Jiří Filip One of the most interesting products that Apple introduced this year is undoubtedly the iPad Pro. It has changed significantly both in terms of design and performance. Although the deliveries of this new product are very weak and the availability is not very good even a month after the presentation, we managed to get one piece to the editorial office and properly test it. So how did the new iPad Pro impress us?
Packing
Apple will pack your new iPad in a classic white box with iPad Pro lettering and a bitten apple logo on the sides. The upper side of the lid is decorated with an iPad display, and the bottom is decorated with a sticker with product specifications inside the box. After removing the lid, you will first receive a tablet in your hands, under which you will also find a folder with manuals containing, among other things, stickers, a USB-C cable and a classic socket adapter. The packaging of the iPad is therefore completely standard.
Design
The novelty differs significantly from previous generations in terms of design. Rounded edges have been replaced by sharp ones that remind us of older iPhones 5, 5s or SE. The display flooded the entire front side, thus condemning the Home Button to death, and even the size of the lens on the back did not remain the same compared to older models. So let's take a look at these most distinctive design elements in a nice step-by-step manner.
The return to sharper edges is, from my point of view, a really interesting step that few would have expected just a few months ago. Practically all products from the Californian giant's workshop are gradually rounded, and when the SE model disappeared from its offer after the presentation of this year's iPhones, I would put my hand in the fire for the fact that these are precisely the rounded edges that Apple will bet on in its products. However, the new iPad Pro goes against the grain in this regard, for which I have to commend it. In terms of design, the edges solved in this way look very good and do not interfere at all when holding the tablet in the hand.
Unfortunately, this does not mean that the novelty in hand is completely perfect. Due to its narrowness, I quite often had the feeling that I was holding a very fragile thing in my hand and bending it would not be a problem. After all, given the large number of videos on the Internet that demonstrate just easy bending, there is not much to be surprised about. However, this is just my subjective feeling and it is possible that it will feel completely different in your hands. However, I simply don't feel that it is the structurally reliable "iron" that I consider older generations of iPad Pro or iPad 5th and 6th generation to be.
The camera also deserves criticism from me, which, compared to the previous generation iPad Pro, protrudes from the back a bit more and is also incomparably larger. In other words, this means that if you are used to placing your iPad on the table without any cover, you will enjoy a really unpleasant wobble every time you touch the screen. Unfortunately, by using the cover, you destroy its beautiful design. Unfortunately, there is no other way than using a cover.
However, camera shake isn't the only thing that can annoy you. Since it is quite raised, dirt likes to get caught around it. Although the chassis that covers the lens is slightly rounded, it is sometimes not easy to dig out deposits around it.
At the same time, one and the other problem would be solved by "merely" hiding the camera in the body, which is called for not only by users of iPads, but also of iPhones. Unfortunately, however, Apple has yet to return to this path. The question is whether it is not technologically possible or simply considered outdated.
The last thing that can be called a design mistake is the plastic cover on the side of the iPad, through which the new generation of Apple Pencil is charged wirelessly. Although this is a detail, the side of the iPad really hides this element and it is a shame that Apple did not choose a different solution here.
However, in order not to criticize, the novelty deserves to be praised, for example, for the solution of the antennas on the back. They now look much more elegant than the older models and very nicely copy the top line of the tablet, thanks to which you hardly notice them. As is traditionally the case, the new product is handled precisely in terms of processing, and apart from the above-mentioned ailments, every detail is brought to absolute perfection.
Display
Apple opted for a Liquid Retina display in 11" and 12,9" sizes for the new product, which boasts ProMotion and TrueTone functions. In the case of the smaller iPad, you can look forward to a resolution of 2388 x 1668 at 264 ppi, while the larger model boasts 2732 x 2048 also at 264 ppi. However, the display does not only look very nice "on paper", but also in reality. I borrowed the 11” version for testing, and I was particularly impressed by its very vivid colors, the display of which was almost comparable to the OLED displays of the new iPhones. Apple has done a really perfect job in this regard and proved to the world that they can still do great things with an "ordinary" LCD.
The classic ailment of this type of display is black, which, unfortunately, cannot be described as completely successful here either. Personally, I even thought its presentation was a little worse than in the case of the iPhone XR, which also relies on Liquid Retina. However, don't take this to mean that the iPad is bad in this regard. Only the black on the XR seems too good to me. Even here, however, this is purely my subjective opinion. However, if I were to evaluate the display as a whole, I would definitely call it very high quality.
The "new" control and security system goes hand in hand with the display across the entire front. Are you wondering why I used quotation marks? In short, because in this case the word new cannot be used without them. We already know both Face ID and gesture control from iPhones, so it won't take anyone's breath away. But that certainly doesn't matter. The main thing is functionality, and it is perfect, as is usual with Apple.
Controlling a tablet using gestures is one big fairy tale, and if you learn to use them to the maximum, they can speed up many of your workflows solidly. Face ID also works without any problems, both in portrait and landscape mode. It is quite interesting that the sensors for Face ID, at least according to experts from iFixit, are almost identical to those used by Apple in iPhones. The only difference is in the minor shape adjustments that Apple had to make because of the differently designed frames. In theory, we could expect Face ID support in landscape mode on iPhones as well, since its operation probably depends only on the software.
