Apple has announced the iPad Pro at today's Apple event. Specs: 12.9" 2732x2048 display A9X SoC, up to 1.8x CPU and 2x GPU performance over the iPad Air 2's A8X Runs iOS 9 4 stereo speakers, one in each corner It seems that Apple is confident in the speed of the iPad Pro. That's nice, although I expect a lot of that 80% to consist of cheap laptops with Pentiums and Celerons. The two new accessories for the iPad Pro are a cover with a built-in full-size keyboard, and a stylus called the Apple Pencil. The stylus has pixel-level precision and can sense both force and angle. The capacity and price options are strange. There aren't many of them compared to the iPad Air 2. 32 GB Wi-Fi: $799 128 GB Wi-Fi: $949 128 GB Wi-Fi + LTE: $1079 Yep, that's all of them. If you wanted 64 GB (like me) or a cheaper LTE model, you're out of luck. The stylus and cover are sold separately and cost $99 and $169 respectively. I am definitely interested in the iPad Pro. The large display is comparable in size to a sheet of paper minus the margins, so I should be able to read PDFs at full size or almost full size without having to zoom in. Also, the Pencil would allow me to make good notes and drawings. If Pencil marks can be erased and moved easily (on whatever note-taking software is available), then I think that I would enjoy using an iPad Pro as scratch paper due to its easier editing capabilities over a real pen(cil) and paper. The price seems rather high though, especially since if I were to buy one I wouldn't go for the 32 GB. Going into the holiday season, I expect the iPad Pro to be compared to the Surface 3 and the rumored Surface Pro 4 which is expected to be announced next month. The Surface Pro 3 gives double the capacity at the $799 price point but the iPad Pro has a slight price advantage at the 128 GB capacity. That may change with the Surface Pro 4 though. Code: iPad Surface $1299 Surface Pro 3 256 GB i5-4300U $1079 iPad Pro LTE 128 GB $ 999 Surface Pro 3 128 GB i5-4300U $ 949 iPad Pro 128 GB $ 799 iPad Pro 32 GB Surface Pro 3 64 GB i3-4020Y $ 699 iPad Air 2 128 GB $ 599 iPad Air 2 64 GB Surface 3 128 GB Atom $ 499 iPad Air 2 16 GB Surface 3 64 GB Atom I think that apps will make or break the iPad Pro. It has great hardware specs for a tablet and so the way to set it apart from the other iPads will be to deliver apps that take advantage of the larger display and stylus. Also, the full-size physical keyboard (the virtual keyboard is either full-size or very close to it) will make apps that use keyboard input more useful. The major difference between the iPad Pro and the Surface lineup (except for the Surface 1/2) is that the former uses a mobile OS while the latter uses a more capable desktop OS. I hope that the apps that are made for the iPad Pro give it both the perception and reality of a product that is designed for a level of productivity and capability beyond that of the other iPads (since faster CPU and GPU alone aren't going to do it). On a related note, I suspect the price point alone will dissuade those who want a tablet just for web browsing or casual gaming from buying it. Sources: AnandTech, AnandTech, ArsTechnica, The Wall Street Journal, Wikipedia.
It says a full charge lasts 12 hours for the pencil. It doesn't seem hard to simply plug it back in when you aren't using it to keep a long charge. A really minor inconvenience. What I'm not exactly liking is 100$ to replace something that seems easy to lose. Besides, it can't play empires while the surface can. Though if I simply wanted something for art the ipad does sound a bit better, I'm just not sure about how fat that tip seems.
Somehow I missed that. Thanks. I'll also be waiting for the first impressions of the Pencil. I have little doubt that it'll be good but I'd like to be sure.
My reaction is: It took Apple 11 years to realize the Nintendo DS touchscreen was better than any of their mobile devices'?
Wait wtf it runs iOS not OSX. Yeah fuck that shit that's just an overpriced tablet. I'll take a Surface 3 thanks. Though to be honest I don't know if I really understand this sort of pseudo-level we're trying to find between 10" tablets and 13" Ultrabooks with built in touch capability. I mean we already have offerings from Asus and I think Lenovo which kind of fit the gap in between but they're still basically Ultrabooks, but you can disconnect the keyboard and shit. This honestly feels like Apple seeing how iOS works on a larger platform rather than OSX on a smaller one.
