HI EVERY BODY
HOW ARE YOU ?
NOW I TALK ABOUT :-
The camera captures shadows well, and exposes fantastically. Fantastic for a tablet
Colours are bold, although maybe lacking some oomph
For a tablet, this shot has plenty of detail
Someone was on a bit of an Amazon Video binge this weekend...
HOW ARE YOU ?
NOW I TALK ABOUT :-
(9.7-inch iPad Pro review)
KEY FEATURES
- 9.7-inch True Tone display
- Apple A9X SoC
- 2GB RAM
- 32GB, 128GB or 256GB model
- 4G optional
- 12MP iSight camera
- 5MP FaceTime HD camera
- Smart Connector
- iOS 9.3
- Manufacturer: Apple
- Review Price: £499.00
WHAT IS THE 9.7-INCH IPAD PRO?
The first thing to note about the 9.7-inch iPad is that it isn't a replacement for your laptop – no matter how much Apple wants you to believe it is. However, there's no doubt this is the finest tablet Apple has ever made.
This model takes almost all the power of the iPad Pro we saw last year, and crams it into a smaller, more manageable body. In addition, there's an improved display and a camera that surpasses any I've seen on a tablet before.
When you budget in the accessories this iPad Pro is an expensive proposition, but one that's worth it.
9.7-INCH IPAD PRO – DESIGN AND BUILD
Lay the new 9.7-inch iPad Pro next to the iPad Air 2 and you’d be hard-pushed to tell them apart. Apple has stuck to the same well-worn design blueprint that it now uses for all its tablets, and while I’d like to see a little more experimentation with the overall look, it’s aged exceptionally well.
Unlike the iPhone with its rounded sides, the iPad relies heavily on its glistening chamfers to make it standout. There are a few differences from the iPad Air 2, but they’re minimal.
There are now two sets of speakers, on both the top and bottom of the device, along with the clever little smart connector that pairs the tablet with the Smart Keyboard. Apple has also redesigned the antenna system on the 4G iPad, ditching the thick white bar for something that's far more streamlined.
Overall, however, it's the same iPad you’ve come to know. It’s precisely built, as you’d expect from an Apple product, with machined speaker grilles and an air of quality. There are still only two ports – Lightning and a headphone jack – and while I'd liked to have seen a move to USB-C, it was never really on the cards.
Below the display sits the now iconic home button, which doubles as the Touch ID fingerprint sensor. This is the version seen on the iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2, rather than the faster one in the iPhone 6S.
The iPad Pro is all aluminum and glass – there's no plastic to be seen anywhere – and it easily feels like a product that's worthy of its price tag.
At 6.1mm and 437g, it’s an incredibly slim and light tablet. It's perfectly weighted, too, making it easy to hold in just one hand for reading or watching a film.
9.7-INCH IPAD PRO – TRUE TONE DISPLAY
If you’ve recently invested in Apple’s larger 12.9-inch iPad Pro, then this next section annoy you. While both the 9.7 and 12.9-inch slates come with the "Pro" moniker, they’re far from being the same beast.
In fact, it’s in the displays that these two high-end products are actually the most different – and this isn't down to size alone. The 9.7-inch iPad Pro comes with some new display technologies that make it stand out compared to it's bigger brother or the iPad Air 2 before it.
At first glance of the specs you’d be mistaken for concluding that there isn’t much difference between the 9.7-inch iPad Pro and it’s cheaper cousin, the iPad Air 2. They both have 9.7-inch Retina displays with the same resolution and 264 pixel-per-inch density.
However, the new screen tech used in the 9.7-inch iPad Pro blows the iPad Air 2 and big Pro out of the water. Apple has introduced something called a True Tone display on the new iPad. The company has used that moniker before, with reference to LED flashes, but this is the first time the tech has been used in a tablet. And the difference it makes to the screen, although subtle, is undeniable.
