Apple has just announced the iPad Pro, their biggest iPad yet. Coming in at 12.9 inches diagonally, they’re promising that this is the most powerful and capable iPad yet, with a 2738×2048 screen. The width of the iPad Pro is the same as height of the iPad Air, meaning multitasking apps can run especially well on the giant screen. Four speakers will automatically balance out depending on how you hold the device, and will provide triple the volume of the iPad Air 2. It’s still promising 10 hours of battery life even with that giant screen and all the horsepower inside, with only a .8mm increase in thickness over the iPad Air 2. It’s the same weight as the original iPad! Apple also has announced a Smart Keyboard cover accessory for the iPad Pro, along with the Apple Pencil, a stylus for the iPad Pro. If you see a stylus, apparently they didn’t blow it.
While the tablet is likely for productivity purposes at that massive size, Apple still showed off Breakneck as one of the games, which as a tilt-based game, means that they’re not shying away from making this a gaming-important device. We don’t know how much RAM it has, but we know it has the new A9X chip, with faster storage performance and memory bandwidth. It’s up to 1.8x time faster than the A8X, according to Phil Schiller, bringing alleged desktop-class performance. Graphics are allegedly twice as fast, though real-world tests will see just how well that shakes out for developers. Still, games should be looking better than ever, but this seems pretty clearly like a productivity device, and a clear response to the Surface Pro.
As far as price and release date go? Available starting in November in 3 colors starting at $799 for 32 GB, with $150 bumps in price for 128 GB and the 128 GB cellular model, with the Smart Keyboard and Pencil available separately.
