iPad Pro review

Apple's biggest tablet takes the iPad in a new direction

Update: We've now reviewed the iPad Pro's smaller brother - the iPad Air 3 rebooted as a the iPad Pro 9.7 - which is helping to continue an attempted revival of the tablet market, so we've included a few comparisons within this review too.

The iPad Pro review was one that I was really dreading writing – but also one I was the most excited about in a while.

• Buy Apple iPad Pro (32GB) at Amazon for $665.00

The issue was this: what is the big iPad Pro for? Is it a genuine laptop replacement? Or is it nothing more than a larger tablet from Apple? And now we've got the iPad Pro 9.7, is this tablet too big?

It depends what you see a tablet as. For some, it's a device that sits on the sofa with you, and you sometimes idly think about getting a keyboard for it so you could do some writing on the go. For others, it's a laptop that packs a detachable screen for portability.

The former scenario is where iPads (and most Android tablets) sit. The latter is more the domain of Windows devices, where the operating system and hardware collide with varying results.

Apple doesn't seem to be pushing the iPad Pro 12.9 into any particular market though – it's designed to be a media hub, a decent word processor, a creative design tool, and then anything the app world can dream up besides.

It's possible to use it as an enterprise device too, but there's a lot here that inches it enticingly towards the consumer world.

To many, this is a direct rival to Microsoft's Surface Pro 4, but in reality the two devices are coming at the laptop replacement issue from different angles. The iPad Pro is designed for the casual user, one who doesn't need a computer all day long. It's not a Macbook with a detachable screen – iOS doesn't have El Capitan's capabilities.

Microsoft's device is more for those who need to massively multitask all the time, using dedicated desktop applications to get everything done.

In terms of cost, well, for an Apple device it's actually less than you'd expect. Of course, I'm not saying that you should accept a higher price because it's an iThing, but I was expecting this to tip into a much higher bracket.

The iPad Pro 12.9 costs US$799 (£679, AU$1249) for the 32GB Wi-Fi version,US$949 (£799, AU$1499) for the 128GB Wi-Fi model and US$1099 (£919, AU$1749) for the 256GB one.

If you want cellular too the smallest model is 128GB for US$1079 (£899, AU$1699), or you can splash out on a 256GB Wi-Fi and 4G model for US$1229 (£1019, AU$1949).

Seems expensive. But compare that to the iPhone 6S Plus, which costs US$949 (£789, AU$1529) for the 128GB version, and it doesn't seem that pricey in the pantheon of Apple products.

The iPad Pro could be a lot of things to many people. To some, a great sofa pal. To others, a brilliant hybrid device that enables them to flip effortlessly from sketching to movies to typing reports on the go.

Is it good enough to usurp the need for a Macbook Pro? Could you ever get by just using this tablet and the optional accessories around it, or does it need to be part of a larger family – a device that's perfect for certain situations but gets relegated when it's time for proper work?

There was only one way to find out – force myself to ditch the laptop and try to write this review on the Pro (and you can see the results below). While that wasn't as easy as I'd hoped, I've found a lot of use for the iPad Pro 12.9 in day to day life.

In terms of weight, the 713g mass of the Pro isn't easy to hold in one hand. If you're thinking of using this for news, comics or magazines (and you should) you'll definitely not be able to hold it like a paperback for long.

That's not to say it's overly weighty, as the iPad Pro 12.9 is well balanced; you'll just need to hold it in two hands. The battery, screen and components can't be magically made lighter, and given that you're buying this because you want a larger iPad, the extra weight should be a trade-off worth making.

Apple's fingerprints are all over this device, with the same power button and volume combo in the upper right-hand corner, produced to feel nicely solid.

If we're talking fingerprints, this thing will have yours all over it as well. In fact, it's probably best to never commit a bad ol' crime and then scarper while leaving the iPad Pro behind, because not only will you look like a right fool in front of your underworld chums for having lost a valuable piece of consumer electronics, but you'll also have left a perfect record of every whorl, ridge and loop on your fingertips.

Screen

The LCD display on the iPad Pro is obviously the main selling point here, as the 12.9-inch expanse is excellent for viewing anything from movies to games to books to the web. It's got the same 264 pixels per inch pixel density that typifies Apple mobile devices to class this as a Retina display.