Apple Unleashes Enormous iPad Pro with Apple Pencil Stylus

Daniel Howley
·Technology Editor
Updated
image

Apple’s newest iPad has officially landed, and boy is it HUGE. Unveiled at Apple’s iPhone event on Wednesday, the iPad Pro is a 12.9-inch behemoth of an iPad geared primarily toward business professionals. Oh, and much to the chagrin of the late Steve Jobs, it comes with a stylus.

Tim Cook called it the biggest news in iPad since the iPad, and he wasn’t kidding. This thing is enormous, but Apple says it’s still only 0.27 inches thick compared with the 0.24-inch iPad Air 2.

Apple says the Pro’s screen is great for watching movies thanks to its 2,732 x 2,048 pixels. But it’s not just about great looking video, Apple’s Phil Schiller said the new multitasking features in iOS 9 were developed specifically with the iPad Pro in mind.

So you’ll be able to use two apps side by side at the same time on the iPad Pro, just like you would on a laptop. Apple also announced its new Smart Keyboard cover that connects to the Pro magnetically.

image

If that sounds familiar, it’s because Microsoft has been making keyboard covers that magnetically connect to its Surface tablet for quite some time. Though, Microsoft’s Surface keyboard also comes with a touchpad, the iPad Pro’s keyboard cover doesn’t.

Apple also debuted its new Apple Pencil stylus for the iPad Pro. Yes, despite Steve Jobs’s dislike for the stylus, Apple has added one to the iPad.

Unlike most styluses, though, the Apple Pencil has built in sensors that can detect when you press hard or lightly and will adjust your stroke accordingly. The Apple Pencil can also determine if you are writing on a slant and change the width of your stroke.

In a “stroke” of genius — get it? — Apple added a Lightning charger to the top of the Pencil that you can plug into the Pro to recharge.

image

To demonstrate the iPad Pro’s capabilities, Apple brought out a handful of developers, including Microsoft VP Kirk Koenigsbauer, to show how you can use the Apple Pencil, keyboard cover, and multitasking to turn the iPad Pro into a serious productivity tool.

Yes, hell has frozen over, a Microsoft executive was on stage at Apple’s big event.

To run multiple apps at once, Apple made the iPad Pro the most powerful iPad yet, packing it with an A9x processor, which the company says is nearly twice as fast as the iPad Air 2s chip. Apple claims the processor is actually 80 percent faster than most portable computers on the market.

Despite that, the Pro is said to get 10 hours of battery life.

Now the downside: the price. Starting at $800 with 32GB of storage, the iPad Pro isn’t exactly cheap. In fact, it’s just $100 less than the 11-inch MacBook Air, which can run full desktop programs and offers 128GB of storage.

The 128GB model iPad Pro, meanwhile, is $950, while the 128GB model with LTE connectivity is $1,080.

Then there are the accessories. The Apple Pencil costs a pricey $100, while the Apple Smart Keyboard costs $169.

image

How does that compare with Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3? Well, the base model of the Surface Pro 3, which has a slightly smaller 12-inch display, costs $799 and includes an Intel Core i3 processor and 64GB of storage. What’s more, it can run full desktop programs and includes a stylus. The keyboard cover, though, is more expensive at $130.

So will the iPad Pro be a surefire hit for Apple? We’ll have to wait until we can get our hands on it before we find out. Stay tuned.

Email Daniel at dhowley@yahoo-inc.com; follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley or on Google+.