The frames around the display, which hide the sensors for Face ID, certainly deserve a few lines. They are perhaps a bit too wide for my taste and I can imagine that Apple would take a millimeter or two off them. I think that this step would still not cause problems with the grip of the tablet - all the more so when it is able to solve a lot of things in software, thanks to which the tablet would not have to react at all to the specific touch of the hands when gripping around the frame. But the width of the frames is definitely nothing terrible, and after a few hours of use, you will absolutely stop noticing them.
At the very end of the section devoted to the display, I will only mention the (non)optimization of some applications. Since the new iPad Pro arrived with a slightly different aspect ratio than earlier models and its corners are also rounded, iOS applications need to be optimized accordingly. Although many developers are working vehemently on this, you will still come across apps in the App Store that, after launching, you see a black bar on the bottom and top of the app due to a lack of optimization. The new product thus found itself in the same situation as the iPhone X a year ago, for which developers also had to adapt their applications and even so far many of them have not been able to do it. Although Apple is not to blame in this case, you should still know about this before you decide to buy the new product.
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Jakub Dlouhy Performance
Apple already boasted on the stage in New York that it has an iPad performance to give away and, for example, in terms of graphics, it can't compete with the Xbox One S game console. After a series of my tests, I can confirm these words with a clear conscience. I tried a whole range of applications on it, from AR software to games to various photo editors, and not once did I encounter a situation where it even slightly suffocated. For example, while on the iPhone XS I sometimes experience slight drops in fps when playing Shadowgun Legends, on the iPad you will not encounter anything similar. Everything runs perfectly smoothly and just as Apple promised. Of course, the tablet has no problems with any form of multitasking, which runs perfectly smoothly and allows you to do many things at once.
On the other hand, I don't want to and won't play as the user that should be the target group of this machine, so my tests very likely didn't put it under the same load as professional users. However, according to foreign reviews, they don't complain about the lack of performance either, so you don't have to worry either. After all, the benchmarks according to which it shoves iPhones into its pocket and doesn't compete with MacBook Pros are clear proof of that.
Sound
Apple also deserves praise for the sound that it managed to bring to near perfection with the iPad. Personally, I'm really excited about it, because it looks very natural in any situation. We can thank for this the four speakers evenly distributed in the body of the tablet, which are also able to sound even a medium-sized room very well without any decrease in the quality of the reproduced sound. In this regard, Apple has done a really perfect job, which will be appreciated especially by those who use the iPad, for example, to watch movies or videos on the Internet. They can be sure that the iPad will draw them into the story and it will be difficult to let them out.
Camera
Although for the vast majority of you, the novelty will probably not serve as the main camera, it is certainly worth mentioning its quality. It is really at a high level and can somehow excuse the protruding lens. You can look forward to a lens with a 12 MPx sensor and f/1,8 aperture, a five-fold zoom and, above all, the Smart HDR software function, which this year's iPhones also boast of. It works, very simply put, by combining several photos taken at the same time into one final image in post-production, into which it projects the most perfect elements from all the photos. As a result, you should get a natural and at the same time great-looking photo, for example without dark or, on the contrary, very bright areas.
Of course, I also tested the camera in practice and I can confirm that the photos from it are really worth it. I also highly appreciate the support for portrait mode on the front camera, which will be appreciated by all selfie lovers. Unfortunately, sometimes the photo doesn't turn out well and the background behind you is out of focus. Fortunately, this doesn't happen very often, and it's possible that Apple will eradicate this problem completely with future software updates. You can take a look at a few of them in the gallery below this paragraph.
Keep holding on
Do you need to use your iPad, for example, on trips where you don't have access to electricity? Then you won't run into a problem here either. The novelty is a real "holder" and surpasses the ten-hour endurance when watching videos, listening to music or surfing the Internet by tens of minutes. But of course, everything depends on what applications and actions you will perform on the iPad. So if you want to "juice" it with a game or a demanding application, it is clear that the endurance will be significantly lower. However, during normal use, which in my case included watching videos, e-mails, Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, surfing the Internet, creating text documents or playing games for a while, the tablet lasted the whole day without major problems.
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In my opinion, the novelty really has a lot to offer and will excite many a tablet lover. In my opinion, the USB-C port and the huge power also open the door to completely new places for this product, where it will finally be able to establish itself. Personally, however, I do not see in him as much of a revolution as was expected of him even before his introduction. Rather than revolutionary, I would describe it as evolutionary, which is definitely not a bad thing in the end. However, everyone has to answer for themselves whether it is worth buying or not. It depends purely on how you are able to use the tablet.
The first iPad with a foldable display.
Envy? :-(
It is expensive and less than one per million people use it.
I've been using the iPad Pro 10.5 for a year, after updating to IOS12 the tablet literally starts to lag - it reacts to touches in all applications with a delay - I usually have to press twice on everything - it skips characters when typing - it mainly manifests itself when I switch between applications and want to write immediately, usually he misses the first letter when typing or the application does not respond at first.
I never registered anything like this on IOS 11.
The problem is not in the hardware (tested - the display responds across the entire surface )….. the problem is in the IOS12 software
!!! The smoothness and grace of the year old Ipad is gone!!!!!
!!! Again, I was told by Apple that I should buy a new IPad!!!!
They deliberately slow down the device, I had the same problem with the Ipad 4, after installing two versions of IOS the tablet became an unusable brick !!!!
great review and I really want an iPad Pro... :) thank you jeziska.. YEAH and yes... those lady peepers are AWESOME... I want one under the tree too...