Andrew O'Hara
Ahead of launch this Wednesday, Apple has shared a series of glowing iPad Pro reviews that praise the fresh tablets' ultra slim design, powerful hardware and accessories like the second-generation Apple Pencil.
As usual, Apple seeded early iPad Pro hardware to a number of influential tech and mainstream publications, who took their respective reviews live this morning. It seems the company is restricting focus to the larger 12.9-inch iPad Pro, as in-depth evaluations of the smaller 11-inch model are not yet available.
Similar to recent hardware debuts, Apple aggregated a few notable quotes from the likes of Wired, Laptop, Mashable, Daring Fireball, The Independent and PocketLint in a press release designed to spark interest in the just-announced tablet lineup. Apple CEO Tim Cook and SVP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller threw a spotlight on their favorite lines — with a link back to Apple's webpage — in respective tweets.
Wired said "By every measure I can think of, these are the best, most powerful, most capable iPads I've ever used. They put other tablets to shame."
John Gruber from Daring Fireball was quite keen on the new Apple Pencil, noting "the new Apple Pencil is one of the best 2.0 products I've ever seen. The original Apple Pencil is a terrific product, but the new one nears perfection for the concept."
"The mobile workflow was seamless and both the hardware and software were incredibly powerful," said Resource.
Additional images were shared from Instagram featuring images created on the new iPad Pros and and redesigned Apple Pencil.
Apple cherry-picked snippets of longer reviews which, while mostly positive, included criticisms of the new iPad Pros as well. A common refrain from journalists is the less-than-stellar experience iOS offers when pitted against traditional computers. Apple often compares iPad with laptops from other manufacturers, opting to refer to the slate as a computer rather than a mobile device. When the latest Pros were unveiled last month, for example, CEO Tim Cook contrasted lifetime and yearly iPad sales figures against the wider PC market.
"We've sold more iPads in the last year than the entire notebook lineup of all of the biggest notebook manufacturers," Cook said. "This makes iPad not only the most popular tablet, but the most popular computer in the world."
Despite Apple's marketing hype, however, the iPad Pro user experience compares unfavorably to full-fledged computers in key areas. Multitasking, while greatly improved since iOS 11, is not as intuitive or robust as a desktop, while reviewers have knocked Apple's iOS user interface — and the Smart Keyboard — for coming up short as a laptop replacement.
Still, there is much to tout in Apple's latest hardware, including impressive new features like an external redesign, TrueDepth and Face ID integration, and the powerful A12X Bionic Processor. The third-generation iPad Pro went up for preorder last week and is set for release on Nov. 7.
Apple provided similar review roundups for other recent product launches including the new iPhone XS/XS Max and the iPhone XR.
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20 Comments
I’m gonna hold off with buying a new iPad until I see what Apple has in store for iOS 13, because that release will probably signal what their longer term vision is.
I personally would like the iPad to be used more as a laptop and not just a tablet, which means using the keyboard and the iPad in portrait mode, while I use some sort of a mouse or trackpad and not touching the display. In that mode Touch does not make sense at all. However when carrying around touch obviously does make sense.
File access, sharing and more power / batch tools will be needed to convince me to see the iPad as a production tool. I look forward to seeing what Apple has in store!
This is probably one of the more balanced reviews:
https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/05/review-ipad-pro-pencil-12-9-inch/
"If Apple is able to let go a bit and execute better on making sure the software feels as flexible and “advanced” as the hardware, the iPad Pro has legs. If it isn’t able to do that, then the iPad will remain a dead-end. But I have hope. In the shape of an expensive-ass pencil".
If the iPad has legs? Please, it owns the space and is here to stay.
Also, let’s not confuse Cook’s statement. It’s not marketing hype for Cook to say the iPad sold more than all the other laptops if thats what the data say. Nor does stating that mean the ipad is a replacement for a desktop or laptop. Stating more popular does not claim outright replacing. Cars sell more than planes or trains and thus are more popular, but they did not replace planes or trains. Use cases for each mode of travel exist and will continue to exist. The post in Post-PC means “after”, as in the era that comes after the era where there were only PCs. Now we have lots of tools to choose from.
Love my iPad 10.5 and I’ve just recently found I can leave my MacBook behind on personal trips if I don’t anticipate needing to do work or school work. But I can’t imagine doing any CAD on it without a mouse. Without a doubt, still prefer to boot into windows on a macbook with a mouse to do serious work.
It may have More power than 92% of the laptops sold in the last year but it lacks the versatility. File management is still pitiful. The weakest link on an iPad is iOS but it’s getting there. Maybe in another 2-3 years.
Can’t wait for the “XR” version of iPad to release! Hopefully the form factor will be similar. Perhaps with slightly thicker bezels. And perhaps even a “Product Red” model as well! That would be awesome!