Basically, the display now dynamically adapts to the environment, switching the colours and white balance on the screen depending on the lighting in the room. If you’re reading in the dark, for example, it will tone everything down, removing blue hues and giving the display a warmer, orange glow. It's great for reading and browsing the web.
It might sound like a small change, but it really is fantastic. I now pick up an iPad Air 2 or even the larger iPad Pro and feel the display is just far too blue.
Obviously, this True Tone tech isn’t for all situations. If you’re working on something that requires colours to be accurate then you'll have to switch the tech off. Ideally I'd like a few callibration options, like you have on the Samsung Galaxy TabPro S, but this is small quibble.
The display benefits from improvements in other areas too. It’s now much more visible in direct sunlight, almost to a point that I can use it normally while sitting outside. If Apple could bring this to the iPhone 7, it would be a boon.
The colour gamut has also been improved by 25% over the iPad Air 2, and Apple claims that this is the first tablet to use the same colour space as the cinema industry. Again, the difference really is noticeable. This version of the iPad Pro displays a much wider array of colours than any other iPad, presenting deeper blacks, whiter whites and brighter reds and greens. If you’re editing photos, the effects will be even more apparent.
All these advances combine to give the 9.7-inch iPad Pro the best display on any iPad yet. It’s the ultimate media machine. I’ve watched Star Wars: The Force Awakens multiple times on the device just to experience it over and over again.
9.7-INCH IPAD PRO – SPEAKERS
Complementing the fantastic True Tone display is an equally superb set of speakers. Audio is often disappointingly forgotten about on mobile products, but this certainly isn't the case here.
There are four speakers on this tablet, two at each end, and they sound terrific. To date, I haven't yet felt a need to hook up this iPad to a Bluetooth speaker, simply because the onboard audio setup is so good.
Each of these stereo speakers produces sound that adjusts according to the position in which the device is held, so higher frequencies don’t seem off. Audio is balanced – only the top two units produce mid and high tones – but I'd prefer a tad more bass when listening to music. That’s just me being picky, though.
Even more impressive is the lack of any distortion even at the highest volume – remarkable stuff.
9.7-INCH IPAD PRO – PERFORMANCE
Adding the "Pro" prefix to any device implies a serious performance boost. Although Apple has been known to use the "Pro" term lightly in the past, the new iPad Pro 9.7-inch benefits from significant enhancements over the already nippy iPad Air 2.
Inside the tablet is Apple’s high-end A9X SoC, which includes the M9 co-processor to enable the always-on Siri mode. There’s also a 12-core PowerVR graphics chip and 2GB of RAM.
I’m sure some of you sighed deeply at that last point: why does this iPad Pro have only half the RAM of the other equally "Pro" iPad? I don’t have an answer, but my advice would be not to dwell on it.
iOS management of RAM is the best out there, and aside from apps staying loaded up for a shorter time, the smaller amount of RAM doesn’t actually make much difference. It might do in the future, sure, but not for now.
Performance-wise, the 9.7-inch iPad Pro is fantastic. Opening up games, scrolling through image-heavy sites, using two apps simultaneously and so on, never causes any slowdown or lag. In Geekbench 3, it scores 5,121 and 3,039 on the multi- and single-core tests respectively. This might be slightly lower than the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, but it blitzes the Android competition such as the Pixel C.
It is likely that the two most intensive tasks you can do on the iPad Pro are 4K video and high-res photo editing. Since the 9.7-inch iPad Pro natively shoots 4K footage, you can capture it on the tablet and splice it up immediately in the free iMovie app. Doing this is, again, lag-free and snappy.
I edit plenty of photos, normally on my 2014 Core i5 MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM. However, for this review I switched to the 9.7-inch iPad Pro and I’m hugely impressed.
Although many may dismiss Lightroom and Pixelmator as "not full desktop" services, both are seriously powerful mobile apps that can handle a variety of large file types with ease. Having such power in a tablet is great since the process of editing snaps on a touchscreen feels natural; sliding toggles with my finger is better than using a mouse.
