, rounded corners, and edge-to-edge screen, Apple has also made changes that improve the functionality of the design as a whole.

The keyboard box, for example, is now a front and back folio design, so even though it's more expensive than before, you get full protection for your iPad Pro from the start. The keyboard box now also has two positions, instead of the one you have on the first iPad. One is as steep as the previous one, and another is a little more relaxed, making iPad Pro much more comfortable to use on your lap. This arrangement doesn't yet achieve the flexibility of the infinitely adjustable foot stand on Surface Pro 6, but for my money, iPad Pro feels more stable when it's perched on your thighs.

Another obvious improvement Apple had to make over the previous iPad Pro was the loading and storing of the Apple pen and has been inspired by Microsoft Surface devices. Instead of clumsily having to remove a cover that can easily be lost from the end of the pen and plug it into the tablet port to recharge the battery, the new Apple pen magnetically attaches itself to the top edge and charges wirelessly. This has not been fully implemented to perfection; if you place the pen to the left or right of the center, it will stick but not charge, but it is much, much more convenient.

A hidden consequence of the new shape and design is that the three contacts that connect the tablet to the keyboard are no longer at the bottom edge, but at the back of the tablet. This means you won't be able to save money and use the new iPad Pro with its old smart keyboard. Owners of the first or second generation iPad Pro may also be surprised to discover that their old Apple Pencil won't be compatible either.

In short, if you bought an iPad Pro from the previous generation and you're upgrading, you'll have to buy the batch back. That, if not entirely surprising, is still a bit disappointing, especially since the two accessories cost a total of 319€ not inconsequential.

Review By Expert: Second Generation Apple Pencil:
Still, at least you get an upgrade if you decide to add the second-generation Apple Pencil to your basket when you purchase your new iPad Pro and Smart Keyboard Folio. And, apart from wireless charging and being able to stick it to the top edge of the tablet when it's not in use, it's been completely redesigned.

Now it's shorter, flattened along one side and finished in a soft, matte coating, which in my opinion makes it more comfortable to hold and use. The nib also has a slightly softer feel, which makes it more like using a pencil and paper than ever before. Apple has also added tactile sensitivity to the barrel, allowing it to take several shortcuts with a light double touch.

By default, this double-tap gesture switches between the current tool and the eraser, although it's possible to customize it to some extent. You can switch between the current tool and the last tool used, for example, or use it to display the color palette.

Review By Expert: Apple iPad Pro: USB Type-C:
To give Apple some credit, there's a good reason it's not compatible with the first-generation pen, and that's because the iPad no longer has the Lightning port needed to charge it.

On the other hand, possibly the most significant change for the iPad since the first time the iPad was produced, its main connector is no longer proprietary but based on standards. All USB Type-C hail.

Except that it is not really what you would expect from a device connected to USB Tipo-C. On a laptop with Windows 10 or macOS, a USB Type C connection would allow you to connect all kinds of devices: monitors, printers, calibrators, storage devices; here, in a typical Apple revisionism episode, the USB Type-C is much more restrictive.

There's some good news: now you can use a charger to recharge your laptop, tablet and phone. In addition, you can attach any old Type-C SD card reader and import photos and videos from your DSLR. You no longer have to spend a small fortune on a bunch of Apple adapters and connectors, which has to be a good thing.

What you can't do is anything else you expect to be able to do with USB Type-C. Not yet, at least. Want to connect a second monitor? That kind of work works, but by default, connecting iPad Pro to a USB Type-C monitor will only reflect the screen. Until Apple adds support for signaling devices to iOS, you won't be able to do much more with it. iMovie is set up to preview the monitor a second time, but you'll never be able to do more than view the content because you can't manipulate what's on the screen without a mouse or touchpad.

The USB Type-C port on iPad Pro 12.9in also doesn't support mass storage. It's not the right thing to do anyway. Want to plug in a hard drive or USB drive and transfer files back and forth? You're out of luck. The only external storage medium comes in the form of importing photos into the Camera Roll. You can't even import photos directly into applications like Lightroom; instead, you must import them into Camera Roll and from there into Lightroom. It's a bit faff

Even the compatibility with USB headphones seems to be a little inconsistent. Although all the cheap USB Tipo-C headphones I plugged in worked well, a 3.5mm third party USB Tipo-C headphone adapter didn't work. And, yes, you will need one if you want to connect traditional wired headphones. One of the other new "features" in this year's iPad Pro is that Apple removed the 3.5mm headphone jack. That's just bad.

Review By Expert: Apple iPad Pro: Performance, Display and Battery Life:
All this sounds like small complaints and, in fact, most papers are easy to overcome, all except for multiple monitor support, of course. But when you look at the raw power available to the iPad owner today, it's funny that Apple hasn't made much progress in these areas.

With Apple's new Bionic A12X chip inside, along with 6 GB of RAM, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro (2018) is simply incredibly powerful. Just take a look at the reference graphics below. In Geekbench and GFXBench, not only is it faster than last year's iPad Pro, but it's also faster than the eighth-generation Intel Core i5-based Microsoft Surface Pro 6 we reviewed a month ago. That's pretty impressive.

If that wasn't impressive enough, remember that this is a tablet that can offer you more than ten hours of continuous offline video playback, which lasts 25% longer than the Core i5 Microsoft Surface Pro 6 in the equivalent test. It can't match the iPad Pro 2017 Endurance or the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 based on Android, but more than ten hours in this test is better than most Windows laptops can handle.

Last but not least, the screen is excellent. Apple still uses IPS technology here and has not yet moved to AMOLED for their iPads, but it is excellent as always.

It is super sharp, with a resolution of 2.732 x 2.048 (for a pixel density of 264ppi), the tactile responsiveness is as good as possible and the image quality is absolutely flawless. Maximum brightness reaches 629cd/m², contrast impacts 1.529: 1 and sRGB coverage is 90.9%. This is a wonderful screen for any size.

Review By Expert: Apple iPad Pro: Cameras, Speakers and Microphones:
So far, I've covered the great leading artists: the things that really make the difference between this year's iPad Pro and last year's iPad Pro. But there's also a whole stretch of smaller improvements that take it to another level.

Things like the improved audio from the redesigned four-speaker loudspeaker and the best audio capture from its new five-microphone configuration (the last iPad had "only" three). There's also Smart HDR for the iPad's 12-megapixel camera, although I still think you're a little crazy if you use it as your main snapper, and also with 4G Gigabit class and eSIM support for the mobile version of the iPad Pro.

Review By Expert: Conclusion:
Everywhere, on the specification sheet of the 2018 iPad Pro, in fact, there is a minor or major update, which adds up to a big step forward for the iPad Pro as a whole. It's super fast and incredibly well done. It is better in almost every possible way than the previous model and even outperforms Intel-based Windows 2 in 1 tablets for its performance.

The problem I have with this iPad Pro is the same as with previous models. Although now as expensive as a full-featured and equally fast laptop, it's simply not flexible enough to justify the cost, if not more, than its Windows and MacOS equivalents.

There is still no adequate support for multiple monitors or signaling devices. Still, you can't always easily transfer files from one application to another without having to think a lot about what you're doing first. And, despite the introduction of USB Type-C, mass storage support remains limited.

Until Apple removes those obstacles, iPad Pro will remain a tool that only a few people can use professionally. For such a magnificent and capable piece of hardware, it's a real shame.