Huh, I didn't realize it til I looked but the base model 13 inch cintiq is 800$ too. Of course, that's not exactly something you can use on the go. There is an android version that does work by itself and plug into a desktop whenever you want, but that costs 1,200$. I give it a mention because I feel like there's 2 real uses for a tablet, something to watch movies/tv, read books, browse the web, general shit, and doing art. Now the general stuff I really don't think you need anything that powerful, and expensive, as some of these ipads or surfaces are. For art if you are doing it for serious, whether that means making money or it's your only hobby, it makes sense to get a classier display so you can make a better product. It's no different then a carpenter buying decent tools or a musician getting a instrument that sounds good and they like. It's worth the investment to them. If it's just an occasional hobby I'm not convinced you need to spend a ton, you can even just get a 3ds and draw with that if you want something digital and on the go. It can fit in your pocket too. Or just grab one of those cheap drawing tablets, the ones that don't have a display if you want something with pressure sensitivity. They cost like 40-80$ depending on size. They don't weight much and as far as I know should work with any laptop you got.
Hey our tablets aren't selling as much as they did in the past what we gonna do? Let's make a bigger one! TBH I don't get the need for a tablet that goes into ultrabook territory, but if you have to get one, buy a Surface Pro 4. Even if that iPad Pro thingy sells millions, I doubt it will be a big enough market to invest some serious dev time for high quality "pro" apps. What kind of professional is going to work on iOS? TL;DR; its the Apple watch of tablets.
From reddit, but my thoughts on the matter basically summed up: Why use apple products unless you have literally no other option to do what you need - that's my life motto. Literally my only life motto, it's how I go about my average day. Yes.
Ohmygodholyshit I'm dying of laughter over here. For what it's worth, my perspective is going to come from "person who's job centers around computers in an enterprise environment." I'm in the not-so-glorious position of having used more Microsoft and Dell products in my lifetime than I actually care to have, which means loads of experience with Surface Pros. And the moment I saw this, I went straight for Ctrl-F "OS", because right off the bat I knew that "a Surface competitor" is completely overblown unless this was going to run a proper operating system. Maybe it compares to a Surface Pro 3 in terms of hardware and intended use, but in actual use, it doesn't come anyway near. Not even to a Surface 3, or even a Surface Pro 2. No, the closest Microsoft tablet this comes to is the Surface 2, because that ran Windows RT. Which had much more power than it actually needed because all of its software had to come from Microsoft's App Store. (Sidenote: Last week, a Surface 2 came to my work; apparently some poor sap ordered it without checking if we could properly support it first. Suffice to say, they weren't pleased with the response.) Like, it doesn't even make sense to compare it to a Surface Pro 3 simply because they're not even in the same class of devices. That'd make as much sense as comparing it to a Windows-based laptop; A Surface Pro 3 is a laptop masquerading as a tablet, and Jesus fuck it's a lot better because of it. I mean, hell, you can drop a Surface Pro 3 into a docking station and use it like an actual computer; mouse, keyboard, monitor, everything. It's the first tablet I've seen that I'd actually call a computer, because it can do anything any other computer can do without massive amounts of hacking about. I actually recommend the Surface 3/Pro to people who want a tablet simply because then they don't have to muck about with a god damn application store. I'm really trying to find a reason to get this over a Surface Pro 3, but I can't help but compare it to a Surface 2. Honestly, the only selling point is if the stylus really is as good as they claim, in which case I can see some pull for people who might benefit from the extra quality, but that price point is ridiculous simply for the stylus. I suppose there's also the whole bit about if you're already in the ecosystem, but I hardly consider that to be a plus when for the price of this, you could move into a Windows or Linux ecosystem. Or just buy one of the not-pro iPads and save a pretty penny. This is targeted to people with either a lot more money than sense or extremely niche uses. I thought that Macs and iPhones were fanboy things, but holy shit does this take the Apple cake for the amount of fanboyism it'd require to purchase this over the alternatives. In short, for the same price, you can get a tablet with the functionality of a computer and software that will properly utilize the hardware. P.S., I'm looking at articles comparing this to the Surface Pro 3, and I'm finding it hilarious how many places compare just the price and hardware.
What we need is stock Linux tablets (Ubuntu being first choice) so I can actually play most of my shitty little indie games without having to buy them again from Google.
Yeah, maybe targeted towards some designers, musicians that are totally entrenched in the Apple ecosystem. If you sync everything via iCloud the missing file system doesn't matter that much. Some US schools maybe too. But I guess the real target market are still consumers, maybe some "bigger is better" newly rich in China. Have fun using the terminal with the on-screen keyboard.
There you go. You just saved a shitton of money and you got a platform that you can actually do things on. Also, just let me recharge my fucking pen.
There's no pressure sensitivity on that. The resolution is also a lot less. Sure for the most part people might not need those things, but some do want it and you really can't get those features cheaply.