As you'd expect, this tablet doesn't feature any other ports aside from Lightning. You won’t be able to plug in a USB drive – as you can on a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 – and there’s no card slot for transferring snaps from your camera. The closest you'll get here is the Lightning-to-SD dongle, but this is another addition and something you'll have to remember to take with you when heading out and about.
The lack of a USB port, even a Type-C variant, is restrictive and limits the "Pro" capabilities somewhat.
I’m even less enthused about the inclusion of only 32GB of base storage, especially when the iPad Pro costs £499. For 128GB, you’ll have to part with £619, and 256GB models cost a whopping £739. That’s a lot of money for a tablet, and almost encroaches on MacBook Air territory. In my opinion, a base 64GB option at £499 would have been far more reasonable.
4G is available, but you’ll have to pay a £100 premium for this.
9.7-INCH IPAD PRO – APPLE PENCIL AND SMART KEYBOARD
Like it did with the larger iPad Pro, Apple is selling a duo of accessories for the 9.7-inch iPad Pro.
The Pencil will work on both the larger version of the iPad Pro and here too. For obvious reasons, however, the Apple Smart keyboard for the 9.7-inch iPad Pro isn't compatible with the larger model; it's smaller. It's wrapped in a tough, water-resistant fabric though, and acts as a Smart Cover for the tablet that protects the display when it’s in your bag.
The keyboard's size does bring some downsides. It's far more difficult to hit the keys accurately, and as a result typos will be commonplace in the early days. Following practice I can now type accurately and quickly on it, but it becomes tricky again if I don’t use it regularly.
The keys themselves are reminiscent of those on the 12-inch MacBook, with little travel but a satisfying "clack" nevertheless. They’re not backlit, however, which is a real annoyance, and there’s no Function or shortcut keys. There are some shortcuts built into iOS 9, but they’re limited to native apps and a smattering of third-party ones. For instance, you can scroll down a page with the arrow keys in Safari, but not Twitter.
There isn’t a trackpad either, so you’ll still be reaching out to touch the display most of the time.
Mobile keyboards have come a long way recently and they continue to improve. TheMicrosoft Surface Pro 4 and its fantastic Type Cover are still sitting pretty at the top of the pile, and while Apple’s Smart Keyboard really can’t compete with it for pure typing experience, I’d happily choose it over the tightly packed keys on the Samsung Galaxy TabPro S and Huawei MateBook.
My main issue with the Smart Keyboard, however, is the lack of adjustability. There’s a single position that might be great for typing, but it’s too laid back for watching a video in bed. I found myself attaching an older Smart Cover for dedicated Netflix binges, since its upright angle is more to my taste.
Still, it’s stable when propped up and I can even work comfortably with the iPad on my lap. I wasn’t expecting this to work the first time I tried it considering the size.
The Smart Keyboard is decent, but there are plenty of areas in which Apple could make improvements for a second iteration. Regardless, I’d still recommend the £139 accessory if you plan to use the 9.7-inch iPad Pro for any sort of real work. It’s slim and light, doesn’t require charging, and is actually quite comfortable to type on once you’ve familiarised yourself with its quirks.
Things couldn't get any better with the Pencil, however – I love it. In my opinion, it’s the best stylus out there – and my opinion has changed significantly since I began using it with the first iPad Pro.
It may lack the 1,000+ levels of pressure sensitivity available with a Wacom stylus, or the Surface Pen, but it’s super-accurate and there’s precisely zero latency when you’re drawing or jotting down notes.
While the bigger iPad Pro is great for sketching, I’d say the 9.7-inch iPad Pro is better for general note-taking due to its smaller canvas. Writing with the Pencil is akin to writing on paper, with the fantastic palm-rejection software helping to no end. I can lean on the tablet and knock-out notes during an interview as easily as if I were using a notebook.
