iPad Pro design
Design-wise, the iPad Pro is a companion piece to the iPad Air 2:
you're just getting a lot more iPad. Its general layout, its material,
edging and so on all match. The positioning of the buttons, the
Lightning and headphone ports, the Touch ID-equipped Home button: all of
these are the same as on the smaller iPad Air 2. But there are some key
differences to the design.
These are not cosmetic differences. Each one corresponds to something that the iPad Pro does differently.
There are four speakers - resulting in far more volume
output and (Apple claims) automatically reblancing audio performance.
There is a new connector on the side of the iPad Pro: the
lefthand side if you're holding it in portrait orientation. Apple calls
it the Smart Connector. This is for the new
Smart Keyboard accessory.
Lastly, and probably most importantly, the screen's design has been
enhanced. This isn't something that you will be able to notice from the
exterior hardware, but Apple is confident that you'll notice is when the
device is in use.
screen size and resolution
The iPad Pro features a 12.9-inch (diagonal) display with a
resolution of 2732 x 2048. That gives a pixel density of 264.68, that's the same density as the iPad Air 2 across a far larger screen, and a total of 5.6 million pixels.
Apple boasted that the iPad Pro has more pixels than the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro.
The iPad Pro offers 78 percent more screen space than the iPad Air
2. Its width is the same as the iPad Air 2's length, which makes it easy
to run apps optimised for the smaller device in portrait, with the Pro
in landscape orientation. Running two side by side would work well, too,
thanks to the Split View in iOS 9.
Processor
The iPad Pro's
processor chip, as we expected, is the A9X: an update to the A8X chip in the iPad Air 2 (which is itself very fast, in our experience).
Apple boasted that the A9X chip offers 2x the memory bandwidth of the
A8X, and 2x faster storage performance too. Overall speed is 1.8x the
performance of the A8X, Apple says, although we'd like to run our own
tests.
One last (two-part) boast about the iPad Pro's speed. Apple reckons
that in CPU tests, the Pro is faster than 80 precedent of portable PCs,
and faster than 90 percent in graphics tests. We'll update this article
when we know a little more about the details of Apple's testing!
Here's Apple press release on the iPad Pro's speed:
"iPad Pro delivers groundbreaking performance and energy efficiency,
so you can tackle the most demanding tasks. Apple's powerful new 64-bit
A9X chip, with third-generation 64-bit architecture, provides
desktop-class CPU performance and console-class graphics."
Camera
front-facing iSight camera :
- 8MP iSight camera
- Autofocus
- ƒ/2.4 aperture
- Five-element lens
- Hybrid IR ?lter
- Backside illumination
- Improved face detection
- Exposure control
- Panorama (up to 43MP)
- Burst mode
- Tap to focus
- Photo geotagging
- Timer mode
Video recording specs:
- 1080p HD video recording (30 fps)
- Slo-mo (120 fps)
- Time-lapse video
- Video image stabilisation
- Improved face detection
- 3x video zoom
- Video geotagging
front-facing camera:
- 1.2MP photos
- ƒ/2.2 aperture
- 720p HD video recording
- Backside illumination
- Auto HDR photos and videos
- Improved face detection
- Burst mode
- Exposure control
- Timer mode
battery life
According to Apple the iPad Pro will have a battery life of 10 hours
speaker and audio specs
The iPad Pro has a four-speaker audio system, as was rumoured beforehand.
Apple Pencil
After years of saying that touch
was the best interface method, it's launching a stylus to go with the
iPad Pro. It's called Apple Pencil.
