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Here's What to Know Before You Upgrade to the New iPad Pro

Photo credit: Apple
Photo credit: Apple

From Best Products

The latest iteration of the iPad Pro adds meaningful improvements to an already industry-leading product. You can expect an updated graphics processor, a vastly more sophisticated camera setup, and a powerful new iPadOS. The new tablet is available in a 11- or a 12.9-inch Liquid Retina display with slim bezels.

I spent a week with the iPad Pro and found it to be an even more exciting touch-screen laptop replacement than the previous generation. Here's why Apple's new iPad Pro is the best full-size tablet you can buy.

Key Specs

• 11- or 12.9-inch Liquid Retina display
• Apple A12Z Bionic chip
• Dual-camera with 12 MP wide and 10 MP ultra wide, LiDar scanner, TrueDepth front-facing camera
• Four stereo speakers, five studio-quality microphones
• Up to 1 TB of storage

More Power Than Most Laptops

The new iPad Pro has a power level that's on par with (and even more powerful than) most PC laptops. Its A12Z Bionic chip has an updated graphics processor, which makes it capable of multitasking like never before.

To test, I used the iPad Pro instead of a laptop while working from home for almost a week, and it performed flawlessly. This tablet was the central hub for my regular workflow, which meant that I kept browser tabs, Slack, Apple Pages, Affinity Photo, and other apps all open on it simultaneously.

Photo credit: Apple
Photo credit: Apple

The added power has not affected the battery performance of the iPad Pro. According to Apple, the device can deliver up to 10 hours of screen-on time between charges. During my testing, the tablet easily made it through a full 8-hour workday with power to spare.

A Marvelous Display

The new iPad Pro’s Liquid Retina display remains unchanged from the previous generation’s — and that’s a good thing. The screen is bright, sharp, and capable of displaying colors with incredible accuracy. Thanks to Apple’s True Tone tech, it will automatically adjust its color temperature depending on the ambient lighting in your space.

Photo credit: Apple
Photo credit: Apple

Its ProMotion display feature increases the refresh rate of the screen up to a whopping 120 Hz, thus making any onscreen interaction with this tablet faster and more fluid. It sets the iPad Pro apart not only from all tablets out there, but also all ultrabooks. You can typically only get a screen with a comparably high refresh rate on a gaming laptop these days.

The Liquid Retina display alone makes the new iPad Pro incredibly user-friendly. It also makes it the perfect canvas for the second-generation Apple Pencil.

Space-Age Camera Tech

The latest iPad Pro is the first to feature a dual-camera setup. The latter consists of a 12MP main snapper and a 10 MP ultra wide camera. Both can capture excellent photos, as well a 4K video at a brisk 60 frames per second.

Photo credit: Apple
Photo credit: Apple

The high-level video recording capabilities of the iPad Pro should get video creators really excited. The large display and a pair of high-quality cameras make the slate a powerful all-in-one tool, which will allow users to effortlessly capture, edit, and share content.

The built-in LiDAR scanner of the iPad Pro is legit space-age tech that’s used by NASA and in self-driving cars. It can precisely measure the distance of objects up to 5 meters (a tad below 17 feet) away.

Photo credit: Apple
Photo credit: Apple

Combined with the iPad Pro’s high-quality cameras, the powerful chip, and the captivating display, the LiDAR scanner bring the augmented reality capabilities of the iPad Pro to a whole new level.

The AR-compatible apps and games are even more immersive, entertaining, and overall more useful on the iPad. I enjoyed using the tablet's enhanced AR capabilities to pick out an ottoman for my living room from an interior design app. The Measure app is even more convenient thanks to LiDAR, too.

The LiDAR scanner will make the iPad Pro even more exciting in the coming months, because app and game developers can use this tech to make their apps more AR-friendly.

Photo credit: Apple
Photo credit: Apple

The front-facing TrueDepth camera of the iPad Pro is superb. In addition to unlocking the slate via Face ID, it can capture high-quality selfies, including in Portrait mode. The TrueDepth camera tech is also behind Animoji and Memoji.

Class-Leading Audio

The iPad Pro packs a quartet of stereo speakers — they are crisp, loud, and plenty entertaining, especially considering how thin the device is. You’ll be hard-pressed to find an ultra light laptop with better sound.

Every iPad Pro packs five microphones, which can capture audio with studio quality. I put them through the test while working from home and was truly impressed by their performance — everyone heard me loud and clear during FaceTime, Slack, and Zoom calls.

Wrap-Up

Even with all of these great enhancements, the pricing of the iPad Pro has remained just the same as before. The 11-and 12.9-inch variants start at $799 and $999 respectively. It's definitely worth noting that the base-level iPad Pro models are equipped with 128 GB of storage — that’s twice the amount found in previous generations.

Launched alongside the new iPad Pro, the optional Magic Keyboard helps turn this slate into an even mightier laptop replacement. The accessory has backlit keys, a built-in trackpad to take advantage of the iPadOS 13.4 gesture controls, and a floating design that makes the iPad Pro look like a miniaturized iMac. It will arrive in May and cost $299.

SHOP iPAD PRO

Read More:

Essential Accessories for Your New iPad

The Best Apple iPad You Can Buy Now

Elevate Your iPad With an iPad Stand

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