Support for the Apple Pencil might not be universal quite yet, but a growing number of apps support the input tool.
Paper by FiftyThree is the best: a beautiful app that’s great for sketching, painting a watercolour or just doodling – although after weeks of trying it appears my lack of artistic flair means I can't craft anything that could be described as "good". Notability is great for note-taking, while Procreate is another decent pick for wannabe artists.
It’s not all rosy, though, with many of my initial issues regarding the Apple Pencil still standing.
Its charging method – sticking it into the iPad’s Lightning port – is about as silly as it gets and is an accident waiting to happen. In addition, there’s still no place to rest the stylus when it isn't in use, meaning you’ll spend an inordinate amount of time either panicking that you’ve lost the £79 piece of plastic, or rummaging in your bag to find it.
9.7-INCH IPAD PRO – CAMERA
Tablet photography is still an inane idea to me. Yet, if you’ve been to any tourist hotspot around this fine world you’ll know that many love it.
If you’re one of those folk then you'll love the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, since it has the bestcamera on any tablet.
Apple has pretty much taken all the camera tech from the iPhone 6S and crammed it into this iPad. It has the same 4K-capable, 12-megapixel camera on the back with an f/2.2 aperture and the same 5-megapixel FaceTime HD sensor around the front.
It’s a huge upgrade over any previous iPad, and it feels odd that Apple didn’t fit out the 12.9-inch version with the same specs, although taking pictures with such a big device will be awkward.
The camera captures shadows well, and exposes fantastically. Fantastic for a tablet
On me, however, it’s wasted – especially the rear camera. My tablet photography amounts to snapping documents, and the high-resolution sensor here is complete overkill. It also means that there’s a hump on the back of the device, which somewhat ruins the smooth finish of the rear.
Colours are bold, although maybe lacking some oomph
It does take decent pictures, on a par with those shot with the iPhone 6S. Naturally, there’s no OIS, but it captures sharp details and accurate colours. Having an iPad as a viewfinder is great, but in my eyes you’ll look a berk using it as an actual camera. Sorry, but it’s true.
However, there will be some merit to it for people working on the go. I can imaging a fashion designer taking a quick pic of dress and drawing changes or an architect wanting higher quality snaps when looking at a project for the first time.
For a tablet, this shot has plenty of detail
Again, the 4K video looks great and the device is powerful enough to shoot and edit it using iMovie. Impressive for a tablet.
I’m more on board with the switch to a higher-resolution front camera. Not so much for selfies, even though they look good, but for FaceTime chats – something for which the iPad is the perfect tool.
9.7-INCH IPAD PRO – SOFTWARE
Like every other Apple tablet, the 9.7-inch iPad Pro runs iOS. More specifically, iOS 9.3.
iOS 9 wasn’t a huge rethinking of the software – that might come with iOS 10 later this year – but it did introduce a few juicy features that really come into their own here. I’m going to focus on these here, but if you want the full low-down on the OS then check out our iOS 9 review.
The most significant feature added is split-screen multi-tasking, something most had been calling for since the introduction of the first iPad. Being able to use two apps side by side is a must on a tablet, even more so if you’re calling it a "Pro" device.
Apple’s implementation of multi-tasking is good, but it feels very much like a first-generation attempt that will see improvement over the coming years.
It is possible to open two apps at the same time, but those apps need to support the feature. While there are many that do, a couple that I use on a daily basis – such as Google Docs and Netflix – do not. Discovering an app that can’t be used impacts my workflow and shows the limitations of the system.
I’d also like to be able to have two Safari windows open next to one other, but for some reason this isn't possible. It’s frustrating experiences such as this that put paid to the idea of this being a "laptop replacement".
The Slide Over feature lets you pull a separate app out momentarily – to check the football scores on Twitter, for example – and videos can be put into a floating box. Again, apps needs to support this. For peak productivity you can have two apps open and a floating video in the corner. While this isn't quite laptop level, it’s a start.
