[ad_1]
Apple has added even more power to its flagship tablet, packing the new iPad Pro with the M2 chip from the latest Macs and trying to make it look like a laptop with new software. But all this power comes at a truly eye-watering price.
The new models are priced at £899 ($799/A$1,399) for the 11-inch screen or £1,249 ($1,099/A$1,899) for the 12.9-inch version. That’s the same price as the MacBook Air, and £250 more than last year’s 12.9-inch iPad Pro M1, due to the weakness of the exchange rate against the US dollar.
For this modest sum, you get one of the most powerful tablets you can buy. The M2 chip is up to 15% faster, with graphics 35% faster than last year’s ultra-fast M1. It’s unclear whether you’ll be able to use all of that power on the iPad, but battery life remains close to 10 hours for light use, nine hours for work, or seven hours when HDR video is turned on the screen. max.
The exterior of the iPad Pro hasn’t changed – it looks and feels just as good as previous versions. The mini LED screen is still the star of the show: bright, super smooth and easy to use when browsing the web and using other standard content. Fire up an HDR movie and it rivals any high-end TV, let alone any other tablet.
There is a new trick on the screen called “cover”. When using the Apple Pencil stylus (£139), a cursor appears on the screen when the tip is within 12mm of the glass. Most other good styluses work this way, including Samsung and Microsoft models. It’s a handy feature in Apple’s apps like Notes, but it’s more useful with third-party tools like drawing or graphics apps once they’re updated to support it.
Technical conditions
-
Screen: 12.9 inch 2732×2048 liquid Retina XDR display (264 pixels/inch)
-
Processor: Apple M2 (8-core CPU/10-core GPU)
-
RAM: 8 or 16 GB
-
Storage: 128/256/512 GB or 1/2 TB
-
Operating system: iPadOS 16.1
-
Camera: 12 MP wide + 10 MP ultra-wide; 12MP Center Stage Selfie
-
The connection: wifi 6E (5G optional, nano/eSim), Bluetooth 5.3, Thunderbolt 3/USB 4
-
Dimensions: 280.6 x 214.9 x 6.4 mm
-
Weight: 682g (5G version: 685g)
Sustainability
Apple doesn’t provide an expected life expectancy for the battery, but it should last 500 full charge cycles to at least 80% of its original capacity and can be replaced from £165. The tablet is generally repairable, with an out-of-warranty service costing £589, including the screen.
The tablet contains recycled aluminum, copper, gold, tin, plastic and rare earth elements. Apple breaks down the tablet’s environmental impact in its reports and offers trade-in and free recycling schemes, including non-Apple products.
iPad OS 16.1 with Stage Manager
The iPad Pro runs iPadOS 16.1 out of the box, which is currently available for all other supported iPads and adds a bunch of features from iOS 16.
But for the more modern-looking iPad Pro line and the iPad Air with the M1 chip, it includes a big change to multitasking functionality called Stage Manager. This allows you to run multiple apps on the same screen in resizable and overlapping windows, just like on a MacOS or Windows laptop.
Stage Manager includes a desktop called a stage, a dock at the bottom, and a pop-up shelf of apps on the left side of the screen, best thought of as spaces or virtual desktops. You can add up to four apps to any stage, and they’ll be automatically arranged for you on the screen and resized by dragging a little tab in the bottom corner of each window.
Correctly updated apps for iPadOS 16.1 change format, but others, including the Settings app, are slightly smaller, making text harder to read.
Stage Manager makes iPad Pro look like a laptop. However, it is not very intuitive and can confuse even experienced MacOS and iPad users. For example, I’ve found at least five ways to add an attachment to a scene, but they’re not at all clear or consistent.
Additionally, when you tap to launch a new app, it opens in a new stage, hiding the one you were previously using in another stage. When grouped with others in a stage, expanding an app to full screen hides it behind the full screen without showing where other apps have gone.
Some apps are also broken in the new look. I’ve been experiencing bugs in many apps over the past couple of weeks. For example, Gmail can get stuck in the email view pane, meaning I can’t go back to my inbox unless I resize or exit the app. The camera app surprisingly switched to portrait orientation when I resized the window. Some apps hid important toolbars, while others crashed or locked key system apps like Files until I rebooted the iPad. The app clearly needs an update.
A stage manager is promising, but it’s unpredictable and sometimes confusing. This is especially useful when using the iPad with a keyboard and mouse, such as the £379 Magic Keyboard or third-party laptop-like cases. But this is still a work in progress, bug fixes and support for external monitors will come with an update in the near future.
The price is
The 11-inch iPad Pro costs £899 ($799/$1,399) and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro costs £1,249 ($1,099/$1,899). 5G is £180 ($200/$250) more, plus a data plan. Keyboards and styluses sold separately.
In comparison, the 10th generation iPad costs £499, the iPad Air costs £669, the M2 MacBook Air costs £1,249, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra costs £999, and the Microsoft Surface Pro 9 costs £1,099.
Verdict
The 12.9-inch iPad Pro is a great device. It has more power than even creative professionals need, a better screen than most TVs, and reliable battery life wrapped in a super thin and light body.
The new M2 version isn’t a major upgrade over last year’s M1-equipped model. The swipe feature for the Apple Pencil may be very useful for some, but it’s the software, which is also available for older models, that is potentially the biggest upgrade.
The stage manager in iPadOS 16.1 finally allows applications to run in overlapping, active windows, allowing iPad to work like a full computer or laptop. But it’s not fully baked, sometimes unpredictable and confusing, with bugs and compatibility issues that both Apple and third-party developers need to address.
The iPad Pro is arguably the best tablet you can buy and will be an incredibly powerful tool for a number of niche, high-end applications. But it’s too expensive for most people – they’d be better off with a laptop for work or a cheaper iPad for gaming. It might be the best TV viewing tablet you can buy, but nobody should be spending £1,249 on it.
Advantages: amazing mini LED screen, super fast M2 chip, good battery life, optional 5G, USB-C/Thunderbolt 3, hover feature for Apple Pencil, great speakers, Face ID, huge app library, improved multitasking, very long software support term.
Disadvantages: too expensive, no stand with no case, no headphone jack, iPadOS 16.1 still needs work, webcam on the wrong side for landscape calls, not a massive upgrade.
[ad_2]
Source link