Apple launched the iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 6s, the new Apple TV and iPad Pro on September 9th. I wasn’t that excited about the iPad Pro as I was for the first three products. In fact, I was more excited to check out the new accessories for the iPad Pro: Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard, than the device itself.

iPad Pro first impressions

After waiting for more than two months, I have got my hands on the iPad Pro. Here are my first impressions of Apple’s new iPad:

• The iPad Pro is big, really big for a tablet. It feels like you’re holding a television. It is also a lot heavier than the iPad Air 2. So holding it for a long period of time can be uncomfortable. In fact, it is so big in landscape mode that there is no way you can hold it and use the on-screen virtual keyboard. Since it is heavy, typing even in portrait mode is not very comfortable. I found using the iPad Pro on the lap or on the table the most comfortable position as it is much easier to type on the on-screen keyboard.

• In terms of design, iPad Pro looks exactly like a bigger iPad Air 2 with the aluminium unibody casing and rounded edges at the back. The iPad Pro comes with four speakers, which is the only difference, two at the bottom like the iPad Air 2, and two more speakers at the top, if you’re holding the device in portrait mode.

• One of the things that is inevitable when you use a new iOS device is to compare it with the previous one. So some of the things that really stood out for me are the following:
  • Let me start with the obvious one, once you get used to iPhone 6s/6s Plus’ awesome new 3D Touch feature, you end up missing it a lot on other devices. It is disappointing as I think 3D Touch is meant more for power users, so it would have been a great addition on the iPad Pro.
  • One of the best features of the new iPhones is the responsive Touch ID. But I didn’t realize that iPad Pro didn’t come with the second generation Touch ID sensor that was used in iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. It was one of the wow factors of the new iPhones. I am so used to the responsive Touch ID on my iPhone 6s Plus, that it is annoyingly slow to unlock the iPad.
  • As we had reported earlier, always-on “Hey Siri” feature doesn’t work with the iPad Pro.

• The iPad Pro comes with a 12W battery charger, the same as the iPad Air 2, which comes with a battery capacity of 7,340mAH compared to iPad Pro’s 10,307, so completely recharging the iPad Pro takes a very long time (four and half hours). The iPad Pro comes with a 2 meter Lightning cable.

• iOS 9’s new multitasking features especially Split View is made for the iPad Pro. Thanks to iPad Pros bigger screen you can run two apps in 50-50 mode with regular views. On the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 4, you can either run one app in regular view and one app in compact view in 75-25 mode, or run both apps in compact view in 50-50 mode. It is fine to run apps like Messages in compact mode, but doesn’t make sense to run apps like Safari in a compact view. So the ability to run two apps in 50-50 mode with regular views significantly improves the multitasking experience. Though you can still access only three app icons in secondary app switcher for Split View.

• The Geekbench app confirms that iPad Pro comes with a 2.14 GHz A9X chip with 4 GB of RAM. The clock speed is significantly higher than the iPhone 6s/6s Plus ‘ 1.85 GHz A9 chip.

• The iPad Pro is screaming fast for a tablet. In the single-core Geekbench test, the iPad Pro scored 3227 compared to iPhone 6s /6s Plus’s score of 2510, and iPad Air 2’s score of 1811. The iPad Pro got a multi-core Geekbench score of 5486, compared to iPhone 6s Plus’ score of 4360, and iPad Air 2’s score of 4455. Everything seems snappier on the iPad Pro from launching apps, playing games with heavy graphics and loading websites.

• iPad Pro comes with four stereo speakers compared to iPad Air 2’s two speakers which orient themselves based on how you hold the device. The speakers on top focus on mids and trebles while the bottom ones focus on bass. One of the gripes I’ve always had with iOS devices is the poor quality of speakers they come with, but not in the case of the iPad Pro. The sound quality is very good, in fact, it is much better than my MacBook Pro. The iPad Pro also doesn’t have the sound vibration issue that some users have complained about the iPad Air 2.

• It is still early days, but there aren’t many apps that have been optimized for the iPad Pro’s bigger screen. At least not the apps that I use frequently. Apple has started highlighting apps optimized for the iPad Pro in the App Store, which is a great way of discovering “pro” apps for any iPad, but I doubt they would appeal to a regular user. One of the biggest advantages that the iPad has over other tablets is the thousands of apps that are optimized for the iPad, so it will important to see if developers think it is important to spend their resources in optimizing their apps for the biggest iPad.

Verdict

iPad Pro is great for productivity thanks to the enhanced multitasking support I mentioned above. I also found it pretty cool for gaming. I played Asphalt 8 on it, and found the experience quite immersive because of the bigger screen and four stereo speakers though it won’t be comfortable holding it for an extended period of time. I also think the iPad Pro can be great for graphics when used with the Apple Pencil though I will confirm it when I get it.

After using the iPad Pro for the last few days, I wasn’t convinced that it is meant for me. I think the iPad Air 2 is a lot more convenient to use as a tablet, and though I am yet to use the Smart Keyboard, I don’t think the iPad Pro can replace my MacBook Pro just yet due to limitations of iOS. Ideally, when I use the keyboard, I want to use it for everything, which is not possible on the iPad Pro as iOS is designed for the touchscreen. So if you have to effectively use the iPad Pro in the laptop form factor, you need to use the Smart Keyboard and the touchscreen, which isn’t very convenient. Apple could have addressed this by including a trackpad like Microsoft’s Surface Pro Type Cover. It may be an unfair comparison as Surface Pro runs a full-fledged operating system, but if Apple wants iPad Pro to be a replacement for the PC, it needs to address these limitations.

It is also disappointing that Apple didn’t include the second generation Touch ID and 3D Touch in the iPad Pro, especially when you consider that people don’t tend to upgrade their iPads every year like their smartphones. Most of these users will now have to wait for features introduced in 2015 until they upgrade to the next iPad Pro, which might not happen for a few years.

iPad Pro can be a great device for users who want to use it for graphics, but I can’t recommend it for average users.

Here are the iPad Pro unboxing photos

Feel free to drop me a line in the comments if you’ve any questions.