In my opinion, iOS on a tablet suffers from too much wasted space. The icons on the desktop are too generously spaced apart and you need to jump into apps to get any sort of information from them.
Still, its tablet app support is leaps ahead of both Windows 10 and Android Marshmallow – and that’s the all-important fact. They don’t feel like blown-up phone apps, but bespoke experiences.
iOS 9.3 introduced a nifty new feature called Night Shift. This reduces the amount of blue light given off by the display during the later hours of a the day. Having too much interaction with these blue hues is said to disrupt the deepness of your sleep.
9.7-INCH IPAD PRO – BATTERY LIFE
The 9.7-inch iPad Pro has a large, 29.7Wh battery that Apple claims will last for 10 hours. That’s the same figure it quotes for the iPad Air 2 and iPad Pro 12.9-inch – and, based on my testing, is pretty much spot on.
Three hours of Netflix streaming at about 60% brightness reduces the battery by 26%. However, jacking up the brightness takes its toll on the iPad Pro’s battery life. Set to maximum and the speakers set to half, the 9.7-inch iPad Pro’s battery lasts for about six hours. That’s the same as the larger iPad Pro.
Testing out gruelling 3D games is always a good way to gauge battery life. For every hour of Halo: Spartan Strike, the 9.7-inch iPad Pro lost 16% – that’s with brightness on 60%. This is actually an improvement on other iPads. Less intensive titles, such as Monument Valley, chew through about 10% battery per hour.
In general use the 9.7-inch iPad Pro will get you through a couple of days without you needing to reach for the charger. Multiple hours of having two apps open, a video playing and the Smart Keyboard attached, however, will bring down this figure dramatically.
Charging is via a Lightning cable, and as with all tablets I'd recommend using the wall adapter that supplied with the device. I've tried charging it with a typical phone block and it takes significantly longer to juice up – at some points it even drops more battery than it recoups.
Someone was on a bit of an Amazon Video binge this weekend...
I really do wish Apple would implement some form of fast-charging. For the larger iPad Pro it is possible to pair a Lightning to USB-C with a USB-C-enabled wall port to achieve some sort of quicker charging. However, since the 9.7-inch version of the tablet doesn’t support USB 3.0 speeds, this won't work here. A full charge will take about three to four hours.
The 9.7-inch iPad Pro offers decent battery life, but it doesn’t push it any further than other iPads.
SHOULD I BUY THE 9.7-INCH IPAD PRO?
Is the 9.7-inch iPad Pro going to replace a laptop for most? Absolutely not. Sometimes you just want a USB port, an SD card reader and the ability to run lots of apps at the same time.
Is it the best tablet out there? Yes. It takes all the oomph from the comically large iPad Pro 12.9-inch and crams it into an incredible thin and beautiful chassis.
It isn't as all-purpose as the Microsoft Surface Pro 4, which is a great device, but it’s better at being a tablet. It’s easier to chuck in your bag, use in bed, whip out on the train and so on. The Pixel C is the only real Android competitor, but Google’s OS simply isn't there yet when it comes to actually "getting things done".
The True Tone display, booming speakers, improved performance and support for the Smart Connector set it apart from the iPad Air 2, and the bump in cost is just about worth it.
I’m also completely smitten with the clever Pencil; it’s changed the way I take notes and doodle. It’s a simple tool that might not pack the specs of its competition, but it does a fantastic job.
Yet, there's no doubting that this is an expensive product. £499 for the base tablet, £79 for the Apple Pencil and £129 for the Smart Keyboard (both of which aren’t required, but are necessary to get the most out of it) add up to a pricey investment. Especially if you already have a powerful Windows 10 or Mac OS X laptop.
VERDICT
It won’t replace your laptop, but the 9.7-inch iPad Pro makes tablets interesting for the first time in years.
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق